The Perils and Pitfalls

of a Leading Change:
A young Manager’s
Turnaround Journey

Presented by
Syed Rehman Uddin
Syed Faisal Raza
M.Jamal
Ahmad Saim Khan
 Introduction
A European fashion and retail
company Clothes and Accessories

Started operations in Brazil in 1970

Market Leader in Fashion Industry

Boom of fashion industry in 1990 due

to its brand name and economies of
scale
C&A hired Daniel Oliveira as a trainee after
extremely tough selection process (Twenty
position out of 10000).

Assigned to C&A largest store in Recife City in

Brazil.

350 employees, large revenue and good culture

Oliveira worked on different positions like

cashier, supervisor, manage department,
unloaded trucks and store manager.
Promoted to store manager because of
his outstanding performance.

Assignednew Assignment to lead and

manage the turnaround of a store.

Accepted challenge as an honor.

Oliveira
met with Francisco Prado and
Doughlas Fisher.
 Honey Moon Phase
Oliveira was assigned to manage a store in Vitoria
built in 1983.

Company ninth location.

More than hundred employees.

Performance decline after 1990.

Leadershipwants to stop the decline in

performance.

Oliveira was excited and passionate.

 Pandora Box
Arrival on work place

Small micro market presentation

by Carvalho

Issues
 Decline of downtown Vitoria
 Shifting of government institutions and
office due to which population reduces
 Market is against the company
First focus on inside issues.

Discussion on the store human

resources with Carvalho.
Oliveiraalso focused on daily operations
issues and noticed some issues like:

 The store was not crowded at all and few people in the
store are always standing in either fitting room or
cashier line.

 The showcase was not clean and poorly merchandised.

 Indoor mannequins were always dresses without any

accessories.

 None of the employees were smiling.

 Initiating Change
Oliveiramet with every individual and inquired about basic
information because of Fisher’s advice “ getting to know
your people first”

Meeting with his store management team to talk about his

vision and strategies for the change.

Proposal included:

 Implementation of an urgency code to both cashier and fitting room staff

(line of customer more than three people).

 Immediate reallocation of personnel to increase the visual of merchandising

team to improve the showcase and mannequins presentation.

 Change some department operations to hourly base activities planning

 Vicious Cycle
Forbetter result Oliveira decided to personally
check the progress of his proposed changes.

No changes had been made.

He start working with each department

employee to guarantee change
implementation.

After
a week when he checked he found the
same situation (No policy implementation)
Inquiry from supervisors and their answer was “Oh,
sorry- I will do it right now”.

Personally
start working to make successful
implementation possible (60-70 hours in a week).

After meeting with Prado again everything was reverse

back.

Discouraged by the staff and old procedures were

following.

Oliveiratried to discover the source of the problem

from supervisors but their answer was they don’t know.
 Reality Check
Oliveira
invited Rodrigues for a coffee
and asked her about his idea.

She Replied “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”.

Oliveira
recognized that he had a
problem but didn’t see any solution.
 Judgment Day
Store supervisor called Prado
about Daniel Oliveira.

We don’t believe in our manager.

Pradotold Oliveira that you have

made a mistake go and fix it.