Summary

Despite all the talk of change management, we somehow failed to recognize that we can't, in any meaningful sense, manage change. We can only manage our actions-hence action management.

Action Management presents global experience from PricewaterhouseCoopers to help businesses devise and implement practical action strategies to cope with change and make their corporate transformations successful. Books that promise to help businesses manage change are making promises they can't keep. No one can manage or control business change. The key, instead, is to cope with change and seize the opportunity for success by managing business action.

Authors Redwood, Goldwasser, and Street study successful action projects at industries ranging from high technology and financial services to petroleum and health care using an exclusive, in-depth survey conducted by MORI on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers covering 500 multinational businesses in 14 countries on four continents. Included here are the findings of the Global Action Survey for Nynex, Braun, British Airways Engineering, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, LSG/SkyChefs, and many more.

Action Management identifies the top 10 challenges to action that companies face such as planning, allocating, leading, and mobilizing for corporate action. Each chapter meets these 10 challenges by offering a host of "Tips" to heed and "Learn by example" sections that demonstrate how companies like Shell Information Systems, Neiman Marcus Group, and Barclaycard all utilize their action paths to get results. The authors leave virtually no questions unanswered and wrap up each chapter with a "Questions and Answers" section.

Action Management identifies four action paths: the sprint, the high jump, the decathlon, and the marathon. From short and fast to long and far reaching, each path combines action complexity and duration to meet and cope with change at all levels. The authors take managers through the action process from start to finish and help them determine how the four action paths will help them achieve their immediate and long-term goals. The practical advice and battle-tested strategies found in this valuable book addresses the problems of managers in the real world where standing still means falling behind, and where actions such as acquisitions, expansions, and downsizings can ruin a company if the action itself is not managed properly.

The best tools and thinking from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the leading global consultants to companie managing major change Profiles the action plans of Siemens, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Neiman Marcus, and many more.

STEPHEN REDWOOD (Tokyo, Japan) is Global Leader of the Organization and Change Strategy Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. CHARLES GOLDWASSER (Los Angeles, CA) is a principal consultant. SIMON STREET (London, England)is a director of PricewaterhouseCoopers.