Growth overtakes cost as change management focus
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Supporting revenue growth has overtaken cost reduction as the most common objective of change management initiatives, EIU survey finds
More business leaders are focusing their change management efforts on revenue growth than on cost reduction, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit has found.
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Of the 288 executives surveyed in November 2010, 55% cited revenue growth as one of the goals of their change programmes, compared to 50% who cited cost reduction. The picture was very different when the survey was conducted in 2009, with 66% of respondents then citing cost reduction and only 37% revenue growth.
The target of respondents’ change management initiatives has shifted along with their strategic goals, the study found. The sales and marketing division was the focus of change programmes for 41% of respondents, ahead of the supply chain (26%) and IT (24%). In 2009, sales and marketing had been on a par with IT, and both had ranked behind finance.
This suggests that IT executives will be called upon to support CRM and customer data projects in 2011.
However, the report quotes Harvard Business School professor Rosbeth Kanter as saying that sales and marketing alone cannot drive sustainable revenue growth. "In the long run, you need to be investing in constantly renewing products and services," Kanter argues. "Innovation is the only way to have sustainable growth.”
