ntroversial than others, such as the reengineering of how the firms conducts its business. Other elements tend to be sources of problems in their own right unless they are fully explained to the firm's employees and unless the firm's employees are trained to effectively implement them. A case in point within this context is employee empowerment.
At the time of this case, late-1993 or early-1994, Novotel management believed that the company was making good progress in relation to Les Recontres de Futur. Management thought that the firm's primary concern at this time was to assure that the momentum generated by Les Recontres de Futur was maintained at the firm. Top management at Novotel, however, had recognized something that had yet to be imparted to the firm's employees. Top management had recognized that Les Recontres de Futur did not represent a one-time change to prepare Novotel to function competitively in a changing environment. Rather, top management recognized that Novotel had entered into an era in which environmental change was going to be the norm rather than the exception. This recognition by top management must be shared with all Novotel employees if the firm is to retain its Les Recontres de Futur momentum.
Reengineering projects are difficult. At its core, business process reengineering (BRP) sounds simple and intuitive. It is not, and BPR requires companies to "start from scratch. Look at the end-to-end processes that are really important to an organization's success, then rapidly redesign who does what and give workers new tools to get more done. Management must not be limited by current organizational structure or current thinking" (Moad, 1993, p. 22).
Reengineering usually brings problems and, very often, failure. Failure usually "has more to do with faltering support from upper management sponsors than with late or inadequate information systems. Projects also often fall short simply because top...