10 Transformation
The Configuration or Transformational school of strategy looks at the shape of an organisation. Mintzberg was one of the main proponents of configuration, identifying various kinds of organisations, including entrepreneurial, machine, professional, diversified, innovative, missionary and political. Transformationalists, by contrast, are more interested in how the organisation changes from one configuration to another.
In the final minute, the question is “how will successfully completing this strategy change or transform the organisation?” A small-scale strategy will naturally have a small-scale impact, but a substantial piece of work can be the catalyst for major change — for example, a complete reconfiguration of the organisation with changed values, underlying purposes, coordinating mechanisms, and distribution of power or authority.
This may seem a grandiose claim for a strategy that can be sketched out in ten minutes, but it is generally easier to transform an organisation as a result of a successful piece of work than by setting out to transform it as a goal in itself. It also needs to be remembered that a successful strategy may transform an organisation without the strategist being aware of it. All too often leaders across the worlds of industry, politics, government, public sector, unions and the not-for-profit sector have discovered that implementing a successful strategy has moved power in the organisation away from the formal leaders or founders, leading to a take-over, coup, or power vaccuum.
There is no doubt that the situation of the villagers is transformed at the end of the film. Not only have they seen off the bandits, but they have also become a different community, now possessing military skills and fortifications. The Samurai, however, are untransformed. Only three remain alive. Shichiroji, Kambai’s old friend, remarks ‘we won’. Kambai replies ‘No, the farmers won.’