Strategic Change for Sea Treasure: Applying Kotter's Model Online

This report addresses the challenges faced by Sea Treasure, a small retail store specializing in sea life decorations, due to a shrinking customer base and store closures. It proposes a strategic shift to online sales using Kotter's 8-step change model to revitalize the business and increase profits. The report details each step of the model, including establishing urgency, building a guiding coalition, forming a strategic vision, enlisting a volunteer army, removing barriers, generating short-term wins, sustaining acceleration, and instituting change. It emphasizes the importance of employee involvement, proactive problem-solving, and aligning changes with the organization's core values to ensure successful and sustainable transformation.

RUNNING HEAD: Organizational change 0
Organizational change

Organizational change 1
The Sea treasure is a small retail store particular in the mysterious sea life and high-
end decorations for aquariums. The company is sustaining from the last fifty years, but the
customer’s base is shrinking on the regular basis. The company is also facing scarcity of staff
and closing of stores. Sea treasures are in the urgent need of innovations and creative
changes. Being sales and marketing director, it is suggested to the company to endure
business and upsurge profits by creating an internet site. It is helpful in selling a large
inventory of the aquarium decorator items. The company can make use of Kotter’s 8 step
change model. This model can be followed step by step to provide a base for creating an
exciting company. It can be followed for both short term and long term change.
Establishing a sense of urgency
The first step of Kotter’s model is to create a sense of urgency. The idea of forming
an internet website to trade a large inventory of aquarium decorate objects is necessary for
the survival and success of the organization (Hornstein, 2015). It may spark as the initial
motivation to get things moving. It is a powerful decision to create an environment where

Organizational change 2
employees will be aware of the existing problems. The involvement of the employees causes
a more possible solution.
Build a guiding coalition
Sea treasures need to convince their personnel that change is essential. It will require
robust leadership and perceptible support from the key personnel in the organization.
Supervising change in the organization is not sufficient but it should be led. Sea treasures
need to bring together a team of influential people to lead change in the organization. The
power of the team is attained from a variety of sources comprising status, expertise, job title
and political significance (Kumar, et al. 2018).
Forming a strategic vision
Earlier the company used to sell through the stores and now the initiative will be
taken to link with vision. The vision of the Sea treasures is to retail a large portfolio of
aquarium decorator objects by creating an internet website. In order to form a strategic vision,
values are determined which are central to the change (Hall, 2018). The strategy of
transforming sales online has been executed for the vision of increasing sales.
Enlist a volunteer army
Communicating change in the vision should be powerfully conveyed. The vision
should be critically connected with the critical aspects such as training, performance reviews
and more. The concerns and issues to be faced in the organization should be tackled honestly.
The employees should be involved in important decisions bringing change. The opinion and
concerns of the employees should be considered seriously.
Enable action by removing barriers
The employees can face a challenge while executing change in the organization. The
employees even feel resistance to technology. They are not cable of the online operations. It
can even cause the falling rate of the employee’s resistance. The problems should be
identified within the organization and the employees who are resistant to change. The
proactive actions should be taken to hinder the obstacles arising in the process of change
(Osiyevskyy & Dewald, 2015).
Generate short term wins

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The sales and marketing manager persuaded the owner of the company to endure the
business and increase profits by creating an internet website. It is a small scale change. The
company needs to change the team and work harder to attain the targets. These small changes
can easily motivate the company more than success. The short term goal of generating sales
through the website should be attainable with little room for the failure (Cooney, et al. 2016).
The short term wins should be generated by the company to accomplish long term goals.
Such gains produced should motivate the whole organization. These gains are the beginnings
of what needs to be done in order to accomplish long term change.
Sustain acceleration
The company can plan long term goals on the basis of short term gains. Along with
selling aquarium decorations, the company can enlarge its website to trade live sea creatures
like tropical fish and minor sea turtles online. Launching new products is great but the
company is required to look for the improvements after every change.
Institute change
The final step in Kotter’s eight step change model is to institute changes. The change
can only become part of the organization if it has become part of the core of the organization.
The changes are welcomed when the values and standards agree with the new vision and the
behavior of the employees is also required to provide a seamless match (Ceptureanu, 2015).
Sea treasure is required to make sure that the changes are viewed in every aspect. The
leaders of the company are also required to support the changes taking place in the
organization. The changes give a solid place in the organization’s culture.

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Hall, H. N. (2018). Changing the World by Being a Personally and Socially Responsible
Leader: A Scholarly Analysis of Educating Leaders of Social Change.
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change
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Kumar, A., Kent, F., Wallace, E. M., McLelland, G., Bentley, D., Koutsoukos, A., & Nestel,
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