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Sometimes informed opinion is at odds with ignorance where change is
concerned. For example, the majority of European business leaders and
economists remain in favour of the introduction of the common currency
throughout the European Union. Ironically those business leaders who are
not in favour tend to be non-Europeans such as Rupert Murdoch who are
using populist slogans (“save our pound”) to sell newspapers, follow a right
wing agenda or both.

Of course, people often do oppose change for either rational or irra-
tional reasons. Psychology suggests three main causes of opposition.

Our everyday behaviour has been moulded by our past
successes, great or small

We do what we do because it has worked for us in the past. We value our
behaviours because they have made us what we are. Because we value
what we have become we are often slow to recognize the need to change.
We frequently deny that even major change really impinges on us. So when
a take-over occurs we deny the need for change by trying to pretend that
the new owners will automatically value the same behaviours as the old.
This is true even when the old behaviour may have driven the firm to the
brink of bankruptcy, thus forcing the acquisition. This is the denial stage
well known to psychologists.

One way to overcome this denial of change is to make change so major
that, to put it simply, it gets everyone’s attention. At the extreme Bob
Townsend, when he took over a company used to seek out the most pow-
erful “pain in the ass” and, regardless of his high position, he would fire
him as a clear indicator that the change was real and important. (Cesare
Borgia went one further. On one occasion, having taken over the rule of a
city, he called the town officials and population to the city square where,
without warning, he drew his sword and struck down his own best general
and closest companion. He then addressed the crowd. Paraphrasing
roughly: “If you dummies think that you can go on just as in the past,
forget it. He was my friend, and if I am prepared to do that to him, just
think what I have in mind if any of you step out of line.”)

The above are fairly extreme examples and not to be followed, but we
do need to underline very clearly why a change of behaviour is essential in
changing business circumstances, and why change is the only hope of suc-
cess. “. . . you want job security and I would like job security too. Let me
explain something. Did you know that although the average life span of a
corporation was around sixty years only ten years ago, business now moves
so fast that the average is down to twelve years? We understand how to be
one of the survivors, however, and you have an important part to play. The
corporations that keep on going are those where people at every level con-
tribute their ideas to make sure that they keep improving the way that
they do things. We will always welcome your ideas. We will respect them
and use the best of them as quickly as we can.”

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