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Leadership Development Plan - Best Opportunity For Whyalla’s Future Expansion

¹Mr. John Warner and ²Associate Professor Paula Tidwell

¹1 Tully St, Whyalla S.A. 5608
Phone/Fax +61 8 8649 3541, Email Mabel@bigpond.com.au

²University of South Australia, Nicolson Avenue, Whyalla Norrie S.A. 5608
Phone +61 8 8647 6066, Fax +61 8 8647 6088, Email paula.tidwell@unisa.edu.au

2000

Introduction

For too long this community has sat on its hands believing BHP is here for the duration, but there has to be life after BHP leaves or winds down its operations in Whyalla. It is time for party politics to disappear and importantly for the parties to be seen working together without point scoring off each other at the expense of the local community. In the past Whyalla was promised a lot during the years the Labor Party was in power in both State and Federal Government, but our industry and small business base has shrunk and employment opportunities for our youth and older citizens were lost. With a federal election in the wind both the major parties will need to put positive economic development policies with real outcomes which can be realized rather smartly, and importantly, keep any promises they make on initiatives which will provide employment opportunities for the youth and other disadvantaged persons in the local community.

If we have to the year 2010 to find and support both existing and new industries and small businesses, it will require a huge effort from the community leaders in the various organizations who promote or facilitate economic development in the city to put sectional and factional interests out of the equation, to plan a course for the survival of Whyalla. The Whyalla Economic Development Board working in partnership with the Whyalla City Council requires the positive input of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Small Business Retailers Association, City Plaza Traders Association, community interested groups and individuals to work with the major players to ensure the long term future for Whyalla.

For the establishment of Whyalla as Resource Processing Hub it will require a total commitment by all parties, especially small business and community input with visionary leadership and the involvement of all to ensure the success of the proposed strategy.

Five Principles of Visionary Leadership

1. Challenge the Process: Be a pioneer-encourage innovation and people with ideas.
2. Be Enthusiastic: Inspire others through personal example to share in a common vision.
3. Help Others To Act: Be a team player and support the efforts and talents of others.
4. Set The Example: provide a consistent model of how others should act.
5. Celebrate Achievements: Bring emotion into the workplace and rally “hearts” as well as “minds”.

(Schermerhorn, 1993)

Setting The Scene

The pressure on organizations in Whyalla to change will only increase over the next decades. As a community watching how the methods used by our community leaders and organizations they represent attempt to change their businesses and industries into stronger competitors - total quality management, best practice management, etc.

Community leaders and managers face many demands from many sources and from a changing environment. They must achieve productivity while building new and responsive work settings - ones that will provide all worker opportunities, provide for future employment enhancement leading to high performance and high quality of work life.

The future is now for those organizations promoting or facilitating economic development and the business and commerce sector with their managers or leaders to face the challenges as Whyalla competes in the global economic environment.

Competition and the global economy are changing the way Whyalla business, industry and community leaders operate in local environment within the national and state governments economic strategies. Information and technological change are impacting on the Whyalla economy as business and industry organizations find computers and other technologies exert their influence on their workplace environment.

Leadership, the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish important tasks (Schermerhorn, 1993). It is also one of the four functions that constitute the management process. Planning sets the directions and objectives. Organizing brings the resources together to turn plans into action. Leading builds upon commitment and enthusiasm needed for people to apply their talents to help fully accomplish those plans. Controlling makes sure things turn out right.

Leading change needs a detailed road map, complete with warning signs pointing out likely hazards. It requires Whyalla community, business, industry and commerce leaders to foster a sense of urgency to drive the change, by persuading all leaders now and in the future to complete the necessary steps set out in this paper and to do so in sequence, it will contribute to improved performance in their firms and organizations leading to local employment opportunities.

Knowing what leadership is really about is the vexing problem, as well as getting people to follow you in Whyalla. How do you get other people, by their free will and free choice, to move forward together on a common purpose - the survival of Whyalla. Just how do we get our community leaders, business, industry and commerce managers to want to do things.

Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something that you are convinced should be done. Leadership is the relationship between leaders and followers. The community wants leaders that are honest, competent, forward-looking, and inspiring. In short, as a community, leaders who are credible and have a clear sense of direction.

The Change Problem And Its Solution

Transforming Local Organizations: Why Firms Fail

Since the closure of the Whyalla Shipyard the community has witnessed change in organizations which have been rather significant to the local economy over the past two decades. One may predict that most of the restructuring, downsizing and quality efforts will soon stop by the turn of the century.

Whyalla faces more challenges as local businesses and industries compete in a global economic environment, and these forces will be evident as the Year 2000 approaches. As a result, more and more local businesses and industries will be pushed to reduce costs, improve the quality of products and services, locate new opportunities for growth and increase productivity, thereby create the right climate for future employment growth in the city.

To date, BHP Steel Long Products Division have made major change efforts which have helped its organization but it appears that on the surface other local businesses and industries have not improved their competitive standing in the global economy (BHP Review, 1996).

The down side of change is certain, especially when it comes to the local community who do not seem to see it as urgent, the pain is noticeable. It is time to look at the significant amount of wasted opportunities and the anguish this caused in the past ten years which was avoidable. It is time to learn from our mistakes, some of these may be:

Allowing Too Much Complacency

Local businesses and industries should not make the biggest mistake when trying to change within its organization, that is, to plunge ahead without establishing a high enough sense of urgency in managers and their employees. This can be fatal for local firms and organizations because transformations always fail to meet their objectives when complacency is high.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Whyalla City Council and Whyalla Economic Development Board working together have to create the climate to get people out of their comfort zones. They can be recognized and their actions can inadvertently reinforce the status quo. Local business and industry become defensive, morale and short term results are slipping or even worse, they may confuse urgency with anxiety, this may have the effect of driving people further into negativity and create even more resistance to change.

Failing To Create A Sufficiently Powerful Guiding Coalition

Major change is often said impossible unless the head of the organization and/or firm is an active supporter (Kotter, 1996). The coalition has to be seen powerful - in terms of formal titles, information and expertise, reputations and relationships, and the capacity for leadership. This group may consist of up to fifteen people with a commitment to improved performance of the team. Weak committees are even less effective.

This task force does not want to fall into the bad committee status, slow, political and aggravating and most of the work is done by a few dedicated people. This failure may be caused by underestimating the force needed to produce the change required and thus the importance of a guiding coalition. Even when complacency is low, Whyalla firms and organizations with a little history of teamwork often undervalue the need for such a team or assume it can be led by the Whyalla Economic Development Board. No matter how capable or dedicated the leader, guiding coalitions never seem to achieve the power required to overcome sources of resistance from within the local community from those seeking government intervention rather than tapping into the power of community economic development.

Underestimating The Power Of Vision

Urgency and an effective commanding team are necessary but are insufficient condition for a major change in attitude and thinking. Of the remaining parts that are always necessary in a successful transformations, none is more important than a sensible shared vision.

Vision is identified as an essential ingredient of effective leadership (Schermerhorn, 1993). It is generally used to describe someone who has a clear sense of the future and the action needed to get there ….. successfully.

When all the major players in the local community have a sensible shared vision on economic development realize it plays a key role in producing useful change by helping to direct, align and inspire actions on the rest of the community. Without an appropriate vision, a transformation effort can easily turn into a confusing, incompatible and time consuming project that go in the wrong direction or no where at all, with the local economy which will suffer from negative economic growth.

Whenever you cannot describe the vision driving a change initiative within five minutes or less and get a reaction both understanding and interest, you are in for trouble (Kotter, 1996).

Undercommunicating the Vision

Major change in Whyalla is usually impossible unless the three major players facilitating economic development have adopted or adapted a SHARED VISION which has been generated through the local community and they own it. Then the other small business associations will not make sacrifices, even if they are unhappy with the status quo, unless they think the potential benefits of change are attractive and unless they really believe that a transformation is possible.

Without credible communication, and a lot of it, local businesses and industries’ hearts and minds are never captured (Kotter, 1996). Communication comes both in words and deeds. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals within the community that is inconsistent with the verbal communication. Yet this appears to be happening all the time in Whyalla.

Permitting Obstacles To Block The New Vision

The implementation of any kind of major change in Whyalla requires the three major players to support it by actions and words. New initiatives fail far to often when either one can not see the big picture for the local community, even though either one may embrace the vision, feel disemboweled by the huge obstacles in their paths.

Perhaps worst of all the roadblocks are only in people’s heads and the challenge is to convince them that no external barriers exist. In Whyalla it does appear, the blockers really exist.

Kotter (1996), makes the point very strongly when he says are leaders and/or managers who refuse to adapt to new circumstances and who make demands that are inconsistent with the transformation. Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower other businesses and industries and undermine change.

Failing To Create Short-Term Wins

Real transformations take time. Whyalla requires a complex effort to change strategies or restructure businesses risk losing momentum if there are no short term goals to meet and celebrate along the way. Local industries and businesses won’t participate on the long road unless they can see powerful evidence within six to eighteen months that the journey is producing the expected results. Without short term wins and gains, too many Whyalla businesses and industries will give up, or actively join the resistance.

The local leader and/or manager that creating short term wins is different than hoping for short term wins. Kotter (1996), the latter is passive, the former is active. In successful transformations the leader and/or manager looks for ways to achieve clear performance improvements, establish goals in a yearly planning system, achieves these objectives, and reward the people involved with the recognition, promotions or offer money.

In change initiatives that fail, it requires a systematic effort to guarantee apparent victories within six to eighteen months are much less common. Local businesses and industries have to either assume that good things will happen or become caught up with a grand vision that do not worry much about the short term.

Declaring Victory Too Soon

In Whyalla once accepted after two years, businesses and industries can be tempted to declare victory in a major change effort with the first major performance improvement. While celebrating the win is fine, any suggestion that job is done is terribly misleading. Until the change is sinking down deeply into the community culture, which can take up to three to ten years, new approaches are fragile and subject to regression.

Typically, the problems start early in the process; the urgency level is not intense enough, the guiding coalition is not powerful enough, the vision is not clear enough. Premature victory celebration stops all momentum with the powerful forces associated with tradition take over.

By declaring victory too soon it is like stumbling into quicksand on the road to meaningful change. For a variety of reasons, even smart people in business and industry do not just stumble into that trap but they jump in with both feet.

Neglecting To Anchor Changes Firmly In The Business and Industry Culture

Kotter (1996), in the final analysis, change sticks only when it becomes “the way we do things around here”, when it seeps into the very blood stream of the business or industry unit or a corporate body. Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with the change effort are removed.

Whyalla has to see that two factors are important in cementing in new approaches in an organization or firm’s culture. The first is to show how specific behaviors and attitudes have helped the improved conditions. Whyalla Economic Development Board and the Whyalla Chamber of Commerce and Industry have to help both the local business and industry to make the right connections and if they do not make the right connections, as is often the case, they easily make inaccurate links.

Anchoring a change also requires that sufficient time to be taken to ensure that the next generation of industry, business and community leaders and managers really embody the new approach.

Smart leaders and managers miss the mark here when they are insensitive to cultural issues. Economically oriented finance people and analytically oriented engineers can find the topic of social norms and values too soft for their tastes. So they ignore culture - at their peril with loss felt throughout the local community and economy.

The Eight Mistakes

None of these errors would be that costly in a slower-moving less competitive world. Handling new initiatives quickly is not seen as essential component in Whyalla’s success in a relatively stable environment like Whyalla or in South Australia. The problem today for us to grasp is that stability is no longer the norm. Kotter (1996), experts agree that over the next few decades both the industry and business environment will only become more volatile.

In slowing down new initiatives, creating unnecessary resistance, frustrating people endlessly, and sometimes stifling needed change, any of these can cause a firm and/or organization to fail to offer products or services the community want at prices they can afford. The impact on families and the local community can be devastating.

Eight Errors Common To Organizational Change and Their Consequences

Common Errors

• Allowing too much complacency
• Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition.
• Underestimating the power of vision.
• Undercommunicating the vision.
• Permitting obstacles to block the new vision.
• Failing to create short term wins.
• Declaring victory too soon.
• Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.

Consequences

• New strategies are not implemented well.
• Industry and business do not achieve expected human response.
• Reengineering takes too long and costs too much for business and industry to participate.
• Downsizing does not get costs under control.
• Quality programs do not deliver hoped for results

(Kotter, 1996)

These errors are not disagreeable. With awareness and skill, they can be avoided in Whyalla or at least greatly alleviated. The key lies in understanding why firms and organizations, including corporate bodies resist needed change, what has to be done is a process developed to overcome destructive forces, and most of all, how the leadership that is required to the process in a socially healthy and bipartisan way mean more than good management.

Successful Change And The Force That Drives It

In Whyalla industries and business people who have been through difficult, painful, and not a very successful change efforts often end up drawing both pessimistic and angry conclusions. They become suspicious of the motives of Whyalla City Council and Whyalla Economic Development Board pushing for transformation; they worry that major change is not possible without disruption, they see them as monsters or that much of the management is incompetent.

Kotter (1996), draws a different conclusion from the available evidence that most community and corporate organizations can be significantly improved, at an acceptable cost, but that we often make terrible mistakes when we try because history has simply not prepared us for transformational challenges.

The Globalization of Markets and Competition

People in my age group or older did not grow up in the time when modification was common. With less global competition and slower-moving business environment, the norm back then was stability and the ruling motto was “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

The challenges for local business and industry we now face are different. A globalised economy is creating more hazards and more opportunities for every one, forcing firms and organizations to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to merely survive. Globalization is driven by a broad and powerful set of forces associated with technological change, international economic solidarity, domestic market saturation within the more developed countries, and the collapse of the worldwide communism. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 Economic and Social Forces Driving The Need For Major Change in Firms and Organizations

THE GLOBALISATION OF MARKETS AND COMPETITION

↓

LARGER SCALE CHANGE IN FIRM AND ORGANISATION

To avoid hazards and/or capitalize on opportunities, firms and organizations must become stronger competitors. Typical transformation methods include:

(Kotter, 1995)

Local corporate bodies, industries and business has to see how useful change tends to be associated with an eight stage change process that creates power and motivation sufficient to overwhelm the forces resisting it. This process is never employed effectively unless it is driven high quality Whyalla Economic Development Board leadership, not just excellent management - an important distinction that will come up from time to time as we institute an organizational change.

The Eight Stage Change Process

The methods used in successful transformations are based on one crucial perception: that a significant change will not happen for many reasons. The local business and industry leaders even if they are an objective observer, they will see the costs appear too high, or products are not up to standard, or shifting consumer patterns are not been adequately addressed, needed change can still fail because of inwardly focusing cultures, paralyzing government red tape, parochial politics, a low level of trust, lack of teamwork by major players, arrogant attitudes, apparent lack of leadership in some sectors, and the general fear of the unknown. To be effective the Whyalla Economic Development Board will have to find a method designed to alter strategies, reengineer processes, or improve quality and must address these barriers and address them well.

Kotter (1996), summarizes the steps producing a successful change of any magnitude which could be applied in the local community. The process has eight stages, each of which is associated with one of the fundamental eight mistakes than undermine the transformation efforts.

The Eight Stage Process of Creating Major Change

1. Establishing A Sense Of Urgency

• Examining the market and competitive realities
• Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, or major opportunities

2. Creating The Guiding Coalition

• Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change.
• Getting the group together to work part of a team.

3. Developing A Vision and Strategy

• Creating a vision to help direct the change effort.
• Developing strategies for achieving that vision.

4. Communicating the Change Vision

• Using every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the new vision and strategies.
• Having the guiding coalition role model the behavior of expected leaders and/or managers and employees in those firms and organizations.

5. Empowering Broad-Based Action

• Getting rid of obstacles.
• Changing systems or structures that undermine the change vision.
• Encourage risk taking and non-traditional ideas, activities and actions.

6. Generating Short-Term Wins

• Planning for visible improvements in performance, or “wins”.
• Visibly recognizing people, leaders and/or managers who made wins possible.

7. Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change

• Using increased credibility to change all systems, structures and policies that do not fit together and do not fit the transformation vision.
• Local business and industry look at hiring, promoting or developing people who can implement the change vision.
• Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change agents.

8. Anchoring New Approaches In The Culture

• Creating better performance through customer-and productivity-oriented behavior, more and better leadership, and more effective management.
• Smooth the connections between new behaviors and organizational success.
• Developing means to ensure leadership development and succession.

(Kotter, 1995)

The steps are:

• establishing a sense of urgency
• creating a guiding coalition
• developing a vision and strategy
• communicating the change vision
• empowering a broad base of business and industry people to take action
• generating short term wins
• consolidating gains and producing even more change
• institutionalizing new approaches in the local culture

The first four steps in the transformation process help defrost a hardened status quo. Like all things if change were made easy, you would not need all that effort. The next five to seven phases introduce many new practices. The last stage importantly grounds the changes into the corporate culture and helps them to become part of their every day practices (Kotter, 1996).

When implementing this is aware that people under pressure to show quick results will often try to jump ahead - it could two or four stages - in a major change effort. This can lead to a wall of resistance, in short it pays not to jump to stage 5 but go through the necessary steps preceding it. Trying to transform a firm and/or an organization by undertaking only steps 5,6 and 7, especially if it appears that a single decision-to reorganize, make an acquisition, or lay people off - will produce most of the needed change. Or they will race through the steps without ever finishing the job.

Other traps to consider do not fail to reinforce earlier stages as you progress through, as a result of a sense of urgency weakens or the bipartisan group breaks up. Remember, when you neglect to warm up, or forget defrosting activities (1 to 4), you rarely establish a solid foundation on which to proceed. Ensure you follow through that takes place in stage 8, otherwise you will not make the finish line and make the changes stick.

The Importance of Sequence

The Whyalla Economic Development Board will have to ensure that each firm and/or organization which is prepared to have a successful change of any magnitude goes through all the stages in Figure 4. Failure can come from skipping even one single step or getting too far ahead without a solid base almost always creates problems.

It will be necessary to remove the self imposed pressure, firms and organizations put themselves under, because they feel the need to produce. Prevent them from inventing other unnecessary steps because they believe it is logical to do so when making their choice. Whyalla Economic Development Board after getting into the urgency phase (1) , all their change efforts end up operating in multiple stages at once, but initiating action in any order other than what is in the eight stage process rarely is successful. Organizations and firms have to develop and build in a natural progression. It should not come across in a forced, contrived or mechanistic way. The change process doesn’t create the momentum needed to overcome enormously powerful sources of unemployment.

Projects Within Projects

Whyalla Economic Development Board when implementing a major change initiative in a firm and/or organization would need to keep tabs on projects within projects within that corporate body or business. As it is possible to have at any one time, you could be half way through the overall change effort, finished with a few of the smaller pieces, and just beginning other projects. The net effect is like wheels within wheels.

If an organization an/or firm is in crisis, Whyalla Economic Development Board facilitating and/or implementing the first change project, within a larger change process is often to save the business or industry or hopefully turn it around on an even keel. For six to twenty-four months, people in these organizations and/or firms take decisive actions to stop negative cash flows and keep their business and/or organization afloat. The second change project could be associated with a new marketing strategy or reengineering. Finally, that could be followed by a major structural and cultural change. It is important for each organization and/or firm in each of these efforts goes through the eight steps in the change sequence and each plays a role in the overall transformation.

Whyalla Economic Development Board monitoring this change process need to inform the business, industry or corporate body that will be implementing the multiple steps and possibly multiple projects, the end result is often complicated, untidy, dynamic, and frightening to those managers, directors and individuals. Whyalla Economic Development Board in the first instance, to ensure those firms and/or organizations who attempt to create a change with simple, linear, analytical processes will fail. They will have to make the point that analysis is not unhelpful but careful consideration is always essential but there is a lot more involved here than:

(a) gathering data,

(b) identifying options,

(c) analyzing, and

(d) choosing

Kotter (1996), as an example posed a question.

Question: So why would an intelligent person rely too much on simple, linear, analytical processes?

Answer: Because he or she has been taught to manage not lead.

Management Versus Leadership

It is important for the Whyalla Economic Development Board to distinguish between management and leadership. Management is a body of knowledge and a field of academic inquiry based upon scientific principles and serving as an important foundation for any manager (Schermerhorn, 1993). Management is set of action that can keep a complicated system of people and technology working together. The most important aspects of management including planning, controlling, organizing, staffing, budgeting, and problem solving.

Kotter (1996), leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles ( See Figure 2). It is important for Whyalla Economic Development Board as project leaders to spell out this distinction as it is absolutely crucial for our purposes during the projects within business, industry and corporate bodies (Kotter, 1996).

When examining Figure 2 it highlights that successful transformation is 70 to 90 per cent leadership and only 10 to 30 per cent management. In Whyalla it would appear for many reasons, firms and organizations today do not have much leadership. It would appear almost every one thinks about the problem in the community as one of managing change.

Figure 2 Management Versus Leadership

(Kotter, 1990)

Over many years the local community has developed many business and industries, with other corporate bodies, who have been entrenched in management practices. It has been taught in our university and institute as managers, supervisors and individuals attended many different management programs to learn on the job. With the loss of our youth and other individuals in the community where are our future community leaders coming from. People were taught little about leadership skills. To some degree management is easier to teach than leadership but management was the agenda for the twentieth century because that was needed. For every small business owner, to the manager of a large business or industrial corporation we needed managers to run their ever growing enterprises.

Kotter (1996), believes this emphasis on management has often been institutionalized in our business and corporate cultures that discourages both managers, staff and employees to lead. Past success is usually the key ingredient in producing this outcome. On the surface in Whyalla it would appear that from a strong emphasis on management but not leadership, bureaucracy and looking inward have taken over. An example of this is in Figure 3.

In the local community it appears to be a combination of cultures that resist change and managers who have not been taught how create change is causing problems and barriers. We have described some of the mistakes which are most incidentals under these present conditions which have the effect of stifling economic growth in the local economy. Sources of complacency are rarely attacked because urgency is not an issue for business and industry plus the people has been asked all their lives to maintain the current system. Whyalla Economic Development Board that powerful guiding coalition when formed with sufficient leadership is created by people who do not think in the terms of hierarchy and management. As visions and strategies are not formulated by individuals who have been only taught and/or used plans and/or budgets.

It will require a lot of time and energy to ensure a return on investment by the Whyalla Economic Development Board communicating a new sense of direction to the local community. The time has come to look at the existing structures, systems, lack of training or managers and employees which are allowed to disempower them, who want to help implement the new vision-predictable, given in Whyalla how little most staff, employees or managers know about empowerment.

Figure 3 The Creation Of An Overmanaged, Underled Corporate Culture

(Kotter, 1992)

Whyalla Economic Development Board leading by example will not be able to declare victory too soon but think in the terms of the celebrating short term gains but ensuring the long term objectives are met. New approaches are seldom anchored in a firms and/or organization’s culture by individuals who have been taught to think in the terms of formal culture, not culture.

Kotter (1996), transformations take sacrifice, dedication, and creativity, none of which usually comes with pressure. Efforts to effect change that is over managed and underled (See Figure 2) also tend to try to eliminate the inbred messiness of transformations. Eight stages are reduced to three. The many projects are consolidated into two. Instead of involving all local business, industry and corporate bodies in Whyalla, the initiative is handled only by a small section of the community. The net result would be disappointing from a Whyalla Economic Development Board perspective.

Managing a change is important. Without effective management, the transformation process can get out of control and lose its sense of purpose and direction. In the local scene most organizations and firms, the challenge before them will be leading change. Only leadership can make inroads into the many sources of corporate forces. Only leadership can motivate the actions needed to change behavior in a significant way in the local community. The only way most organizations and firms can get leadership changes to stick, is by cementing it into the very culture of their businesses in the local community.

In Whyalla this leadership idea may begin with one or two people. It has to be taken on board by the Whyalla Economic Development Board to plant the seeds to ensure its growth over time in the local community. The solution to the change problem, is not just one person who are a domineering force in the local community who people follow obediently.

The Future

The time is now for the Whyalla Economic Development Board to start the change process inside the local business, industry and corporate bodies in Whyalla, as it would become less of a problem if the business environment would soon slow down and stabilize.

With global pressure influencing the local business and industry sector credible evidence suggests the opposite: the rate of external and environmental movement will continue to grow and the pressures on local industry and business to transform themselves will continue to grow beyond 2000.

Whyalla Economic Development Board understand that the only rational solution is to learn more about what creates successful change and pass that knowledge onto the local community via seminars, forums and training sessions to all members of the community who are interested in expanding economic development initiatives.

The end result for the community how quickly you improve the quality of products and services available to those who need it, business and industry increase productivity, lower costs, and importantly innovate.

Innovation is an important linkage to a change program especially for the local business and industry including corporate bodies. Led by the Whyalla Economic Development Board providing the vision and the leadership in the community.

This approach involves three parts:

Innovation Linkages Change Program

Provide Vision and Leadership by:

• establish linkages and innovation agenda
• capture firms and organization leaders
• mobilize government, business, industry and corporate bodies

Create The Learning Environment by:

• seed monitored experimentation and demonstration programs
• use existing delivery systems
• leverage existing resources such as the quality movement

Solve Problems and Create Incentive Structure by:

• remove barriers at firms, organizations and corporate bodies.
• create strong, consistent incentives to change behavior.

(Australian Manufacturing Council, 1994)

Innovation Linkages Change Program

Provide Leadership and Vision

The Whyalla Economic Development Board need to convince and inspire our leaders of the Whyalla Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as our small and medium sized industries and businesses that transforming themselves into innovate enterprises is a vital step for sustained export growth leading to creating employment opportunities in the community. This can done by linkages with other firms and organizations that are necessary for innovation.

Then it requires a bipartisan approach made up of political leaders, industry, business and community organizations to address the formulation of an agenda in an Economic Development Forum. They will need to agree on the strategies needed to achieve the agenda which is put in place. The Forum to agree on three important issues, making important the need for innovation to be kept in front of the industry and business leaders in the community.

Create The Learning Environment

Whyalla Economic Development Board must provide an environment for local firms and organizations to experiment and learn about establishing linkages for innovation. By monitoring the experimentation is the way that firms and organizations learn by doing and seeing - by trying new approaches and watching others try. An example - Whyalla Economic Development Board set up a Best Practice Program.

This may require a government kick-start to implement this process through demonstration programs. Whyalla needs to create any opportunity for a successful approach and ensure they are publicized in the local media. Whyalla Economic Development Board through its leadership, will need keep the local firms and organizations including corporate bodies interested in monitoring new approaches to create employment opportunities.

Solve Problems That Are Barriers To Change and Create Incentive Structures

Once the agenda is set by the Economic Development Forum, government needs to systematically identify barriers to change and act quickly with the Whyalla Economic Development Board to remove them. Government should provide incentives for behavioral change at the business, industry or corporate level, as this will help prevent the change process from slowing.

Conclusions

Whyalla working through the Whyalla Economic Development Board needs a Leadership Development Plan which will provide our future business, industry and community leaders with a program which emphasizes the critical importance of a change, creativity, innovation, people skills, motivation and enterprise.

It also needs the urgent collaboration of business, industry, government and community leaders to grapple with the challenge of being part of a regional economy in a global market place where capital and talent are freely moving across international borders.

As a community and in the industry and business sector they must reduce their dependence on governments. Governments do not create jobs; industry and business do. However, governments can create the right climate and in partnership they should encourage the growth and development of a model to achieve international best practice.

There is an urgent need for us to work together to create and develop a more enterprising community. To make this a reality it is time for a bipartisan approach to create leaders and entrepreneurs by developing a business and community leadership program. Grassroots leadership is led by “community entrepreneurs” who realize it is vital to create an enterprising local community.

To gauge the success of the Leadership Development Program the Whyalla Economic Development Board with our community leaders have to provide a framework which supports the development of the Whyalla future manager to achieve leadership skills.

This will involve initiatives such as:

• Provide visionary leadership. For instance, what type of community do we want Whyalla to be? What role do we see industry and business, including the community play in this vision?
• Promoting leadership management skills as an important part of this process.
• Whyalla Economic Development Board be seen actively adopting quality best practice management practices by experimentation programs in the local community.
• Whyalla Economic Development Board to encourage business and industry, including community leaders to seek continuous improvement in leadership management development training through its links to government.

In closing, Whyalla needs leadership programs which stress the critical importance of change, creativity, innovation, people skills, motivation and enterprise. This will enhance and develop the necessary skills of the future leaders in industry, business, government and community.

The future can only be successful through the leadership of people from business, industry, universities, all tiers of government and community which will participate in creating our future, championing it, once it is developed and importantly pursued its implementation.

As a member of the community we are all trustees of the future. It has to be a partnership or a bipartisan approach between business, industry, all tiers of government and the community.

References

1. Manufacturing Council (1993), The Wealth of Ideas - How Linkages Help Sustain Innovation and Growth.
2. Review, (1996), BHP’s Vision and Values, John Prescott, BHP Managing Director, Vol 74, pp22.
3. P. Kotter (1990), From A Force For Change: How Leadership Differs From Management, The Free Press.
4. P. Kotter (1992), Corporate Culture and Performance, The Free Press.
5. P. Kotter (1995), The New Rules: How To Succeed in Today’s Post Corporate World, The Free Press.
6. P. Kotter (1995), Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, Harvard Business Review.
7. P Kotter (1996), Leading Change , Harvard Business School Press, pp6, 8, 9, 16, 26.
8. R Schermerhorn, Jr (1993), Management for Productivity, 4^th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp408, 410, G8 Glossary.