Change management integral to OPEX & business transformation

Change management is the leading methodology/solution organizations are using to support operational excellence and business transformation initiatives. That’s a key finding from the PEX Report 2024/25, which compiles and assesses the results of a recent survey of almost 200 professionals.

Almost half (42 percent) of respondents said their business currently uses change management strategies to aid OPEX projects and transformation. This is ahead of advisory and consultant services (36 percent), Lean principles (35 percent), process modeling/mapping tools (35 percent) and Agile methods (33 percent).

Importance of change management in OPEX and transformation

Change management is crucial to successful OPEX and business transformation endeavors. A particularly important element of change management are the human-centric factors that address the needs, emotions and behaviors of the people affected by change. “Prioritizing these factors ensures smoother transitions, greater engagement and higher adoption rates for change, says Ryan Mayer, head of healthineers performance system, Americas region at Siemens Healthineers.

Effective change management helps to:

• Enhance business success, productivity and culture by increasing employee engagement and motivation.
• Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, reducing costs and risks and fostering a culture of innovation and learning.

Little surprise then that change management is a key priority area for process improvement, with 46 percent and 35 percent of businesses focusing on building a culture for transformation and change management strategy, respectively. What’s more a total of 56 percent of businesses are planning to invest in cultural transformation (28 percent) and behavioral/employee engagement (28 percent) – key aspects of change management – in the next year.

Challenges of change management

Change management has several unique challenges to consider. “The biggest challenge to effectively managing a large transformation is overcoming resistance to change,” says Laura Karpf, senior manager of change management at Sodexo. Resistance to change is natural and should be expected, with people often perceiving change as a threat or disruption to their ways of working.

It is highly important for business leaders to recognize and understand the causes of resistance. They should implement solutions to combat it and foster collaboration, building trust and credibility, providing training and coaching and celebrating milestones, says Karpf.

Other challenges to be aware of are the timing, scale and frequency of communications about change initiatives, adds Jots Sehmbi, digital and technology change leader, CIO at City, University of London. Over-focusing on explaining changes for adoption towards the implementation phase of a change instead of from the very start can be problematic. “Good change management needs to start during formation of the change, including the key stakeholders to help shape and champion the journey.”

Managing the scale and frequency of communications is something to address too, Sehmbi adds. “Often there is a flurry of activity at the start of a change, but as the change is implemented, the frequency of key messaging can reduce.

READ MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PEX REPORT 2024/25

• Half of businesses deploy enterprise-wide OPEX & transformation
• Cost, budget limits biggest challenges of OPEX & business transformation