Correspondence: William Kilgallon, Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH Else-Kröner-Strae 1 61352 Bad Homburg Germany. Tel: +49 6172 609 2278; Fax: +49 6172 609 2586; e-mail: bill.kilgallon@fmc-ag.com

¹is Head of Marketing for Fresenius Medical Care. He has a first degree in Pharmacology, a PhD in Immunology and an MBA specialising in Disease Management. In recent years, he has specialised on Transformation Implementation processes in global business scenarios.

²has an MBA from St. Gallen and a PhD from Vienna University. In his early career he worked in different roles for the Fresenius Group, including CFO for Fresenius in Italy. He joined Gemini Consulting where he was responsible for the Global Centre of Excellence, Concurrent Transformation, combining Business and System Transformations for multinational clients. At PA Consulting Group, he was Chairman of the Central European region and Country Manager Germany. As Founder and Senior Partner of the boutique consultancy Transformation Partner, Frankfurt, he now focuses on client projects with major transformational aspects specialising in the Health Care and Automotive sectors.

Received 13 June 2007; Revised 13 June 2007.

Abstract

In the ever-changing business world, CEOs are often faced with multiple interrelated issues or problems where the solutions do not fall within traditional line management responsibilities. One approach to addressing such issues is to design a transformation road map and implement the identified initiatives. The key is to know the right time to embark on such a venture and then to create a vision of the future that can be detailed into specific initiatives to bring them about in a timely way. These elements will be discussed together with practical implementation steps in a global business scenario. In addition, practical examples of actual market situations will be used to identify critical success factors in the pursuit of transformational programmes. The speed, complexity and scope of transformational programmes have increased over the last two decades. New educational initiatives and resources will have to be deployed if managers are to be able to effectively lead such transformational programmes in the future. It is time, therefore, to review transformational planning and implementation in the present context of experience over the last 20 years of change management initiatives.