ABSTRACT
No organization can maintain “status quo” indefinitely and remain competitive in today’s changing business environment. The need for improvement and change are varied and heavily dependent on organization culture, market demands, competition, workforce demographics, long-held industry practices, and a necessary focus on minimizing risk. Even with these varied forces working for and against change, an organization must decide to improve and modify procedures on a regular and continuing basis. The need for this improvement in response to changing environments is a recurring theme through business literature in particular and all areas of production in general. As outlined by Collins (2001), the greatest threat to achieving greatness is an organization that is content with being very good at what it does. In the context of strategic issues, this thought transfers to the greatest threat to greatness being contentment with established practices that have achieved acceptable and above average results. This focus on moving from a position of being successful in a specific area or context to one that potentially excels above the competition can be daunting to many organizations. The cost-benefit analysis for introducing a disruption to existing processes can be difficult to establish due to the unknowns involved with the process. However, this is where leadership is most required. Leadership is required to pull the organization in the same direction, set the vision, and synthesize the varied internal and external forces that are influencing the organization.
