Body Shop International - International Franchise Managers' Meeting
in PARTICIPATIVE ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
Here is the story of The Body Shop and the work undertaken to find new ways of engaging people in strategic change and learning. The story describes the work undertaken across the organisation that VISTA was involved in at various stages as more people were engaged in developing and implementing strategy. We worked closely with the internal learning and development team, leadership and people from across the whole organisation including franchisees from all over the world.
Tensions
There were obvious tensions inherent in running a highly ethical company which dedicates its business to the pursuit of social and environmental change and seeks to balance creatively the financial and human needs of its stakeholders: employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers and shareholders. A learning programme called "Sharing the Vision" had been developed to provide new Senior Managers with a more effective transition into the business - a chance to really explore the values and ethical dilemmas and understand the heritage and the learning achieved to date direct from the founding members.
The Beginning
There were many new recruits coming into a well-established business with a strong heritage and values. Learning and Development had been working on the alignment of these cultures and saw the opportunity to build a new future strategy that was a blend of the "old" and the "new" in a dynamic and different combination for the future. A decision was made to engage more people in thinking through the strategic plan.
A 2-day business plan meeting was held. This brought together 80 Senior Managers from the UK Headquarters of Body Shop International (BSI) and 30 representatives of the retail business. These people worked together to look at the past, present and future of The Body Shop and developed plans which they committed to and actively rolled out with their teams.
Designing the Event
A core design team engaged the global community in sharing the design task/planning process for the International Franchise Managers'(IFM) meeting. Many people across the world were involved in the design process, clarifying their wants, expectations and ideas. A representative microcosm of those attending came together in the UK for several meetings and this group "nailed" the purpose "to work together to build our Body Shop global community to achieve a common understanding of our business, clear professional working relationships and concrete actions to deliver outstanding retail performance."
The IFM Experience
The weeklong IFM experience started with 150 people in London:
- visiting the latest updated shops
- hearing about the purpose and design of the week and its aspiration to be different
- providing input to the final design of some of the working sessions
- listening to a moving presentation by Pierre Sarne from Amnesty International
- working on a "Habitat for Humanity" house building project; clearing the site, building roof trusses and developing the associated supporting plans and materials
- enjoying the coach journey to Eastbourne where welcome massages were provided
The rest of the week at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne was spent working on, and learning about, what needed to change about:
- each other
- roles and responsibilities
- new initiatives
- vision and strategy
- market best practices
- products and supporting resources
- retailing and customer service
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