The Future of the Organisation ‐ Achieving Excellence through Business Transformation

Citation

Thornett, T. (1998), "The Future of the Organisation ‐ Achieving Excellence through Business Transformation", Personnel Review, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 161-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr.1998.27.2.161.3

Colin Coulson‐Thomas, it is claimed, is a leading authority on business transformation who has, however, yet to be anointed with guru status. Colin Coulson‐Thomas passionately believes that the future of any organisation is dependent on the management of people. Whether as customers, employees, suppliers or partners, the author advocates that the role of people in the development of any organisation is crucial. This belief is at the core of Coulson‐Thomas’s new work, The Future of the Organisation, in which he recommends a more holistic, people‐centred approach to management and transformation.

Based on his in‐depth research amongst a wide range of organisations into their current situations and future aspirations, the book claims to identify where organisations around the world may be going wrong, and whether or not within our current management approaches there may lie the seeds of alternative courses of action.

The book is written in two parts, the first of which is headed “Reflections” and is subdivided into five chapters. The first chapter, Management myopia: perceptions and reactions, is a tour through the history of quality and the evolution of business process re‐engineering. The next chapter, Issues and concerns, looks at Coulson‐Thomas’s experiences with many organisations, focusing on the limitations and bureaucracy associated with both management approaches particularly with quality certification. The third chapter, Relevance of contemporary preoccupations in a changing world, looks at the capacity of organisations to learn and continuously adapt to their environment by reassessing and renewing their purpose, relevance and capability.

The fourth chapter, Corporate vision: the rhetoric, the reality and the barriers, questions and probes by taking a closer look at what the author claims to be an emerging gulf between the rhetoric of quality and the reality of its application, and at the obstacles and barriers that might be causing the gap to widen. The final chapter in the first section, Priorities and aspirations, really starts to take the lid of the whole question of what should be an organisation’s quality priorities and focus for attention.

The second part, the most substantial of the book begins to address what Coulson‐Thomas believes are the critical issues, with chapters devoted to Corporate leadership, The customer, The people dimension, The quality of management, Approaches, tools and techniques, Priorities and performance, Next steps and finally Holistic and people‐focused management.

Flexibility and intuition are seen as the way forward, rather than prescriptive or mechanical approaches ‐ roles, competences and behaviours are stressed rather than procedures and structures, and the fostering of diversity and creativity rather than the enforcement of standards. I can imagine some quality assurance professionals quaking in their boots at the mere thought of people replacing process on the organisation’s future agenda. However, they need not fear. Coulson‐Thomas has written this excellent piece of work as a non‐prescriptive, thought‐provoking book, to encourage reflection and open up internal debate, and to help the reader formulate their own philosophies of management and develop their own tools and techniques.

The one area of complaint I have is that throughout his work, Coulson‐Thomas consistently refers to his former books. Why do I complain? Coulson‐Thomas is a prolific writer and it will take me a long time to get round to reading some of his other works based on the appetite that this book has created.