In 1998, when Corrado Passera became chief executive of the state-owned Italian postal service, the company had not made a profit for more than 50 years and was close to collapse.

In 2005, Idris Jala faced a similarly grim situation when he became chief executive of Malaysia Airlines. The company was thought to be a few months away from bankruptcy.

Three years after Mr Passera took over, Poste Italiane was profitable and the third-largest insurance provider in the country. Mr Jala took Malaysia Airlines from a 1.7 billion ringgit loss to a profit of 851 million ringgit in two years.

How did they succeed? By using common sense. Mary Meaney, a partner and expert in organisational change with McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy, says that much of what companies need to do to bring about change is “common sense, but all too frequently it doesn't become common practice”.

In a report published today in The McKinsey Quarterly, Ms Meaney and colleagues identify six tactics that companies need to adopt to maximise the chances of success when leading change. These are: establishing well-defined and stretching targets; strong involvement by the chief executive; establishing a clear structure and programme for the change; ensuring that frontline staff are involved in the process; organising a large-scale collaborative planning effort; and striking a balance between emphasising failure and praising success.

A significant change programme, whether it is privatisation, a merger or cost-cutting, has a less than one in five chance of success if none of the tactics is employed. The chances of success are raised slightly if one tactic is used, although if that one tactic is “setting stretching targets” then the chance of success is lifted to about 30 per cent.

Stretching targets plus any two of the others raises the chances of succeeding to about 60 per cent. Using all six tactics boosts the chances of success to 80 per cent. “Not having clear stretching targets is pretty much a death knell,” Ms Meaney said. “It stands to reason: if you don't know what you're shooting for then, frankly, you are unlikely to get there.”

Mr Passera set two stretching targets for Poste Italiane: to become one of Europe's best post offices and to become Italy's largest financial services organisation. He turned aspiration into reality by involving the entire organisation in setting goals that could be tracked at each post office.

He travelled to branches around the country to explain his plans. “You have to put your face in front of the people if you want them to follow you,” he said.

The McKinsey research, which included a survey of nearly 3,000 senior executives, found that when asked about any regrets they had about previous change programmes, most said that they regretted not removing cynics — members of staff who could not be persuaded of the need for change — and not spending enough time communicating with staff and exciting them about the changes.

“Having a CEO visibly involved means that the transformation is more than twice as likely to be successful,” Ms Meaney said.

It also helps to be forthright about the need for change. Mr Jala was brutally honest in his first board meeting at Malaysia Airlines. “I'd never worked a single day at an airline before, but, looking at the P&L [profit and loss], it didn't take more than an hour to figure out the solution,” he said. “If you have to control costs, you just go and cut costs ... What else are you going to say?”

Ms Meaney said: “One of the consistent themes is around pace and around the need for momentum and the need for action, and the need for some quick wins and early success stories.

“One of the things to think through is how you orchestrate things so that you get success early and you get the momentum and make the changes that you want but don't overwhelm the organisation.”

“Defensive and reactive” change programmes, often triggered by dire financial circumstances, are more prone to failure than “offensive and proactive” changes inspired by positive stimuli, such as a desire to expand the company or improve performance. However, by using the six tactics their chances of success can be more than doubled.

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