Now is the time to develop new ways of thinking and dispense with old traditional thought patterns. Are you likely to benefit or fall victim to this inevitable trend? Examined are the issues at hand and formulas for accomplishing change.

Resist the fact that change is inevitable and you might as well hide your head in the sand. Today’s market conditions will be tomorrow’s memory. Your key personnel may leave for greener pastures, and your customer base may dry up for no reason that you have control over.

If you are on top of the competitive heap today, the worst thing you can do is try to stay where you are—because the one thing you can count on in business is change. Big change, small change—in markets, laws and regulations, workforce, consumer trends, economies, governments—all of it is going to have an impact on your organisation whether you want it to or not.

The key to riding the waves of change is to see them coming before they are upon you. Your ability to accurately forecast change and it’s impact on your business is a critical factor to your growth and success.

Your skill in leading internal change to keep pace with the change occurring outside your doors is a determining factor in establishing and retaining competitive advantage.

Easier said than done, you might be saying.

Perhaps, but it still needs doing.

And you must bring your people along with you. In fact, your whole organisation needs to be one big change machine, with your whole staff engaged in spotting the waves of change on the horizon and collaborating to create strategies for successfully riding them out.

In this keynote, Anne McKevitt will give up examples of recent changes that are impacting on businesses and their markets, and will discuss the following points in depth:

Do you have a “change culture” in your organisation? If not, you’d better create one.

The many hats of a change leader: Sales person, diplomat, communicator, consensus builder.

The anatomy of a change initiative: Vision, alliances, communication, motivation, uptake.

The psychology of change: Change always causes upset, so be prepared.

Anne will also discuss sudden and unexpected change, such as the recent tsunami and the events of September 11th, and how organisations successfully meet the challenges associated with the impacts on infrastructure and morale that such events bring about.