1. Read the article “Importance of Change” (https://smallbusiness.chron.

com/change-
important-organization-728.html )
2. Review this information which we talked about in class:

Companies change in order to survive in the business world and remain competitive. A company
must always be aware of the changes in its environment (government rules, people’s needs,
tendencies, new tech) and adapt to them.

Companies should be innovative, use new strategies, improve processes, quality, customer
service and have continuous improvement in all areas. If they do not change, they will lose their
competitive edge (advantage). Creating competitive advantages is about changing and finding
ways to do things better all the time in order to attract new customers and maintain current
ones, this will help create loyalty.

Why do organizations change?

There are several reasons why companies change, some changes in companies are forced
while others are voluntarily done in order to improve something.

- Financial Crisis- organizations change in order to survive

- Company is not meeting its goals or objectives
- New technology – more efficient method to perform work
- Identification of new opportunities in the market.
- Mergers
- New management
- Quality improvement
- Internationalization
- Government policies
- New tendencies in the market

Vocabulary:

Decentralize – deregulate – relaunch – relocate – retrain –restructure - downsize – update –

reassess – retrain – reorganize – upgrade – redevelop

Practice:

a. if our company says it’s going to downsize, many people are going to lose their jobs.
b. Could you please reassess us on how the project is progressing?
c. Lots of companies say they would like to decentralize responsibility and authority to
give other management layers in the company more decision making power.
d. Our company is going to relocate its headquarters to India.
e. Because of so many political changes in our country, investors will deregulate the risk
of doing business here.
f. Sales will increase if we relaunch the product under a different name.
g. We bought new software, but we now have to retrain all the staff to use it.
h. The European government decided to reorganize many of its barriers making it easier
for us to export our products to those countries.
What makes change difficult?

One of the things that make change difficult in organizations is the fact that staff resists
change, they rather stay in their comfort zone and avoid doing new things. This is because they
do not understand the need for change; there has been poor communication from
management and workers were not consulted or made part of the change.

Therefore, in order for change to be done effectively, there must be excellent communication
where management explains the benefits that will come from change and make people feel
part of the change (engagement).

Decentralize: WORKPLACE, MANAGEMENT if a large company or organization decentralizes or

is decentralized, its activities are moved from one large central place to several different,
smaller places:

HLL decentralized the production and distribution of the product in order to utilize the
enormous labor pool in rural India.

As part of its plans to decentralize, the Japanese government has given greater tax-collecting
authority to local governments.

Ejem: To enforce incentives to plant trees, afforestation responsibility was decentralized to

local leaders in 1984.

– deregulate: to remove government controls or rules from a business or other activity:

That state has had success in deregulating its electricity market.

The explosion in budget air travel began when the industry was deregulated in 1992.

Ejm: Domestic markets, although deregulated, remain small, and few countries have
functioning national distribution systems.

– relaunch: a new attempt to sell a product or service, often by advertising it in a different

way or making it available in a different form:

The cinema complex marked its relaunch after a £50 million redevelopment.

The retailer plans a high-profile relaunch later this month.

– relocate: to move to a different place to work, or to be moved to a different place to work:

Many businesses in the region have closed or relocated abroad.

Relocate (sb/sth) to/from/in somewhere The Company is seeking to relocate to the Pier 98
Annex.

Most production has been relocated to Hungary, Tunisia, and China.

Relocate employees/staff/production It is rare to find agreed contractual terms that give

employers unrestricted rights to relocate employees.
– retrain: to learn new skills, so that you can do a different job:

Older people may not have the time or finances to retrain.

David used to work in the financial sector but retrained as a lawyer.

Retrain to become sth He's currently retraining to become a plumber.

–restructure: MANAGEMENT, WORKPLACE to organize a company, business, or system in a

new way to make it operate more effectively:

The price has gone up and down amid talk of restructuring the company.

Retirees have had to accept drastically reduced retirement and health benefits as the industry
has restructured.

The company may also have to restructure the way it processes transactions.

- downsize: to make a company or organization smaller by reducing the number of people

working for it:

The plight of the economy is forcing businesses to downsize.

To downsize your workforce/company

– Update: to make something more modern or suitable for use now by adding new
information or changing its design:

They haven't updated the software in three years.

We've recently updated the decor in all of our restaurants.

Scientific textbooks must be updated regularly.

– reassess: to think again about something in order to decide if you should change the way you
feel about it or deal with it:

We need to reassess our values as a nation.

The customer services department is reassessing its procedures for handling customer
complaints.

I've reassessed the situation and decided to stay.

– retrain: to learn new skills, so that you can do a different job:

Older people may not have the time or finances to retrain.

David used to work in the financial sector but retrained as a lawyer.

Retrain to become sth He's currently retraining to become a plumber.

– reorganize: HR, MANAGEMENT, FINANCE to change the way in which something such as a
company is organized, in order to improve it:

He hired turnaround specialists to help reorganize the company.

They announced that they would cut 10% of their staff, close plants, and reorganize the
business.

Continental survived after a new team of managers reorganized its finances.

– Upgrade: to improve something so that it works better or is more effective:

It's quite simple to upgrade the indexing software.

All the entrances to the building have been upgraded with ramps and handrails.

– redevelop: to replace the buildings in an area with new ones:

Be redeveloped (as/for/into sth) several neighborhoods in the western part of the city have
been redeveloped.

Former warehouses will be demolished and redeveloped into a $185 million hotel complex.

1. Following the merger, the office layout was reorganised to accommodate the new staff.

2. the most successful change in our company was the decision to restructure the company.
Now there is more opportunity for promotion.

3. It’s now so expensive to rent offices in the city centre that many companies are relocated
their operations to purpose-built business parks at the city limits.

4. The company has recently downsize its workforce. Reducing the number of employees is
the best way to stay profitable in the current economic climate.

5. To improve efficiency, the company has introduced new working practices. The HR
department will retrain all sales staff.

6. One of our products hasn't been selling well recently. The marketing team has decided to
take it off the market and relaunch it next year with new packaging.

7. The IT department report recommended that the company update the computer system as
soon as possible.

8. The CEO thinks that too many decisions are made at Head Office. She wants to decentralize
an the decision-making process so that branch managers are more involved at an earlier stage.

9. The company has finalised the plans to redevelop the disused car-park site. It is going to
become a fitness centre for employees.
10. The logo and slogan are very old-fashioned. We need to upgrade the whole image of the
product and bring ¡t into the 21st century.

11. There is a lot of pressure on the government from consumer groups to deregulate the
industry and remove controls, so customers can benefit from increased competition.

12. Following the report by the legal department and changes in the tax laws, the management
decided to reassess the situation and delay making a decision on the takeover.

1. The current economic climate is making people ............ all of the purchases they make.

When will the government ............ the impact of their economic reforms on the quality of life?

We need to............ the situation before taking any decisions.

2. IF your company..................……and you are over 50, your working life may be over. As the
car industry ..............………, many are leaving the country in search of work.

Breaking news: TRN United, the global electronics group ..........................its workforce
by 20%.

3. Could you perhaps............ us on how the project is progressing?

We continuously.......................... the files with new information.

We plan to…………………………. our telephone system.

4. The government will soon ............ all internal flights, so the industry will probably become
more competitive.

They plan t0............ the capital markets and privatise most state-owned companies. Taiwan's
government pledged to............ its service sector within four years.

5. We bought new software and had to............ everyone to use the database.

Our agency has seen a huge increase in the number of adults looking to change careers, either
as a result of job loss or a desire to...................................... in a different field.

People are often reluctant to................................until they are convinced that their present
skills are not sufficient to enable them to find work.