He is a graduate of MIT and Harvard, and has been on the Harvard Business School faculty since 1972. K otter's most recent book, Leading Change, was recently released by Harvard Business School Press.
Many people look at the current business environment as a tornado or a hurricane.
They are, therefore, quite rationally it would seem to them, either running around boarding up the house or shuffling all the children and valuables down into the basement. But the strong winds they are feeling, winds that are creating a lot of activity and anxiety, are not associated with traditional hurricanes or tornadoes. Instead, the basic business climate is changing in some fairly fundamental ways, and strong, powerful winds are increasingly becoming the norm instead of the dreaded exception. This shift is being driven, at least from all I've seen, by the globalization of the economy along with associated technological and social changes-forces that will only grow larger over the next few decades. The only sound response to this is to build organizations that not only can withstand these more powerful winds but will turn the new climate into an opportunity.