Carousel

Ever since Carousel went online in 1995, the e-commerce juggernaut has undergone a

slew of changes — despite being led by the same man, Bill Ward, during the ensuing
two-plus decades.

When the New York-based company first launched its website, all it sold was books.
Gradually, Ward and his team expanded Carousel’s offerings to include things like CDs
and DVDs. Ward said he wanted his store to become the world’s largest, so he worked
hard toward meeting that goal — whether that meant offering new products, launching
Carousel Prime, launching Carousel Instant Video, and the list goes on and on.  

Today, Carousel sells more than 200 million products to customers all over the world.  

Though for years, Carousel’s detractors insisted that the company wasn’t making
enough profits to justify any investments, that all changed in 2015 when the company
posted back-to-back successful quarters. The market responded kindly, and today,
Carousel boasts a market valuation of more than $440 billion.

But Ward isn’t anywhere close to done yet. There are talks of Carousel delivering
packages via drone. And if that wasn’t enough, Ward recently said he hopes Carousel
can produce as many as 16 feature films each year. In 2017, Ward & his team took
home three Oscars.

Indeed, it appears as though Carousel is a company that can be characterized as

changing constantly. To date, they’ve been successful, probably because the company
is always putting its customers first.
(a) Evaluate how Carousel develops a strategy to sustain the success of its changes.

1. Redesign roles:

- Ward has redesigned roles for Carousel. Such as, Carousel has launched
its website and carried out sales activities through its website. It's very
welcome with all the books sold out. Ward and his squad have also
volunteered a novel thing for Carousel, such as CD or DVD. Ward and his
squad are going hard to further develop Carousel and want its store to be
the largest fund in the universe. They do not have to try and determine
ways to develop their business to reach their goals. He likewise proposed a
number of new products such as launching Carousel Prime, launching Instant
Carousel Video and Carousel products that have received huge customer feedback
for up to 200 million products.

2. Act consistently with advocated actions (‘walk the talk’)

- Carousel delivery packages offered via drones. Carousel should always be

proactive in what they introduce. Top management needs to take seriously
every change in parliamentary procedure to accomplish the company's goals.
Ward needs to always monitor every decision and action required by
management and employees so that every bit of data that is handed on to
their customers is correct.

(b) Explain the possible causes of failures of the new change initiatives by Carousel.
1. The initiators and drivers of the change move on (before the change is
embedded)
- Ward has successfully made the changes by launching a website for Carousel.
Therefore, to ensure that Carousel continues to create success in the
international market, Ward and team members are working hard to achieve their
goals. His goal is to make Carousel the world's largest shop. However, it is
important to be cautious as competitors from other companies will not remain
silent to create the success of their company. In addition, Carousel’s detractors
insisted that the company was not making enough profits to justify any
investments.

2. Accountability for the success of the change becomes diffuse

- The responsibility of driving changes is normally, but not always clear,
with formal change or project management roles, often accompanied by
steering groups, task forces and implementation teams. For example,
Ward must brief early an initial explanation and explain to the Carousel's
team and staff about the changes to be made. This is because it is
important for staff to better understand their responsibilities and duties
after the change has taken place. If they are not informed in advance of
the change, they will become unclear about the task and will be negative
about the new task and change. They find it difficult to adapt to new
situations
3. Knowledge about the new practice is lost through turnover
- Ward must involve new skills and knowledge are usually supported by staff
training and development program. For example, when Ward wanted to
implement various strategies to develop and improve the Carousel. All of this
would not have been possible without a skilled, knowledgeable and
experienced team members. Therefore, Ward needs to develop new skills and
expand the knowledge of the Carousel's team and staff. Ward needs to send
his employees to participate in programs that will help improve employee
knowledge and skills development. However, by sending the training staff.
Carousel needs replacement staff to carry out existing tasks while existing
staff undergo training. This may cause some difficulty in disclosing how the
new staff works because the new staff is not well versed in the organization.
It will take time for them to explore more about Carousel management and
about their job description.

4. The pump-priming funding runs out

- Many changes allocate additional funding in order to support the
implementation cost. This can include the temporary appointment of
specialist staff or external consultants and the cost of the training program.
For example, this case. To make any changes to the Carousel, Ward needs to
make more funding in the process of change because making every change
requires high costs. This is because Ward needs to send staff to attend skills
and development programs before making any changes so that his staff is
better prepared when changes are made. So, Ward must spend the extra
cost for the training program staff. As those resources are consumed and the
temporary appointment and the training come to an end, support for the
change is weakened and initiates decay become more likely.
5. Powerful stakeholders are using counter- implementation tactics to
block progress.
- Carousel needs to be more careful in making changes. This is because, in
making changes, Ward needs to take into account the level of agreement
from the stakeholders. If they disagree with the changes to be made, they
will use their power to act their way. This will be a contributing factor to the
change.
REFERENCE

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Buchanan, D. A. (2017). Managing Organizational Change: A
Multiple Perspective Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.