Kotter and Heskett in Corporate Culture and Performance.
- Kotter and Heskett studied 10 cases of major culture change that seemed to be successful. The companies were Bankers Trust, British Airways, ConAgra, First Chicago, General Electric, ICI, Nissan, SAS, American Express TRS, and Xerox. They found:
- "The single most important factor that distinguishes major culture changes that succeed from those that fail is competent leadership at the top."
- All ten cases of major change occurred after an individual with a track record for leadership was appointed head of the organization. Each had a track record of producing change.
- In their new jobs they created change on a grander scale.
- These leaders demonstrated the close interrelationship of competition, leadership, change, strategy and culture.
- All of these leaders either:
- Came from the outside.
- Came to their firms after an early career somewhere else.
- "Grew up" outside the core of the company.
- While a limited sample, one can theorize that an outsider's perspective is important to change.
- In all four very large companies in our study, the change leader had spent considerable time in the company before taking over, thereby developing a good sense of the resources in the company.
- Complete outsiders tended to be successful at smaller companies.
- Why you can't change culture from the bottom up.
- The sheer resistance to change in an organization requires great power to overcome, and that power resides at the top.
- Interdependence in organizations makes it very difficult to change anything important, without changing everything. Only people at the top can do that.
