Transforming The Peformance Of Retail
Providing Clear Communications And Standard Ways Of Working to Improve Effectivness
What was the challenge?
After many years of rapid growth, the fortunes of this high street retailer were starting to slow. In the previous years the business had expanded rapidly however this had led to muddled ways of working, inconsistent delivery and cost inefficiencies. In order to retain its market leading position, the Client instigated a series of projects to standardise their operating practices, reduce cost and improve colleague engagement. Building on our experience of delivering a step change in retail store performance Rubidium were tasked to deliver a transformation of fortunes across the store estate.
What was the approach?
Our first challenge was to understand the primary causes of the declining sales through a detailed investigation of all aspects of the retail business. This activity quickly highlighted that the head office was not joined up in its engagement with retail. There were multiple communication paths creating conflicting demands on stores, colleagues did not have clear job descriptions or targets, back office processes were inconsistent and staff scheduling did not match customer footfall.
The team quickly established a series of project workstreams to target the main failings and prioritised the activities into short term wins and longer-term capability developments. The workstreams focussed on raising the capability and engagement of the field management teams, standardisation of the operating practices, managing communications and workflow between the head office teams and the retail stores and creating consistent objectives and targets throughout the retail team structure.
How did we help?
The programme of work that we set in place transformed the ways of working across the Client organisation. Whilst maintaining its entrepreneurial ethos, the business successfully reshaped its operating practices. This new standardisation and consistency enabled them to continue on their exceptional growth journey, delivering year on year earnings growth for the next seven years.