CASE STUDY - Adapting to New Technology:

An expanding goods transportation company, Logistics Limited, is starting to face challenges arising from the growth of the business. Originally the company operated primarily in Ireland, but in the last five years the company has been offering logistical services throughout the EU. The CEO has been very pleased with the growth in the sales and profits, but she feels that the company needs to better adapt to the extra demands on the business due to the growth. The company has been traditional in its' approach to business and has not embraced some of the newer technologies used in the industry.

She has several changes she would like to implement, but there is one that is quite urgent. She would like the Operations Director and the drivers to use a new logistics software called FreightPlan to help plan the delivery journeys. She feels that this will save time for the drivers on the trips and save money on fuel costs. However, the drivers are happy to continue using their own knowledge of the routes to make the deliveries. In discussions with the Operations team, the Operations Director raised concerns about how disruptive such a change might be. At the meeting, the CEO also noticed a general unease about introducing changes in the company which some managers and employees felt would be unhelpful.

You work for a Business Consultancy firm which has just recently been engaged by Logistics Limited. The CEO of Logistics Limited has outlined the above situation to you and would like you to advise on how to proceed in implementing the change to the new system. She would also like you to provide advice on how she can make the company more open to change and innovation.

Required:

1). Advise the CEO on howshe can tackle the transition to the new logistics software by applyingJohn Kotter's 8 Step Change model - driving the change by using each of the steps in the 8 Step Model. Illustrate, with examples, how each of these steps will be applied by the company.

An environment that stimulates innovation includes three variables:

• the Organization's structure
• the organization's culture
• the organization's human resource practices