Control amidst the uncontrollable [change management]

There has been a plethora of books and articles describing how to manage businesses through turbulent times, most of which have been theoretical, philosophical or both. This article puts concept into practice and demonstrates real performance improvements from `managing change'. The article presents the lessons learnt by J&S Marine, a company which designs, develops, manufactures and supports equipments for naval defence and commercial offshore markets. Its change programme has affected all aspects of the company's operations from winning new business to contract award and execution. The lessons learnt provide a pragmatic view on how companies can truly `manage' the change process whilst recognising that forecasting market trends continues to be difficult. The strategy for success is based on control amidst the uncontrollable.