The Asda Way of Working

1. Archie started off firing the CFO before coming to Asda. This was a good move since it was in part the CFO's fault for getting them into this crisis to begin with. He then recruited a new team. He kept one manager from the original team but replaced the others. Although they have a different perspective, they do have a lack of retail experience, this may hinder them in the long run. However, Archie brought in a consultant with retail experience to fill the gap. This helped the team gain an understanding of the grocery industry and Asada's position within it. He gathered information and developed shared assumptions with his leadership team. They determined that silos were creating an undesirable silo organization. He convinced the company that there was a problem. He did this by building dissatisfaction with the status quo in order to create the necessary disequilibrium for change. In the first six months he developed a statement of corporate strategy, strategic renewal, culture change, an articulated set of values, and a diagnosis of the situation with blueprint which became the Asada Way of Working. This blueprint provided a sense of empowerment and responsiveness the team that was desperately needed. Overall, the first six months were highly productive.

2. My recommendation for the next 18 months would be to ensure that the unfreezing process starts to take hold. The current social habits need to be broken so that dissatisfaction and disequilibrium take place. This is created through shared diagnosis which creates the widespread agreement across the 205 stores about the requirements for change so that Asda can move forward together. Next step would be through redesign. This step focuses on the new roles, responsibilities, and relationships of the organization and its employees. This is an extension of what was done in the first six months. This is a focus on renewal strategy, corporate culture, and blueprint for Asda Way of Working. The next step would be to help the employees engage in change. This is done by understanding this task alignment level and providing the employees the training and mentoring required to engage in these new behaviors. The next step would be to ensure people alignment. This strategy will need to be worked out to effectively assess, promote, replace, and recruit as required. This process should provide matching employee attributes with strategic requirements of the organization. The final step in the next 18 months is to create mutual engagement. This will create the dialogue of discussion across all levels and sites of the organization for the requirements and process for achieving change. It is important that he avoid skipping steps or doing them out of order or he may fall into an implementation trap which would lead to an undesirable outcome.

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