The only organisation that is not ripe for change is one that has absolutely no constraints to its performance. Such an organisatio would be delivering an infinite amount of its goods or services to the market and earning an unlimited amount of money in return. Even if such an organisation exists on this planet, I can bet my last dollar that it's not yours. That means I can tell almost without looking, that you're ripe for change. How do I know?

You're Ripe for Change if the Market Limits How Much Money You Make

Your products or services are good. Your delivery and due date performance is alright. There's just one little problem: you can't seem to find enough demand for your offerings and inventories are building up. If this describes your situation then your organisation is ripe for change.

You're Ripe for Change if Your Operations Limit Your Throughput

As your business has grown, your products or services have become fraught with problems of quality. Or your costs over time have increases faster than your revenues, making your offerings less than competitive. Or you are not able to produce fast enough to meet demand, so that disappointed customers are turning elsewhere. If this is the case, then your organisation is ripe for change.

You're Ripe for Change if Your Policies Lead to Lost Opportunities

You have policies that determine recruitment, financing options, market opportunities pursued, sales strategies... All well and good. But these same policies have been in place for the last five or more years and no one can explain why some of them were adopted in the first place. If this describes your organisation, then you are ripe for change.

You're Ripe for Change if Your Culture Rewards the Wrong Behaviour

Yours is a culture that mouths cooperation while rewarding unhealthy competition among the workforce. While claiming to encourage the innovative ideas no matter where they're from, it is well known that only ideas from the bosses have a chance of seeing the light of day. If your organisation is like this, then you're ripe for change.

You're Ripe for Change if You're Not Sure How Well You're Doing

You operate from day to day, and your information systems capture mainly financial (and some operational) performance data. You have no systems for obtaining a balanced and predictive view of your business. Thus, important decisions relating to customers and markets, product variety, competitive response etc are made on less than objective grounds. If this describes your organisation, then you are ripe for change.

While several approaches and tools exist for tackling specific changes that might be called for, an overarching method for creating breakthrough solutions is available. It is the 2000 Percent Solution method invented by Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles and described in their book of the same title. Following the prescribed eight step process, individuals and organisations have been able to obtain 20 times their usual results using the same resources. The 2000 Percent Solution will be the subject of our next article.

Samuel Okoro is the CEO of Leapfrog Alliance Ltd, a management training and consulting firm that helps organisations to reduce costs and improve quality through better business processes. His personal passion is to help move Third World business to world-class levels. For further details please visit http://leapfrogalliance.com/resources.html