Kinetic Solutions: Change Management for Company Growth

Established in 1975, Kinetic Solutions (KS) manufactured drives, devices that controlled the speed and direction of motors. In 2017, it was acquired by Japanese motors company Novatech Corporation (Novatech). Novatech aimed to be “The global leader for everything drive-related”, and had ambitious plans for KS. In 2018, the company hired Mateo Alvarez as Regional Sales Director to double its sales in two years. This target excited and terrified him as the company was suffering a negative 40% growth rate when he joined.

After visiting KS’s South and Southeast Asian (SEA), and Oceania offices, Alvarez realised that changing the company’s pervasive culture would take too long, and decided to start from scratch. The first thing that he did was to lay off all the salespeople across the offices. Next, he reprogrammed KS’s company culture, reorganised operations, hired employees who embodied the new company culture, whilst pruning away the clients that he felt had been “bleeding the company dry”. In three months, KS began seeing growth.

By 2024, Alvarez had not only exceeded his contractual targets, but was promoted to Vice-President of KS’s South and SEA, and Oceania offices. The company was seeing steady growth, had widened its geographic spread, and its employee morale reached an all-time high. As someone who actively sought out growth, Alvarez wondered if he could continue to instil the culture of passion and agility, as the company scaled new heights.

This case, suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students in business and management, will help students:

• Understand the importance of conducting cultural diagnosis

• Appreciate the impact of organisational culture on performance

• Recognise the role of leadership in cultural change

• Identify strategies of resistance to change

• Assess and choose appropriate change management strategies

The Kinetic Solutions case study (SMU-25-0019) can be taught in conjunction with the case supplement graphic novel version of the case study (SMU-25-0019 S).

Inspection copies and teaching notes are available for university faculty. To receive an inspection copy and teaching note, please email cmpshop@smu.edu.sg with your registered faculty email ID and a link to your contact information on the faculty directory at your university as verification. An inspection copy and teaching note will then be sent to your faculty email account.

Download information

SMU Faculty/Staff can download the case & teaching note on iNet with your SMU login ID & Password via the following links:

·      The Case (SMU-25-0019)

·      Case Supplement (SMU-25-0019S)

·      Teaching Note (SMU-25-0019TN)

For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via The Case Centre, please access the following links:

·      The Case (SMU-25-0019)

·      The Case Supplement (SMU-25-0019)

·      Teaching Note (SMU-25-0019)

For purchase of the case and supplementary materials via Harvard Business Publishing, please access the following links:

·      The Case (SMU-25-0019)

·      The Case Supplement (SMU-25-0019)

·      Teaching Note (SMU-25-0019)