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Change Management Case Study Examples: Lessons from Industry Giants

Explore some transformative journeys with efficient Change Management Case Study examples. Delve into case studies from Coca-Cola, Heinz, Intuit, and many more. Dive in to unearth the strategic wisdom and pivotal lessons gleaned from the experiences of these titans in the industry. Read to learn about and grasp the Change Management art!

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In the fast-paced world of business, staying ahead means being able to adapt. Have you ever wondered how some brands manage to thrive despite huge challenges? This blog dives into a collection of Change Management Case Studies, sharing wisdom from top companies that have faced and conquered adversity. These aren’t just stories; they’re success strategies.  

Each Change Management Case Study reveals the smart choices and creative fixes that helped companies navigate rough waters. How did they turn crises into chances to grow? What can we take away from their successes and mistakes? Keep reading to discover these inspiring stories and learn how they can reshape your approach to change in your own business. 

Table of Contents  

1) What is Change Management in Business? 

2) Top Examples of Case Studies on Change Management 

    a) Coca-Cola 

    b) Adobe 

    c) Heinz  

    d) Intuit  

    e) Kodak 

    f) Barclays Bank 

3) Conclusion

What is Change Management in Business?  

Change management in business refers to the structured process of planning, implementing, and managing changes within an organisation. It involves anticipating, navigating, and adapting to shifts in strategy, technology, processes, or culture to achieve desired outcomes and sustain competitiveness.  

Effective Change Management entails identifying the need for change, engaging stakeholders, communicating effectively, and mitigating resistance to ensure smooth transitions. By embracing Change Management principles, businesses can enhance agility, resilience, and innovation, driving growth and success in dynamic environments. 

Top Examples of Case Studies on Change Management  

Let's explore some transformative journeys of industry leaders through compelling case studies on Change Management: 

1) Coca-Cola  

Coca-Cola, the beverage titan, acknowledged the necessity to evolve with consumer tastes, market shifts, and regulatory changes. The rise of health-conscious consumers prompted Coca-Cola to revamp its offerings and business approach. The company’s proactive Change Management centred on innovation and diversification, leading to the launch of healthier options like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.  

Strategic alliances and acquisitions broadened Coca-Cola’s market reach and variety. Notably, Coca-Cola introduced eco-friendly packaging like the PlantBottle and championed sustainability in its marketing, bolstering its brand image. 

Acquire the expertise to facilitate smooth changes and propel your success forward – join our Change Management Practitioner Course now!  

2) Adobe  

Adobe, with its global workforce and significant revenue, faced a shift due to technological advancements and competitive pressures. In 2011, Adobe transitioned from physical software sales to cloud-based services, offering free downloads or subscriptions.  

This shift necessitated a transformation in Adobe’s HR practices, moving from traditional roles to a more human-centric approach, aligning with the company’s innovative and millennial-driven culture. 

3) Heinz  

Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital’s acquisition of Heinz led to immediate, sweeping changes. The new management implemented cost-cutting measures and altered executive perks.  

Additionally, it introduced a more insular leadership style, contrasting with 3G’s young, mobile, and bonus-driven executive team. 

Commence on a journey of transformative leadership and achieve measurable outcomes by joining our Change Management Foundation Course today!  

4) Intuit  

Steve Bennett’s leadership at Intuit marked a significant shift. Adopting the McKinsey 7S Model, he restructured the organisation to enhance decision-making, align rewards with strategy, and foster a performance-driven culture. His changes resulted in a notable increase in operating profits. 

5) Kodak  

Kodak, the pioneer of the first digital and megapixel cameras in 1975 and 1986, faced bankruptcy in 2012. Initially, digital technology was costly and had subpar image quality, leading Kodak to predict a decade before it threatened their traditional business. Despite this accurate forecast, Kodak focused on enhancing film quality rather than digital innovation.  

Dominating the market in 1976 and peaking with £12,52,16 billion in sales in 1999, Kodak’s reluctance to adopt new technology led to a decline, with revenues falling to £4,85,11,90 billion in 2011.  

Get ready for your interview with our top Change Management Interview Questions .

In contrast, Fuji, Kodak’s competitor, embraced digital transformation and diversified into new ventures. 

Empower your team to manage change effectively through our Managing Change With Agile Methodology Training – sign up now!  

6) Barclays Bank  

The financial sector, particularly hit by the 2008 mortgage crisis, saw Barclays Capital aiming for global leadership under Bob Diamond. However, the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal led to fines and resignations, prompting a strategic overhaul by new CEO Antony Jenkins in 2012.  

Changes included rebranding, refocusing on core markets, altering the business model away from high-risk lending, fostering a customer-centric culture, downsizing, and embracing technology for efficiency. These reforms aimed to strengthen Barclays, improve shareholder returns, and restore trust. 

Dive into the detailed Case Study on Change Management

Conclusion  

The discussed Change Management Case Study examples serve as a testament to the transformative power of adept Change Management. Let these insights from industry leaders motivate and direct you as you navigate your organisation towards a path of continuous innovation and enduring prosperity. 

Enhance your team’s ability to manage uncertainty and achieve impactful results – sign up for our comprehensive Risk Management For Change Training now!  

Frequently Asked Questions

The five key elements of Change Management typically include communication, leadership, stakeholder engagement, training and development, and measurement and evaluation. These elements form the foundation for successfully navigating organisational change and ensuring its effectiveness. 

The seven steps of Change Management involve identifying the need for change, developing a Change Management plan, communicating the change vision, empowering employees, implementing change initiatives, celebrating milestones, and sustaining change through ongoing evaluation and adaptation. 

The Knowledge Academy takes global learning to new heights, offering over 30,000 online courses across 490+ locations in 220 countries. This expansive reach ensures accessibility and convenience for learners worldwide.  

Alongside our diverse Online Course Catalogue, encompassing 17 major categories, we go the extra mile by providing a plethora of free educational Online Resources like News updates, Blogs , videos, webinars, and interview questions. Tailoring learning experiences further, professionals can maximise value with customisable Course Bundles of TKA .

The Knowledge Academy’s Knowledge Pass , a prepaid voucher, adds another layer of flexibility, allowing course bookings over a 12-month period. Join us on a journey where education knows no bounds.  

The Knowledge Academy offers various Change Management Courses , including the Change Management Practitioner Course, Change Management Foundation Training, and Risk Management for Change Training. These courses cater to different skill levels, providing comprehensive insights into Change Management Metrics .   

Our Project Management Blogs cover a range of topics related to Change Management, offering valuable resources, best practices, and industry insights. Whether you are a beginner or looking to advance your Project Management skills, The Knowledge Academy's diverse courses and informative blogs have got you covered.  

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Explore the Levels of Change Management

9 Successful Change Management Examples For Inspiration

Updated: June 11, 2024

Published: January 3, 2024

Welcome to our guide on change management examples, pivotal for steering through today's dynamic business terrain. Immerse yourself in the transformative power of change management, a tool for resilience, growth, innovation, and employee morale enhancement.

This guide equips you with strategies to promote an innovative, adaptable work environment and boost employee morale for lasting organizational success.

Uncover diverse types of change management with Prosci's established methodology and explore real-world examples that illustrate these principles in action.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a strategy for guiding an organization and its people through change. It goes beyond top-down orders, involving employees at all levels. This people-focused approach encourages everyone to participate actively, helping them adapt and use changes in their everyday work.

Effective change management aligns closely with a company's culture, values, and beliefs.

When change fits well with these cultural aspects, it feels more natural and is easier for employees to adopt. This contributes to smoother transitions and leads to more successful and lasting organizational changes.

Why is Change Management Important?

Change management is pivotal in guiding organizations through transitions, ensuring impactful and long-lasting results.

For example, a $28B electronic components and services company with 18,000 employees realized the importance of enhancing its processes. They knew to adopt more streamlined, efficient approaches, known as Lean initiatives .

However, they encountered challenges because they needed a more structured method for effectively managing the human aspects of these changes.

The company formed a specialized group focused on change to address their challenges and initiate key projects. These projects aligned with their culture of innovation and precision, which helped ensure that the changes were well-received and effectively implemented within the organization.

Matching change management to an organization's unique style and structure contributes to more effective transformations and strengthens the business for future challenges.

What Are the Main Types of Change Management?

Discover Prosci's change management models: from individual application and organizational strategies to enterprise-wide integration and effective portfolio management, all are vital for transformative success.

Individual change management

At Prosci, we understand that change begins with the individual.

The Prosci ADKAR ® Model ( Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement ) is expertly designed to equip change leaders with tools and strategies to engage your team.

This model is a framework that will guide and support you in confidently navigating and adapting to new changes.

Organizational change management

In organizational change management , we focus on the core elements of your company to fully understand and address each aspect of the change.

Our approach involves creating tailored strategies and detailed plans that benefit you and manage you to manage challenges effectively, which include:

• Clear communication
• Strong leadership support
• Personalized coaching
• Practical training

Our strategies are specifically aimed at meeting the diverse needs within your organization, ensuring a smooth and well-supported transition for everyone involved.

Enterprise change management capability

At the enterprise level, change management becomes an embedded practice, a core competency woven throughout the organization.

When you implement change capabilities:

• Employees know what to ask during change to reach success
• Leaders and managers have the training and skills to guide their teams during change
• Organizations consistently apply change management to initiatives
• Organizations embed change management in roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership competencies

It's a tactical effort to integrate change management into the very DNA of an organization—nurturing a culture that's ready and able to adapt to any change.

Change portfolio management

While distinct from project-level change management, managing a change portfolio is vital for an organization to stay flexible and responsive.

9 Dynamic Change Management Success Stories to Revolutionize Your Business

Prosci case studies reveal how diverse organizations spanning different sectors address and manage change.  These cases illustrate how change management can provide transformative solutions from healthcare to finance:

1. Hospital system

A major healthcare organization implemented an extensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and adapted to healthcare reform. This case study highlights overcoming significant challenges through strategic change management:

Industry: Healthcare Revenue: $3.7 billion Employees: 24,000 Facilities: 11 hospitals

Major changes:

• Implemented a new ERP system across all hospitals
• Prepared for healthcare reform

Challenges:

• Managing significant, disruptive changes
• Difficulty in gaining buy-in for change management
• Align with culture: Strategically implemented change management to support staff, reflecting the hospital's core value of caring for people
• Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in the electronic health record system implementation
• Integrate with existing competencies: Recognized change leadership as crucial at various leadership levels

This example shows that when change management matches a healthcare organization's values, it can lead to successful and smooth transitions.

2. Transportation department

A state government transportation department leveraged change management to effectively manage business process improvements amid funding and population challenges. This highlights the value of comprehensive change management in a public sector setting:

Industry: State Government Transportation Revenue: $1.3 billion Employees: 3,000 Challenges:

• Reduced funding
• Growing population
• Increasing transportation needs

Initiative:

• Major business process improvement

Hurdles encountered:

• Change fatigue
• Need for widespread employee adoption
• Focus on internal growth
• Implemented change management in process improvement

This department's experience teaches us the vital role of change management in successfully navigating government projects with multiple challenges.

3. Pharmaceuticals

A global pharmaceutical company navigated post-merger integration challenges. Using a proactive change management approach, they addressed resistance and streamlined operations in a competitive industry:

Industry: Pharma (Global Biopharmaceutical Company) Revenue: $6 billion Number of employees: 5,000

Recent activities: Experienced significant merger and acquisition activity

• Encountered resistance post-implementation of SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing)
• They found themselves operating in a purely reactive mode
• Align with your culture: In this Lean Six Sigma-focused environment, where measurement is paramount, the ADKAR Model's metrics were utilized as the foundational entry point for initiating change management processes.

This company's journey highlights the need for flexible and responsive change management.

4. Home fixtures

A home fixtures manufacturing company’s response to the recession offers valuable insights on effectively managing change. They focused on aligning change management with their disciplined culture, emphasizing operational efficiency:

Industry: Home Fixtures Manufacturing Revenue: $600 million Number of employees: 3,000

Context: Facing the lingering effects of the recession

Necessity: Need to introduce substantial changes for more efficient operations

Challenge: Change management was considered a low priority within the company

• Align with your culture: The company's culture, characterized by discipline in projects and processes, ensured that change management was implemented systematically and disciplined.

This company’s experience during the recession proves that aligning change with company culture is key to overcoming tough times.

5. Web services

A web services software company transformed its culture and workspace.  They integrated change management into their IT strategy to overcome resistance and foster innovation:

Industry : Web Services Software Revenue : $3.3 billion Number of employees : 10,000

Initiatives : Cultural transformation; applying an unassigned seating model

Challenges : Resistance in IT project management

• Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in workspace transformation
• Go where the energy is:  Establishing a change management practice within its IT department, developing self-service change management tools, and forming thoughtful partnerships
• I ntegrate with existing competencies:  "Leading change" was essential to the organization's newly developed leadership competency model.

This case demonstrates the importance of weaving change management into the fabric of tech companies, especially for cultural shifts.

6. Security systems

A high-tech security company effectively managed a major restructuring.  They created a change network that shifted change management from HR to business processes:

Industry : High-Tech (Security Systems) Revenue : $10 billion Number of employees: 57,000

Major changes : Company separation; division into three segments

Challenge : No unified change management approach

• Formed a network of leaders from transformation projects
• Go where the energy is:  Shifted change management from HR to business processes
• Integrate with existing competencies:  Included principles of change management in the training curriculum for the project management boot camp.
• Treat growing your capability like a change:  Executive roadshow launch to gain support for enterprise-wide change management

This company’s innovative approach to restructuring shows h ow reimagining change management can lead to successful outcomes.

7. Clothing store

A major clothing retailer’s journey to unify its brand model.  They overcame siloed change management through collaborative efforts and a community-driven approach:

Industry : Retail (Clothing Store) Revenue : $16 billion Number of employees : 141,000

Major change initiative : Strategic unification of the brand operating model

Historical challenge : Traditional management of change in siloes

• Build a change network :  This retailer established a community of practice for change management, involving representatives from autonomous units to foster consensus on change initiatives.

The story of this retailer illustrates how collaborative efforts in change management can unify and strengthen a brand in the retail world.

A major Canadian bank initiative to standardize change management across its organization.  They established a Center of Excellence and tailored communities of practice for effective change:

Industry : Financial Services (Canadian Bank) Revenue : $38 billion Number of employees : 78,000

Current state : Absence of enterprise-wide change management standards

Challenge :

• Employees, contractors, and consultants using individual methods for change management
• Reliance on personal knowledge and experience to deploy change management strategies
• Build a change network:  The bank established a Center of Excellence and created federated communities of practice within each business unit, aiming to localize and tailor change management efforts.

This bank’s journey in standardizing change management offers valuable insights for large organizations looking to streamline their processes.

9. Municipality

You can learn from a Canadian municipality’s significant shift to enhance client satisfaction. They integrated change management across all levels to achieve profound organizational change and improved public service:

Industry : Municipal Government (Canadian Municipality) Revenue : $1.9 billion Number of employees : 3,000

New mandate:

• Implementing a new deliberate vision focusing on each individual’s role in driving client satisfaction

Nature of shift : 

• A fundamental change within the public institution

Scope of impact :

•  It affected all levels, from leadership to front-line staff

Solution : 

• Treat growing your capability like a change: Change leaders promoted awareness and cultivated a desire to adopt change management as a standard enterprise-wide practice.

The municipality's strategy shows us how effective change management can significantly improve public services and organizational efficiency.

6 Tactics for Growing Enterprise Change Management Capability

Prosci's exploration with 10 industry leaders uncovered six primary tactics for enterprise change growth , demonstrating a "universal theme, unique application" approach.

This framework goes beyond standard procedures, focusing on developing a deep understanding and skill in managing change. It offers transformative tactics, guiding organizations towards excelling in adapting to change.  Here, we uncover these transformative tactics, guiding organizations toward mastery of change.

1. Align with Your culture

Organizational culture profoundly influences how change management should be deployed.

Recognizing whether your organization leans towards traditional practices or innovative approaches is vital. This understanding isn't just about alignment; it's an opportunity to enhance and sometimes shift your cultural environment.

When effectively combined with an organization's unique culture, change management can greatly enhance key initiatives. This leads to widespread benefits beyond individual projects and promotes overall growth and development within the organization.

Embrace this as a fundamental tool to strengthen and transform your company's cultural fabric.

2. Focus on key initiatives

In the early phase of developing change management capabilities, selecting noticeable projects with executive backing is important.

This helps demonstrate the real-world impact of change management, making it easier for employees and leadership to understand its benefits. This strategy helps build support and maintain the momentum of change management initiatives within your organization.

Focus on capturing and sharing these successes to encourage buy-in further and underscore the importance of change management in achieving organizational goals.

3. Build a change network

Building change capability isn't just about a few advocates but creating a network of change champions across your organization.

This network, essential in spreading the message and benefits of change management, varies in composition but is universally crucial. It could include departmental practitioners, business unit leaders, or a mix of roles working together to enhance awareness, credibility, and a shared purpose.

Our Best Practices in Change Management study shows that 45% of organizations leverage such networks. These groups boost the effectiveness of change management and keep it moving forward.

4. Go where the energy is

To build change capabilities throughout an organization effectively, the focus should be on matching the organization's current readiness rather than just pushing new methods.

Identify and focus on parts of your organization that are ready for change. Align your change initiatives with these sectors. Involve senior leaders and those enthusiastic about change to naturally generate demand for these transformations.

Showcasing successful initiatives encourages a collaborative culture of change, making it an organic part of your organization's growth.

5. Integrate with existing competencies

Change management is a vital skill across various organizational roles.

Integrating it into competency models and job profiles is increasingly common, yet often lacks the necessary training and tools.

When change management skills expand beyond the experts, they become an integral part of the organization's culture—nurturing a solid foundation of effective change leadership.

This approach embeds change management deeper within the company and cultivates leaders who can support and sustain this essential practice.

6. Treat growing your capability like a change

Growing change capability is a transformative journey for your business and your employees. It demands a structured, strategic approach beyond telling your network that change is coming.

Applying the ADKAR Model universally and focusing on your organization's unique needs is pivotal. It's about building awareness, sparking a desire for change across the enterprise, and equipping employees with the knowledge and skills for effective, lasting change. 

Treating capability-building like a change ensures that change management becomes a core part of your organization's fabric, benefitting every team member.

These six tactics are powerful tools for enhancing your organization's ability to adapt and remain resilient in a rapidly changing business environment.

Comprehensive Insights From Change Management Examples

These diverse change management examples provide field-tested savvy and offer a window into how varied organizations successfully manage change.

Case studies , from healthcare reform to innovative corporate restructuring, exemplify how aligning with organizational culture, building strong change networks, and focusing on tactical initiatives can significantly impact change management outcomes.

This guide, enriched with real-world applications, enhances understanding and execution of effective change management, setting a benchmark for future transformations.

To learn more about partnering with Prosci for your next change initiative, discover Prosci's Advisory services and enterprise training options and consider practitioner certification .

Founded in 1994, Prosci is a global leader in change management. We enable organizations around the world to achieve change outcomes and grow change capability through change management solutions based on holistic, research-based, easy-to-use tools, methodologies and services.

See all posts from Prosci

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Five Case Studies of Transformation Excellence

November 03, 2014  By  Lars Fæste ,  Jim Hemerling ,  Perry Keenan , and  Martin Reeves

In a business environment characterized by greater volatility and more frequent disruptions, companies face a clear imperative: they must transform or fall behind. Yet most transformation efforts are highly complex initiatives that take years to implement. As a result, most fall short of their intended targets—in value, timing, or both. Based on client experience, The Boston Consulting Group has developed an approach to transformation that flips the odds in a company’s favor. What does that look like in the real world? Here are five company examples that show successful transformations, across a range of industries and locations.

VF’s Growth Transformation Creates Strong Value for Investors

Value creation is a powerful lens for identifying the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on a company’s transformation agenda and for understanding the potential value of the overall program for shareholders.

VF offers a compelling example of a company using a sharp focus on value creation to chart its transformation course. In the early 2000s, VF was a good company with strong management but limited organic growth. Its “jeanswear” and intimate-apparel businesses, although responsible for 80 percent of the company’s revenues, were mature, low-gross-margin segments. And the company’s cost-cutting initiatives were delivering diminishing returns. VF’s top line was essentially flat, at about $5 billion in annual revenues, with an unclear path to future growth. VF’s value creation had been driven by cost discipline and manufacturing efficiency, yet, to the frustration of management, VF had a lower valuation multiple than most of its peers.

With BCG’s help, VF assessed its options and identified key levers to drive stronger and more-sustainable value creation. The result was a multiyear transformation comprising four components:

• A Strong Commitment to Value Creation as the Company’s Focus. Initially, VF cut back its growth guidance to signal to investors that it would not pursue growth opportunities at the expense of profitability. And as a sign of management’s commitment to balanced value creation, the company increased its dividend by 90 percent.
• Relentless Cost Management. VF built on its long-known operational excellence to develop an operating model focused on leveraging scale and synergies across its businesses through initiatives in sourcing, supply chain processes, and offshoring.
• A Major Transformation of the Portfolio. To help fund its journey, VF divested product lines worth about $1 billion in revenues, including its namesake intimate-apparel business. It used those resources to acquire nearly $2 billion worth of higher-growth, higher-margin brands, such as Vans, Nautica, and Reef. Overall, this shifted the balance of its portfolio from 70 percent low-growth heritage brands to 65 percent higher-growth lifestyle brands.
• The Creation of a High-Performance Culture. VF has created an ownership mind-set in its management ranks. More than 200 managers across all key businesses and regions received training in the underlying principles of value creation, and the performance of every brand and business is assessed in terms of its value contribution. In addition, VF strengthened its management bench through a dedicated talent-management program and selective high-profile hires. (For an illustration of VF’s transformation roadmap, see the exhibit.)

The results of VF’s TSR-led transformation are apparent. 1 1 For a detailed description of the VF journey, see the 2013 Value Creators Report, Unlocking New Sources of Value Creation , BCG report, September 2013. Notes: 1 For a detailed description of the VF journey, see the 2013 Value Creators Report, Unlocking New Sources of Value Creation , BCG report, September 2013. The company’s revenues have grown from $7 billion in 2008 to more than $11 billion in 2013 (and revenues are projected to top $17 billion by 2017). At the same time, profitability has improved substantially, highlighted by a gross margin of 48 percent as of mid-2014. The company’s stock price quadrupled from $15 per share in 2005 to more than $65 per share in September 2014, while paying about 2 percent a year in dividends. As a result, the company has ranked in the top quintile of the S&P 500 in terms of TSR over the past ten years.

A Consumer-Packaged-Goods Company Uses Several Levers to Fund Its Transformation Journey

A leading consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) player was struggling to respond to challenging market dynamics, particularly in the value-based segments and at the price points where it was strongest. The near- and medium-term forecasts looked even worse, with likely contractions in sales volume and potentially even in revenues. A comprehensive transformation effort was needed.

To fund the journey, the company looked at several cost-reduction initiatives, including logistics. Previously, the company had worked with a large number of logistics providers, causing it to miss out on scale efficiencies.

To improve, it bundled all transportation spending, across the entire network (both inbound to production facilities and out-bound to its various distribution channels), and opened it to bidding through a request-for-proposal process. As a result, the company was able to save 10 percent on logistics in the first 12 months—a very fast gain for what is essentially a commodity service.

Similarly, the company addressed its marketing-agency spending. A benchmark analysis revealed that the company had been paying rates well above the market average and getting fewer hours per full-time equivalent each year than the market standard. By getting both rates and hours in line, the company managed to save more than 10 percent on its agency spending—and those savings were immediately reinvested to enable the launch of what became a highly successful brand.

Next, the company pivoted to growth mode in order to win in the medium term. The measure with the biggest impact was pricing. The company operates in a category that is highly segmented across product lines and highly localized. Products that sell well in one region often do poorly in a neighboring state. Accordingly, it sought to de-average its pricing approach across locations, brands, and pack sizes, driving a 2 percent increase in EBIT.

Similarly, it analyzed trade promotion effectiveness by gathering and compiling data on the roughly 150,000 promotions that the company had run across channels, locations, brands, and pack sizes. The result was a 2 terabyte database tracking the historical performance of all promotions.

Using that information, the company could make smarter decisions about which promotions should be scrapped, which should be tweaked, and which should merit a greater push. The result was another 2 percent increase in EBIT. Critically, this was a clear capability that the company built up internally, with the objective of continually strengthening its trade-promotion performance over time, and that has continued to pay annual dividends.

Finally, the company launched a significant initiative in targeted distribution. Before the transformation, the company’s distributors made decisions regarding product stocking in independent retail locations that were largely intuitive. To improve its distribution, the company leveraged big data to analyze historical sales performance for segments, brands, and individual SKUs within a roughly ten-mile radius of that retail location. On the basis of that analysis, the company was able to identify the five SKUs likely to sell best that were currently not in a particular store. The company put this tool on a mobile platform and is in the process of rolling it out to the distributor base. (Currently, approximately 60 percent of distributors, representing about 80 percent of sales volume, are rolling it out.) Without any changes to the product lineup, that measure has driven a 4 percent jump in gross sales.

Throughout the process, management had a strong change-management effort in place. For example, senior leaders communicated the goals of the transformation to employees through town hall meetings. Cognizant of how stressful transformations can be for employees—particularly during the early efforts to fund the journey, which often emphasize cost reductions—the company aggressively talked about how those savings were being reinvested into the business to drive growth (for example, investments into the most effective trade promotions and the brands that showed the greatest sales-growth potential).

In the aggregate, the transformation led to a much stronger EBIT performance, with increases of nearly $100 million in fiscal 2013 and far more anticipated in 2014 and 2015. The company’s premium products now make up a much bigger part of the portfolio. And the company is better positioned to compete in its market.

A Leading Bank Uses a Lean Approach to Transform Its Target Operating Model

A leading bank in Europe is in the process of a multiyear transformation of its operating model. Prior to this effort, a benchmarking analysis found that the bank was lagging behind its peers in several aspects. Branch employees handled fewer customers and sold fewer new products, and back-office processing times for new products were slow. Customer feedback was poor, and rework rates were high, especially at the interface between the front and back offices. Activities that could have been managed centrally were handled at local levels, increasing complexity and cost. Harmonization across borders—albeit a challenge given that the bank operates in many countries—was limited. However, the benchmark also highlighted many strengths that provided a basis for further improvement, such as common platforms and efficient product-administration processes.

To address the gaps, the company set the design principles for a target operating model for its operations and launched a lean program to get there. Using an end-to-end process approach, all the bank’s activities were broken down into roughly 250 processes, covering everything that a customer could potentially experience. Each process was then optimized from end to end using lean tools. This approach breaks down silos and increases collaboration and transparency across both functions and organization layers.

Employees from different functions took an active role in the process improvements, participating in employee workshops in which they analyzed processes from the perspective of the customer. For a mortgage, the process was broken down into discrete steps, from the moment the customer walks into a branch or goes to the company website, until the house has changed owners. In the front office, the system was improved to strengthen management, including clear performance targets, preparation of branch managers for coaching roles, and training in root-cause problem solving. This new way of working and approaching problems has directly boosted both productivity and morale.

The bank is making sizable gains in performance as the program rolls through the organization. For example, front-office processing time for a mortgage has decreased by 33 percent and the bank can get a final answer to customers 36 percent faster. The call centers had a significant increase in first-call resolution. Even more important, customer satisfaction scores are increasing, and rework rates have been halved. For each process the bank revamps, it achieves a consistent 15 to 25 percent increase in productivity.

And the bank isn’t done yet. It is focusing on permanently embedding a change mind-set into the organization so that continuous improvement becomes the norm. This change capability will be essential as the bank continues on its transformation journey.

A German Health Insurer Transforms Itself to Better Serve Customers

Barmer GEK, Germany’s largest public health insurer, has a successful history spanning 130 years and has been named one of the top 100 brands in Germany. When its new CEO, Dr. Christoph Straub, took office in 2011, he quickly realized the need for action despite the company’s relatively good financial health. The company was still dealing with the postmerger integration of Barmer and GEK in 2010 and needed to adapt to a fast-changing and increasingly competitive market. It was losing ground to competitors in both market share and key financial benchmarks. Barmer GEK was suffering from overhead structures that kept it from delivering market-leading customer service and being cost efficient, even as competitors were improving their service offerings in a market where prices are fixed. Facing this fundamental challenge, Barmer GEK decided to launch a major transformation effort.

The goal of the transformation was to fundamentally improve the customer experience, with customer satisfaction as a benchmark of success. At the same time, Barmer GEK needed to improve its cost position and make tough choices to align its operations to better meet customer needs. As part of the first step in the transformation, the company launched a delayering program that streamlined management layers, leading to significant savings and notable side benefits including enhanced accountability, better decision making, and an increased customer focus. Delayering laid the path to win in the medium term through fundamental changes to the company’s business and operating model in order to set up the company for long-term success.

The company launched ambitious efforts to change the way things were traditionally done:

• A Better Client-Service Model. Barmer GEK is reducing the number of its branches by 50 percent, while transitioning to larger and more attractive service centers throughout Germany. More than 90 percent of customers will still be able to reach a service center within 20 minutes. To reach rural areas, mobile branches that can visit homes were created.
• Improved Customer Access. Because Barmer GEK wanted to make it easier for customers to access the company, it invested significantly in online services and full-service call centers. This led to a direct reduction in the number of customers who need to visit branches while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Organization Simplification. A pillar of Barmer GEK’s transformation is the centralization and specialization of claim processing. By moving from 80 regional hubs to 40 specialized processing centers, the company is now using specialized administrators—who are more effective and efficient than under the old staffing model—and increased sharing of best practices.

Although Barmer GEK has strategically reduced its workforce in some areas—through proven concepts such as specialization and centralization of core processes—it has invested heavily in areas that are aligned with delivering value to the customer, increasing the number of customer-facing employees across the board. These changes have made Barmer GEK competitive on cost, with expected annual savings exceeding €300 million, as the company continues on its journey to deliver exceptional value to customers. Beyond being described in the German press as a “bold move,” the transformation has laid the groundwork for the successful future of the company.

Nokia’s Leader-Driven Transformation Reinvents the Company (Again)

We all remember Nokia as the company that once dominated the mobile-phone industry but subsequently had to exit that business. What is easily forgotten is that Nokia has radically and successfully reinvented itself several times in its 150-year history. This makes Nokia a prime example of a “serial transformer.”

In 2014, Nokia embarked on perhaps the most radical transformation in its history. During that year, Nokia had to make a radical choice: continue massively investing in its mobile-device business (its largest) or reinvent itself. The device business had been moving toward a difficult stalemate, generating dissatisfactory results and requiring increasing amounts of capital, which Nokia no longer had. At the same time, the company was in a 50-50 joint venture with Siemens—called Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)—that sold networking equipment. NSN had been undergoing a massive turnaround and cost-reduction program, steadily improving its results.

When Microsoft expressed interest in taking over Nokia’s device business, Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa took the initiative. Over the course of six months, he and the executive team evaluated several alternatives and shaped a deal that would radically change Nokia’s trajectory: selling the mobile business to Microsoft. In parallel, Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila orchestrated another deal to buy out Siemens from the NSN joint venture, giving Nokia 100 percent control over the unit and forming the cash-generating core of the new Nokia. These deals have proved essential for Nokia to fund the journey. They were well-timed, well-executed moves at the right terms.

Right after these radical announcements, Nokia embarked on a strategy-led design period to win in the medium term with new people and a new organization, with Risto Siilasmaa as chairman and interim CEO. Nokia set up a new portfolio strategy, corporate structure, capital structure, robust business plans, and management team with president and CEO Rajeev Suri in charge. Nokia focused on delivering excellent operational results across its portfolio of three businesses while planning its next move: a leading position in technologies for a world in which everyone and everything will be connected.

Nokia’s share price has steadily climbed. Its enterprise value has grown 12-fold since bottoming out in July 2012. The company has returned billions of dollars of cash to its shareholders and is once again the most valuable company in Finland. The next few years will demonstrate how this chapter in Nokia’s 150-year history of serial transformation will again reinvent the company.

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Transformational change: Theory and practice

A look at how transformational change themes apply in practice, with case studies providing practical examples

Explores how the themes on transformational change apply in practice

Our report,  Landing transformational change: Closing the gap between theory and practice  explores how the themes identified in earlier research apply in practice. Case studies from four organisations provide practical examples of how organisations have approached transformational change.

The report also includes recommendations that HR, OD and L&D professionals should consider for their organisations and their own skill set, if they are to be successful expert initiators and facilitators of transformational change.

Whilst these findings and case studies are UK-based, the broader trends and implications should be of interest wherever you are based.

Download the report and individual case studies below

Landing transformational change

This earlier report covers some of the thinking and innovative ideas in the field of change management that can help to land transformational change. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review on change management the report develops ten themes on transformational change practice to provide a platform of knowledge on designing, managing and embedding change essential for OD, L&D and HR professionals.

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Amazon: The Ultimate Change Management Case Study

Amazon’s innovations have helped it become extremely successful, making it an excellent change management case study.

Since it was formed, Amazon has innovated across countless areas and industries, including:

• Warehouse automation
• The web server industry
• Streaming video and on-demand media
• Electronic books

Considering that Amazon started as an online bookstore, these accomplishments are quite impressive.

Examining Amazon as a change management highlights a few important business lessons:

• Innovation fuels success, especially in today’s digital economy
• Speed is the ultimate weapon
• Those who resist organizational change can easily get left behind

Below, we’ll examine some of Amazon’s changes … and hopefully discover a few reasons why it has become so successful.

Below are 10 ways Amazon has changed its business, transforming itself far beyond a mere online bookseller.

In no particular order…

1. Amazon Web Services

When Amazon Web Services (AWS) started out, most developers didn’t take it seriously.

A decade later, it was the go-to cloud server company in the world.

In fact, Bezos has even said that AWS was the biggest part of the company.

Since it has more capacity than its nearest 14 competitors combined, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

2. Whole Foods

After acquiring Whole Foods , Amazon began making changes to the grocery store chain.

A few of these include:

• Adding Amazon products to the shelves
• Integrating Whole Foods and Amazon Prime
• Internal restructuring

Other programs include food delivery from Whole Foods, rewards for customers using Amazon credit cards, and discounts for Prime members.

3. Delivery

Amazon has drastically innovated product delivery.

For instance, customers with Prime memberships can enjoy free two-day delivery.

In certain cities , Prime members can also get free same-day or one-day delivery.

And with its drone delivery program on the horizon, customers may be able to receive orders in 30 minutes or less .

4. Warehouse Automation

Amazon warehouses have undergone major technological transformations.

Currently, Amazon warehouses uses robots to collect and transport many of its products.

In coming years, though, even more of the company’s 200,000+ warehouse workers could be replaced by robots .

In 2016 alone, it increased robot workers by 50% .

5. TV and Prime Video

Another innovation of the former bookseller is its foray into TV, movies, and video.

Amazon began by selling videos and DVDs. Now it streams, rents, and sells digital copies of videos.

On top of that, the company has joined YouTube, Netflix, and other tech giants by producing its own movies and TV shows.

6. Amazon in Other Countries

Change managers would also be interested in how Amazon adapts itself to other countries’ economies.

In India, for instance, Amazon has been forced to adopt unique measures.

These include:

• Using mom-n-pop stores as delivery locations
• Hiring bicycle or motorcycle couriers for last-mile deliveries
• Creating mobile tea carts that serve tea and teach business owners about e-commerce

These types of innovations are necessary to succeed in other countries.

Failure to adapt to these changes often proves disastrous, which is a major reason why Google China failed .

7. Amazon Go

Amazon isn’t just an online retailer … it has now opened up physical grocery stores.

However, as with all of its business ventures, it aims to disrupt, transform, and dominate retail grocery stores.

In this case, Amazon wants to create grocery stores with zero clerks .

Amazon Go is a venture that promises no checkout lines, no hassle, and ultra-convenience.

8. Kindle and E-Books

Everyone knows that Kindle has been one of Amazon’s biggest innovations.

This product has single-handedly revolutionized the book publishing industry.

For better or for worse, Kindle has changed the way books are read, sold, and distributed.

Some estimates have placed Kindle e-book revenue at over half a billion dollars per year.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Early on in Amazon’s career, it opened its doors to online sales associates.

Members of Amazon Associates can earn revenue by sending web visitors to the sales giant.

According to Amazon, there are over 900,000 global members – all working to promote the company’s products and online presence.

10. Blue Origin

Technically speaking, Blue Origin is a different company from Amazon.

However, it’s worth noting that Amazon and Jeff Bezos can hardly be separated.

Without the famous founder’s extreme drive and vision, Amazon wouldn’t be what it is today.

And without his willingness to innovate, he never would have founded Blue Origin.

Like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Blue Origin literally aims for the stars.

Its mission and goal – “millions of people living and working in space.”

Conclusion: Amazon Proves that Change Drives Success

It’s safe to say that Amazon’s defining trait has been its willingness to change.

What started as an online bookstore has become a multi-industry behemoth.

It has crushed companies that don’t innovate … it has revolutionized several industries … and it shows no signs of slowing.

The biggest lesson from this change management case study? Innovation and strategic change drive success.

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Managing Change in Uncertain Times: A Case Study

Change management, defined as the methods and processes by which a company effects and adapts to change, has long been vital to the functioning of successful organizations. As John C. Maxwell said , “change is inevitable, growth is optional.” All organizations undergo changes during their lifespans, but not all organizations are able to effectively respond to change or harness it for success. 

This fact was made painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. After businesses were forced to shut down in-person operations, many suffered catastrophic losses. The airline industry, travel and leisure industry, oil and gas industry, and restaurant industry were among the hardest hit . Thousands of businesses were forced to close for good, and thousands more suffered through significant profit loss, layoffs and downsizing. Still, some businesses made vital adaptations that carried them through the worst of the pandemic. Many restaurants, for example, shifted from traditional, in-person service and poured resources into curbside, takeout and delivery services, using technology to communicate with their customers and remain up and running. These adaptations built on services that the restaurants already offered, making the changes easier to implement and accept.

A Case Study in Change: Delta Airlines

Unlike restaurants, airlines did not have much existing infrastructure to carry them through a global pandemic. Airlines profit based on the tickets they book, and if nobody is willing to fly, airlines can’t just pivot to a “take-out” travel option. After the pandemic hit, airlines were faced with a crucial ultimatum: find an innovative solution or suffer catastrophic losses. Delta Airlines, one of the oldest and largest airlines in the country, decided to tackle the change head-on and immediately started working on a change management plan.

Delta structured changes to its operations around what would make customers more comfortable and ultimately found that customers were willing to pay for some extra peace of mind. Implementing the change was made easier by quick and effective communication across all levels of operation. Flight attendants, gate staffers and corporate communications professionals were given the tools they needed to communicate the company’s safety plan to prospective passengers and execute the new seating rules. As the immediate changes took effect and began yielding results, Delta worked on making the changes more efficient and seamless, refining its process every step of the way.

The Science of Change Management

Delta’s quick and effective response to a major change in business operations helped usher it through the worst of the pandemic without suffering bigger losses. Innovative research on best practices in change management is poised to help other businesses do the same. According to the Change Management Review , using technological and organizational tools to manage “the human side of change” is particularly important. Consider, many businesses were forced to move their operations online after the start of COVID-19, and this change affected employees most of all. The businesses who fared best after moving online were the ones who assisted their employees in adapting to the change by providing opportunities for virtual team building, socialization, and mental wellness checkups, for instance. By considering the effects of change on their employees, these businesses took a proactive approach to getting their teams through a daunting and sudden transition. 

David Michels and Kevin Murphy, two industry experts who research change management, have helped quantify what exactly makes some organizations excel at handling change. According to their study , there are nine organizational elements that contribute to an organization’s ability to manage change:

• Purpose and direction – the qualities that help organizations lead change.
• Connection, capacity, and choreography – the qualities that help organizations accelerate change.
• And scaling, development, action, and flexibility – the qualities that help organizations organize change.

Michels and Murphy also developed categories identifying the challenges many organizations face when dealing with change. They determined that organizations struggling with change were either:

• In search of focus, meaning they struggle to lead change, identify ambitions and map agendas.
• Stuck and skeptical, meaning they struggle to move beyond small-level changes and avoid big decision making.
• Aligned but constrained, meaning they struggle with change because of organizational barriers.
• And struggling to keep up, meaning they struggle with organizational fatigue and burnout. 

This kind of change management research gives organizations the opportunity to critically evaluate their responses to change and map effective plans for dealing with change in the future. Even without the pandemic factor, being able to change and grow is of primary importance in a world of fast-paced technological advancement and global communication. Change management specialists are in high demand in every industry, with 12% projected job growth (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics) and a median salary of $128,992 (Salary.com). 

Purdue Prepares Project Managers to Master Change

Purdue University’s 100% online Master of Science in IT Project Management prepares students for project management careers in the fast-growing information technology field. Students develop mastery of project management processes and procedures using program materials included in the Body of Knowledge developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI®). Courses are taught by industry experts in high-demand specialization areas such as change management,  risk management and security management.

Since the program is entirely online, working professionals can arrange their plan of study around their busy schedules and take classes from anywhere. The program is specifically tailored to industry-experienced go-getters who want to break into the IT field or advance their careers by developing project management expertise.

Professionals who want to grow their expertise without committing to a master’s degree can choose to complete a four-course graduate certificate in Managing Information Technology Projects. The credits from the graduate certificate can be applied towards the master’s degree if a student chooses to pursue the master’s after completing the certificate.

Learn more about the program and graduate certificate on the course’s website .

About the author.

Rachel (RM) Barton

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, case study: identifying resistance in managing change.

Journal of Organizational Change Management

ISSN : 0953-4814

Article publication date: 1 April 2002

Examines stakeholder attitudes about change and resistance to change in a management initiative within the US State Department. Resistance to change may be an obstacle to successful implementation of reinvention initiatives based on how individuals and organizations perceive their goals are affected by the change. This study suggests that improved identification and understanding of the underlying factors of resistance may improve implementation outcomes.

• Change management
• Central government
• Public administration
• Implementation
• Organizational development

Trader‐Leigh, K.E. (2002), "Case study: identifying resistance in managing change", Journal of Organizational Change Management , Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 138-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810210423044

Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited

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Change management in IT: What is it and how does it work?

As Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said , "Everything changes and nothing remains still, and you cannot step twice into the same stream."  Ironically, change is the only constant — not only in life in general, but also in IT processes. 

IT teams may need to upgrade their hardware, migrate from on-premise services to the cloud, implement a new security patch, or deal with server breakdowns. 

How do you handle these changes to ensure minimal to no disruptions to service quality? That's what we look at in this post. 

Here, we'll explain change management in IT, examine some of the changes IT teams are likely to encounter, and, most importantly, break down the change management process and provide some tips on how to promote effective change management. 

• What is change management in IT?

Change management in IT is a process that involves following standardized procedures when making changes to IT services and systems to minimize disruptions and control risks. 

Whether you're upgrading your IT infrastructure, introducing new IT services, or handling security issues, change management works to minimize incidents, ensure prompt processes, promote transparency, and facilitate continuous improvements to IT services. 

This process is important in overall IT project management because it:

Minimizes the impact of IT changes on business processes 

Promotes business-IT alignment

Facilitates quicker change implementation

Ensures compliance with government and business regulations. 

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The role of change management within IT service management

Change management plays a major role within IT service management (ITSM) by ensuring any additions, removals, or modifications to IT systems happen in a controlled and systematic manner. This minimizes risks and disruptions and allows for change reviews, allowing continuous IT improvements. 

Just a quick note, ITSM isn't to be confused with Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) , even though they're related. ITSM is a paradigm that views IT teams as their own entities and defines a specific way of doing things. On the other hand, ITIL is a set of IT best practices that promote better alignment between businesses and IT teams. Think of ITIL as the guiding framework for ITSM. 

ITIL is constantly evolving, with the most recent development being ITIL 4 . This framework is a more holistic approach to IT service management and addresses some inefficiencies of ITIL 3:

Inflexibility

Limited focus on value creation

Lack of guiding principles for ITSM processes

With the recent ITIL update, IT project managers are better equipped to handle changes. 

ITIL 4 clearly distinguishes between organizational change management and IT change management. According to this framework, organizational change management is the process of ensuring smooth and successful changes by managing the human aspects of these changes. In contrast, IT change management focuses on changes related to IT services and infrastructure. 

4 types of changes

ITIL defines a change as an addition, removal, or modification of IT services or components that could impact IT services. It categorizes changes into the following groups:

1. Standard changes

Standard changes are low-risk, pre-approved changes that occur regularly in the IT landscape. They speed up the change management process as they don't typically require in-depth assessments and monitoring — there are already well-defined procedures in place for these kinds of changes. 

Assessments and monitoring are only necessary during the creation process and whenever procedures are modified. A standard charge could be as simple as getting a new ink cartridge or replacing a broken router with a new, identical one. 

2. Normal changes

Normal changes are non-emergency changes that can impact IT service or infrastructure. Since they pose a higher risk than standard changes, they need to be assessed and approved whenever a need arises. 

Depending on the level of risk they pose (high or low), these changes are subject to assessments and approvals by advisory boards or IT peer reviewers. A normal high-risk change is something like switching data centers, while a normal low-risk change could be updating your website. 

3. Major changes

These are changes that could pose significant risks for IT services or have significant financial implications. They require detailed proposals, in-depth analysis, and approval from advisory boards.

Further, they're often complex and involve numerous detailed processes, as teams must cover all their bases to avoid drastic service disruptions. An example would be adopting new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. 

4. Emergency changes

As their name suggests, these are changes that follow a significant event. While they're not typically included in change management plans, they're implemented quickly to address critical issues. 

This isn't to say they don't undergo assessments and testing before approval — they're subject to the same level of scrutiny as major changes. But, since they're urgent, they skip some processes, like documentation and scheduling. 

An example would be implementing a new security patch to prevent your system from further exploitation if it has already been compromised. 

Change management vs. release management

While change and release management are closely related, the two processes are different. As mentioned previously, change management practices aim to minimize disruptions after additions, modifications, or removals to an IT system. In contrast, release management involves making new or updated IT services available for use. 

Think of it this way: Change management provides the input required for successful changes, like approvals, while release management focuses on the output, i.e., the successful deployment of all changes. 

• The 6-step change management process

Change management follows a distinct set of steps — from change request, review, and plan formulation to approval, implementation, and finalization — to ensure minimal disruption to services and infrastructure. Depending on the type of change, IT teams may need to involve various parties, one of the most important being a change advisory board (CAB) . 

A CAB is a group of individuals who make change approval or denial decisions. A change manager typically heads the board and works with various experts to understand and assess proposed changes before approving or denying them. 

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Make a request for change (RFC)

A request for change is a formal proposal for a particular change. People within and outside IT teams — such as project managers, business analysts, and stakeholders like partners and customers — can submit these requests . 

Typically, an RFC contains information on affected systems and the possible risks and rewards of undertaking the proposed change. As such, anyone requesting a change must first collect all pertinent information. 

Some best practices to keep in mind include:

Invest in a self-service portal for streamlined change request management . 

Maintain a centralized repository for all RFCs for seamless collaboration between IT and development teams. 

Monitor the RFC process to identify bottlenecks and refine the process for easier submissions. 

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2. Review the change request

The review process involves assessing the change request's feasibility and necessity as well as checking the accuracy of the stated risks and rewards. The goal here is to determine whether a change is worth making and, if so, its likelihood of success. 

Since this is the initial review stage, a peer reviewer or change manager undertakes the process. Some best practices here are:

Evaluate the completeness of change requests. 

Assess whether the proposed change aligns with IT objectives or overall business strategy. 

Invest in automation to speed up the review process. 

3. Create a change implementation plan

A change implementation plan is a more comprehensive version of the change request. It documents rollout plans, required resources, expected outcomes, expected downtime, change roles, and backout processes, just in case there's a need to rethink the change. 

The change plan must detail all these aspects to help the CAB determine if the change is worth pursuing. Various individuals — including IT staff, developers, and engineers — may prepare this plan. 

4. Get change approval

Depending on the type of change under request, this stage may involve a peer reviewer, change manager, or the change advisory board. Peer reviewers and change managers can approve low-risk changes, while the CAB takes on high-risk changes. 

In this stage, the relevant authority assesses the change implementation plan and either approves or denies it, depending on its merit. Some best practices to have in mind include:

Leverage peer reviewers for low-risk changes to speed up approvals. 

Include people from different parts of the business in the CAB for multifaceted opinions  — you could include IT teams, finance staff, developers, and third parties like industry thought leaders, depending on the scale of the change. 

Hold virtual real-time meetings for your CAB instead of scheduling in-person meetings for speedy decision-making. 

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5. Implement changes

Approval from the CAB, peer reviewers, or change managers paves the way for implementation. A diverse group of people — including project managers, developers, and engineers — can undertake his process. It involves everything from scheduling changes to assigning and delegating tasks. 

For a successful change implementation process:

Encourage collaboration across teams for speedier and more effective implementation. 

Set up parent-child tasks for better organization and to ensure your team doesn’t miss any tasks. 

Leverage automation tools to help execute processes with minimal issues. 

Deploy changes in small releases to identify potential issues before full deployment and reduce the risk of significant incidents. For example, if you're launching a new ERP system, you can test its stability with a small group of users before full adoption to prevent a complete service outage. 

6. Finalize changes

This step, typically undertaken by the change manager, involves reviewing and closing implemented changes. Tasks include checking whether deviations from the approved plan exist and identifying and resolving present or potential issues. 

When resolved, the change manager can close the change and record it as successful, unsuccessful, or incomplete. They also need to prepare a report detailing whether the change is within budget and the estimated completion period. 

• How to improve change management in IT

Want to improve your chances of successful change management in IT? Here are some best practices to adhere to:

Assign roles and responsibilities

Regardless of whether you run a small, mid-sized, or large IT organization, you can't handle change management on your own or start the process without assigning tasks. Trying will only cause delays and inevitably result in mistakes. 

Establishing roles and assigning responsibility for change management tasks improves efficiency by ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Some of the key functions to assign and who to assign them to include:

Assessing change requests: Change manager 

Approving or rejecting change requests: Depending on the risk posed, a change manager, peer reviewer, or CAB

Identifying suitable CAB members and leading change approval meetings: The change manager 

Change implementation and deployment: A diverse group of professionals, including engineers and developers 

Identifying and addressing threats associated with the change: IT security professionals

Change review: Should involve numerous individuals, including the change manager, IT operations managers, and professionals who interact with end users, like customer relationship managers and service desk agents. 

Specify key performance indicators

IT teams need to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) before implementing changes to help validate the efficiency of change management processes. By comparing changes to KPIs, teams can identify inefficiencies in their processes and, if successful, justify future changes. Some metrics relevant to the change management process include:

Number of successful changes implemented

Reduced change request backlog 

Average time to implement a change

Planned vs. unplanned changes

Fewer service disruptions 

Number of incidents associated with changes.

Invest in tools to automate the process

Why do more than you need to and risk change delays? Invest in change management tools to streamline the change management process. 

The right tools can help teams better manage changes by making it easier to assign responsibilities/tasks, monitor change requests and implementations, as well as close out tasks. 

For seamless workflows, find a tool with the following features:

User-friendly interface for easy navigation

Change request tracking for transparency throughout the management process

Collaboration features like notifications 

Calendar integrations for change scheduling 

Task automation for speedy progress 

Centralized repository for change documentation to promote transparency. 

Simplify processes with collaborative tools for change management

Change management is necessary to ensure continuous service improvements and minimal disruptions. However, it can be overwhelming for IT teams, as there are numerous documents to prepare and processes to track. 

Fortunately, you can leverage project management tools like Teamwork.com to seamlessly manage changes and other projects, such as software implementation and bug tracking. 

With Teamwork.com, you have access to numerous features, like customizable templates to cover a wide range of processes, a resource scheduler to help with change implementation, built-in time tracking to determine the time spent on change processes, and more!

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Change CDN status added to MyKinsta’s Bulk Actions

We’ve added the ability to enable and disable Kinsta CDN support to the Bulk Actions available to Managed WordPress Hosting customers. With just a few clicks, you can simultaneously change Kinsta CDN status across multiple website environments .

The CDN can be enabled and disabled for individual sites within the MyKinsta dashboard . This Bulk Actions functionality adds to a list of multi-site updaters that already includes:

• Clearing site caches
• Updating plugins
• Updating themes
• Change Edge Caching
• Changing PHP versions
• Exporting site information to CSV
• Changing MyKinsta’s site labels

How to bulk-update CDN status in MyKinsta

To change Kinsta CDN status for multiple website environments:

• Select WordPress Sites in MyKinsta’s main menu and use the checkboxes on the left-hand side of the sites list to choose the environments you want to update.
• When one or more environments have been selected, an Actions button and a count of the selected environments appear above the sites list:

• Select Change CDN from the Actions menu. A prompt asks whether you want to Enable or Disable CDN on the selected environments:

• Click the Change CDN button to launch the Bulk Action.

The Kinsta CDN is available only for live sites and environments with the Premium Staging Environment add-on . The Change CDN Bulk Action does not affect a free, basic staging environment. For example, in the screenshot below, MyKinsta is reporting a failed attempt to change the CDN status for a basic staging environment:

Create your own bulk actions using the Kinsta API

Did you know you can use the Kinsta API to create your own bulk-action tools for WordPress sites? The API provides a gateway to managing WordPress sites, Web Applications , Managed Databases , and Static Sites hosted by Kinsta.

Currently, you can’t enable or disable the CDN via the API, but you can use it to clear the CDN cache , just as you can with Bulk Actions in MyKinsta.

We’ve got some tips on optimizing your WordPress site environment using the Kinsta API.

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Unilever Change Management Case Study

In today’s fast-paced business environment, change is inevitable.

Companies need to evolve and adapt to remain competitive, but managing change is not an easy task. Effective change management is crucial to the success of any organizational transformation, as it ensures that the changes are implemented smoothly and effectively.

In this blog post, we will examine a case study of change management at Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies.

We will explore the challenges faced by Unilever, the change management approach it took, and the results of its initiatives.

Brief History and Growth of Unilever 

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company that was founded in 1929 through a merger between Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Brothers.

Unilever has a long history of growth through mergers and acquisitions, with notable acquisitions including Bestfoods, Ben & Jerry’s, and Dollar Shave Club.

The company operates in over 190 countries and has a diverse portfolio of products, including food and beverages, cleaning agents, beauty and personal care products.

Unilever has also been committed to sustainability and social responsibility, and in 2010, it launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which aims to reduce the company’s environmental impact and improve the health and well-being of its customers.

Today, Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, with a revenue of over €50 billion in 2020.

External factors that led to organizational changes at Unilever

Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company that has undergone several organizational changes over the years. Here are three external factors that led to organizational changes at Unilever:

• Changing Consumer Preferences: The changing preferences and behaviors of consumers can have a significant impact on a company’s strategy and operations. For example, as more consumers started to prioritize eco-friendliness and sustainability, Unilever had to shift its focus towards more sustainable products and packaging. This led to the introduction of products like the “Dove Refillable Deodorant” and “Omo EcoActive” laundry detergent, as well as a commitment to reduce its plastic packaging by half by 2025.
• Competitive Pressure: Competition is another external factor that can force companies to make organizational changes. For example, when Unilever faced increasing competition from other consumer goods companies in emerging markets like India and China, it had to restructure its operations to be more efficient and cost-effective. This led to the consolidation of its global supply chain, as well as a greater emphasis on localizing its products and marketing strategies to better appeal to these markets.
• Technological Advancements: Advances in technology can also lead to organizational changes, as companies need to adapt to new ways of doing business. For example, as more consumers started to shop online, Unilever had to develop a strong e-commerce presence and optimize its digital marketing efforts. This led to the creation of Unilever Digital, a team dedicated to digital marketing and e-commerce, as well as a partnership with Alibaba to expand its online distribution in China.

Internal factors that led to organizational changes at Unilever

In addition to external factors, internal factors can also lead to organizational changes at Unilever. Here are three examples of internal factors that have led to organizational changes at the company:

• Management Changes: Changes in top management can often lead to organizational changes. For example, when Paul Polman became CEO of Unilever in 2009, he initiated a major restructuring of the company that aimed to streamline operations and focus on sustainable growth. This led to the consolidation of Unilever’s foods and personal care divisions, as well as a greater focus on emerging markets and sustainability.
• Financial Performance: Poor financial performance can also prompt organizational changes. For example, in 2017, Unilever reported slower-than-expected sales growth, leading the company to undertake a strategic review of its operations. This resulted in a decision to sell or spin off Unilever’s spreads business and focus on higher-growth areas like beauty and personal care.
• Organizational Culture: Organizational culture can also drive organizational change. For example, when Unilever identified a need to become more agile and innovative, it undertook a major cultural transformation initiative called “Connected 4 Growth.” This involved restructuring the company into smaller, more autonomous business units and giving employees greater freedom to experiment and take risks. The initiative aimed to foster a more entrepreneurial culture within the company and enable faster decision-making and innovation.

05 biggest steps taken by Unilever to implement changes

Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company that has undergone several organizational changes over the years. Here are the five biggest steps taken by Unilever to implement changes:

1. Sustainable Living Plan

In 2010, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan, a comprehensive sustainability strategy that aimed to reduce the company’s environmental footprint, improve social impact, and drive profitable growth. The plan set ambitious targets for Unilever to achieve by 2020, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and improving the livelihoods of millions of people in its supply chain. The Sustainable Living Plan has been a driving force behind many of Unilever’s organizational changes, such as the introduction of sustainable products and packaging and a greater emphasis on transparency and accountability.

2. Organizational Restructuring

Unilever has undertaken several major organizational restructuring initiatives over the years to streamline its operations and focus on high-growth areas. For example, in 2016, Unilever announced a plan to consolidate its foods and personal care businesses into a single division, with the goal of achieving greater efficiency and cost savings. Similarly, in 2017, Unilever announced a strategic review of its operations in response to slower-than-expected sales growth, resulting in a decision to sell or spin off its spreads business and focus on higher-growth areas like beauty and personal care.

3. Digital Transformation

As more consumers started to shop online, Unilever recognized the need to invest in its digital capabilities to stay competitive. In 2017, the company launched Unilever Digital, a team dedicated to digital marketing and e-commerce, and entered into a partnership with Alibaba to expand its online distribution in China. Unilever also invested in technology startups and acquired several digital companies to enhance its digital capabilities and drive innovation.

4. Cultural Transformation

Unilever recognized that its organizational culture needed to change to foster greater agility and innovation. In 2016, the company launched its “Connected 4 Growth” initiative, which involved restructuring the company into smaller, more autonomous business units and empowering employees to take more risks and experiment. The initiative aimed to create a more entrepreneurial culture within the company and enable faster decision-making and innovation.

5. Portfolio Transformation

Unilever has undergone several portfolio transformations over the years to focus on its core brands and divest non-core businesses. For example, in 2018, Unilever acquired the personal care and home care brands of Quala, a Latin American consumer goods company, to strengthen its presence in emerging markets. At the same time, the company divested its spreads business and announced plans to exit its tea business to focus on higher-growth areas. These portfolio transformations have helped Unilever to stay agile and adapt to changing market conditions.

05 Results of change management implemented at Unilever

The change management initiatives implemented at Unilever have had several positive outcomes and impacts. Here are some of the key examples:

• Increased Sustainability: The Sustainable Living Plan has been a key driver of Unilever’s sustainability efforts, and the company has made significant progress in reducing its environmental footprint and improving social impact. For example, by 2020, Unilever had achieved its target of sending zero non-hazardous waste to landfill from its factories, and had also reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% per tonne of production.
• Improved Financial Performance: Unilever’s focus on portfolio transformation and strategic acquisitions has helped the company to improve its financial performance. For example, in 2020, the company reported a 1.9% increase in underlying sales growth and a 2.4% increase in operating profit margin.
• Enhanced Digital Capabilities: Unilever’s investments in digital transformation have enabled the company to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. For example, Unilever’s partnership with Alibaba has helped the company to expand its online distribution in China, while its investments in technology startups have helped to drive innovation and enhance its digital capabilities.
• Improved Organizational Agility: Unilever’s organizational restructuring and cultural transformation initiatives have helped to create a more agile and entrepreneurial company culture. This has enabled Unilever to make faster decisions and respond more quickly to changing market conditions.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction: Unilever’s focus on innovation and product development has resulted in the launch of several successful new products and brands, such as the plant-based meat alternative brand, The Vegetarian Butcher. These products have helped to increase customer satisfaction and drive growth for the company.

Final Words

Unilever’s successful implementation of change management is a testament to the company’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and organizational excellence. By undertaking a variety of initiatives, such as the Sustainable Living Plan, organizational restructuring, digital transformation, cultural transformation, and portfolio transformation, Unilever has been able to adapt to changing market conditions and position itself for long-term success.

One key factor in Unilever’s success has been its ability to align its change management initiatives with its overall business strategy. By focusing on high-growth areas, investing in sustainability, and enhancing its digital capabilities, Unilever has been able to drive growth and improve profitability while also achieving its sustainability goals.

Another key factor has been Unilever’s emphasis on collaboration and stakeholder engagement. By working closely with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders, Unilever has been able to create a shared sense of purpose and drive greater alignment around its sustainability and innovation goals.

About The Author

Tahir Abbas

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GIS-based multi-criteria decision making for delineation of potential groundwater recharge zones for sustainable resource management in the Eastern Mediterranean: a case study

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 21 June 2024
• Volume 14 , article number  160 , ( 2024 )

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• Hazem Ghassan Abdo   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9283-3947 1 ,
• Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2421-6995 2 ,
• Karam Alsafadi 3 ,
• Ahmed Ali Bindajam 4 ,
• Javed Mallick 5 ,
• Suraj Kumar Mallick 6 ,
• Karikkathil C. Arun Kumar 7 ,
• Jasem A. Albanai 8 ,
• Alban Kuriqi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7464-8377 9 , 10 &
• Artan Hysa 11  

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In light of population growth and climate change, groundwater is one of the most important water resources globally. Groundwater is crucial for sustaining many vital sectors in Syria, including industrial and agricultural sectors. However, groundwater exploitation has significantly escalated to meet different water needs especially in the post-war period and the earthquake disaster. Therefore, the goal was this study delineation of the groundwater potential zones (GPZs) by integrating the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method in a geographic information systems (GIS) within the AlAlqerdaha river basin in western Syria. In this study, ten criteria were used to map the spatial distribution of GPZs, including slope, geomorphology, drainage density, land use/land cover (LU/LC), lineament density, lithology, rainfall, soil, curvature and topographic wetness index (TWI). GPZs map was validated by using the location of 74 wells and the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC). The findings suggest that the study area is divided into five GPZs: very low, 21.39 km 2 (10.87%); low, 52.45 km 2 (26.65%); moderate, 65.64 km 2 (33.35%); high, 40.45 km 2 (20.55%) and very high, 16.90 km 2 (8.58%). High and very high zones mainly corresponded to the western regions of the study area. The conducted spatial modeling indicated that the AHP-based GPZs map showed a remarkably acceptable correlation with wells locations (AUC = 87.7%, n  = 74), demonstrating the precision of the AHP–GIS as a rating method. The results of this study provide objective and constructive outputs that can help decision-makers to optimally manage groundwater resources in the post-war phase in Syria.

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Introduction

Groundwater is a vital and finite resource, crucial for life on Earth (Dentico and Ghribi 2023 ; Baghel et al. 2023 ). It serves various uses on a large scale, such as domestic, industrial and agricultural. Groundwater demand has significantly escalated in developed and developing countries over recent years to meet the water requirements of domestic, industrial, and agricultural needs (Rajendran et al. 2023 ; Biswas et al. 2020 ; Melese and Belay 2022 ). Continuously increasing groundwater consumption due to massive population density, a growing area of irrigated farming and less environmentally significant economic advancement has put enormous stress on its prudent utilization (Lecart et al. 2024 ; Elvis et al. 2023 ; Sherif et al. 2023 ; Alsafadi et al. 2023 ). Globally, domestic, industrial and agricultural applications account for approximately 36, 27, and 42% of total groundwater use, respectively (Taylor et al. 2013 ; Bera et al. 2020 ; Genjula et al. 2023 ; Ahmad et al. 2023 ).

Groundwater occurrence is primarily controlled by geological, climate-related, physiographic, and ecological factors (Pagano et al. 2023 ). The underlying strata's lithology and the aquifer's permeability are the primary determinants of groundwater movement (Rezaie-Boroon et al. 2014 ; Barua et al. 2021 ; Moodley et al. 2023 ). Underground water levels have dropped in recent decades as a result of overuse and ineffective management measures (Uc Castillo et al. 2023 ; Nosrati and Eeckhaut 2012 ). As a result, One of the most important tactics in this field is managing groundwater resources by exploring and using them in accordance with aquifer potential (Haghizadeh et al. 2017 ; Ikirri et al. 2023 ; Rahmati et al. 2015 ; Muavhi et al. 2023 ). Thus, the consideration of effective approaches for evaluating locations with a high potential for groundwater exploitation has become an urgent need, using contemporary data preparation and integration methodologies and innovative decision-making processes in this scope (Allafta et al. 2020 ; Das et al. 2022 ; Arun Kumar et al. 2021 ).

Delineation of groundwater potential zones (GPZs) is one of the most important and most modern tools used in groundwater management on the river basin scale. Importantly, the conventional methods for delineating GPZs are uneconomical, time-consuming, highly expensive, sometimes ineffective, and have some limitations. As such, different studies have been published on the delineation of GPZs map with thematic layer data such as drainage patterns, lithology, topography, and soil types using GIS and RS techniques (Ikirri et al. 2023 ; Rather et al. 2022 ). Recently, multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA), modeling of weights of evidence (WoE) and probabilistic models were applied to the delineation of GPZs (Bhuyan and Deka 2022 ; Islam et al. 2023 ). Other analyzes that used machine-learning models, including decision trees, fuzzy logic, and numerical models, yielded more sophisticated results (Kordestani et al. 2019 ). Attempts have been made to integrate RS and geophysical surveys with GIS to extract additional thematic layers (Magaia et al. 2018 ). The efficiency of the formulation differs from one study to another, some are more effective, accurate, time-saving, and cost-effective, whereas the traditional methods are time-consuming (Bhuyan and Deka 2022 ; Baba et al. 2022 ).

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), developed by Saaty ( 1980 ), is considered a commonly utilized approach with MCDA for solving socioeconomic decision-making problems (Alsafadi et al. 2020 ; Sarkar et al. 2022 ; Rendana et al. 2023 ). The AHP model simplifies complicated judgments by creating several pair-wise comparisons, and then combining the findings (Saaty 2001 ). The integration between the AHP model and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies is a valuable tool for developing GPZs maps worldwide. However, Several studies have utilized this tool to map GPZs (Abrar et al. 2022 ; Kumar and Krishna 2018 ; Rahmati et al. 2015 ; Roy et al. 2022 ; Golla et al. 2022 ; Ki et al. 2023 ).

Groundwater in Syria is one of the crucial foundations for supporting the process of economic and social development, especially in the post-war phase (Baba et al. 2021 ; Alrawi et al. 2022 ). The development of a multi-criteria spatial model that enables reliable demarcation of regions constitutes an urgent research gap at the level of creating flexible and sustainable groundwater management strategies in Syria in the face of current and future challenges. Further, the western region of Syria received thousands of internal refugees during the war, which led to an increase in demand for more groundwater resources. Thus, the novelty of the current assessment is the use of integration between AHP and GIS in mapping the western region of Syria, which has witnessed shocking social and economic changes as a result of the war (Abdo and Richi 2024 ). Furthermore, the method of providing and deriving the spatial data needed to develop a GPZs map represents a constructive approach to applying this assessment in other areas of Syria. The novelty presented in this assessment constitutes a unique aspect that provides a more comprehensive understanding of the groundwater system that contributes to recovery from the consequences of the war in Syria. This evaluation assumes that the combination of AHP and GIS will enable accurate and reliable delineation of the GPZs map in an area that has undergone significant spatial changes. Furthermore, the availability of remote sensing (RS) data provides an objective alternative to most of the missing data needed to complete this assessment.

The ultimate goal of this study is to develope a GPZs map utilizing geospatial technologies and the AHP approach. The environmental causal factors were used to interpret GPZs in the current investigation. The results of this assessment will provide important values to decision-makers in the water sector, specifically in the post-war stage in Syria.

Study area settings

The AlAlqerdaha River is located in the coastal region of western Syria between latitudes of 35°0.50′0.48″ and 35°0.38′0.33″ N and 35°0.54′0.47″' and longitude of 36°0.21′0.59″ E, with an area of 196.8 km 2 (Fig.  1 ). The study area is delimited to the north by Al-Maddike river basin, to the south by Al-Porghool river basin, to the east by the Orontes River basin, and to the west by the Mediterranean. The territory consists of various and complex geological formations, including Jurassic , Cretaceous and Quaternary . Cretaceous and Cretaceous formations, which cover the most extensive distribution in the study area, consist of limestone, dolomite, marls and limy marl. These structures are exposed to an accelerated superficial and implicit karstification dissolution process and are subject to severe tectonic shearing (Abdo 2020 ; Younes et al. 2023 ). Moreover, there is spatial variation in the permeability of these formations due to the varying lithological properties. Quaternary covers the western parts, especially the floodplain and along the courses of the river network. These formations fundamentally consist of fluviatile gravels, boulders, sandstones, marine sandstones and deposits. These formations are considered the most permeable as compared to the Jurassic , Cretaceous formations. The study area belongs to the mass of the Syrian coastal mountains which witnessed many tectonic activities, forming many regional faults, folds, grabens and catchments (Abdo and Salloum 2017 ). Geological lineaments form paths for groundwater. Hydrologically, the AlAlqerdaha river basin belongs to the Syrian coastal basin Unit on the eastern Mediterranean coast. The AlAlqerdaha River is classified as a seasonal river due to the prevailing geographical conditions. It consists of two main tributaries known as the Al-Shihawi and Al-Jour rivers. Al-Thawra Dam was built on the Shehawi River, mainly with the aim of securing irrigation water. Meanwhile, the groundwater system consists of an expansive amount of groundwater in three sedimentary hydrogeological aquifers, including: Jurassic , Cretaceous and Quaternary aquifers.

Study area location

The study basin can be divided into three main geomorphological sectors. The flat sector (0–100 m) is characterized by wide floodplains and high sedimentation values. While the hilly (100–400 m) and mountainous (400–1449 m) sectors are characterized by steep slopes and instability of slopes. The Alqerdaha River basin is primarily sited in a moist climate Csa according to the Köppen − Geiger climate category (Mohammed et al. 2020a , b ). The average summer temperature is 24.7° while in the winter is 9.8°. The annual rainfall is between 1100 and 1457 mm. The vegetation system mainly consists of both agricultural and wild vegetation. Agricultural vegetation includes field crops, olive trees, and citrus fruits While the wild vegetation consists of scattered forest systems with great diversity. Wild trees include Cypress , Pine , Elm and Acacia (Abdo 2018 ).

The population of the Madros Basin is 81,746 according to national statistics carried out in 2022. Agricultural activity is considered the most important economic sector in the region.The depths of the aquifer range from 5 m in the western plain areas to 266 m in the mountainous eastern parts. The process of pumping groundwater is subject to complex obstacles, especially the availability of electrical power carriers in the study area. The daily pumping rate reaches about 5000 m 3 /day in the various monitored wells. All residents of the basin depend on groundwater resources for their lives and economic activities. The use of the groundwater supply in the study area is determined for the purposes of domestic use and drinking, in addition to other economic activities, including agriculture, tourism, and industry.

Methodology

Data collection and processing.

Data are employed and acquired from diverse sources to analyze the GPZs. Table 1 lists all the satellite images and acquired data in precise detail. During field surveys, the handheld GPS is used to collect soil samples and locate existing wells at various locations within the basin. The laboratory tested these samples for particle size distribution and water permeability. The entire study used ArcMap v. 10.4.1 applications to process the data. In Fig.  2 , all the procedures employed in this study are listed.

Schematic representation of workflow showing the methodology

In a GIS context, data was derived and analyzed at a resolution of 12.5 m using the following spatial analysis tools: Resample, Resize, Euclidean Distance, Interpolation, Tabulation, Conversion, Raster Calculator, and Reclassification tools. Similarly, slope angle and curvature layers were derived utilizing Digital elevation model (DEM) depending on Surface Analysis tools in ArcMap v. 10.4.1 software. The maps of the geomorphology and geology of the AlAlqerdaha River were prepared using the general geomorphological and geology maps in Lattakia Governorate by clipping method. Also, geological lineaments were digitizing from the general geological map. Landuse/landcover (LULC) layer of 2021 was produced by the supervised classification method (maximum likelihood classifier). Topographic wetness index (TWI) and drainage density (DD) layers were derived by processing DEM with surface analysis and hydrology tools. The soil map was derived from the general soil types map (1/50.000) produced by Al-Hanadi Center for Agricultural Research–Directorate of Agriculture in Lattakia Governorate. In this regard, the inverse distance weighted (IDW) method was used to produce the spatial distribution of precipitation values map. Moreover, the distance from the faults was investigated by using the Euclidean distance tool.

Criteria selection

The selection of criteria affecting the delineation of GPZs map is one of the controversial stages in such studies. With the aim of objective analysis, a set of methodological considerations were relied upon in selecting conditioning factors, including the geographical characteristics of the AlAlqerdaha River, and it’s related database (Benjmel et al. 2020 ). Satellite imagery is essential to depict the basin physiographic conditions, i.e., LULC, slope, drainage density, fractures, faults, and cleavages, at large spatial scales. Ten thematic maps, including curvature (CV), drainage density (DD), slope (Sl), geomorphology (Ge), lithology (Li), lineament density (LD), LU/LC, rainfall (RF), soil type (So), and topographic wetness index (TWI) layer were created using conventional and geospatial environment that helps to assess the GPZs of the western part of Syria. Several researchers used characteristics such as these to assess and evaluate groundwater resources for GPZs delineation (Table  2 ).

Calculation of AHP weightage

The thematic layer weights are identified using the AHP (Saaty 1977 ) which is considered one of the most extensively used MCDA strategies for GPZs and environmental management. Surprisingly, the GIS-based weighted overlay approach (WOA) with AHP has been lauded by MCDA scholars as a viable manner for investigating geo-problems (Alsafadi et al. 2020 ).

Mathematically, we determined the score of the sub-criteria \({\text{X}}_{\text{i}}\) for each thematic layer on a 0–5 scale (Table  7 ), and then combined it with the AHP weights \({\text{W}}_{\text{i}}\) . Hence, the GIS-based weighted overlay approach (WoA) was utilized to produce a GPZ final layer as:

W i  = weightage of criterion, and \({X}_{i}\) = score of sub-criteria i, as shown in Table  8 , for each thematic layer on a 0–5 scoring scale.

A hierarchical approach creates the problem, including the study's goal and criteria. Second, assuming all the criteria are weighted, we must obtain the weighted criteria. Each thematic map and its sub-features are given weights based on previous knowledge of factor characteristics, local field experience, personal judgment and expert opinion (Halder et al. 2022 ). Thus, the judgment fundamental scale varying between 1 and 9 was used based on Saaty’s table (Saaty 1990 ) to assign a pair-wise comparison matrix (PWCM) (Table  3 ).

The basic input is components of the PWCM, matrix A, which may be acquired as a matrix of n  ×  n factors produced based on Saaty's scale ratios and obtained as

As a fundamental rule, matrix A with its components a ij possesses the property of reciprocity, i.e., a ii  = 1, a ij  = 1/a i .

Following that, A is determined as total values per column as follows:

Then we normalized the principal matrix (A) after setting its components as matrix B Table  7 , which may be characterized as:

Each element is given a relative weighting, where matrix B is the normalized matrix A, and its components (b ij ) can be calculated as follows:

The weight of single criteria was acquired by dividing the sum values of the b ij inside the matrix B's row by the total number of criteria ( n  = 10) (Table  4 ):

In which the total weights are equal to 1, i.e., \({\sum }_{i=1}^{n}{W}_{i}=1\) .

It is critical in the AHP approach that the weights produced by PWCM be constant, as well as the judgment matrix consistency, which is defined based on the consistency ratio (CR) coefficients: the consistency index (CI), the random consistency index (RCI) from Saaty’s table (Saaty 1980 ) and eigenvector technique-based maximum eigenvalue ( λ ), as presented in recent studies (Alsafadi et al. 2022 ; Kumar and Krishna 2018 ).

Afterward, the judgment matrix was shaped using PWCM (Table  5 ). Following that, the relative weights ( W ) of the factors were computed, i.e., the normalized pair-wise comparison matrix (NPWCM) (Table  6 ). In order to accept the consistency of the matrix, there must be a CR of less than 0.1.

GIS weighted overlay analysis

After obtaining the final weights for the criteria using the AHP method based on creating pairwise comparisons, making a comparison matrix and providing the acceptable consistency proportion. The weight overlay analysis (WOA) in GIS platform has been implemented to map the GPZs map. Weighted overlay analysis is a method for developing a comprehensive investigation, by allocating a typical scale of values to input elements depending on AHP analysis (Nowreen et al. 2021 ). This stage included assigning the weights calculated using AHP for each thematic layer. Moreover, a sub-weighting of 1–5 was given to the classes of each thematic layer according to its impact on the groundwater potential, with 1 implying a very low effect, and 5 implying a very important impact. Utilizing the WOA of ArcMap v. 10.4.1 software, the reclassified layers of slope, geomorphology, drainage density, LU/LC, lineament density, lithology, rainfall, soil, curvature and topographic TWI, and their related ratio effect on groundwater potentially, were composed to generate the GPZs map within the study area. The sum logic (Eq.  7 ) was used in the fuzzy overlay of layers using the Raster calculator tool of ArcMap v. 10.4.1 software.

The resulting GPZs map was reclassified using the Natural Breaks tool into five categories: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high.

It is a necessary procedure to validate the GPZs map that allows an examination of how well the modeling process performs. For the validation of the GPZs map, 74 wells data were used in the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve or precisely AUC method. ROC method is considered a parametric analysis method widely applied in the validation process of GPZs mapping studies (Ahmed et al. 2021 ; Das 2019 ; Mohammady et al. 2012 ; Pourghasemi et al. 2013 ). Based on the site specifications, the cumulative number of wells available in each potential region and the cumulative areas under various groundwater zones show a correlation, as seen by the AUC plots. The values of the ROC curve, ranging from 0.6 to 1, are categorized as excellent (0.9–1), very good (0.8–0.9), good (0.7–0.8), moderate (0.6–0.7) and poor (0.5–0.6).

Assessment of groundwater potential zones

The slope of a watershed describes the amount of water available for recharging and the harshness of the landscape. Areas featured by steep slopes are linked with a greater runoff volume and reduced infiltration (Melese and Belay 2022a , b ). As a result, the slope is one of the most important factors that influencing runoff and infiltration rates. ASF DEM was utilized to generate the slope. The degree of groundwater potential was used to allocate weights to each slope class. An area with a great slope angle has comparatively low GPZs because of the surface flow, in marked contrast with low slope regions which stimulates the infiltration rate (Kanagaraj et al. 2019 ).

The final slope classified into five categories (Table  7 ). The < 10° and 10°–20° classes form a considerable area for the river basin. These classes, distributed in the western section, have the lowest slope and topographic height. The rest of the slope categories were specified for the eastern regions (Fig.  3 a).

Layers for generating groundwater potential recharging zones map. a slope degree, b geomorphology, c lithology, d TWI, e lineament density, f LULC, g drainage density, h soil, i rainfall, and j curvature

Geomorphology (Ge)

Geomorphology is a key component in determining groundwater potentiality and prospects because it regulates the subsurface flow of groundwater (Rahmati et al. 2015 ; Das et al. 2022 ). Prior investigations have reported geomorphology characteristics as an influential factor for delineating GPZs (Ifediegwu 2022a , b ; Achu et al. 2020 ). Here, six types of geomorphological features have been found, i.e., flat, gravelly sandy plain, old flood plain, plateau, limestone hill, and dissected mountain (Fig.  3 b). In this regard, the plain geomorphological units are characterized by a higher susceptibility to recharging the groundwater (Barua et al. 2021 ). Therefore, the gravelly sandy plain and old flood plain have good permeability; therefore, the maximum score has been given to these classes (Table  7 ). Floodplains were placed basically along the main bed river of the AlAlqerdaha river.

Lithology (Li)

The lithology has a major impact on groundwater recharge as it completely determines the infiltration and flow operations (Ghanim et al. 2023 ; Tolche 2021 ). The existence of lithological features affects groundwater potential significantly. Basaltic rock, for example, is solid and hard by nature, with little permeability and porosity. It has been given less importance, whereas alluvium or sandy loamy soils get maximum importance. Minerals, alteration, cracks, and weather conditions contribute to lithology's weighting. This study has extracted seven lithological features: limestone, marl, dolomite, sandstone, marine sandstone, and sediment (Fig.  3 c). Marine sandstone and Sediment have been given the highest weightage for maximum groundwater permeability, followed by the rest of the features (Table  7 ). Fieldwork revealed that the riverine and marine sedimentary environment gives greater water recharge to the aquifer, and this is consistent with many related studies (Barua et al. 2021 ; Alrawi et al. 2022 ; Ghadeer 2022 ).

Topographic wetness index (TWI)

The TWI is an important component of the hydro-geological system developed by Beven and Kirkby ( 1979 ). TWI can be utilized to denote the determinant of topographical factors on the magnitude and location of watery sources of surface runoff creation (Melese and Belay 2022a , b ). TWI describes potential groundwater infiltration into the groundwater, relying on terrestrial features and their effect on the local topography (Grimm et al. 2018 ). Many researchers have utilized TWI as a criterion for defining potential groundwater zones (Fig.  3 d). It can be calculated using the following equations (Eq.  8 ):

where \(As\) denotes the specified catchment area, and \(tan\) denotes the slope angle, correspondingly. TWI of the study basin is organized into five categories (i.e., very low, low, moderate, high and very high). The maximum weight was assigned to a very high TWI, which signals a high ability to recharge (Table  7 ). Moreover, the floodplains along the riverbeds possessed high and very high values of TWI. These areas are highly vulnerable to flooding events, as indicated by many studies (Chaudhry et al. 2021 ; Uc Castillo et al. 2022 ).

Lineament density (LD)

The lineaments are the areas of weakness in the geological structures with some linear to curvilinear features, such as fractures, faults and joints with intrinsic permeability characteristics and porosity (Naceur et al. 2022 ). Lineaments' density significantly impacts groundwater intensity by facilitating the infiltration of water into the groundwater (Al-Ruzouq et al. 2019 ). The groundwater recharge zone is exactly proportional to lineament density. Lineament analysis is used to better understand the interaction between managed water infiltration and movement and surface water penetration and fracture systems. The groundwater zone in the upper and lower parts of the studied watershed is excellent and promising, according to the lineament density map. In this study, the lineaments were extracted from geological maps, and the spatial density of lineaments was calculated using Eq.  9 . The higher the lineament density, the higher weight ascribed to it, and vice versa (Table  7 ).

where, \({\sum }_{i=1}^{n}{L}_{i}\) is the total lineament length and \(A\) is the coverage area.

Most of the high lineament densities are distributed in Jurassic and Cretaceous geological compositions which have high infiltration rates (Fig.  3 e).

Land use/land cover (LU/LC)

Globally, anthropogenic activities have a negative impact on the ecosystem due to deforestation, erosion, groundwater depletion, and loss of soil quality (Younes et al. 2023 ). Changes in LU/LC are important drivers of groundwater change. The Gaussian Maximum Likelihood Classifier Algorithm (GMLCA) in ArcGIS 10.4.1 software was employed to execute supervised LU/LC classification for the study area (Fig.  3 f). The kappa coefficient was used to validate the categorization result. Water bodies, flora, agriculture, bare ground and built-up land are the five main LU/LC classifications discovered, each with a proportionate share of each class. In this study, the weights were given depending on the potential groundwater recharge, relying on the LULC. Cropland and water surface were given the maximum weightage for maximum water permeability and less weightage was given to built-up land. (Table  7 ).

Drainage density (DD)

The total length of all the streams in the basin is divided by the area to get the DD. GPZs can be found by structural analysis of a drainage network, and a drainage system's quality is mostly determined by its percolation rate index (Yeh et al. 2016 ). DD is strongly related to groundwater recharge. Greater DD values refer to a high amount of groundwater recharge (Mallick and Rudra 2021 ; Mallick et al. 2023 ). The understanding of this factor presents a practical numerical estimation which reflects the attributes of discharge potential, stream channels, soil, vegetation, topography and permeability data (Roy et al. 2020 ). Finally, ArcMap v. 10.4.1 and ALOS's DEM were used to construct the DD map (Fig.  3 g). DD of the study basin is classified into five classes (i.e., very low, low, moderate, high and very high). The maximum weight was assigned to a very high TWI, which signals a high ability to recharge (Table  7 ).

The ability of a region's topsoil to infiltrate water has a significant impact on groundwater supply. Grain structure, size, texture, shape and potential porosity can positively influence water percolation (Allafta et al. 2020 ; Das et al. 2022 ). Moreover, soil type is governed by pore saturation and dryness conditions that influence increased water entry into the soil (Aykut 2021a , b ). The porosity of soil types regulates water passage into the earth. The groundwater potential of coarse-grained soil types (such as lithosols) is good. However, the groundwater potential of fine-grained soil types (ferralsols) is poor (Ifediegwu 2022a , b ). As a result, soil characteristics are played a crucial role in controlling the GPZs determination. In the current assessment, the soil types have been categorized into six classes: silty loam, sandy, loam, clay, very fine sand, coarse sand and clayey loam (Fig.  3 h). In very fine sand, coarse sand and sandy loam soils, porosity and permeability are higher with more rapid infiltration accelerations, whereas they are significantly lower in clayey loam and clay types (Owuor et al. 2016 ; Allafta et al. 2020 ). Therefore, the weight attributed to GPZs is larger for sandy soils (Table  7 ).

Rainfall (RF)

Rainfall is one of the important climatic element that controls the abundance of groundwater (Mallick and Rudra 2021 ). It is, therefore, vital to comprehend the spatial dynamics of the rainfall in GPZs investigation. The rainfall data were picked up from the General Directorate of Meteorology–Damascus. The mean yearly rainfall over the western part of Syria is around 1000 to 1200 mm. The maximum concentration is found from July to September. The eastern part receives maximum rainfall (> 1200 mm) and the western part of the Syria area receives > 800 mm of rainfall per year (Fig.  3 i). Terrain complexity enacts a vital role in increasing the spatial variability of precipitation values (Uc Castillo et al. 2023 ). The central-east regions of the river basin were characterized by mountainous and plateau geomorphological units with steep slopes, in contrast to the plain western regions. Thus, groundwater recharge values are greater in the eastern part compared to the other sections. Distribution of precipitation values were classified into five precipitation categories: < 600 mm, 600–800 mm, 800–1000 mm, 1000–1200 mm and > 1200 mm. The higher precipitation areas were assigned a greater weight as shown in Table  7 .

Curvature (CV)

The curvature is a kind of curve unit that deviates a linear function or a surface deviates from being flat. In other sense, curvature is a topographic component that represents direction flow and specifying the pace at which the greatest slope direction varies (Melese and Belay 2022a , b ). Curvature was derived from DEM data for this investigation. Curvature has been categorized into three sections: convex, flat, and concave, as shown in Fig.  3 j and Table  7 . Concave and flat curvatures have been given maximum scores in response to groundwater recharge potentiality.

Assessment of GPZs

As one of the most important life-sustaining resources, groundwater has been an ever-declining resource. However, its recharge rate has fallen significantly over the last four to five decades due to anthropogenic activities and skewed development patterns. For the sustainable development of a specific area, it is paramount to become well acquainted with the groundwater potential of that area. This kind of information can be extremely important for planning and carrying out corrective actions that enhance the process of groundwater recharge.

The AHP method has been applied to identify the GPZs based on the weighting of distinct conditioning layers and their sub-classes to determine the weights of these layers. Moreover, decision-making grounded in methodical expert judgment is made with less mathematical complexity, the AHP method is promising tool for evaluating groundwater recharge potential quickly, precisely, and cost-effectively. There are various categories of potential groundwater zones located in the AlAlqerdaha River basin. The GPZ map below shows the extent of each zone in Fig.  4 . The AHP method classified the GPZs of the study area as follows: very low, 21.39 km 2 (10.87%); low, 52.45 km 2 (26.65%); moderate, 65.64 km 2 (33.35%); high, 40.45 km 2 (20.55%) and very high, 16.90 km 2 (8.58%) (Table  8 ).

Groundwater potential zones map generated by the AHP model in the Al-Alqerdaha River basin

Validation of GPZs map

The accuracy of the groundwater potential mapping utilizing a GIS-based AHP method has been evaluated in numerous studies using the ROC method (Echogdali et al. 2022 ). The ROC curve and the spatial distribution of 74 wells across the study basin were utilized in this investigation to assess the outcome of GPZs maps. Relevant literature indicates that AUC values ranging between 0.7 and 0.9 indicate satisfactory accuracy for a GPZs map (Maity et al 2022 ; Rane et al. 2023 ). Based on Fig.  5 , the applied methodological-based integration between AHP and GIS produced a GPZs map with good accuracy in the study area (AUC of 87.7%).

ROC and AUC curve for the groundwater potential zones map produced by the AHP model

The Eastern Mediterranean is among the regions most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, which will negatively affect the abundance of many natural resources, especially the abundance of water ( Aw-Hassan et al. 2014 ; Abbara et al. 2021 ) . Most of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean region, including Syria, depends primarily on groundwater resources to secure their water requirements for drinking purposes and various socio-economic development processes. In this regard, the groundwater system in Syria is subject to poor management procedures and weak sustainable spatial organization as a result of the consequences of the war (Mohammed et al. 2020a , b ). Sustainable management of water resources in Syria is crucial to meeting the requirements of various sectors in the aftermath of the war (Baba et al. 2021 ). In this investigation, a comprehensive spatial assessment of the GPZs distribution in western Syria was conducted using AHP–GIS integration.

Regarding the spatial distribution of GPZs, the high and very high zones of GPZs are concentrated mainly in the western part of the river basin. This part is considered a riverine and marine depositional environment with highly permeable lithological formations, including sands and sandstones. Moreover, the plain geomorphological characteristics reduce the surface runoff velocity, thus the possibility of higher groundwater recharge. Also, the very high GPZs are determined in the easternmost study basin. The high precipitation values with dissected calcareous lithological formations have greatly enhanced groundwater recharge in those areas. The high and moderate GPZs dominated most of the AlAlqerdaha River basin, especially in the central and eastern parts. These areas are characterized by Marl and Dolomite lithological formations, agricultural and forest vegetation covers, high geological lineaments density and high precipitation rate (1000–1200 mm). Steep slope and low discharge intensity factors combined with low permeability lithological formations achieve low and very low GPZs. These areas, however, are distributed on the central and eastern slopes of the AlAlqerdaha River basin. Overall, the result emphasized the great importance of lithological and geomorphological factors, especially the slope, in controlling the spatial allocation of GPZs in AlAlqerdaha River basin.

The results in this evaluation demonstrated the high efficiency of the AHP model in identifying the zons with high potential for groundwater resources in the study basin. This model achieved high predictive ability with an AUC value of 87.7% in identifying GPZs. This result is consistent with many evaluations conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean (Aykut 2021a , b ; Sulaiman and Mustafa 2023 ). RS and GIS techniques have proven highly efficient in producing a GPZs map in a data-scarce area such as western Syria. Moreover, providing reliable spatial data with proper derivation of its layers represented a major challenge. Therefore, the approach used in this assessment can be applied in other watersheds in Syria, thus enhancing the sustainable management of groundwater resources.

Syria was estimated to have the highest decrease in groundwater storage capacity between January 2003 and December 2014 (Faour and Fayad 2014 ; Hassan and Krepl 2015 ; Lezzaik and Milewski 2018 ) among other Middle East and North African countries. The same study reports that this change sharply correlates with population density. Population density dynamics in Syria are expected to obey certain climate and war-related stresses, as reported between 2006 and 2010 (Kattaa et al. 2010 ; Mourad and Alshihabi  2016 ; Ash and Obradovich 2020 ). Thus, the expected climate and conflict-induced inner migration will directly impact the groundwater storage capacity. At this stage, it could include only LU/LC data as evidence of anthropogenic activities. Due to a lack of available data, we could not integrate the other social criteria into the model. However, future studies must consider the integration of climate-related variables and a broader gradient of socio-political aspects in groundwater prediction models. Diverse scenarios about the future climate and war-related social dynamics will better inform groundwater management authorities to enable a more resilient and sustainable future in countries like Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. One of the disadvantages of the AHP method used in this evaluation is the definition of class limits and weights assigned to each influencing factor. These weights are determined based on the feelings and experience of experts and the user's ability to distinguish and self-determine the limits of each class. Therefore, using the AHP technique requires extreme caution to achieve the least amount of bias possible (Ki et al. 2023 ).

Determining GPZs is of utmost importance in western Syria, especially areas with high groundwater potential as a result of high population density. Importantly, this identification can contribute to the speed of socio-economic recovery in the post-war period in the study area by developing the agricultural sector, meeting the population’s water requirements, enhancing tourism and industrial investment opportunities, conserving other natural resources, and establishing water infrastructure projects, especially rain-harvesting reservoirs.

In this study, remote sensing and geographic information system were introduced and evaluated the AHP model as an feasible tool for delineating the GPZs within the AlAlqerdaha basin of the Syrian coastal basin. As a first step toward preparing the thematic permeability layers, we used slope, geomorphology, lithology, TWI, lineament density, LU/LC, drainage density, soil, rainfall, and curvature data. The last step in our methodology was to identify appropriate charge areas, i.e., potential groundwater zones, by overlaying the artificial groundwater recharge with two- and three-dimension drainage map. However, the findings suggest that the AlAlqerdaha River basin area was categorized into five GPZs: very low, 21.39 km 2 (10.87%); low, 52.45 km 2 (26.65%); moderate, 65.64 km 2 (33.35%); high, 40.45 km 2 (20.55%) and very high, 16.90 km 2 (8.58%). High and very high GPZs mainly denoted to the western regions of the River basin. The AHP-based spatial modeling indicated that the GPZ maps showed an excellent acceptable reciprocity with well locations (AUC = 87.7%, n  = 74). Additionally, the results of the mapping and AUCs were in good agreement with well data.

This study provided a reliable approach to demarcate GPZs in a unique area in western Syria that suffers from poor groundwater management procedures as a result of the war. The outputs of this assessment provide important values that help local decision-makers create and implement sustainable and resilient groundwater management strategies. Moreover, the approach applied in this evaluation can be implemented on other river basins in Syria.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

• Groundwater potential zones

Million cubic meters

Geographic information systems

Analytic hierarchy process

Remote sensing

• Receiver operating characteristic curve

Area under the curve

Multicriteria decision analysis

Weights of evidence

Weighted overlay approach

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Acknowledgements

Authors thankfully acknowledge the Deanship of Scientific Research for proving administrative and financial supports. Funding for this research was given under award numbers RGP2/411/44 by the Deanship of Scientific Research; King Khalid University, Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Authors thankfully acknowledge the Deanship of Scientific Research for proving administrative and financial supports. Funding for this research was given under award numbers RGP2/411/44 by the Deanship of Scientific Research; King Khalid University, Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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HGA, DKV and KA contributed to Methodology, HGA, HA and KA contributed to Software, HGA, DKV, AAB, JM, HA, CBP and SKM contributed to Formal analysis and investigation. DKV, JM, HGA, HA and SKM contributed to visualization, HGA, DKV, KA, KCAK and JAA contributed to Writing—original draft preparation, SKM, AK, HGA, AAB and AH contributed to Writing–review and editing, HGA, AH, AK and JAA contributed to Supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Abdo, H.G., Vishwakarma, D.K., Alsafadi, K. et al. GIS-based multi-criteria decision making for delineation of potential groundwater recharge zones for sustainable resource management in the Eastern Mediterranean: a case study. Appl Water Sci 14 , 160 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-024-02217-z

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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Change Management

• Jean-Louis Barsoux

Corporate transformations still have a miserable success rate: About three-quarters of change efforts either fail to deliver the anticipated benefits or are abandoned entirely. And because flawed implementation is most often blamed for such failures, organizations have focused on improving execution. But poor execution is only part of the problem; the authors’ four-year study of 62 corporate transformations suggests that misdiagnosis is equally to blame. Before worrying about how to change, they write, executive teams need to figure out what to change—in particular, what to change first. They can do this by fully understanding three things: the catalyst for transformation, the organization’s underlying quest (is it global presence, customer focus, nimbleness, innovation, or sustainability?), and the leadership capabilities needed to see it through.

J.C. Penney, Norske Skog, Acer, and other classic cases illustrate the authors’ points, and the article includes a “quest audit” to help companies identify their transformation priorities.

Poor execution is only part of the problem.

The Problem

Failed corporate transformations are usually attributed to execution—but often leaders misdiagnose what changes need to be made.

When organizations pursue the wrong changes or tackle them in the wrong order, existing problems get worse, new ones are created, and employees, having been burned, become wary of future initiatives.

The Solution

Before setting their change priorities, leaders should analyze three things: the catalyst for transformation, the underlying quest, and the leadership capabilities needed to pursue it.

Corporate transformations still have a miserable success rate, even though scholars and consultants have significantly improved our understanding of how they work. Studies consistently report that about three-quarters of change efforts flop—either they fail to deliver the anticipated benefits or they are abandoned entirely.

• NA N. Anand is the Shell Professor of Global Leadership and the dean of research at IMD.
• Jean-Louis Barsoux is a term research professor at IMD and a coauthor of ALIEN Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas (PublicAffairs, 2021).

Partner Center

Banking on interest rates: A playbook for the new era of volatility

The recent accelerated rise in global interest rates, the fastest in decades, brought the curtain down on an extended period of cheap money but provided little clarity on the longer-term outlook. In 2024, competing forces of tepid growth, geopolitical tension, and regional conflict are creating nearly equal chances of higher-for-longer benchmark rates and rapid cuts. In the banking industry, this uncertainty presents both risks and opportunities. But in the absence of recent precedent, many institutions lack the necessary playbook to tackle the challenge.

As rates have risen from their record lows, banks have in general profited from rising net interest margins (NIMs). However, if policy makers switch swiftly into cutting mode, banks may see the opposite effect. For now, futures markets predict the start of that process toward the end of 2024. In that context, the question facing risk managers is how they can retain the benefit of higher rates while preparing for cuts and managing the potential for macroeconomic surprises.

The question facing risk managers is how they can retain the benefit of higher rates while preparing for cuts and managing the potential for macroeconomic surprises.

The volatility playing out in rates markets is reflected in bank deposit trends, with customers more actively managing their cash to make the most of shifting monetary conditions. In Europe, deposits reached 63 percent of available stable funding (ASF) in 2023, compared with 57 percent in 2021. 1 Monitoring of liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio implementation in the EU – third report, European Banking Authority, June 15, 2023. In the US, conversely, the share of deposits over total liabilities fell over a similar period as money migrated to investments such as money market funds.

In the face of accelerating deposit flows, McKinsey research shows that bank risk management and funding performance has been highly variable. Between 2021 and 2023, the best-performing US and EU banks saw interest rate expenses rise 70 percent less than at the worst-performing banks (Exhibit 1). Among the drivers were better deposit and interest rate management.

Alongside the impacts of deposit flows, funding has come under pressure from other factors, including the steady withdrawal of pandemic-related central bank liquidity facilities. Meanwhile, innovations such as instant payments have motivated customers to make faster and larger transfers. These withdrawals can happen quickly and be fueled by social media, creating a powerful new species of risk.

In the context of a more uncertain environment, regulatory authorities are doubling down on oversight of the potential impacts of rate volatility—for example, by asking banks to mitigate the potential effects of rate normalization, increasing overall scrutiny, and demanding evidence of methodology upgrades. Among European supervisory priorities for 2024–26, banks are advised to sharpen their governance and strategic frameworks to strengthen asset and liability management (ALM) and develop new funding plans and contingency measures for short-term liquidity shocks, including evaluating the adequacy of assumptions supporting some behavioral models. 2 “SSM Supervisory Priorities, 2024-2026,” in Supervisory priorities and assessment of risks and vulnerabilities , European Central Bank, 2023. In the same vein, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2023 proposed a recalibration of shocks for interest rate risk in the banking book. Banks can achieve this by extending the time series used in model calibration from the current December 2015 standard to December 2022, bringing more volatile rate distributions into the equation.

In a recent McKinsey roundtable, 40 percent of Europe, Middle East, and Africa bank treasurers said the topic that will attract most regulatory attention in the coming period is liquidity risk, followed by capital risk and interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB). With these risks in mind, 34 percent of treasurers said their top priorities with respect to rate risk were enhancing models and analytics, revising pricing strategies on loans and deposits, and beefing up ALM governance and monitoring capabilities.

Most participants also expected treasury teams to get more involved in strategic planning and board engagement and to engage business units more closely to define pricing strategies and product innovation (Exhibit 2).

In response to these dynamics, we expect to see many banks revisiting the role of the treasury function in the months ahead. For many, this will mean moving away from approaches designed for the low-rate era and toward those predicated on uncertainty. In this article, we discuss how forward-looking banks are redesigning their treasury functions to obtain deeper insights into probabilities around interest rates and their impacts on pricing, customer behavior, deposits, and liquidity.

Five steps to enhancing the treasury function

To manage volatile interest rates more effectively, leading banks are revisiting practices in the treasury function that evolved during the low-interest-rate period and may no longer be fit for purpose—or at least should be updated for the new environment. Pioneers have taken steps in five broad focus areas: steering and monitoring, risk measurement and capabilities, stress testing, bank funding, and hedging.

Build efficiency and sophistication

A precondition of effective oversight of interest rate business is to ensure decision makers have a clear view of the current state of play. Currently, the standard approach across the industry is somewhat passive, meaning it is based on static or seldom-reviewed pricing and risk management decisions, often taken by relationship managers. Models are fed with low-frequency data, and banks use static fund transfer pricing (FTP) to calculate net interest margins. Monitoring often reflects regulatory timelines rather than the desire to optimize decision making.

Forward-looking banks are tackling these challenges through a more hands-on approach to steering and monitoring, including the following measures:

• dynamic reviews of FTP, reflecting microsegment behaviors and pricing strategies tied to customer lifetime value and the opportunity cost of liquidity
• increased product innovation to boost funding from both corporate and retail clients
• ensuring access to high-quality, frequent, and granular data, with systems equipped to send early warning signals on potential changes in customer behaviors, especially to capture early signs of liquidity shifts
• use of risk limits and targets as active steering mechanisms, bolstered by links to incentives
• automation of reporting and monitoring, so liquidity and other events can be scaled internally much faster, backed by real-time data where possible

Upgrade IRRBB measurement and capabilities

Leading banks are getting a grip on IRRBB risk in areas such as balance sheet management, pricing, and collateral. Many have assembled dedicated teams to help them make more effective decisions. Given the threat to deposits, some are making greater use of scenario-based frameworks, bringing together liquidity and interest rate risk management. They are using real-time data to inform funding and pricing decisions.

To ensure they consider all aspects of rate risk, leading banks employ a cascade of models, feeding the outputs into steering and stress-testing frameworks, and capturing behavioral indicators that can inform balance sheet planning and hedging activities. Some banks are employing behavioral models to forecast loan acceptance rates and credit line drawings. Best practice involves using statistical grids differentiated by type of customer, product, and process phase.

When it comes to loans, some banks are leveraging AI to predict prepayments and their impacts on balance sheets and hedging requirements. Best practice in prepayments modeling is to move away from linear models and toward machine learning algorithms such as random forests to consider nonlinear relationships (for instance, between prepayments and interest rate variation) and loan features (for example, embedded options), as well as behavioral factors. We see five key steps:

• Customer segmentation . Banks can use AI to achieve granulated segmentation—for example, incorporating behavioral factors.
• Prepayment behavior . Banks can quantify constant prepayments and prepayments subject to criteria including interest rate levels, prepayment penalties, age of mortgage, and borrower characteristics. Leading banks establish a parent model and leverage customer segmentation to derive dedicated prepayment functions, taking into account customer protections such as statutory payment holidays.
• Interest rate scenarios . Banks can employ Monte Carlo simulations and other models to analyze a range of scenarios, including extreme and regulatory scenarios, and simulate potential prepayment behaviors for each scenario.
• Hedging ratios and strategy . Decision makers should evaluate the value of mortgages under different interest scenarios and derive sensitivities to economic value and P&L. They can then select hedging instruments with the aim of neutralizing scenario impacts.
• Pricing . Mortgage pricing can be adjusted based on maturity and potential prepayment behavior. Banks can use fund transfer pricing, with risks handled by a dedicated team in the treasury function.

Another important focus area is deposit decay. Many banks still prioritize moving-average approaches segmented by maturity and backed by expert judgment. A best practice would be to identify a core balance through a combined expert and statistical approach, looking at trends across customer segmentation, core balance modeling, deposit volume modeling, deposit beta and pass-through rates, and replicating portfolio/hedge strategies. This would mean leveraging AI and high-frequency data relating to transactions, to estimate each account’s non-operational liquidity, which customers may be more likely to move elsewhere (see sidebar “Case study: Deposit modeling to limit deposit erosion”). Some banks also use survival models to gauge non-linearities in deposit behaviors.

Case study: Deposit modeling to limit deposit erosion

One bank achieved an equivalent of €150 million to €200 million positive P&L impact on €30 billion of deposits by using AI techniques for repricing. The tool provided transparency on the following measures:

• the amount of liquidity at risk for each client—that is, the excess liquidity the client could potentially invest or move freely to other banks
• the churn probability for each client, or the probability the client would move the liquidity if the bank took no action, based on client sophistication, the quality and intensity of the client’s relationship with the bank, and the level of market competition
• the customer value at risk, an estimate of future revenues that would be at risk if the client moved the liquidity elsewhere (for example, including not only the opportunity cost of funding, but also revenues from related services)

Armed with this transparency, the bank was able to formulate client-specific strategies for repricing actions and product offerings (for example, investment products and transaction banking services), optimizing both its funding sources and profitability. New capabilities to support the effort included a deposits command center, producing a real-time dashboard for monitoring, including early warning triggers, sales team mobilization, and new product offering, especially for cash-rich corporate clients.

In the context of IRRBB strategy, leading banks are keeping a close eye on both deposit beta and pass-through rates (the portion of a change in the benchmark rate that is passed on to the deposit rate). They back their judgments with views on client stickiness, which they traditionally arrive at through expert judgment and market research. A more advanced approach is to derive regime-based elasticities, capturing data from historical economic cycles.

Better modeling enables more resilience: One bank’s story

A European global bank wanted to improve its forecasting in a rising-interest-rate context. Managers decided to focus more on customer behavior. They moved away from expert-judgment buffers to AI and stochastic modeling and a more focused approach to model calibration. They also updated scenario planning based on regulatory guidelines and best-in-class approaches, such as an interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB) dynamic balance sheet methodology. Through these changes, the bank was able to estimate its duration gap (between assets and liabilities) more accurately and thereby reduce delta economic value of equity (EVE). As a result, the bank recorded a 70-basis-point uplift in return on equity, resulting from capital savings on interest rate risk and a direct P&L impact from reduced hedging.

Finally, risks need to be optimally matched with hedges. The recent trend is to use stochastic models to support hedging decisions, enabling banks to gauge non-linearities. Forward-looking banks increasingly integrate deposit, prepayment, and pipeline modeling directly into their hedging strategies. They also ensure model risk is closely monitored, with models recalibrated frequently to reduce reliance on expert input (see sidebar “Better modeling enables more resilience: One bank’s story”).

Improve stress testing

Several players are integrating interest rate risk, credit spread risk, liquidity risk, and funding concentration risk in both regulatory and internal stress tests. Indeed, the IRRBB, liquidity risk, and market risk (credit spread risk in the banking book, or CSRBB) highlight the trade-off between capital and liquidity regulations. In short, higher capital requirements may reduce the need for excessive liquidity, and vice versa, for a bank with stable funding—a situation that remains a challenge to current regulatory frameworks.

Stress testing to measure interest rate risk is also evolving, with some banks adopting reverse stress testing (see sidebar “Enhancing Basel's interest rate risk measures: Exploring the efficacy of reverse stress testing and VAR”).

Enhancing Basel’s interest rate risk measures: Exploring the efficacy of reverse stress testing and VAR

Research conducted by a group of bank risk managers suggests that the current supervisory outlier tests for interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB) may not adequately address all significant risk scenarios. Specifically, the scenarios outlined in the BCBS 368 guidelines for stress-testing economic value of equity (EVE) and net interest income (NII) may fall short in identifying substantial IRRBB risks. This oversight could make it more difficult for banks to recognize material risks of loss, especially if they have complex or unconventional portfolios.

To identify more material risks, experts are recommending a shift in approach. Instead of focusing solely on extreme and plausible scenarios, they are advised to consider all possible scenarios and integrate reverse stress testing. This would involve simulating thousands of historical and hypothetical scenarios, covering almost the entire spectrum of possible yield curves. After computing NII and EVE, attention would be directed to the scenarios that could have the most adverse impact on the bank’s balance sheet.

In alignment with this proposed methodology, Australian banks will be mandated from 2025 to calculate IRRBB capital using measures of expected shortfall rather than value at risk (VAR). The change is intended to incorporate tail risk, with the new methodology utilizing data from the past seven years, coupled with a distinct one-year stress period.

In upgrading their stress-testing frameworks and interest rate strategies, banks need to balance net interest income (NII) and economic value of equity (EVE) risks that may materialize as a function of rate volatility. On NII, banks can productively apply scenario-based yield curve analysis across regulatory, market, and bank-specific variables and weigh these in the context of overall balance sheet exposures, hedges, and factors including deposits, prepayments, and committed credit lines. Additional economic risks include basis risk, option risk, and credit spread risk, which also should be measured.

Tailor planning

Bank funding plans are often generic, periodic, and spread across different frameworks and methodologies, including funding plans, capital plans, internal capital adequacy assessment processes (ICAAP), and internal liquidity adequacy assessment processes (ILAAP). They are often designed for a range of purposes and audiences and updated only when prompted by regulatory requirements. In future, banks will need dynamic, diversified, and granular funding plans—for example, tailored to products and regions. The plans should reflect flexible and contingent funding sources, central bank policies, and the trade-off between risks and costs.

Embrace dynamic hedging strategies

In the era of low rates, hedging of interest rate risk was a less prominent activity. Banks often employed simple, static, short-term, or isolated strategies, mostly aimed at protecting P&L. Few banks paid a great deal of attention to collateral management.

Now, in a more volatile rate environment, the potential for losses is much higher, suggesting banks need more sophisticated, agile, and frequent hedging to respond to shifts in interest rates, credit spreads, and customer deposit behaviors (Exhibit 3). Indeed, in 2023, the traded volume of euro-denominated interest rate derivatives increased by 3.4 times compared with 2020, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. 3 “Interest rate derivatives US: Transaction data,” ISDA.

Hedging strategies are evolving to be dynamic, horizontally integrated across the organization, and wedded to risk appetite frameworks, so banks can balance P&L priorities and reductions in tail risk. On the ground, banks will likely need to recalibrate their strategies frequently, ideally leveraging a comprehensive scenario-based approach to reflect changes in the external environment. Many, for example, have already revisited hedging to reflect higher rates, but as rates fall, they will need to assess factors such as the impact of convexity on short positions. The objective of these exercises would ideally extend beyond risk mitigation to the optimization of NII (see sidebar “Replication and hedging: The upsides of NIM optimization”).

Replication and hedging: The upsides of NIM optimization

Broadly, banks may consider four approaches to replication and hedging, each of which offers benefits that will vary according to the bank’s unique asset base.

Static replication is a widely applied and robust approach that involves derivation and adjustment of cash flows from deposit volume models for deposit rate elasticity and pass-through rates. The remainder of cash flows are replicated with bonds, interest rate swaps, or loans. Future deposit growth can be incorporated if desired.

Dynamic hedging of present value of net interest margin (NIM) treats the deposit portfolio like a structured product. Banks calculate the present value of NIM arising from deposits, enabling derivation of present value sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The method supports dynamic hedging and can take into account negative convexity.

Static NIM optimization provides the recommended trade-off between granularity and sophistication on the one hand and usability on the other, and it is our preferred approach. It involves design of the fixed-income portfolio to replicate deposit balance dynamics over a sample period. The analyst then selects the portfolio yielding the most stable margin, represented by minimization of margin standard deviation of the spread between the portfolio return and deposit rate. The approach enables NIM maximization, with the caveat that shorter tenors tend to be preferred in periods of low benchmark rates.

Dynamic NIM optimization permits banks to model future interest rates with NIM and investment strategy optimized for a future horizon. Again, NIM can be maximized, but the approach requires assumptions on volume growth, and the optimization horizon may not extend to the full rate cycle.

A key principle of best-in-class hedging strategy is that a proactive, forward-looking approach tends to work best and will enable banks to hedge more points on the yield curve. And with forward-looking scenario analysis, they should be able to anticipate risks more effectively. Consider the case of a bank that was exposed to falling interest rates and did not meet the regulatory threshold for outliers under the new IRRBB rules for changes in NII. Through analysis of potential client migrations to other products and a push to help clients make those transfers, combined with a new multi-billion-dollar derivative hedging strategy, the bank brought itself within the threshold.

Banks should not view hedging as a stand-alone activity but rather as integrated with risk management, backed by investment in talent and education to ensure teams choose the right hedges for the right situation. These may be traditional interest rate derivatives but equally could be options or swaptions to bring more flexibility to the hedging strategy. AI will be table stakes to support decision making and identify risks before they materialize. A more automated approach to data analytics will likely be required. And collateral management should be a core element of hedging frameworks, with analytics employed to forecast collateral valuations and needs, optimize liquidity reserves, and mitigate margin call risk.

Next steps: Making change happen

To effectively implement change across the activities highlighted here, best practice would be to bring together modeling capabilities under a dedicated data strategy. The target state should be comprehensive capabilities, a unified and actionable scenario-based framework, and routine use of AI techniques and behavioral data for decisions around pricing and collateral. Most likely, a talent strategy also will be required to support capability building across analytics, trading, finance, pricing, and risk management.

Banks must marshal a broad range of market data to support effective modeling. The data will include all credit lines, including both on–balance sheet and off–balance sheet items, deposit lines, fixed-income assets and liabilities, capital items, and other items on the banking book. Ideally, banks would assemble 15 to 20 years of data, which would take in the previous period of rising interest rates from 2004 to 2007. Alongside these basic resources, banks need information on historical residual balances, amortization plans, optionality, currencies, indexing, counterparty information, behavioral insights, and a full set of macro data. Some cutting-edge models incorporate about 150 different features.

Armed with comprehensive data, banks can build behavioral models (for example, prepayments, deposits) to estimate parameters and infer behavioral effects in different scenarios. They can then integrate behavioral outputs into stress-testing simulations, alongside expert-based insights. Once macroeconomic data has been inputted, banks should be able to compute delta NII and EVE for three years. Visualization tools and hedging replica analysis can help teams clarify their insights and test their hedging strategies across risk factors.

Banks that have embraced the levers discussed here have set themselves on a course to more proactive and effective interest rate risk management. Through a sharper focus on high-quality data and the use of AI and scenario-based frameworks, banks have shown they can make better decisions, upgrade their hedging capabilities, optimize the cost of funding, and ensure they stay within regulatory thresholds. In short, they will be equipped to respond faster and more flexibly as interest rates enter a new era of volatility.

Andreas Bohn is a partner in McKinsey’s Frankfurt office, Sebastian Schneider is a senior partner in the Munich office, Enrique Briega is a knowledge expert in the Madrid office, and Mario Nargi is an associate partner in the Milan office.

The authors wish to thank Gonzalo Oliveira and Stefano Terra for their contributions to this article.

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