Order custom Harvard Business Case Study Analysis & Solution. Starting just $19
Fern Fort University
B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution Change Management Analysis & Solution
HBR Change Management Solutions
Leadership & Managing People Case Study | Paul Brest, Georgia Levenson
Case Study Description
This 2014 case discusses the U.S. nonprofit organization B Lab and its mission to support and help drive investment capital toward private enterprises that 1) aim to provide social and environmental benefits, and 2) are accountable to stakeholders (such as employees and their community) in addition to their equity investors. B Lab created robust tools for assessing the impact of these enterprises so that the social and environmental Return on Investment could be measured and evaluated in a consistent, comparable and transparent fashion. The tools were based on a 200-point assessment scheme called the B Impact Assessment. In addition, B Lab created a certification called "B Corp," which identified companies that considered diverse stakeholder interest in its definition of corporate and fiduciary responsibility. B Lab also created and championed a new legal form, the Benefit organization, which supported those organizations. Through these activities, B Lab played an important role in the relatively new practice of impact investing, which seeks to generate positive social or environmental value alongside financial returns. In 2014 the eight-year-old company was at a strategic crossroads. Many organizations found the B Lab assessment process to be burdensome, and the investment markets were showing a lack of interest, if not resistance to, using B Lab's measurement systems. Many market participants wanted to focus only on specific parts of B Lab's assessment, or wanted more customized tools to suit data collection for their own existing metrics. However, enabling investors to do that would make it harder for B Lab to create common standards - a key part of the organization's mission. B Lab's leaders were grappling with the issue of how far to go to meet the market with highly customized products and services that investors were demanding, versus how much B Lab should lead the market to a higher bar for measuring impact.
Change Management, Corporate governance, Financial management, Performance measurement, Social responsibility , Case Study Solution, Term Papers
Order a B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution case study solution now
What is Change Management Definition & Process? Why transformation efforts fail? What are the Change Management Issues in B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution case study?
According to John P. Kotter – Change Management efforts are the major initiatives an organization undertakes to either boost productivity, increase product quality, improve the organizational culture, or reverse the present downward spiral that the company is going through.
Sooner or later every organization requires change management efforts because without reinventing itself organization tends to lose out in the competitive market environment. The competitors catch up with it in products and service delivery, disruptors take away the lucrative and niche market positioning, or management ends up sitting on its own laurels thus missing out on the new trends, opportunities and developments in the industry.
What are the John P. Kotter - 8 Steps of Change Management?
Eight Steps of Kotter's Change Management Execution are -
- 1. Establish a Sense of Urgency
- 2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
- 3. Create a Vision
- 4. Communicate the Vision
- 5. Empower Others to Act on the Vision
- 6. Plan for and Create Short Term Wins
- 7. Consolidate Improvements and Produce More Change
- 8. Institutionalize New Approaches
Are Change Management efforts easy to implement? What are the challenges in implementing change management processes?
According to authorlist Change management efforts are absolutely essential for the surviving and thriving of the organization but they are also extremely difficult to implement. Some of the biggest obstacles in implementing change efforts are –
- Change efforts create an environment of uncertainty in the organization that impacts not only the productivity in the organization but also the level of trust in the organization.
- Change management efforts are made when the organization is in dire need and have fewer resources. This creates silos protection mentality within the organization.
- Change efforts are often made by new leaders because they are chosen by board to do so. These leaders often have less trust among the workforce compare to the people with whom they were already working with over the years.
- Change management is often a lengthy, time consuming, and resource consuming process. Managements try to avoid them because they reflect negatively on the short term financial balance sheet of the organization.
- Change efforts are often targeted at making fundamental aspects in the business – operations and culture. Change management disrupts are status quo thus face opposition from both within and outside the organization.
How you can apply Change Management Principles to B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution case study?
Leaders can implement Change Management efforts in the organization by following the “Eight Steps Method of Change Management” by John P. Kotter.
Step 1 - Establish a sense of urgency
What are areas that require urgent change management efforts in the “ B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution “ case study. Some of the areas that require urgent changes are – organizing sales force to meet competitive realities, building new organizational structure to enter new markets or explore new opportunities. The leader needs to convince the managers that the status quo is far more dangerous than the change efforts.
Step 2 - Form a powerful guiding coalition
As mentioned earlier in the paper, most change efforts are undertaken by new management which has far less trust in the bank compare to the people with whom the organization staff has worked for long period of time. New leaders need to tap in the talent of the existing managers and integrate them in the change management efforts. This will for a powerful guiding coalition that not only understands the urgency of the situation but also has the trust of the employees in the organization. If the team able to explain at the grass roots level what went wrong, why organization need change, and what will be the outcomes of the change efforts then there will be a far more positive sentiment about change efforts among the rank and file.
Step 3 - Create a vision
The most critical role of the leader who is leading the change efforts is – creating and communicating a vision that can have a broader buy-in among employees throughout the organization. The vision should not only talk about broader objectives but also about how every little change can add up to the improvement in the overall organization.
Step 4 - Communicating the vision
Leaders need to use every vehicle to communicate the desired outcomes of the change efforts and how each employee impacted by it can contribute to achieve the desired change. Secondly the communication efforts need to answer a simple question for employees – “What it is in for the them”. If the vision doesn’t provide answer to this question then the change efforts are bound to fail because it won’t have buy-in from the required stakeholders of the organization.
Step 5 -Empower other to act on the vision
Once the vision is set and communicated, change management leadership should empower people at every level to take decisions regarding the change efforts. The empowerment should follow two key principles – it shouldn’t be too structured that it takes away improvisation capabilities of the managers who are working on the fronts. Secondly it shouldn’t be too loosely defined that people at the execution level can take it away from the desired vision and objectives.
B Lab and the Impact Assessment Evolution PESTEL / PEST / STEP & Porter Five Forces Analysis
Step 6 - Plan for and create short term wins
Initially the change efforts will bring more disruption then positive change because it is transforming the status quo. For example new training to increase productivity initially will lead to decrease in level of current productivity because workers are learning new skills and way of doing things. It can demotivate the employees regarding change efforts. To overcome such scenarios the change management leadership should focus on short term wins within the long term transformation. They should carefully craft short term goals, reward employees for achieving short term wins, and provide a comprehensive understanding of how these short term wins fit into the overall vision and objectives of the change management efforts.
Step 7 - Consolidate improvements and produce more change
Short term wins lead to renewed enthusiasm among the employees to implement change efforts. Management should go ahead to put a framework where the improvements made so far are consolidated and more change efforts can be built on the top of the present change efforts.
Step 8 - Institutionalize new approaches
Once the improvements are consolidated, leadership needs to take steps to institutionalize the processes and changes that are made. It needs to stress how the change efforts have delivered success in the desired manner. It should highlight the connection between corporate success and new behaviour. Finally organization management needs to create organizational structure, leadership, and performance plans consistent with the new approach.
Is change management a process or event?
What many leaders and managers at the Lab Assessment fails to recognize is that – Change Management is a deliberate and detail oriented process rather than an event where the management declares that the changes it needs to make in the organization to thrive. Change management not only impact the operational processes of the organization but also the cultural and integral values of the organization.
MBA Admission help, MBA Assignment Help, MBA Case Study Help, Online Analytics Live Classes
Order Now
Previous Change Management Solution
- Minding the Analytics Gap Change Management Solution
- The Talent Dividend Change Management Solution
- Duetto: Industry Transformation with Big Data Change Management Solution
- When Health Care Gets a Healthy Dose of Data Change Management Solution
- Kvantum Inc.: Social Media Dilemma and Talent Retention Change Management Solution
Next 5 Change Management Solution
- HP's Acquisition of Autonomy Change Management Solution
- The Ingenuity Imperative: What Big Data Means for Big Business Change Management Solution
- Linear Regression: A High-Level Overview Change Management Solution
- EdGE Networks: Making HR Intelligent Change Management Solution
- Mastering the Market Intelligence Challenge Change Management Solution