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Book Review
Case studies in change management
WORLD CLASS IN INDIA — A Casebook of Companies in Transformation: Sumantra Ghosal, Gita Piramal, Sudeep Budhiraja; Penguin Books India (P) Ltd., 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Rs. 895.
NINETY YEARS ago — the year was 1912 — the case study method was tried for the first time as a training tool at the Harvard Business School. It took another 12 years (1924) for this technique to settle down as a primary method of imparting management training at the School. Stories, parables, legends, and fables have always excited the fancy and excitement of man — both as a listener and as a storyteller. In contemporary management education, case studies have been found to be very effective and popular as a technique of training. According to Prof. Chris Christensen of Harvard fame, "Because wisdom cannot be taught," researchers and teachers tend to tell and write what they know as facts and figures; in order to point out what to their thinking and analysis are the right things to do, from the experiences of real life situations.
The book under notice contains 20 true stories of how some Indian companies have achieved excellence, comparable to world standards, in change management. These case studies have been drawn from a broad spectrum of industries in different sectors: family-run enterprises, multinational corporations, and public sector companies. A special feature about them is that the case studies are open-ended, in that the readers are free to come to their own interpretations and conclusions. The professional managers may pitch upon a mirror view in which they may see their own existing situations reflected; or alternately, they may find useful ideas and solutions to problems, which may arise in the future.
The major objective of this book is to implant a sense of awareness among the Indian managers that "Indian companies can be world class. Some already are. This book of cases identifies and tells the tale of a few that are, and others who are striving to become world class." In the prefatory chapter, the authors refer to an adjunct and auxiliary volume to this book under review: "The accompanying book, Managing Radical Change, provides the concepts, frameworks, and suggestions on what Indian companies need to do to become world class, based on our research in several Indian companies... ..." (in the other book) "We described companies who have walked away, alive and kicking from valley of death situations... That is the fundamental premise behind this book to make managers believe, really believe, that becoming world class in India is possible."
The 20 case studies are structured in four parts. The first deals with the challenges involved in change management. The next highlights the principle that apart from fortitude, vision has an equally significant role to play in the change process. The third emphasises the need to energise people, and nurture their relationships with the organisations in managing the transition. The last one is a description of how the philosophy has shifted from one level to another "to move beyond the doctrine of strategy-structure-systems to one of purpose-process-people."
Change management is the name of the game in the 21st century. As India emerges from a seller's market into a buyer's market, a major challenge for Indian managers is how to handle this transition. In this context, this casebook of companies, which have accomplished the process of transformation effectively, will be very useful to the practitioners in the field. The effort behind the production of this book seems to be phenomenal and proverbial. Thirty research scholars interviewed 350 managers "possessing a cumulative minimum of 4500 years' worth of hands-on experience in Indian industry." The authors have done an excellent job in producing this tome, that too at the most appropriate time.
R. DEVARAJAN
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