Quality-oriented design of strategic change processes

In times of globalization and fast economical and technological change yesterday's and today's recipes for success do not provide a guarantee for tomorrow's success. To retain competitiveness companies nowadays are forced to carry out complex changes in an increasingly faster, more efficient and more successful manner. Strategic change normally is initiated either in anticipation or as a reaction to external changes. However, the implementation of change processes quite often fails in practice. Actually the success rate of all strategies is only about 10%. In approximately 70% of all cases the new strategy fails during the implementation process. Therefore the paper presents a procedure model for quality-oriented design and implementation of strategic change processes. The model is based upon both existing approaches in the management of changes and the criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model. The stages of the procedure model are supported by a combination of tools and methods that allow employees in charge to carry out every essential step of implementation. To safeguard the implementation process the Quality Gate Concept is used. The application of our concept will be illustrated by case studies carried out in projects with various companies.