Davidson shared four goals at the start of building the company s agile network work with a broader range of partners to buy and sell the company s product move into markets faster focus on high growth in Asia and reduce sales costs. A so called urgency team of people spent three months working on a plan developing support material and creating a portal with information videos blogs and stories about the ways people were already making change to support the big opportunity.
After a year Davidson formed a guiding coalition of volunteers to attract and help guide other volunteers for the new network. The network built up small wins that grew in magnitude over time helping it gain credibility Kotter says. After just two years the company reported it had hastened the creation of partnerships by percent grew sales by percent boosted operating Chinese Overseas America Number Data income by percent increased market cap percent to over billion and enhanced its reputation as an exciting place to work. Overcoming Obstacles Of course there are stumbling blocks and challenges when creating something so new as an agile network. The most powerful person who reported to Davidson hated the dual system and everything that went with it Kotter writes.
He argued there was no way to track a volunteer led initiative and worried that the system would make it impossible for him to meet his aggressive revenue plan. He did nothing to help. But overall people who found the new network cool and exciting figured out ways to get their normal jobs done in less time Kotter says. of their time to do this other thing that they find important he says. In the book Davidson s critic began to warm toward the network as he saw signs of morale improving in his own group and the posting of several impressive wins. The idea for a dual operating system emerged from what Kotter and his colleagues learned while working with clients through his consulting firm Kotter International.