Organisations of today are facing competition and challenges of a degree not seen before. Preserving and nurturing competitive advantages based on ideas, capital, size, market access and technology is no longer easy. Even organisations with well thought-out strategies, structure and systems are finding it difficult to sustain their growth in markets. Highly dynamic markets, characterised by a constant stream of innovation by competition, demanding customers, rapidly shifting preferences, are today mandating that organisations learn and implement change in all aspects of their functioning quickly and efficiently.

Despite great progress in management thought that has rapidly transformed most organisations into much more efficient entities, only a few organisations world-wide would claim a level of maturity and capability, that ensures self learning and changing, ahead of market expectations. Fundamental changes in the dimensions of the global business environment such as ambiguity, uncertainty, and pace of change are creating new paradigms for which there are few answers. Most organisations in the developing world, however, are still struggling with basic issues of low productivity, poor leadership, poor innovation or lack of a continuous improvement culture. 

Viable strategy combined with Frontline excellence and the capability for rapid and efficient change are thus on the wish list of every CEO today. An organisations' human resource and culture are a strategic part of this delivery, often the most complex and difficult to define and manage.