Rigidity and Flexibility of Organisational Change

Question: Discuss about theRigidity and Flexibility of Organisational Change. Answer: Introduction: Organisational changes are essential for the businesses to succeed in the ever-changing markets and societies. The changes in the organizational, business and operational model of the businesses allow it to satisfy the needs of the customers to a greater extent, which in turn allows them to gain and maintain competitive advantages over the other organizations operating in the same industry. There are a number of real-world examples of the organizations which succeeded in their corresponding industry due to their flexibility to welcome changes and of the organizations which failed in their corresponding industries due to their rigidity against the changes (Amit, 2012). Analysis In this section, we will go through a number of real-world examples to show the positive outcomes of the businesses being ready to adapt changes and the negative outcomes of the businesses not being ready to adapt to changes. Kodak and Fuji Kodak was founded in the year of 1888 and took a lot of time to gain the market shares in the photography industry, which in turn allowed the organization to have its peak price per share of over $80 in the year of 1999. Kodak focused on its conventional business model of selling the customers its cameras at a low price and generating revenue from its expensive photo development process. Towards the mid of the 90s, the photography market was growing in terms of the instant photography. Kodak didnt do well in terms of adapting to this change and was sued by Polaroid for stealing its idea for the instant developing cameras. Towards the end of the 90s, the photography industry had a trend of purchasing the cameras through various mass distributors like Walmart. Kodak couldnt adapt to this change as well, but Fuji utilized this opportunity to adapt to the ongoing trend in the market. Fuji sponsored a number of international events and sold its products through the large chains of superma rkets to gain a lot of profits. So the rigidity of Kodak led to its fall in the photography industry, whereas the flexibility of Polaroid and Fuji to the changes in the market led them to success (Harmon, 2014). Hummer Hummer was a very popular brand among the Americans due to the synonymous nature of the cars to the rugged America individualism. The brand operating under the parent organization, GM held the leading position in the American automotive industry due to the nature of the products it was manufacturing. Slowly the trend in the corresponding markets shifted to the usage of more environment-friendly vehicles which would consume less fuel and generate less pollution. Hummer didnt adapt well to this change in the market trend and the sales of the cars went down very quickly as no one in the corresponding market wanted to be seen as a bad guy by owning such as vehicle which is so dangerous for the environment (Hayes, 2014). Blackberry Blackberry held the leading position in the smartphone market for quite a long amount of time due to the design of the products along with the facilities provided in them. Slowly the trend in the smartphone market shifted to the usage of touchscreen smartphones giving more freedom and customization. Blackberry didnt adapt to such as change in the smartphone industry very well, which in turn led to the decrease in the sales of the products (Jeston, 2014). Nokia Nokia was another organization in the smartphone industry, which gained and maintained the leadership for a long time. The products of Nokia used to be known for their hardware quality and robustness. Slowly the trend in the smartphones industry shifted to the usage of the touchscreen phones with more features in the software and Android operating system. But Nokia didnt adapt to this change and continued following its original business mode, which led it to its fall (Priestley, 2012). Qantas Airlines Qantas airlines adapted to the changes in the airlines industry trend to prefer the domestic flights by adding more aircrafts to its fleet and covering more number of domestic destinations. Qantas airlines also merged with a number of domestically strong airlines to increase its cover to the domestic destinations along with strengthening its aircraft fleet. Qantas airlines also started low fare air services to serve the changing customer needs in the corresponding market, which in turn led it to the increase in the profits (Rosemann, 2015). References Amit, R., Zott, C. (2012). Creating value through business model innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(3), 41. Harmon, P. (2014). Business process change. Morgan Kaufmann. Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan. Jeston, J., Nelis, J. (2014). Business process management. Routledge. Priestley, M. (2012). Curriculum for Excellence: transformational change or business as usual?. Interaces, 8(22). Rosemann, M., vom Brocke, J. (2015). The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on Business Process Management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.