Our client had recently been bought by a private equity firm and the commercial function had been tasked with finding operational efficiencies. In addition, they had recently merged with another retailer and were in the process of re-branding and re-launching their stores and merging head office processes.

Working in a joint Egremont/client team, we conducted Lean process reviews, internal and external benchmarking using our proprietary cost benchmarking database, stakeholder interviews and culture and leadership style surveys.  The resulting picture was a systems approach to understanding how the organisation operated, helping to explain why things happened as they did and where the priority areas for change were.  We conducted 5-day innovation workshops on each of the core commercial processes, joining the best of Lean and innovation techniques.  In parallel, we also created a customer led operating model which transformed the way trading and marketing worked together.  We then trialled some aspects of this new operating model within one category using a “hothousing” approach and we developed the further roll-out plan.

The result was a reduction in commercial operating costs of 33% and a transformed and re-energised commercial function.