Change is a common feature in organizations today, but it does not appear to have become any easier to implement. There are many such phase models in the management literature, but they all say much the same things about vision, leadership, communication and involvement.
| Step for success | Marks and Spenser |
| 1. Establish a sense of urgency | – inventory was not well managed
– poor in decision making |
| 2. Form a guiding coalition | – Worked with a core team of trusted people |
| 3. Create a vision | – provided a simple, accessible and operational guiding vision |
| 4. Communicate the vision | – communication to reinforce the point, and focus energy around the core direction- Worked with a core team of trusted people |
| 5. Empower people to act on the vision | – set in on operational day to day meetings to the “level of micromanagement” to focus the conversation in detail on the key points |
| 6. Create ‘short term wins’ | – Reward employees who well in service performance |
| 7. Consolidate improvements to produce further change | – keep moving towards new targets, new goals and new improvements |
| 8. Institutionalize new approaches | – Worked with a core team of trusted people |
Stuart Rose, the CEO of Marks & Spencer presented a perspective of Change Management in May 2007. Just as in Kotter’s Leading Change, the change effort started with emphasizing the critical need for change because the current state was untenable. Rose realized that inventory was not being managed effectively, decision making was being delegated without accountability or senior management sign-off, and customers were being attracted to newer, dynamic competitors. Change was imperative for them.
Second, Rose started the change process with a core team of trusted people he had worked with because he knew their strengths. Rose brought with him the Executive Director of IT, Supply Chain, and Property, and the Executive Director of Marketing and Store Design. With this core team, Rose was able to lead the change.
Third, Rose deliberately decided not to call in an army of consultants to analyze market demographics and customer segmentation, conduct industry competitor analysis, or plan organizational restructuring. Instead, Rose put forward a simple, communicable statement of what had to be done, that got to the heart of the matter and which was easily communicated yet specific enough to focus effort in the directions required. Finally, Rose provided a simple, accessible and operational guiding vision that is improve the product, improve the stores, and improve the service.
Fourth, Rose reinforced the communication of the message symbolically to reinforce the point, and focus energy around the core direction. For example,
The most symbolic thing we did was to have a massive housecleaning. Because there were so many different sub brands in our shops, we had lots of signage and titles and names on cardboard cluttering up our shops. We had a skip delivered to all the stores – every single one – and asked them to toss everything out. On the scale of things, that may not seem like a big deal, but it quickly made quite an impact on the way the stores looked and how employees felt.
The message was communicated to customers. Food halls were now decked out in matte steel refrigerators and shiny black tile floors to create an environment in which people felt good about the premium they were being asked to pay for the quality of products. The message was also reinforced through the use of 60s fashion icon Twiggy as a “face” of women’s clothing at Marks & Spencer.
Five, Rose drove the change down into the “DNA” of the organization not only by putting everyone through training on the basics, but set in on operational day to day meetings to the level of micromanagement to focus the conversation in detail on the key points. Incentive structures were realigned to reward service performance instead of seniority, redefining the career progression path. The entire 56,000 strong workforce was put through motivational training sessions focused around teamwork and customer service.
Six, Rose recounted a story of a manager who responded to an observation regarding an opportunity by rapidly delivering a new product and he got a bottle of champagne as reward.
Seven, Rose said that he finally success in recovery, they are now at a better place, and they’re making good profits. There’s more work to be done though, just to carry out what he said he would do three years ago, let alone take the business to the next stage, they still have a long way to go. And perhaps that is the spirit of change management. They could celebrate the wins but don’t stop at there, just keep moving towards new targets, new goals and new improvements.
Lastly, when all of the stages were success implement, they would able to institutionalize the changes into the culture by improve the change.
In this case, Rose encountered an environment where people within M&S were already lobbying for different plans, different strategies. However, because the Christmas season is the key to the entire retail year, there were clear timelines to achieve results. There was no time to try one direction and perhaps change to a different course if that didn’t work. Rose committed to the direction he had selected, and said that there was no Plan B. There was a clear, unequivocal, simple message. That is, Rose committed to letting go of alternative ideas and the status quo, and committed the organization to the new path.