Introduction

Organizations progress through appropriate changes; they continue to adapt to meet the needs of the markets. This will allow them to achieve the right outcomes in terms of the progress (Shaw, 2017). The market needs change due to various changes and organizations who fail to meet these changes are likely to gradually loose the market share they have. Thus, the organizational progress and the issues affiliated will have to be taken into consideration when the changes that are taking place in them are evaluated (Sementelli, 2007). Right kind of approach towards change will maximize the benefits to the organizations and enhance the market share they are serving.

Telecommunications industry is a highly competitive on in the context of Sri Lanka; the country is in the forefront of the industry development and achieving of the appropriate results in a future context. Mobile connection penetration in Sri Lankan has reached 126% in 2017, indicating a high level of market saturation (Budde.com, 2018). The fixed line connections are decreasing as well. This shows that the industry growth is coming from the data communication related services and video services. Thus, the company’s in the industry has to develop the needed capabilities to meet these requirements.

ABC is the oldest of the telecommunications company that is in operation. They have developed a state of the art fiber network that facilitates them providing high end data communications services to their customers. Further, they are providing more primitive voice services as well as mobile services too. Thus, the company has the ability to compete with the main competitor they have; Dialog. However, it is clear that while ABC has the required infrastructure in place, there are many other aspects that they have to change in order to achieve the needed outcomes and benefits in the future.

2.0 Changes in the requirements

The companies have to identify the changes that the markets are in need of; they will have to develop change strategies to meet these market expectations. Knowing the needs of the market is vital as the expectations are needed to be met through the changes that are taking place. These can be gauged through various means and the outcomes will benefit the parties in the future. the following are some of the changes that current telecommunications markets are seeing.

1. Data accessibility through multiple networks

The technology related to telecommunications is changing fast; the telecommunication devices such as the mobile phones, tablets and the mobile phones are seeing high level of penetration. People use more data and expect higher clarity of the services. The data communication in the other hand has been used with the intention of minimizing the costs affiliated with the conventional communications approaches.

1. Increased usage of video services

Video services demand for more data and the bandwidth over the networks. the companies have to also manage the networks in such a way that the data communication efficiencies remain high. Thus, all these areas will increase the quality of the data related communications over the networks.

1. Complexities in set up

The devices are many and the home requirements are changing; this makes the setting up of the devices increasingly complex in nature. When there is a problem in the network, the users will find it hard to solve these due to lack of knowledge they have. Thus, the competencies of the people who assist the customers have to be increased.

1. Frequency of devices changes increase

People often change the devices that they use with the view of using the latest of the services available. This indicates that customers will always look for suitable mobile and other devices that will facilitate better quality communication activities. this is another area of importance for the companies.

1. Enterprise needs are increasing

The companies are looking to obtain services such as video conferencing, data center activities and private networks etc. this shows that the demand for such services are increasing. Thus, the complexities of the service needs are increasing and the companies will need to cater to these specific needs that are in place.

In order to meet these requirements. ABC has to change three of the key areas that are affiliated with the company; the following diagram indicate these key areas that they have to change to achieve the needed outcomes in the future context. Thus, the above aspects are some of the requirements that the market is seeing and they have to make sure that these needs are catered for. Having the right approach towards these changes will allow them to achieve the appropriate benefits in the future.

Figure 1 – Key areas of change at ABC

It is clear from the above diagram, that the quality of the existing services has to be improved. It is also clear that the technology has to be changed as well. These have to be changed to meet the new requirements of the market. Further, the people skills also will have to be improved to make sure the organization will meet the customer expectations. Thus, the above changes will lead the parties to achieving of the beneficial results in line with the needs that they have. ABC has already carried out changes to the technology and the infrastructure. This has to be now translated into the changes in the service quality. The capabilities of the employees also have to be improved so that the quality changes due to the infrastructure changes are gradually reflected through the services provided to the customers. This is likely to maximize the benefits to the parties in the future. The following are three of the key areas of change that ABC is looking to reach in the future.

1. Training of the network maintenance staff

The device competitive are increasing and the data traffic is also increasing. It is important ABC would provide the customers with a high end set of services and maintain high quality over the current networks they have. In order to achieve this, the companies will have to provide an appropriate set of services and maximize the benefits thereof. The staff has to be able to handle these needs and make sure the network downtime is low. This is one of the areas that has to be improved and the staff has to be trained to meet these requirements.

1. Increasing of the quality of call center

The call center representatives do not have the right knowledge to solve the problems the customers are faced with. The result is that the technical staff will have to intervene. ABC has estimated that within 2017, over 55% of the calls received by the call center could have solved in the first phone call if the representative had the required knowledge. However, only 24% of these problems were solved. This shows that there is a major lagging in this area that required attention.

1. Increasing of the number of outlets

The general practice of the customers is that to set up their new devices, they would visit the company outlets to get the required advices. The number of outlets that are available remains limited and the customers might not be able to reach these outlets fast. This is another problem area that the parties are faced with. Thus, shows that in order to improve the quality of the customer services, ABC has to work to increase the number of outlets that are available to them.

The above discussion shows that there are a number of areas of change that the parties might have to manage and the company will have to look to these areas with the view of achieving of the positive results. Knowing the right approach will allow ABC to gain more customers and ensure they reach the right results in the long-term contexts. It is vital that the parties will work to meet the expectations of the customers and eventually benefit thereof.

3.0 Changes and the outcomes

3.1 Change and innovation

ABC is in an industry that they are faced with high level of competition. They have to make sure that they provide the customers with high quality in various areas of work. However, it is important for them to improve the value they provide affiliated with the services (Kemp and Low, 2008). The following model, which was extracted from the Blue Oceans framework indicate that ABC should identify the key areas that they have to improve on while reducing certain other areas affiliated with the services they provide.

Figure 2 – Four Actions Framework (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005)

Thus, the above model highlights that there are areas that add no value and the company should eliminate them; there are new services that are required and they actually add value to the customers. The company should add them. Further, there are aspects that are important in providing values to the customers and the company should increase these areas. There could be other areas that they might need to reduce (Comuzzi and Parhizkar, 2017). However, these changes will have to be done with the view of value optimization towards the customers. Thus, the value framework will benefit all the parties involved with the organization.

3.2 Stages of change

It is important to note that these activities can be carried out provided that the organization has the right strategies in place. In order to manage the change activities, they key areas of change and the affiliations to these change activities have to be identified. The following model which is the Kotter’s eight steps change model would highlight as to how these changes are needed to be carried out by the parties to reach the appropriate results in the future (Leavy, 2014). The following diagram indicates as to how the model is identified.

Figure 3 – Kotter’s eight step model (Kotter, 1997)

The above model indicates that for each of the three areas of change, these key stages would remain important. First, the company has to create the need for change. Once the need for change is identified the employees should become the change agents and push for the change (Gupta, 2011). However, without the appropriate strategic vision in place, the change is not likely to have the needed focus. Thus, development of the right focus is vital. Once the strategic role of the change is identified, the right people has to be recruited to manage the change and remove any barriers in place (Kitchen and Daly, 2002). The short-term targets have to be in place and the changes will have to have the possibility of sustaining the outcomes. then the changes can take place in line with the expectations of the parties.

3.3 Managing resistance to change

The employees are likely to resist the change at the initial stage. It is vital that the organization manages to mitigate theses aspects and make sure that they contribute to the change in line with the needs in place. This will ensure that the change will be in line with the needs of the organization and achieve the results (Kirsch, Chelliah and Parry, 2012). The following model indicates as to some of the key areas of concern and how they have to be managed.

Figure 4 – Managing the change – Kubler-Ross’s change curve (Kirsch, Chelliah and Parry, 2012)

The above model highlights that there are many different stages associated with the change activities. At first, the employees will deny the actual requirement for change. This could be due to the issues and uncertainties that will follow such change activities (Diefenbach, 2007). There will be anger that they were not consulted for the change and eventually the change will not have any acceptance at this stage with the employees. The management has to make sure they actively get involved with the employees and indicate the actual requirements that are in place to justify these changes.

The management will bargain with the employees to indicate the need for the change and how the changes will have to be implemented. the parties are likely to eventually agree to the fact that the changes are required and that has to be managed well (Lam, 2009). This will lead to the overall acceptance of the change and eventually maximization of the benefits affiliated with these outcomes. Thus, the management of the companies have to play an active role in making sure that the employees are convinced about the change and identify the requirements affiliated with it (Williams and Williams, 2007).

3.4 Applying these in ABC

In the case of ABC, the employees will have to identify that the markets are changing; the management will have to provide the employees to work with them to indicate their ideas and points of views that could contribute towards the future changes. This will further consolidate the role of changes and ensure that organization will achieve the results that will change the overall operational context in the identified areas of change.

The management has to develop employee teams to manage the changes; this will allow the organization to ensure that the employee experience is used to drive the changes in the right direction. The changes thus will be in line with the exact needs of the organizations and eventually can be achieved in line with the expectations of the parties in the future. It is important to reduce the resistance that the employees have towards the change activities and the management works to improve the overall effectiveness of the change. The change has to be in line with the strategic vision of ABC and will have to lead the company towards the market leadership in the future.

4.0 Management of change

The above discussion has identified as to which are the prominent areas that are important in driving of the change activities. It is vital that the change is managed in a way that will maximize the eventual outcomes. Thus, right approaches will need to be taken to maximize the benefits affiliated with the change aspects (Kilkelly, 2014). there are a number of steps that has to be taken to make sure that the change will eventually bring the results in line with the needs of ABC.

• Step 1 – the employees have to be informed

The key change areas were identified; however, it is possible that the employees might have to provide their consent to the changes that are carried out. Thus, the consent of the employees has to be obtained. This can be further enhanced by obtaining the suggestions of the employees. The employees will be able to success best ways to carry out these changes and eventually make sure that desired results are reached through the change process.

• Step 2 – the objectives from the changes have to be highlighted

The right kind of objectives have to be selected for the purpose of reaching the outcomes. This is another important aspect that facilitate reaching of the beneficial results. when the changes are taking place, the impact from these changes have to be evaluated to make sure that the parties would reach the right outcomes eventually. Thus, the objectives will indicate as to the outcomes that the parties will reach.

• Step 3 – plans for the changes have to be developed

There has to be a right plan in place to carry out these changes. Having the right plan will make sure that the parties will be able to achieve the appropriate outcomes. the plan should indicate the resources that are required to carry out the change and also show as to what are the resources required.

• Step 4 – allocating responsibilities

The main responsibilities affiliated with the change program has to be attached with the various parties; such allocation of responsibilities will make sure that the desired outcomes can be reached. The person who has the responsibility will have to work with the organization and make sure that they reach the appropriate results and maximize the benefits and meet the market expectations.

• Step 5 – plan activities and execute the plan

It is important to plan all the activities involved with the program and carry out all these activities meeting the exact needs of the plan. The results will be in line with the needs of the various parties. The planned activities will bring results that will lead to achieving of the best outcomes for the future.

These steps will facilitate the changes that needs to take place within the company. These changes will guide ABC to achieve the results to meet the objectives in place. the company now will have to develop an appropriate system to measure the outcomes of the changes. These outcomes will indicate as to what they have achieved and how the companies will be able to achieve.

The suggestions provided in the paper shows that the changes in terms of the company will allow them to gain more customers. The existing customer satisfaction will grow. They have the support of the employees as their suggestions were considered. This shows that sustaining the changes and the related outcomes are likely to be easier. So, the outcomes are positive and the results will benefit all the parties involved.

5.0 Conclusion

The change in the ABC will provide the customers with benefits; the customers will be able to use the data connections and enjoy fast connectivity with the least interruptions. The customers will also experience high quality of services. ABC will be able to grow the customer base due to these changes taking place. the details about the quality of the services and the customer benefits will eventually be discussed and the company will be able to enhance the market share in the data services market at least due to these changes.

The changes will have to be managed to maximize the company performance in the long term. There are many areas that has to be focused on. The employee resistance is one of the areas and it is clear that of the company could take right approaches in terms of getting the employees engaged in the process, the company will see more accountability through the change process. This will provide positive results in terms of maximization of the benefits for the parties. Thus, the role of change remains important in the company and will decide the future performance of ABC.

6.0 Reflective statement

The study has allowed me to identify as to how the change process within a company is managed. For this exercise, I had to identify as to the main market trends of the telecommunications markets and how this impact the changes within the company. the insights provided in this instance is useful to identify as to how the changes will need to be managed effectively. I had to evaluate as to what the gaps between the market needs and the offer of the company in the current case. This eventually highlights as to how the parties can benefit in the future context.

The study also provided me with the needed information about the company and how the company should work to carry out the change. There are many models that are used to evaluate innovation and the change process. The paper has allowed me to evaluate these areas and eventually identify as to how they will be able to provide positive outcomes. the literature that is relevant in this instance could be identified and the right approaches of applying them in the context of the companies had to be carried out. This has indicated as to how the companies will be able to achieve best outcomes in these instances.

The findings in this discussion should be useful for ABC to ensure they carry out the changes to meet the exact needs that they have in place. Carrying out the changes in line with the expected areas will lead to positive outcomes and maximize the benefits affiliated. The long-term results are likely to be positive on the company because of these changes.

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