Quietly Brilliant: Transformational Change at HTC

Introduction

It has been observed in the past that companies could not survive for long and those
companies that welcomed change are billion dollar industry. Organizations as well as human
are supposed to welcome change when necessary. To bring change in an organization is a
very difficult job. Its a part of the strategic management.

Organizations bring change to in the companys current culture. Companies want to change
the attitude and behavior of their employees. It has never been easy to bring change. Many
challenges are faced by companies when they implement the plan. Sometimes, plans look
good on paper but are unrealistic to implement in reality. Change plan are not made to change
organizations but it is designed to change the people. Organizations are changed when people
change.

About HTC

HTC was a Taiwan base company. It was founded in 1997 by Wang, Chou and Liu. There
were only 10 employees when it was founded. Within seven years, number of employees
increased from 10 to 3,000. HTC was in Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) and then it
shifted to the Smartphone business. Some f the best employees worked at HTC, who were
called from well known multinational companies. HTC was known for its innovative
products. HTC sold around 24 million Smartphone in 2010 and it was known for its highly
innovative products.

HTC was among those companies that introduced Smartphone. HTC had state of the art of
wireless technology. The 3G and 4G phone were introduced by HTC.. Although, HTC was
not a global company, but it had strategic relations with worlds well known companies. HTC
had strategic alliance with Microsoft. Customized Smartphone was produced by HTC. In
2004, HTC built a lab named MAGIC. Magic lab was the place where innovative work was
done. In 2008, HTC introduced the first HTC Smartphone. In 2009, HTC introduced Quietly
Brilliant to make HTC a global brand.

Company was growing rapidly and HTC had entered into many new markets. Sales were
growing at a significant rate. Demand of HTC products were also growing. It was the time
when HTC decided to make HTC a brand. HTC wanted to change itself from ODM to brand
manufacturer. HTC used a tagline Quietly Brilliant for its organizational change. HTC
turned itself from Taiwan base company to a global company.

Problem Statement

Changes become necessary when company grows and HTC had the same situation because
its sales were increasing. They have started their operation in different regions of the world. It
was necessary to adopt a change at HTC. Corporate change had been used to improve
productivity. In 1992, Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes formulated a framework, which
helps organizations to analyze its current corporate culture as well as make new strategies by
using that model. We will use Johnson and Scholes model to analyze the change at HTC.

The Cultural Web

The cultural web has six components to discuss (See Fig. 1). We will analyze HTCs cultural
change by using those six components. Cultural web defines the culture of an organization
and it depends on other organizational subsystems. These subsystems include: stories, control
system, organizational structure, rituals, routines and symbols. These elements are also
known as paradigm of cultural web.

The cultural web can be used to analyze the culture of an organization. On the basis of this
analysis, changes can be recommended but we have to make sure that changes should align
with companys workforce. Employees are the main factor that resists change. There can be
two conditions in that case. Firs case to motivate them to adopt those changes and if they
dont accept those changes, then change will be brought forcefully. Companies can use
influencer and devil advocator. Organization should find a person who has an influential
personality. Then, that person should be told the whole story. It must be mentioned why this
change is necessary and then the influencer should be permitted to work. He will motivate
other co-workers; so the resistance will be minimized. Another option is to use devil
advocator. Resistance can be minimized by using devil advocator too. These elements are
described below with the help of example from the case.

Language

Language also plays a very important role in any organizations culture. Language is a way to
communicate with others. If a company operates in a country, there should be no issue of
language. Everybody in that country will be using the same language. Problem arises when a
company have its operations in more than one country as there will be a language issue.
Companies wont be able to communicate with those colleagues who work in other country.
Companies are supposed to create a culture where people use particular language to
communicate with their colleagues irrespective of where they are.

Examples from the Case