Imagine that you head a company that has been doing well, but not really as well as you would have liked. You are convinced that there is a crying need for far-reaching transformation.

So what do you do as a first step? You collect information about similar changes in other organizations. You burn the midnight oil studying the impact of those changes and decide to do something similar. After all, why try and reinvent the wheel, when so many others have been through the rough and tough of pioneering? Right?

Wrong! For starters, your organization is not like any other [hey, you aren't like any other CEO, after all]. The environment in which your organization is operating may not even remotely resemble the environment in which the companies you read about operate. Here are some more questions you should ask yourself before getting into copycat mode:

Do my hiring methods match those of others? Do my performance measurement systems match those of others? Do my compensation systems match those of others? Does my management style match that of the CEO whose company I want to emulate?

Tough questions. Sure, they are tough. But they are the only ones that can give you any hope of success. No matter what questions you ask yourself, it makes a lot of sense learning from the experiences of others, even if it is only to learn how tough organizational change can be.

Do companies have to change only when things are going down the tube? Here's the story of Levi Strauss & Co., which decided to transform itself in 1991, when sales and profits were at record levels. It is a perfect example of why you should fix it even if it ain't broke!

First things first: why did Levi's want to change in 1991? Because Levi's had its own set of problems which went something like this:

Great products, great marketing, but not so great customer service. Time taken to restock stores was as high as 30 days. In one division, it could take a year to source a new product. Less than 40 percent of orders were shipped on time.

Another reason for changing: because customers say so. Listen to Andy Grove of Intel: "There's at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next performance level. Miss that moment and you start to decline."

Just consider these facts: Levi's has 600 contractors in 50 countries. It sells 65,000 different combinations of brand, design, fabric, color, and size to 8,000 different customers! No way was it possible to bring real improvement without involving the entire supply chain - the worldwide set of activities that begins when someone gets an idea for a product and ends when that product sells at retail.

It became clear as crystal that Levi's had to remake itself for the 21st century, because the 21st would barely resemble the 20th. What happened next? A change team of hundreds of people was created Every person, including the leader, Tom Kasten - VP and a member of the company's leadership team - had to apply to join the team. Their job - create new business processes, systems, and facilities [see Step 4 below].


Here are the steps Levi's took to make this change happen.

Step 1

To get such an initiative off the ground, it was imperative to create a compelling picture of the risks of not changing. How did Levi's achieve this? By getting people to hear directly from customers. So, interviews with customers were videotaped and excerpts played to everyone. Here are a couple of customer comments:

"We trust many of your competitors implicitly. We sample their deliveries. We open all Levi's deliveries."

"Your lead times are the worst. If you weren't Levi's, you'd be gone."

Step 2

Collect facts about companies that are going through turmoil [GM, IBM, DEC,...]. Put up facts about them on notice boards. The underlying message: Do you want to end up like them?

Step 3

Get down to the front-line and find out what they worry about, what gets them excited, and what new skills and behaviors they need. Create a collection of resources to help people change: videos, seminars, workbooks, self-diagnostics.

So the change team created a 145 page binder titled "Individual Readiness for a Changing Environment" [also called 'The Little Blue Book']. It contains self-assessment tools and self-improvement resources. It contains sections like 'Knowing Myself', 'Taking Action', and 'Marketing Myself'.

So what's the little blue book? Put simply, it's a handbook for building the company of the future. It's underlying message: Get Ready or Get Out - you are the author of your own life from now on.

These books were not simply dished out to everyone. Employees had to request for one. How many people requested it? More than 4,000!!

Step 4

Once Levi's got the mission and targets from the top, the 'middle' of the company took over to figure out how to meet the targets, what the new Levi's should look like, and what kinds of jobs would be created.

To get this going, Levi's took 200 of its best and brightest [not seniormost, mind you], pulled them out of their day-to-day responsibilities, organized them into 20 teams and got them to reinvent the supply chain. People had to apply to become members of the group. Thus, a company within the company was created with offices on the third floor of corporate headquarters in San Francisco. They were aptly called The Third Floor Brigade.

Each person in the brigade was given a desk, a phone, and a computer. No private offices, no corner room windows. Just plain cubicles.

What results does Levi's have to show for all this ra-ra? First, for the financials. In 1995, the company posted $700 million profits from $7 billion sales, and had a market value of $10 billion. Levi's has an Aspiration Statement which is made up of these words: Participation, Diversity, Accountability, Teamwork, and a Top-to-Bottom commitment to open communication.

Levi's philosophy is quite elegantly simple: Sustained hard-headed business results come from soft-hearted values. Is this stupid? You be the judge:

Well, apart from the financials, Levi's has created new departments and categories of jobs that didn't exist before. Departments like Customer Fulfillment, jobs like Process Leader, Performance Consultant, Source Relations Manager, System Relationship Coordinator. Jobs that require new behaviors, an understanding of the big picture, an ability to lead, work in a team, and think systemically.

By March 1995, 700 new jobs had been filled, but Tom reckons they still have a long way to go. The company is unearthing new skills and talents that went unrecognized and unused for years. Job rotation has become the norm.

People are now finding out where they can add value in the company and go after it. They end up finding security and fulfillment. And customers - what about them? They are thrilled. So are the shareholders.

So Levi's has taken over four years to ring in these changes, and they still aren't close to the end. Why? Because there isn't any end. This is a journey, not a destination, gringo!

Most CEOs fail to comprehend this and instead want timetables and schedules for implementing change in their outfits. Hey, what kind of schedule can you have for such far-reaching changes? Sure, you need clear goals and targets, but how can you possibly have programs like 25 days of training, followed by 50 days of consulting after three months, and 40 days of intervention six months thereafter?

Major change initiatives don't unfold that way, and Heaven help any CEO who wants cut and dried answers for them. I don't have any, do you?