What aspects leaders will have to focus upon to orchestrate change encompassing all stakeholders of organization?
Many enterprises are embracing change programs in response to pressures from the competition and customers and to the opportunity presented by rapidly advancing technology. An uncoordinated, ad hoc approach will not suffice in a complex environment. To effectively implement changes, it is necessary that executives learn the important aspects of change management such as organizational structures and models. In organizational changes, staff should be willing to follow a group of individuals who are assigned with the responsibility of implementation of proposed changes. Furthermore, before proposing changes, it is important that leaders ask for the opinions and reactions of their subordinates to the proposals to make the changes beneficial to all members of a particular corporation or organization.

What critical elements need to be focused upon while implementing change?
Certain broad themes can be highlighted which form essential part of any transformation process. First and foremost is the need to establish urgency for change. The urgency could be highlighted by marking the organization’s competitive position, technological developments, shrinking margins, et al. These trends should be communicated to the employees indicating that if there is no change, there could be potential crisis lurking.

What role does the leader play in the change process?
It is well recognized that transformational leaders are those who are value-driven, dynamic and are continuous learners. They are visionaries who are able to visualize the long term and energize employees towards realizing the vision. They act as an anchor for the organization to manage the change process successfully. By acting so, they are able to translate the vision into reality. Another important aspect of transformation is that the leader has to be patient. Results do not occur fast. It probably takes years to achieve complete transformation, especially if the organization is large and complex. For instance, when the German industrial giant Siemens undertook the process of transformation, it took them 10 years to transform a slow moving industrial giant of Germany into a disciplined multinational corporation with presence in 192 countries and become one of the best managed and most competitive companies in the world.