Strategic Change

SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATION

PROGRAMME: MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA): GENERAL - YEAR TWO MODULE: MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE DATE: 14 JANUARY 2013 DURATION: 3 Hours EXAMINER: Mr E Mutumbara INTAKE: JANUARY 2012 TIME: 09h00 – 12h00 TOTAL MARKS: 100 MODERATOR: Mr A Kader

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CANDIDATE:

1. Questions must be attempted in the answer book provided. 2. All queries should be directed to the invigilator; do not communicate or attempt to communicate with any other candidate. 3. You have THREE HOURS to complete this paper. You are not allowed to leave the examination room within the first hour and in the last 15 minutes of this examination. 4. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination. 5. Read ALL instructions carefully.

1 SECTION A Answer ALL questions in this section Read the extract below and answer ALL questions that follow. Finding the right place to start change is never easy; only about a third of all such transformations succeed. One problem many organizations run into as they implement a change program is faltering momentum because employees just don’t change the way they work. Sometimes they don’t want to, and sometimes the reason is a poorly structured plan that makes change harder. Our recent experience at a European retail bank shows the benefits of starting to implement change by focusing on the employees who have the most influence over the daily work that needs to change. This approach can ensure that a successful transformation happens faster and that employees remain engaged in the long term. That’s what eventually happened at a national bank, which had more than 6,000 branches and was facing increasing competition from local banks that were perceived as more attuned to local-customer needs. In an attempt to close the gap, the bank developed a new organizational model that was designed to remove layers of centralization and supervision and give branch managers much more authority to tailor bank offerings, marketing, and other...