Vince Fisher, director of The Best Practice Club, together with the chief executives of National Grid, Birmingham City Airport and Andrew Wells of consultancy, One Point Three were all interviewed by the Sunday Times recently. The article “Culture wasn’t built in a day,” is based on some very detailed research with 120 business leaders carried out by Birmingham Business School and One Point Three and the fact that these research findings were being translated into practical advice which was debated in the recent Best Practice Club Workshop, ‘Fast Change’, kindly hosted by BT. The article discusses the challenges large organisations face when trying to change culture and talks to business leaders for their views on the timeframe that big shifts in culture can often take.

One of the findings from the research is that business leaders are frequently frustrated at the pace of change within their organisation and that today’s customer expects different things than they did, even two years ago.  Andrew Wells explains that if certain ‘buying points’ in the change process can be reiterated, you can accelerate change. Vince Fisher comments how it is often not so much the size of the organisation but the creed and convention that often means you can’t change culture overnight because that culture is embedded.  He also warns how it is “all very well to change things quickly, but you have to ask yourself whether you can sustain the change long-term.”

The Best Practice Club was able to share insights from this valuable research together with practical points of how to change the culture in an organisation with members at the recent workshop. Feedback on the case studies has been positive.

Information from the workshop is available on the Club’s Wiki and the next event on this topic is planned for later in the year.

For access to the full report  “What the Business Leader said to the MBA” please visit Birmingham Business School

Link to full article in The Sunday Times: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/Appointments/article1219267.ece