How do you achieve large-scale change in a large global organization? This paper outlines how. The authors describe, in retrospect, a multilevel and multifaceted organizational change management (OCM) program approach developed within IBM to change IBM itself.

The paper consists of three loose parts. In Part 1, the expected business results are defined. Under the rubric Roadmap 2015, IBM management declared in 2010 that they would double earnings per share by 2015. Their approach to achieving this strategic direction was a company-wide program for process reengineering, called Blue Harmony. Nearly 850 applications were targeted for consolidation into a single SAP instance.

Part 2 presents the company’s organizational change management strategy and approach to support Blue Harmony, including the noteworthy formation of a combined organization for business transformation and information technology (IT), and the level of employee commitment to the change model [1]. Commitment to change contrasts with employee motivation and employee resistance to approaches for managing change [2].

Part 3 discusses the outcomes of the adoption of the OCM program approach across IBM for the Blue Harmony initiative. Time will tell whether the company achieved its desired business results.

This paper is recommended to organizational change managers, consultants, and executives interested in enterprise change management. It provides strategies, practices, and insights on how to avoid seeing IT-enabled change as a magic bullet for large-scale business transformation [3]. Those interested in a leadership perspective on organizational change, again at IBM, should read Gerstner’s book [4].