The change event for Avon Products, Inc. has been identified as transforming product ordering in the United States from a disjointed, multi-stage process which currently includes orders by mail, fax, phone, or internet to a strictly internet online order system. The transformed system will be completely functional by March 2006.
             To accomplish this task, a powerful guiding coalition will be necessary. The dictionary description of guiding is "one who shows the way by leading or directing" and coalition is "an alliance or union, especially a temporary one". The business environment at this time is rapidly changing. As such, to succeed, businesses must recognize that large-scale changes will only be possible as a result of new strategies, reengineering, restructuring, mergers, acquisisitions, downsizing, new products or new market development (Kotter, p 56, 1996). It is necessary to have a coalition with strong, credible leadership to be highly effective in this type of business climate. It must be strong – "one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objective. Building such a team is always an essential part of the early stages of any effort to restructure, reengineer, or retool a set of strategies" (Kotter, p 52, 1996). Significant change, such as the one proposed for Avon, will certainly require an alliance of strong leaders for the transformation to not only occur, but to have long term success.
             The steps to putting together the guiding coalition will include: 1) having enough key players on board, including mainline managers; 2) having coalition members with expertise so that informed, intelligent decisions are made; 3) having coalition members with credibility so pronouncements will be taken seriously by all employees; and 4) having coalition members that are proven leaders. John P. Kotter cites that "major transformations are often associated with one highly visible individual" (p. ...