changing everything in pharmacy retail
the challenge
This leading US pharmacy chain had a history of growing their store presence fast: one new store every 16 hours in fact. But amongst this focus on physical expansion the business had lost their commercial edge and focus, becoming siloed and lethargic.
They were now under threat from all angles. Competitors were innovating fast and encroaching on their market share. The convenience factor, which had always been their competitive advantage, was not enough. The retailer needed to address their culture, capabilities, processes and structure in order to become a truly customer-centric business and thrive.
our results
We delivered an overall return of over $1bn. We saw increases in both retail and pharmacy sales as well as lower staff turnover, reduction of waste and improved customer satisfaction stores. Overall RoI has been calculated as 29:1.
The programme has also created a collaborative climate of continuous improvement and embedded the right skills to help the business be agile in a changing market long after the initial programme ended and into the future. The entire culture of this 106-year-old business has changed with an unleashing of energy and creativity.
how we got there
It all started with a 10-day scoping visit, running culture diagnostics, workshops and focus interviews to really get to the nub of the organisational challenges. Staff engagement and customer service standards were on the decline, and store managers were overwhelmed by the “noise” and uncontrolled level of initiatives coming from head office.
Over a five-year transformation programme, we pulled in expertise from across our service offerings.
strategy
We supported leadership in the development of a single enterprise vision - the framework for a lot of the changes we led at this organisation. We worked closely with leaders to develop a five-year transformational plan that would help the executive team align behind the common goal of providing exemplary customer care in both the retail and pharmacy ends of the business.
leadership and culture change
To support and drive the entire transformation programme, we first identified the desired organisational climate that leadership needed to shift to, and ‘crowdsourced’ inputs from around 2,000 people from head office, stores and distribution centres to create a new leadership approach. We coached the executive team to become high-performing decision-makers and lead according to the values of curiosity, courage, and care.
operating model and organisation design
Once leadership was clear on the strategy needed to deliver change within the organisation, we began to help them define the right operating model for the business. We challenged ourselves and our clients to think future-back. What did the future hold for the sector? Having designed the new end-to-end model with this bold future in mind, we established the benefits case and created a plan to implement changes spanning the organisation design, governance and ways of working in order to reach the desired state.
operational excellence
After having great success within the cultural transformation in the stores organisation, we started to tackle other supporting processes within the business. We focused next on supply chain and how we could introduce the cultural change from the field integrated with Lean Six Sigma thinking. We used IT collaboration tools and visual techniques to simplify our approach and ease collaborative working across silos, time zones and cultures.
True breakthroughs are changes that go the distance and act as a catalyst, long after our consulting team has left the building, so we put a huge amount of emphasis on creating the right skills and problem-solving mindset within the client’s people. Over 300,000 employees were engaged in the programme, supported by new problem-solving capabilities and tools to become a self-adapting, self-sustaining business that knows they’re ready for whatever the future may bring.
