Preface

In the summer of 1994, I wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review entitled “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” It was based on my analysis of dozens of initiatives over the prior fifteen years to produce significant useful change in organizations via restructuring, reengineering, restrategizing, acquisitions, downsizing, quality programs, and cultural renewal. Even as I was finishing that piece I knew I wanted to write more on the subject, so I began this book shortly thereafter.

“Leading Change” was published in the March–April 1995 issue of HBR. Almost immediately the article jumped to first place among the thousands of reprints sold by the review, an astonishing event in light of the quality of its large reprint ...

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