Change management is a critical aspect of business growth and development. It is inevitable for an organization that needs to succeed in business operation to cope without reviewing its change management strategies. Change management on many occasions takes different forms and at times it may call for changes in business environments.
“Organizational change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization. Typically the objective is to maximize the collective benefits for all people involved in change and minimize the risk of failure of implementing changes,” (Hayes, 2007). This paper analyses the management scenarios at Comcast Cable and Verizon Communications Ltd in a bid to suggest how adopting change management strategies can improve the economic performances of the firms.
Comcast Cable is the main provider of cable services in America. The company was founded in 1963 and has over the decades grown to be the biggest communication company. “With 21.5 million cable customers and 7 million high-speed Internet customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management, and operation of broadband cable networks and in the delivery of programming content,” (Business Wire, 2005). Apart from providing communication services, the firm also has other investments; for instance, its stake in Comcast-Spector. Comcast-Spector owns big conference arenas in Philadelphia and a basket team among other properties. The company has its success stories as well as weakness.
Competition and technological development has generated great pressure on the company to embrace change in different aspects of its operation. The firm needs to expand its subscriber base in order to capture more returns on investment for business sustainability.
For these reasons the firm has to adopt change management as a strategy to ensure it continues making a profit and maintain its dominance in the provision of communication services. In the year 2005, the company went into a joint venture with Time Warner Inc. to acquire assets of Adelphia Communication Corporation. “Comcast will emerge from these transactions with approximately 1.8 million additional basic subscribers for a net cash investment of approximately $1.5 billion,” (Business Wire, 2005). The long-term investment of this change management strategy for Comcast; however, was to increase their services to the citizens of Pennsylvania, Florida among other states that lacked their services.
“Verizon Communications Ltd is a communication company based in the United States and operates internationally” (McNamara, 2008). The company operates in wireline and domestic wireless communication systems. It has its head office located in New York. In the year 2007, the company embarked on an ambitious mission of reviewing its 2Q07 prospects. This was necessitated by the urge to resolve management difficulties that the firm faced at that point so as to achieve meaningful growth. In addition, the company has adopted modern technologies to ensure that it effectively competes for market share in the communication sector.
The result of adopting these kinds of strategies is that the company has registered considerable growth in service provision. Also, there has been an increase in revenue and this means potential sustainability of its competitive advantage. Adopting the proposed change management strategies enabled the firm to achieve its main objectives. FiOS; its fiber-optic expansion program has seen tremendous growth demonstrated by the growth in demand. The management strategies have resulted in the completion of directories spin-off. The company’s book values also increased as shown by good return on investment. This could be sanctified by the forecasted 2Q08 results.
The implementation of change is the most crucial part of the change process in a company after identifying a given strategy. Towards this, an organization should marshal the necessary resources that are required at the implementation stage. Building change capability should then follow so as to make all employed staff ready to implement the changes. This capacity building is achieved via appropriate training sessions to ensure that they embrace change that is being adopted in the company. This will reduce the number of stress employees normally when they are not adequately prepared for the change.
The staff should then be motivated about the needs of adopting the changes. Motivation plays a critical role in human life. Therefore, it is important that the same concept of motivation be applied at the workplace. This will go a long way in fulfilling job satisfaction in a company. Job satisfaction sets the state of mind at peace and this is crucial for the smooth running of all business activities. It can be influenced by a variety of factors such as workplace wellness programs within the workplace, employee-leadership relationship, ability to achieve work targets, and the quality of the physical environment in which one works.
In conclusion, though the two firms adopted mainly technological changes in management, they still have to identify other change management strategies that have major impacts; for instance, the one discussed above. The business atmosphere keeps changing more so for international companies and the speed with which an organization adopts change management critically determines success.
References
- Business Wire. “Time Warner Cable and Comcast to acquire assets of Adelphia Communications; Companies also to swap certain cable systems and unwind Comcast’s interests in Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Entertainment Company.” Info Tech News, 2005. Web.
- Hayes, J., (2007). The Theory and practice of change management. 2nd Ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- McNamara, C.,(2008). “Basic guidelines to problem solving and decision.” Free management library.