Business excellence through sustainable change management

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to make a case for achieving business excellence through sustainable change management. Business excellence is defined through the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria. Sustainable change management has three pillars: enlightened leadership to provide change direction, great project management to manage technical aspects of change, and excellent talent management for implementing the change. All three pillars will be discussed in this paper along with successful examples of sustainable change management practices from various sectors. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is a synopsis of professional work done by the author over 38 years in achieving business excellence and managing sustainable change in professional and personal arena. Findings - The paper provides insights about how sustainable change is achieved to propel an entity toward business excellence. It suggests that leadership is central in initiating the change for the benefit of the enterprise. To successfully manage change, strong project management skills are crucial. Without proper talent management, change initiatives will falter. Originality/value - This paper fulfills a global need on how to achieve business excellence through sustainable change management. Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.