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For half a century, experts have offered leaders a standard model of how to transform organizations. It involves unfreezing them, developing a clear picture of the future, managing to make the picture a reality, and then changing systems to support the new ways. However, studies have shown that transformation does not always follow this script. This paper aims to look at four alternatives.

This paper reviews more than 50 well documented transformations and compares them to both the standard model and non‐mainstream ideas about transformation

The paper offers a guide to five distinct, reproducible ways of radically altering organizations: the standard model process (“holism”), transformation through the ambidextrous form, transformation through acquisition/restructuring, the Collins “Good‐to‐great” process, an improvisational transformation process. Hybrid approaches are discussed.

Providing a comprehensive guide to corporate transformation is a problematic undertaking. The authors could not review every case study of transformation, so they cannot say with certainty that their list of documented transformation methods is all‐inclusive. However, their survey gave them good reason to believe these are the five best‐documented transformation processes.

The paper explains the important advantages of each approach to transformation that make it appropriate for particular purposes.

When organizations need radical change, leaders need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all five well‐documented alternative paths to transformation.

The authors examine the approach by which Sam Walton, a 48-year-old when he took his first technology course, drove creation of a new set of technology for retailing.

By breaking Walton’s approach into five stages, the authors show how his way of working points to a credible path for leaders with limited background in technology to lead technological change.

Senior leaders can apply Walton’s systematic way of leading for creation of excellent processes to accomplish customer-focused technology innovation in the modern era.

Five elements of Walton’s tech innovation leadership are reviewed and analyzed.

This article offers insights about how Walton was able to form a tech savvy team of managers and synthesize a vision about the potential of technology to produce operational breakthroughs far in advance of his competition.