The Business Book

221

See also: Managing risk 40–41 ■ Reinventing and adapting 52–57 ■ Creativity
and invention 72–73 ■ Avoiding complacency 194–201

WORKING WITH A VISION

swiftly to change. Such companies
collaborate more readily with
external partners, rather than merely
transacting with them, to encourage
adaptability and shared learning.

Creativity from chaos
A potential source of chaos is
internal change and reorganization
of a company. Involving and
engaging the employees is the
answer to managing this. In the
most complex financial services
integration ever to occur in Europe,
Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS)
was acquired by Lloyds TSB
following the financial crisis of 2008.
External chaos (unprecedented
economic turbulence) was mirrored
by internal chaos—6,000 branches
and 30 million customers had to be
brought together to form the biggest

retail bank in the UK. The new

company had to create one new

identity, one new way of doing things,

and streamline its IT systems and

differing organizational cultures. It

also needed ways of communicating

positively to customers.

But the biggest challenge of

all was common to many situations

of business chaos—motivating

employees who were harassed by

customers and worried about their

own jobs. Through constant

communication (including daily

team briefings on internal changes),

workshops on team problem solving

and vision building, and measures

for gathering ideas from staff and

customers, the combined companies

showed that chaos can not only be

managed, but may be a rich source

of growth for a business in flux. ■

Thriving on chaos

Thriving on Chaos, written

by US business expert Tom

Peters, was published on

“Black Monday” (October 19,

1987), when stock markets

around the world crashed.

His timing could not have

been better. In the book Peters

laid out a future of change,

stating that everything known

“for sure” about management

would be challenged—and

that 100-year-old traditions

of mass production and mass

markets would be threatened.

His forecast was correct. What

had been a fairly predictable

business environment

disappeared; organizations

and managers had to embrace

change, or face collapse.

Peters correctly predicted

that the business winners

of the future would deal

proactively with chaos,

seeing it as a source of market

advantage. Successful

companies would be those

who could create and add

quality and value continually

to their products and services

in response to the ever-

shifting desires of their

customers. He described

this as “a revolution.”

There is no sense in pining

for the past—the stability we

took for granted for so long

will never return.

Tom Peters

Economic, social, and

political events

create chaos.

Rigid control no longer works—businesses need to be flexible.

If employees are given more information and involvement,

they become more creative, helping the company to be

flexible and change.

Chaos brings uneasiness, but it also allows

for creativity and growth.

New technology adds

uncertainty.