There is so much written about change management, leadershipand the learning organization, which when added to the volumesof advice on strategic decision making should mean that in mostorganizations decisions are soundly made and soundly implemen-ted. If only this were what really happens!

Although there are many organizations that do things well, I ®ndit a worrying fact that so much seems to be wrong when we look atorganizations in total. For example, there has been a steady streamof research over many years which shows that the failure rate ofacquisition is around 50% (see Buckner, 1974; Kitching, 1973 and1974; Porter 1987; and Coopers and Lybrand, 1993). Somehow itdoes not seem to improve much.

Kinnie et al. (1996) assembled evidence about the success andfailure of various fashionable moves towards leaner companies.They quote a number of research studies in the USA and UK, whichsuggest that:

* Pro®t improvements from downsizing in the USA were found,at best, to be short term, and long term the bene®ts were notsustained (Wyatt Company, 1994; de Meuse et al., 1994)

* The disappointment rate in the application of TQM is between80% and 90% (Wilkinson et al., 1993; and Kearney, 1992).

* Business process re-engineering (BPR) fails in the USA in 50±70% of the companies that apply it (Hammer and Champney,1993). To the research quoted by Kinnie et al., we might addthe study by Harvey (1995), which found that althoughconsultants were used by almost all the 70% of UK companiesapplying BPR, only around 40% felt that they had obtained goodor excellent value for money from the work.

Add to this evidence the way in which competitors in industriessuch as airlines and ®nancial services have copied each other'sdiversi®cation moves, only to copy each other as they rushed todivest the acquisitions a few years later.

Strategic Change, Vol. 6, 123±124 (1997)

Editorial We know what todo so why doesn'tit work?

I suggest that there may be three factors which contribute to thisstate of affairs.

* Analysis is not always used to stimulate creative strategicthinking, or to explore the implications of a strategic path.Instead it is often used to reinforce prejudices, and thetechniques are not always understood by those using them.

* Thinking about strategy cuts off too soon, and does notconsider issues of implementation to an adequate depth. Adelayering decision is not implemented because it isannounced and people are ®red: it is only implemented whenthe new system is working effectively, but much of what isneeded to make this happen is never considered.

* Human resource management is not seen as strategic inenough organizations (see Hussey, 1996 for a summary ofsome of the evidence).

There seems to be a gap between widely disseminated knowledgeand its practical application, and unless this is bridged we willcontinue to ®nd more evidence of failure than of success.

D. E. Hussey

References

Buckner, H. (1974). Seeking new sources of earnings. In: D. E. Hussey(ed), The Corporate Planners' Yearbook, 1974±5, Pergamon, Oxford.

de Meuse, K., Vanderheiden, P. and Bergmann, T. (1994). Announcedlayoffs: their effects on corporate ®nancial performance, Human

Resource Management, 33(4).Hammer, M. and Champney, J. (1993). Re-engineering the Corporation,

Nicolas Brealey, London.Harvey, D. (1995). Cover story, Management Consultancy, September.Hussey, D. E. (1996). Business Driven Human Resource Management,

Wiley, Chichester.Kearney, A. T. (1992). Total quality Ð time to take off the rose tinted

spectacles, in association with TQM Magazine.Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S. and Purcell, J. (1996). Report by the University

of Bath, The People Management Implications of Leaner Ways of

Working, Issues in People Management No. 15, Institute of Personneland Development, London.

Kitching, J. (1973). Acquisitions in Europe, Business International,Geneva.

Kitching, J. (1974). Winning and Losing with European Acquisitions,Harvard Business Review, March/April.

Porter, M. E. (1987). From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy,Harvard Business Review, May/June.

Wilkinson, A., Allen, S. and Snape, E. (1993). Quality and the manager,Institute of Management Report, Institute of Management, London.

Wyatt Company, 1994, Best Practices in Corporate Re-structuring,Toronto, Ontario.

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