Change Management: Planning for the Future and the Competitive Environment

Abstract

This chapter explores critical insights into the process of change in today’s fast-paced competitive environment. The chapter focuses on significant drivers of change and assesses their impact on the external environment of modern companies. How companies will react to all these changes imposed by a number of factors is a subject that is going to be discussed in the following lines. The market reaction to these changes is examined in an attempt to predict future implications and highlight the importance of planning for modern organizations in order to remain competitive in today’s globalized, highly competitive environment. The Structure-Conduct-Performance model, which is a road map for identifying the factors that determine the competitiveness of a market, is applied in order to analyze the behavior of firms and their reactions to changes. Furthermore, Porter’s five forces model is discussed. This model helps to define strategic segment boundaries and reveal insights into the key forces operating in the competitive marketplace. Finally, different market structures are analyzed in order to assess the impact of changes on these markets and the way that the markets are capable of correcting any failures or misallocations of resources available. In this respect, the strategies needed for driving organizational change require an essential set of skills and competencies at the core of the business function.

Appendices

Appendix 1: The Greenhouse Effect

The gases, which are all naturally occurring, act as a blanket, trapping in the heat and preventing it from being reflected too far from the Earth. They keep the Earth’s average temperature at about 15°C: warm enough to sustain life for humans, plants and animals. Without these gases, the average temperature would be about −18°C: too cold for most life forms. This natural warming effect is also sometimes called the greenhouse effect.

Appendix 2: KYOTO PROTOCOL to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The Parties to this Protocol, Being Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hereinafter referred to as “the Convention,” in pursuit of the ultimate objective of the Convention as stated in its Article 2, Recalling the provisions of the Convention, Being guided by Article 3 of the Convention, Pursuant to the Berlin Mandate adopted by decision 1/CP.1 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention at its first session,

Have agreed as follows:

9.1.1 Article 1

For the purposes of this Protocol, the definitions contained in Article 1 of the Convention shall apply. In addition:

• 1. “Conference of the Parties” means the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.

• 2. “Convention” means the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in New York on 9 May 1992.

• 3. “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” means the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established in 1988 jointly by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.

• 4. “Montreal Protocol” means the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, adopted in Montreal on 16 September 1987 and as subsequently adjusted and amended.

• 5. “Parties present and voting” means Parties present and casting an affirmative or negative vote.

• 6. “Party” means, unless the context otherwise indicates, a Party to this Protocol.

• 7. “Party included in Annex I” means a Party included in Annex I to the Convention, as may be amended, or a Party which has made a notification under Article 4, paragraph 2(g), of the Convention.

9.1.2 Article 28

The original of this Protocol, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

DONE at Kyoto this eleventh day of December one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, being duly authorized to that effect, have affixed their signatures to this Protocol on the dates indicated.

9.1.3 Annex A

9.1.3.1 Greenhouse Gases

Carbon dioxide (CO₂), Methane (CH₄), Nitrous oxide (N₂O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆)

9.1.3.2 Sectors/Source Categories

Energy, Fuel combustion, Energy industries, Manufacturing industries and construction, Transport, Fugitive emissions from fuels, Solid fuels, Oil and natural gas, Industrial processes, Mineral products, Chemical industry, Metal production, Production of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride, Consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride, Solvent and other product use, Agriculture, Enteric fermentation, Manure management, Rice cultivation, Agricultural soils, Prescribed burning of savannas, Field burning of agricultural residues, Waste, Solid waste disposal on land, Wastewater handling, Waste incineration.

9.1.4 Annex B

9.1.4.1 Party Quantified Emission Limitation or Reduction Commitment

(Percentage of base year or period)

Australia 108, Austria 92, Belgium 92, Bulgaria* 92, Canada 94, Croatia* 95, Czech Republic* 92, Denmark 92, Estonia* 92, European Community 92, Finland 92, France 92, Germany 92, Greece 92, Hungary* 94, Iceland 110, Ireland 92, Italy 92, Japan 94, Latvia* 92, Liechtenstein 92, Lithuania* 92, Luxembourg 92, Monaco 92, Netherlands 92, New Zealand 100, Norway 101, Poland* 94, Portugal 92, Romania* 92, Russian Federation* 100, Slovakia* 92, Slovenia* 92, Spain 92, Sweden 92, Switzerland 92, Ukraine* 100, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 92, United States of America 93

* Countries that are undergoing the process of transition to a market economy.

Source: http://www.kyotoprotocol.com/resource/kpeng.pdf

Appendix 3: Confronting Climate Change, with Al Gore

Human activities like deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil or gas, are changing our climate in ways that pose increasing threats to human well-being, in both developing and industrialized nations. We are already experiencing the harmful effects of the climate crisis and we know that more severe damage lies ahead unless we act quickly. The good news is that we can still avoid the most severe impacts of global warming by reducing our emissions of heat trap and gases and halting in reversing deforestation. However, as we work to reduce these emissions of global warming pollution, by investing in renewable energy and by protecting our forests and soils, we must also begin to prepare for the changes already coming, by working to better understand the risks and intergrading these needs into our development planning. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, when we began to put heat trap and gases in large volumes in the atmosphere, the global average temperature has risen almost one degree Celsius and another eighteenth of the degree is already in store for us because it’s in the ocean and will be released in the atmosphere. If we were not to dramatically reduce our emissions, the global average temperature is expected to raise as much as four or more degrees Celsius by the end of this century, and that would cause severe damage to natural systems and to human health and well-being. Sustained warming of this magnitude could make hundreds of millions of people climate refugees, because of coastal flooding. And as many as a billion or more people at risk of increased water stress. Sustained warming of this magnitude could cause large-scale irreversible changes including the extinction of up to 20–30 % of the world’s plant and animal species. Some of the region’s most at risk for species extinction are areas that are expected to have the most species turnover due to changing climate. In addition, the destabilization and extensive melting of the Greenland and west Antarctica ice seeds, as the number of days of Greenland ice seed melting, has increased dramatically since 1979. And the disappearance of Antarctica’s ice shell and a dozen others warns us that the melting of large areas in west Antarctica and Greenland could cause sea level to rise between 4 and 12 meters, with each meter causing roughly another one hundred million refugees.