Biography:
Anne Babilon-Teubenbacher is a partner at CPC AG and, as CEO Austria, responsible for the Austrian market. Her fields of expertise cover change management, organisational development as well as project and management consulting. Eight years in China and Hong Kong add wide-ranging intercultural leadership skills to every project.
Our colleague and managing director of CPC Austria, Anne Babilon-Teubenbacher, spoke with "Die Presse" about one of the central questions of modern corporate management:
Do companies need external change consulting – or should they develop change capability themselves?
Anne has a clear stance on this:
"Change is not an add-on. It is not a project. Change is a process. Change is everywhere."
She emphasizes: markets change daily. New technologies such as AI shift roles, tasks and expectations. At the same time, legal developments – such as the upcoming pay transparency act – challenge companies to rethink structures and roles.
Anyone who wants to remain successful in this dynamic needs change capability as a firm component of the organization – not as an add-on.
Leaders as shapers of change
Leadership today means guiding employees through uncertainty, providing orientation and reducing resistance. Anne Babilon-Teubenbacher therefore sees change management as a basic competence of every leader:
"Anyone who has mastered the fundamentals of change management can help others to understand and support change. That way the 'valley of tears' becomes shallower."
Resistance often arises from uncertainty. It is therefore crucial to communicate early, to involve employees and, as a leader, to remain approachable. This creates trust and opens up new perspectives.
A common language for change
Change succeeds when everyone involved speaks the same language. Anne draws a comparison for this:
As in a sailing course, everyone on board first has to agree on the same terms and manoeuvres – otherwise chaos ensues.
In companies this means: a shared understanding of change, clear methods and a uniform language form the foundation for successful transformations.
With this stance, Anne makes it clear: change is not a state of emergency – it is the normal case. And organizations that understand this are not only more resilient, but fit for the future.
You can read the full article here.
