When is change strategic?

One might answer, when is change not strategic? Few changes are done that are not meant to improve the competitive position of a company or at least move closer to achieving the goals of the organization. Here are some examples of changes that, if not managed well, may pose a significant risk for a business:

Start-up
Not all start-ups are starting a small company in your garage. Start-ups include opening new markets, launching new products, opening a new plant or office location. They usually include dealing with a lot of new information coming fast and furious and a lot of market ambiguity.

Turnaround
Turnarounds usually include a long uphill battle, not just against the financials, but also the momentum the organization has built. This takes the form of morale drops that affect sales, productivity, and creativity throughout the organization.

Merger or Acquisition
Any time two companies join together it is going to have a strategic impact, not only on the scope or scale of the company but also on virtually every other aspect of the way the joining companies do business. This can be a time of great success, one of one company dominating the other, or a time of failure in the case of a failed integration.

Divestiture
The greatest risk during a divestiture is not understanding the full impact and role that the business being divested plays in the system of inter-related business your company does. Sometimes, this is not a problem at all, but others it may mean significant and unexpected losses (gains are not so much of a worry).

Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is also a significant strategic event. In recent years, it has been used repeatedly to gain an advantage with creditors, resulting in a stronger strategic position. Legislation may soon close this option. Handling the necessary changes internally and the relations externally are very taxing and experience and understanding are often the only tools available to provide any leverage in managing the bankruptcy.

International Expansion
The first time a company expends the resources to expand internationally mark a significant and sometimes risky undertaking. The costs of attempting such a venture with the large upside and usual significant downside (particularly, the blow the company image receives), make such a strategic change important to manage.

Direction Change
This type of change can be caused by many factors, but it denotes those times when the company is changing directions because of a shifting market environment and the need to adapt the company in order to continue in the same business or to adjust to a new business. This is often described as turning a very large ship, and rightly so. You must find the points of leverage in the organization and realize that shift will not all happen at once.

Corporate Life-cycle Transition
Lastly, as a company, any company, matures, it necessarily undergoes changes in order to adapt to the complexity of the market and organization that that maturation necessitates. When a company is small, it can change relatively quickly and easily because of a small and flexible structure. As the company grows, it becomes more complex in order to ensure quality service and a broader range of employee quality. These transitions introduce changes in the culture of the company in order to ensure continuity.