Kessinger HPT Whitepaper

Organizational Development...

Organization development is the planned process of developing an organization to be more effective in accomplishing its desired goals. It is distinguished from professional development in that professional development focuses on the personal growth of individuals within organizations, while organizational development focuses on developing the structures, systems, and processes within the organization to improve organizational effectiveness.

The definition of an organization's vision and its implementation strategy is what shows it to be a separate entity and what differentiates it from other organizations. When the vision and/or strategy changes, the definition of the organization changes. It is how the organization reacts to change in this context that denotes strategic change and ultimately its resulting position in the market place. Progressive organizations will always re-evaluate their positions within an ever shifting environment to survive and enhance their market advantage.

Given the speed of current technological developments, the continuing revolution in technology and communication that is drawing all organizations closer together, the progressive opening of the world's governments and commercial boundaries and the increase in understanding of changing processes, the need for strategic change has become a necessary competency.

But to understand which boundaries are moving, and therefore which strategic changes are needed, it is necessary to analyze organizational change in manageable, related areas. Four types of analysis cover all the possibilities:

Organizational strategy—understanding where to compete, in terms of products, markets, product delivery and customer groups; and how to compete, in terms of a organization's core competencies and competitive advantages.

Operations strategy—developing a model that allows the organization's strategy to be implemented. This takes into account an organization's existing resources and how they can be used to create more value.

IT strategy—integrating this into the organization's strategy to create value for by explicitly showing where IT improvements are feasible, taking into account time, people and monetary constraints.

Change strategy—designing and implementing large changes in an organization to increase returns and lower the risks it faces.

Kessinger & Associates, is able to assist organizations in assessing current conditions and culture then articulate an organizational change strategy in relationship to a corporate vision. Working with our strategic partners we are then able to assist in designing and implementing a change strategy including any need for culture change. The result is all elements of the business working to fulfill the organization's vision. As a result, the business is able to respond to the ever present push to reduce costs, improve the quality of products and services, locate new opportunities for growth, and increase productivity.