colours, large-print, not too many words, easy to read, short sentences, furry animals and 'amusing little people', all of which certainly should, set alarm bells ringing: A book for adults trying to pass itself off as a kids' book?! First though, the question is, why bother with it, why worry about it, why even take it seriously?

Making An Impact
There are two main reasons: the first is that this book is influential. Who Moved My Cheese? is used by people and institutions that are definitively influential. And anything that influences the influential is surely important itself. The second reason relates to its message and the influence it has.

Our attention is drawn to the fact that the book is used and endorsed by at least twenty-three large and well-known institutions: Abbott Labs, Bausch & Lomb, Bell South, Bristol Myers Squibb,
Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Eastman Kodak, Exxon, Georgia Pacific, General Motors, Goodyear, Greyhound, Lucent Technologies, Marriott, Mead Johnson, Mobil, Oceaneering, Ohio State University, State Farm, Textron, Texaco, Whirlpool, Xerox, countless churches and hospitals, unnamed government agencies, and the United States Military.

In many countries, including Japan and America, Who Moved My Cheese? is read widely in family homes, by parents to their children as a bedtime story; and many UK companies have held major conferences celebrating and 'exploring' the usefulness of Who Moved My Cheese? Mention it to any marketer or manager in just about any country and they will likely have heard of it, quite probably have read it, and would be extolling it and its profound insights.

The Characters
Let me introduce you to it. In the book, everyone is looking for cheese. Cheese is a metaphor for what we want in life (jobs, relationships, money, recognition, etc.). The Maze is a metaphor for
where you spend time looking for what you want (the organisation you work in, the family, or community you live in). Hem and Haw, two characters in the book, come to regard the cheese they found at Cheese Station C as their cheese, and they eventually moved their homes to be closer
to it, and built a social life around it. They do not, however, notice it depleting. When it does run out, it is only the mice, Sniff and Scurry, who weren't surprised. ‘Since Sniff and Scurry had noticed that the supply of cheese had been getting smaller every day, [so] they were prepared for the inevitable and knew instinctively what to do'. More precisely, what is celebrated, is that ‘the mice did not over-analyse things’. Hem and Haw, however, did.

In Who Moved My Cheese?, the deal is exactly as the mice well know : ‘To the mice, the problem and the answer were both simple. The situation at Cheese Station C had changed. So, Sniff and Scurry decided to change'. Hem and Haw however, obsessed over questions of fairness. The four imaginary characters illustrate that for change to happen, one must be ready to sniff or smell
a change in trends. Moving ahead of a trend would significantly equip oneself with opportunity.
The old saying is “Slow and steady wins the race”; however in an era of globalisation, “steady speed wins the race”.

So, how should one deal with change? Firstly, a person needs to be flexible and adapt to any situation. This requires one to be open-minded and think out of the box wherein they are willing to listen to other ideas and perspectives. Very often, we see some companies or employees taking
a laid-back attitude in instituting change by having “a wait and see” approach rather than taking the initiative to implement changes immediately. Further, one must recognise that change is
good although some change aspects take a longer period of realisation, which could be be painstaking.

How to win with change
To kick-start your change initiative, consider adopting the following :-

	Anticipate the best rather than fear the worst
	Positive reactions rather than negative behaviours
	Constructive thoughts rather than destructive emotions
	Feel confident and capable rather than unsure and inept
	Embrace opportunities rather than count obstacles
	Move forward rather than step back
	Be an advocate rather than a victim.

Reviewed by Asohan Satkunasingham. Asohan is the Industrial and Human Resource Manager at Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad.