The Perils and Pitfalls
of a Leading Change:
A young Manager’s
Turnaround Journey
Presented by
Syed Rehman Uddin
Syed Faisal Raza
M.Jamal
Ahmad Saim Khan
Introduction
A European fashion and retail
company Clothes and Accessories
Started operations in Brazil in 1970
Market Leader in Fashion Industry
Boom of fashion industry in 1990 due
to its brand name and economies of
scale
C&A hired Daniel Oliveira as a trainee after
extremely tough selection process (Twenty
position out of 10000).
Assigned to C&A largest store in Recife City in
Brazil.
350 employees, large revenue and good culture
Oliveira worked on different positions like
cashier, supervisor, manage department,
unloaded trucks and store manager.
Promoted to store manager because of
his outstanding performance.
Assignednew Assignment to lead and
manage the turnaround of a store.
Accepted challenge as an honor.
Oliveira
met with Francisco Prado and
Doughlas Fisher.
Honey Moon Phase
Oliveira was assigned to manage a store in Vitoria
built in 1983.
Company ninth location.
More than hundred employees.
Performance decline after 1990.
Leadershipwants to stop the decline in
performance.
Oliveira was excited and passionate.
Pandora Box
Arrival on work place
Small micro market presentation
by Carvalho
Issues
Decline of downtown Vitoria
Shifting of government institutions and
office due to which population reduces
Market is against the company
First focus on inside issues.
Discussion on the store human
resources with Carvalho.
Oliveiraalso focused on daily operations
issues and noticed some issues like:
The store was not crowded at all and few people in the
store are always standing in either fitting room or
cashier line.
The showcase was not clean and poorly merchandised.
Indoor mannequins were always dresses without any
accessories.
None of the employees were smiling.
Initiating Change
Oliveiramet with every individual and inquired about basic
information because of Fisher’s advice “ getting to know
your people first”
Meeting with his store management team to talk about his
vision and strategies for the change.
Proposal included:
Implementation of an urgency code to both cashier and fitting room staff
(line of customer more than three people).
Immediate reallocation of personnel to increase the visual of merchandising
team to improve the showcase and mannequins presentation.
Change some department operations to hourly base activities planning
Vicious Cycle
Forbetter result Oliveira decided to personally
check the progress of his proposed changes.
No changes had been made.
He start working with each department
employee to guarantee change
implementation.
After
a week when he checked he found the
same situation (No policy implementation)
Inquiry from supervisors and their answer was “Oh,
sorry- I will do it right now”.
Personally
start working to make successful
implementation possible (60-70 hours in a week).
After meeting with Prado again everything was reverse
back.
Discouraged by the staff and old procedures were
following.
Oliveiratried to discover the source of the problem
from supervisors but their answer was they don’t know.
Reality Check
Oliveira
invited Rodrigues for a coffee
and asked her about his idea.
She Replied “I will be honest with you.
The people in this store do not respect
you. In fact I have never seen a manager
so thoroughly rejected. I believe that this
is the main reason for the troubles”.
Oliveira
recognized that he had a
problem but didn’t see any solution.
Judgment Day
Store supervisor called Prado
about Daniel Oliveira.
We don’t believe in our manager.
Pradotold Oliveira that you have
made a mistake go and fix it.
