The title of this chapter is “The Customer: Joined at the Hip”, but what I like very much is the short brief of P&G in this chapter. By 1995, P&G was in deep trouble and the CEO was replaced. The new CEO decided to save the company by 1) Rapidly create new products and 2) Break up the bureaucracy through massive organizational changes – in effect, to create a cultural revolution.You probably think it was a good move, but what were Drucker’s comments to this ?
“… You’re still looking from the inside out, and the landscape you see is yesterday’s landscape.”
“And when you look from the outside in, it isn’t P&G that has changed. It’s the landscape that has changed.”
“… I don’t like the way you talk about changing the culture. My question is, how do you utilize your culture?”
“When I look at your company, it represents enormous achievements. Your job is not to repudiate them, but to build them.”
“And to be proud of them. Otherwise you alienate far too many of your people and tell them you are no longer worth anything.”
“… And so I don’t like changing the culture. I like how we build on it for a changed world.”
I think all manages involving in Change Management shall buy this book …
M.Y. Lessons Learnt 