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Draws on a number of recent surveys to address the issue of why corporate transformation and total quality are taking longer to achieve than was first envisaged. Concludes that a more holistic approach is required than is often applied. Successfully implementing a transformation programme depends critically on the relevance of the selection, combination and application of change elements to the requirements of the situation at each stage of the change process.

The need for more flexible and responsive organizations, and the potential of networks technology, are generally accepted. Argues, however, that the desire for corporate transformation is not always matched by an understanding of how to bring it about. In many organizations there is a considerable gap between intention and reality. People need to be equipped to assess, re‐engineer, and support with appropriate technology the key business processes that contribute most to customer satisfaction and corporate objectives. This requires new attitudes and additional techniques. Without this understanding organizations are unlikely to obtain the full benefits of investments in IT.

In many companies there is a growing gap between the rhetoric of corporate vision and the reality of management life. A vision needs to be communicated and shared. This requires top management commitment, persistence and communication skills. Managers are deficient in communication skills and need to be better equipped to cope with change. What is needed are new attitudes towards, and approaches to, communication in organizations.

Total quality management does improve organizational performance and remains the most viable long‐term business strategy around. These were the findings of a recent report entitled “TQM: Forging a Need or Falling Behind?”, commissioned by Development Dimensions International of Pittsburgh, the Quality & Productivity Management Association of Schaumburg, Illinois, and Industry Week, which were based on interviews with 6,500 people in 84 organizations. However, on considering the various elements which help or hinder TQM implementation, training emerged as the one successful theme in successful programmes.

Business process re‐engineering (BPR) and the learning organization are widely discussed management concepts. While both could be, and sometimes are pursued in the same organization, the first tends to be perceived as a means and the latter as an end of corporate transformation. Examines the development aspects of BPR and whether in practice its application helps or hinders the development of the learning organization. Draws on the results of COBRA, a pan‐European examination of BPR experience and practice, which has found that the reality of BPR application does not always match its rhetoric. BPR exercises tend to be concerned with working people harder rather than smarter and the development implications of implementing different approaches to BPR are rarely fully thought through. Greater priority needs to be devoted to agreeing and building roles, competences and behaviours.

Summarizes the results of a European Commission project led by the author, which has examined business re‐structuring across Europe and the relationship between business process re‐engineering (BPR) and new ways of working. Found that there are many ways other than BPR for achieving fundamental change and that most exercises being undertaken in the name of BPR are of an improvement nature and in some cases more radical improvements are being achieved by those adopting new patterns of work. Argues that BPR is failing to harness enough of the potential of people. Business processes rather than management support or learning processes are being re‐engineered. People are working harder rather than smarter.

Reports the implications for the role and contribution of quality of a five year investigation into corporate approaches to renewal, learning and transformation. Finds that many companies are failing to shift their focus beyond product and process quality into the arena of quality of relationships, working life, learning and thinking and that more holistic and people‐centred approaches are needed. Argues that too many approaches remain excessively mechanical and prescriptive, and their application is limited to individual organizations rather than supply and value chains ‐ they constrain rather than liberate. Advocates the redefinition of quality in terms of ten essential freedoms that should become the basis of a new social contract with stakeholders.

Discusses the fact that business process re‐engineering (BPR) and a new pattern of work such as teleworking share certain common drivers – a desire for greater flexibility and lower operating costs – and both can also involve a fundamental review of the interaction of people, processes and technology. Discusses some of the findings of a European Commission‐funded examination of the nature of the relationship which might exist between BPR and teleworking in the context of business restructuring activities occurring across Europe. Illustrates the kinds of question relating to teleworking which could be posed at the various stages of a BPR exercise.

Many contemporary approaches to talent management are unaffordable. This paper seeks to summarise some key findings of a five‐year investigation into quicker and more affordable routes to creating high performance organisations. It aims to suggest a practical and much more cost‐effective way of quickly achieving multiple corporate objectives and measurable benefits for both people and organisations is often being overlooked.

A programme of critical success factor, “issue” and other surveys was complemented with a five‐year evaluation of more recent case studies to understand early adoptions of performance support and to assess their results and implications. The applications examined were discussed with the relevant technical architect and the results obtained corroborated with commissioner/user performance data and/or documented assessments/reactions.

Recruiting exceptional people – even if affordable – can create a host of problems if they are not properly managed, which is often the case. Paying for talented people may make little sense for organisations that cannot harness or capture and share what they do differently. Talent needs to be relevant to what an organisation is seeking to do and critical success factors for excelling in key roles, and what top performers do differently in these areas captured and shared.

Evaluations of performance management need to consider all the objectives that are beneficially impacted.

One can avoid certain general, expensive, time consuming and disruptive corporate programmes in an area such as talent management and adopt quick, focused, cost effective alternatives that generate large returns on investment, and quickly deliver multiple benefits for people and organisations. Performance support can enable average performers wherever they may be to excel at difficult jobs.

A wider range of people can be helped to do difficult jobs.

The paper summarises the main findings of an investigation that has identified deficiencies of contemporary approaches to talent management, identifies an approach which if strategically adopted can enable relevant talent in terms of how to excel at key roles to be developed as and when required, and sets out the benefits of Talent Management 2, of which performance support is a central element.