Change Management Process For Samson Media And Publishing Business In Australia

Strategic Objectives and Change Needs for Samson Media

Samson Media is a publisher of several upmarket fashion magazines. It has strong links with a number of high profile fashion houses whose products are featured in the magazines and also provide a significant source of advertising revenue. Readers of the magazines are predominantly 35 – 54 year old women.

Change is the need of the hour for every individual, every organization. Engaging in the same old methodology which is turning to be obsolete can lead to failure. This need to change is of highest priority. The failure in recognizing the very urgent requirement to change heads to many serious, critical problems. Change helps the organisation to be competitive in the market and to be more effective and efficient in their operations.

The change management process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team or project leader follow to apply change management to a change in order to drive individual transitions and ensure the project meets its intended outcomes. The below elements have been identified from research as key elements of a successful change management process.

 Read the case study given and analyse the company’s strategic objectives and identify the change needs.

• Enact a transformational change of the company that will convert all magazines to a digital format only.
• Relocate to a smaller office.

Write what kind of changes are required for the business and also write the reasons after strategic objectives of the business:

Some of the kind of changes required are:

• Focus on health and beauty, fashion and celebrity gossip.
• Some free content but full access available only on a subscription basis.
• Additional features available to subscribers such as video clips, podcasts and discussion

Reasons could be:

• Decreasing sale,
• Decreasing profit  
• Increasing competition

Brief research about publishing business in Australia

The Book Publishing industry has contracted over the past five years. Industry revenue is forecast to decline at an annualised 1.5% over the five years through 2017-18, to $1.4 billion. The way consumers read and purchase books has changed significantly over this period. Consumers have been increasingly buying print books and ebooks online rather than shopping at local bookstores. Ebooks can be read using readers or tablets. Because many books can be stored on one device, ebooks offer customers greater convenience. Parallel import restrictions (PIRs) protect the local publishing industry.

Political / Legal

Booksellers in Australia have long lobbied the Australian Federal Government on two significant political/legal issues that impact upon the industry’s ability to compete, particularly with overseas retailers:

• Imposition of GST on overseas consumer purchases.
• Parallel importation.

Economic

The economic climate of the past five years has not been conducive to growth in the print bookselling industry in Australia. This period has been characterized by a weaker global economy, instability in global markets, a drop in consumer confidence, and subdued discretionary spending. This is because of the drop in the readers and popularity of digital books.

Kind of Changes Required for Samson Media and Reasons

Social

From a demographic perspective, Australia’s population is ageing with a significant number of Baby Boomers entering retirement in the next ten years. These retirees are more financially independent than their forebears due to their access to compulsory superannuation. With more time on their hands and with the benefit of an expendable income, there is likely to be continued demand for physical books from retirees, presenting opportunities for print booksellers. Thus Samson media still have market left for it.

Technology

Technology has impacted significantly on the print bookselling industry, a traditional industry with little inherent capacity to reinvent itself. Not only has technology brought us the eCommerce boom – the online sale of physical goods – but it has also spawned numerous close book substitute products – the electronic book and the audio book – that threaten the very existence of print.However, the popularity of digital books is result in decrease popularity of physical books and thus Samson has to make initiative in being digital.

What barriers you could face for proposed changes and possible strategies to overcome or address them.  You may use below template for this.

How an organisation can check their readiness for change. This should include examination of how organisational behaviour can impact change.

Change readiness is the ability to continuously initiate and respond to change in ways that create advantage, minimize risk, and sustain performance. Each organization has unique characteristics that make change management either easy or challenging. These organizational attributes are important to understand so that you can educate your team and sponsors about potential obstacles. This assessment would cover areas such as:

• Culture and value system
• Capacity for change (and how much change is already taking place)
• Leadership styles and power distribution
• Residual effects of past changes
• Middle management’s predisposition toward the change
• Employee readiness for change

Employee behavior and organizational change are very much related concept. It has been analyzed that if the employees are not interested in making the change than they resists. There are other types of behavior also such as fear of failure and loss by the employees, work burden etc. drives the resistance amongst the minds and behavior of the employees regarding the change.

Strategies for embedding change into an organisation:

Kotter’s 8 step change model, developed by John Kotter is powerful organisational change management tool.

This first step of Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model is the most important step according to John Kotter. By making employees aware of the need and urgency for change, support will be created.

It is a good idea to establish a project team that can occupy itself with the changes the organization wants to implement.

Formulating a clear vision can help everyone understand what the organization is trying to achieve within the agreed time frame.

The most important objective of step 4 of Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model is to create support and acceptance among the employees.

Before change is accepted at all levels, it is crucial to change or, if necessary, remove obstacles that could undermine the vision.

Nothing motivates more than success. Create short-term goals so that the employees have a clear idea of what is going on.

According to John Kotter many change trajectories fail because victory is declared too early. However, change is a slow-going process and it must be driven into the overall corporate culture. Quick wins are only the beginning of long-term change. An organization therefore needs to keep looking for improvements. Only after multiple successes have been achieved, it can be established that the change is paying off.

The last step of Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model. A change will only become part of the corporate culture when it has become a part of the core of the organization. Change does not come about by itself. Values and standards must agree with the new vision and the employees’ behaviour must provide a seamless match. Employees must continue to support the change. Regular evaluation and discussions about progress help consolidate the change.

Digitalisation of magazine:

Reasons: competitive edge, more reach, reduced cost, largesse market

Increasing fashion content:

Reasons: Large youth market, more interest by the customers, attractive magazines

Change management and implementation plan

Risk management plan

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