Reference no: EM133221456
A medium-sized company in the food sector has experienced an above average level of growth with industry averages over its ten-year history. It has expanded its operations into various sectors of the industry through a concentration on a collaborative approach in dealing with both suppliers and customers.
As the company has grown, it has added to its computer systems and other facilities on an incremental basis. The initial investment in computer hardware and software was made in collaboration with consultants, many subsequent purchases being made by user departments, sometimes latterly in association with a procurement manager who was employed five years ago to bring a professional approach to the activity. The Procurement Department has expanded its operations over that period and now employs three members of staff in addition to the procurement manager, two of whom joined the company in the past year.
A decision has recently been made to concentrate purchasing of computer equipment through the Procurement department, with user departments being allowed a restricted level of discretion over purchases and within a defined IT policy. At the same time, it has been decided to completely re-design the company's IT systems to take advantage of 'Cloud' and other recent technologies, so as to enable a wider sharing of information within the company, and with suppliers and customers on a selected basis. This is a major investment for the company in terms of finance, and will cause significant disruption to current systems during the implementation of the project. Senior management supports the development, but it involves a significant level of investment in a variety of resources and transformational change, involving activities that will challenge the competence and experience of relevant key employees.
a) Describe the challenges facing the organisation in the execution of transformational change.
b)To what extent are these challenges different to those in relation to incremental change?