The supertankers that now carry most of the world’s crude oil are well over a quarter of a mile long, the length of more than four football fields---so long that the officers on the bridge, located at the stern of the ship, must use binoculars to see what’s happening at the bow. These ships are so immense that no port can handle them; they must remain in 100 feet of water, unloading their cargo into smaller vessels or pipelines connected to shore refineries. It can take a supertanker as much as five miles to stop its forward motion, and twenty miles to make a 90-degree turn, even when there is danger ahead.

 Many men and women in large and even medium-sized organizations will be able to empathize with the skipper of a supertanker. Sometimes it seems that the organizations, too, respond in a frustratingly cumbersome manner to potentially dangerous changes in the economic, political, and social environment. As the CEO of one large European industrial company put it...”I feel like the captain of an aging, rusting tanker. I order a change in direction...Turn the wheel...Everyone seems to be doing the right things. But nothing happens. It just keeps moving straight ahead.”

 The same thing happens with organizations.  With time and success they lose the nimbleness they once had.  The intentions are there, the actions are there, but nothing really changes. They become like the supertanker---efficient and effective at staying the course, but almost impossible to maneuver through today’s turbulent business environments.  In order to regain flexibility and responsiveness to do more, better, faster, with less, there must be a more basic cultural transformation.

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