Change Velocity

INTRODUCTION In today's world of breakneck change, many business transformations fail. It's not because the ideas fueling the change aren't necessary or good ideas, but because they do not happen fast enough. This is very apparent when you look at the rapid rate of changes in leadership from CEO to President to Vice President of Sales to Chief Information Officer, to name a few. Just take a look in your financial journals, newsfeeds, and business blogs; it is common to see rapid changes in the executive ranks. With tenures of less than two years for key leadership roles such as the Vice President of Sales, how can a CEO drive the changes required for transformation in go-to-market strategy or customer experience? Short tenure in role is simply a lagging indicator of the problem, so what is the cause of these types of short tenure statistics? In this book, we will explore why the rate of change is accelerating in the market, why transformation is required, and how to make it happen. Over the past 16 years, I have helped companies deal with rapidly changing business environments. Previously, I invested a dozen years growing two companies from early phase start-up to successful initial public offerings in sales leadership, marketing, field operations and product development roles. My real passion is helping businesses grow. This frequently requires transformation within the organization. What is transformation? A change in form, appearance, nature or character. As I looked at this sequence of words defining transformation, I started to think that changes in all these area - in form, appearance, nature and character - are required for a business transformation. Transformation is a tall order. However, the really tall order is the ability to deliver transformation at the speed required in the rapidly accelerating pace of change today. This book will focus on the need for Change Velocity, what I believe to be the secret to leading successful business transformations. While reading the book, keep the following formula in mind. Why do I believe that Change Velocity is the key to organizational transformation? Because, people are at the heart of every transformation. People determine the change view, change reaction, and change motivation that create the ability to change at the speed necessary today. To lead in today's world is to initiate change. We must deploy new go-to market strategies, new supporting processes, new supporting tools, and new management approaches. Our ability to lead and create Change Velocity in our organizations is imperative for organizational health. I hope this book will enable you to make the changes you need to make in your organization. Each chapter is filled with keywords, bold and underlined, which you can find in the back in Appendix A. Each chapter also ends with key questions to help you determine your steps forward. These can be found in Appendix B and form the basis for your transformation checklist to understand the actions required to lead your own transformation. Now, let’s learn about Change Velocity!