Course Title: Strategic Human Resource Development

(Case Study Summary)

Submitted By: Muhammad Jamal (1821152)

Syed Rehman Uddin Sajid (1821141)
Syed Faisal Raza (1821140)
Aim Ahmad Khan (1821131)
Section: MSMS (1A)
Submitted to: Dr. Atif Bilal
Summary: The Perils and Pitfalls of a Leading Change: A young
Manager’s Turnaround Journey
Daniel Oliveira was very excited when he knew at the annual party of Clothes & Accessories that he has
promoted to store manager position. After graduation Oliveira was in the search of a perfect job. He was
selected as a management trainee after a tough selection process. During his training period he was
assigned to a largest store of Clothes & Accessories in Recipe city in Brazil. In terms of revenue it was
the largest store and have more than 350 employees and have a good culture and efficient a manager.
During this period Oliveira worked on different positions: perform as a cashier, store supervisor, manage
store department and even unloaded trucks. He also worked as a store manager temporarily when the
store manager was on leave.
Due to his outstanding performance he was promoted to a full time store manager. And a new assignment
was given to him which was to lead and manage the turnaround of a store that had encountering a decline
in performance. It was an honor for him that such a challenge was given to him.
Oliveira met with Francisco Prado a future manager at the Annual Retreat and thanked him for giving
such an opportunity. But Prado told him to meet with Douglas Fisher a former store manager. Oliveira
met with him and asked him for a best advice. Fisher replied him that ‘the first and most important thing
is to know your people and get close to you team before you try to change anything. Don’t repeat my
mistake which I did”.
Clothes & Accessories and the Brazil’s Fashion Industry
Clothes & Accessories was a European company and started its operations in Brazil in 1970. It was the
market leader in the fashion industry. In 1990 the fashion industry was at boom due to its brand name and
economies of scale. The buying power of Brazilian people had also increased due to economic reforms
and stable economy.

The Honey Moon Period

Oliveira was assigned to manage the Clothes & Accessories store located in Vitoria. It was made in 1983
and in Brazil it was the company ninth location and have more than hundred employees. After 1990 the
performance of the store was declining slowly but in last five gets worse. The leadership of C&A thought
that Oliveira will not on stop the decline in performance but will increase it.
Oliveira was only twenty two years old at that time but he was very confident due to his previous
outstanding performance evaluation during his training period. Prado was also on his back who was a
great mentor and very good at personal development.

Pandora Box
When Oliveira arrived for the first time to his office Roberta Santos (future direct reports) welcomed him
and showed him his office. A small presentation was given to him by Carvalho about outside market
issues i.e. decline of downtown Vitoria, shifting of government institutions and offices due to which
population reduces, market is against our store but the company is not admitting it. So Oliveira decided
that first we should focus on inside factor not the outside issues.
First he discussed about the human resources of the store and at first Carvalho described the two
supervisors Roberata Santos a store apparel supervisor and Maria Almeida a store financial service
supervisor. She also discussed about the two department leaders i.e. Mariana Rodrogues from the lady
department and Laura Lima from the service department who are important assets for the store.
During Oliveira fist days he watched that how operations can be improved to change the performance of a
store. He noticed that the showcase was not clean and was very poorly merchandised. Indoor mannequins
were not always dressed up with accessories and he also noted that no one in the employees was smiling.

Change Initiation
After this change over when Oliveira was on his way to store he remembered Fisher’s advice “getting to
know people first”. He realized that having a connection with the employees has a great importance so he
met with ever y person individually and asked them about their name, experience and role. After meeting
with everyone he decided to move forward: I know everyone and they know me so I can start changing
things right.
He arranged a meeting on Monday with his management team Santos, Almeida, Rodrigues and Lima to
talk about the vision and strategies for changing the store to improve performance.
Oliveira prepared a proposal for the meeting which include an implementation of an “urgency code” to
both cashier and fitting room staff and an immediate reallocation of personnel to increase the visual
merchandising team in order to improve the showcase and mannequin presentation. It was a tough
meeting for Oliveira but he was confident that everyone would accept the change. So Oliveira decided to
set up a weekly meeting with his team to put everyone on track.

Vicious Cycle
Oliveira was confident that better result would be produced by his suggested changes so he decided to
personally check the department progress. After visiting he was amazed that no changes were made in the
department. As he was during his last year of training he start working with each department employee to
guarantee that changes had implemented.
After a week when he check he found that implementation of new policies had been stopped. When he
asked from the supervisor their reply was “Oh sorry I will do it right now. Oliveira felt that successful
implementation can be possible by giving personal attention so he start working sixty to seventy hours a
week
Oliveira went to Belo Horizonte for a meeting with store managers and Prado to discuss the challenges
and best practices followed in the organization. But due the poor performance of his store Oliveira did not
speak.
When Oliveira came back he found that every improvement was reverse back. He was discouraged by the
staff and they were following the old procedures. Oliveira talk with his supervisor to find out the source
of the problem but they replied that they don’t know that why improvements are failed and made excuses.

Reality Check
After all this Oliveira invite Rodrigues an operational leader of the lady department to have a coffee at a
café and asked him about his ideas. And she replied that “ I will be honest with you. The people in this
store do not respect you. In fact I have never seen a manager so thoroughly rejected. I believe that this is
the main reason for the troubles. After vacation when Oliveira came back Prado called him and told him
that I will be in your office tomorrow. Prado came and told Oliveira that your supervisor don’t believe
you. Oliveira listen to him and was afraid that he had to be fired. But Prado told him that you have made a
mistake go and fix it. I have trust on you. Every manger have to pass through restructuring sooner or later.
You have to learn from it and give me a call whenever you need my help.