MARKS AND SPENCER
How Not To Manage a Turnaround, Part one
Marks and Spencer is widely regarded as having ossified under an autocratic chairman overseeing a rigid and bureaucratic organisation. Certainly the authors' experience of trying to help M&S 'refugees' adapt to the cultures of other organisations suggested that the inside of that company was populated by many brainwashed automata.
The consequences of past success, an obsession with pleasing the City and widespread 'groupthink' caused that once great retailer to lose touch with both its customers and what the competition was up to. The result was a progressive, followed by a catastrophic decline in M&S's key clothing segments.
M&S appointed charismatic Luc Vandevelde as chairman to lead the company away from the precipice and to re-establish it firmly on its feet in the rich pastures of market leadership. Initially all went well - new designers were appointed, new ranges were introduced, and gradually things began to apparently improve.
There were some little niggles, such as Vandevelde's unquantified bonus and his assertion that if he hadn't wrought great improvements in 2 years he would go. Good stuff, some might say, putting his neck on the line!
But, pause a second. If M&S was the ossified and scelerotic and bureaucratic organisation that many believed it to be, how long would it take to bring about deep, lasting and sustainable change? 2 years? 5 years? 8-10 years?
Those choosing the latter are the winners, and can choose any item from the Per Una range!
It is quite impossible to do any more that clear the ground for the real change process in two years. Marks was in a crisis, which needed to be managed as such - but after crisis action had been taken, the whole organisation needed to be transformed and as this means radically changing how many, many people think and act, it takes special, dedicated leadership and many years.
(Visitors should look at the ‘Change Leadership’ piece in the 'Ideas' section of this site for further material on change.)
Some may remember that Lou Gerstner spent 9 years leading the turnaround of IBM, and that seems to us to be a minimum commitment for a transformation of a large, complex organisation.
Mr Vandevelde? Well, he spent no more than 2 years full-time on the M&S case, and then progressively turned his attentions to his multiple external interests.
M&S? Well, after apparently improving its ranges and regaining some market share, that august retailer seems to be slipping back towards the swamps of underachievement and decline. Now, after about 4 years, Mr V. has been asked to resign (for personal reasons) and M&S are going to have to seek another champion to lead the transformation all over again.
Let us hope that they have learned their lesson and can find the right person who will commit to at least 8 years full-time. If not - sell M&S!
