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Introduction
This paper explores the six year journey that Constellation Energy traveled as it built a "change-capable" organization to realize its business strategy and maintain its competitive position. Today, this internal change capability is a leadership imperative that includes four inter-related components: a common enterprise wide framework, an enterprise wide change curriculum, change coaching and consulting, and change agent networks. We begin this review with an overview of business transformation by describing specific strategies and tactics used to build internal change capability, and conclude with lessons learned throughout our journey. It is our hope that this may serve as a model for other organizations that may be in similar circumstances.
Business Transformation at Constellation Energy
Constellation Energy is an integrated competitive energy company with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and operations throughout the United States and abroad. It has recognized the need to build a change capable organization to maintain competitive positioning in the turbulent energy industry. Over the last six years, Constellation Energy has experienced tremendous growth and massive internal transformational change. Revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001 grew to $17.1 billion in 2005, and accelerated the company from #432 on the Fortune 500 list to #125. By 2006, company revenues reached approximately $19 billion. Company revenue composition shifted dramatically as well, with roughly 75 % of revenue coming from its regulated utility business and 25% from its commercially competitive non-regulated energy businesses in 2001 to a complete reversal of those ratios today.
As it pursued overall growth, especially in the emerging commercial business segments, Constellation Energy also embarked on a journey of internal business and culture transformation. Toward this end, the company deployed multi-million dollar enterprise systems and platforms, streamlined and simplified countless internal processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness, shifted organizational culture and core values, and aggressively and rapidly shifted behavioral expectations so that living its internal branding tagline: "transform the way Constellation Energy works" could become a reality.
Building Internal Change Capability: Moving Beyond "Just Do It!" Change Management
Mike's slogan "Just do it!"has surely influenced many business practices today. With increasing business demands, employees are often asked to do more with fewer resources in shorter time frames. The pace of business change is growing exponentially due to changing economic markets, globalization,...