The challenge in Chris' new role was to awaken his sleepy business unit from its internal focus and complacency  and to catch up to its competitors who were actively responding to a service industry that was being quickly transformed by the internet.

The primary dilemma Chris faced was the pressing need to implement change ASAP in stark contrast to the paternalistic culture of this European-based company. From Chris' previous experience in a related industry outside of this current business, it was apparent that most of the business processes would need to produce the professional information in a shorter amount of time, through entirely different distribution channels, and organized in ways for ease of use by end-user professionals. The Board of Directors and the senior executives appeared to have an intellectual understanding of the need for change, but they also expressed a strong distaste for the required disruption of people's lives, careers, and personal loyalties in order to implement those changes. They wanted some sort of stepwise transformation in a short period of time without blood on the carpet. This was especially true for their consideration of long-tenured employees who had been loyal to the company.  Chris' business unit was viewed as test case or experiment for the rest of the organization facing similar challenges in different services and markets. To make matters even more interesting, his boss managed his business unit previously under the old business paradigm. Oh, and in addition to remaining competitive by making the transition, top management wanted to also capture market share.

Because of Chris' strong back ground in business strategy and his appropriate self-confidence, he was able to use facts and logic to create a compelling story for the need for change. By taking a more external focus and drawing from outside benchmarks and out-of-industry examples of similar radical industry changes created by the internet and the dangers of responding too slowly, he created a sense of urgency particularly with upper management. While the vision for what the design and process requirements would need to be in the future state were very clear to Chris, other managers had no reference points to use to easily comprehend this vision. Chris would have to bring them along and have them own building of the future.

 Chris was used to smaller management jobs where he could easily keep his finger on the pulse of what was happening in the front lines. Now managing other executives, he was farther removed from the front lines and needed to trust that his executives'  assessments of their portions of the business were accurate, insightful, and reasonably balanced. He needed to trust his team members and he couldn't, as many of them were untested yet in leading and implementing change. Developing his team would detract from the time he had available to influence horizontally and up. Until he was able to unleash his team, he was unable to fully leverage his insights and the abilities of his entire business unit team.

The reward for success was the opportunity to do more work.