Walgreens Organizational Change Alexandra Whiting, Mark Whitten, Dakota Wright, Haram Yu

Introduction

BLUF

  • If customers are not satisfied with their shopping experience, cash flow is not likely to increase.
  • Organizations must hear the customers wants and feedback and adjust accordingly to increase customer satisfaction.
  • Listening to customer feedback is a major core competency and will increase customer satisfaction, therefore increasing company value.

SWOT and SWOT Analysis

Strengths

  • Consumer Preferences and Tastes (Rind, 2011)
  • Consumer Preferences: Society and Culture (Kasi, 2012)
  • Demographics (Bells, 2016)
  • Technology (Kasi, 2012)
  • Competitors/Incomes (Kasi 2012)

Weaknesses

  • Small Spacing and grid view of store (Rind, 2011)
  • High marginal pressure on profits due to competitors (MBA Skool)
  • Recently acquired debt (Bells, 2016)
  • High operating costs (Market Mad House)

Opportunities

  • Community Betterment Programs (Walgreens website, 2016)
  • Increased Career opportunities (Walgreens, 2016)
  • Introducing Private Label Brands to meet Consumers’ needs (Walgreens, 2014)

Threats

  • Brexit’s impact on the UK’s reimbursement policy (Japsen, 2016)
  • CVS’ acquisition of Target Pharmacy (Bomey, 2016)
  • Non-Pharmaceutical products facing competition from grocery stores and other retailers (Faulkenberry, 2016)

Proposed Change and Rationale

Adjust Store Layout

  • Customers focus on convenience when shopping.
  • Customers are generally dissatisfied with the current layout of Walgreens stores.
  • Customers feel the grid layout is unorganized and inconsistent, therefore they are not having convenient shopping experiences.
  • Consumers would rather shop at a store that they are familiar with and that have convenient layouts that make sense to the customer.
  • Adjusting layout would be cost-effective, simplistic, and shows a clear benefit to customers.

Kotter's Change Model Analysis

Step 1: Create a sense of urgency

  • Customer Satisfaction will increase success of company
  • Get employees behind the change

Step 2: Build a guiding coalition

  • Team to plan changes
  • Get customer feedback for best layout

Step 3: Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives

  • Specific plan to implement the new layout
  • Present it to the employees
  • After hours is best

Step 4: Enlist a volunteer army

  • Store associates that support the changes
  • Associates who are willing to help make the physical changes
  • Those associates can help create a positive mindset with other employees

Step 5: Enable Action by Removing Barriers

  • Remove any obstacles to the success of the new changes
  • Current customers who are satisfied with the current layout
  • Advertise the changes and the benefits of the new layout: convenience.

Step 6: Generate Short-Term Wins

  • Celebrate the small wins as they change the layout
  • Make employees excited about the success of the changes
  • They will find internal strength.

Step 7: Sustain Acceleration

  • Base of this step is tracking and evaluating past succeses
  • The market and customer wants are constantly changing.
  • Walgreens need to keep up with the changes and adjust the layout more as needed and suggested by customers
  • Promotions to those who have done well during changes and been crucial in changes can keep the organization accelerated.

Step 8: Implement Change

  • As the change process is completed Walgreens will need to implement the new store layout in all of their stores.
  • When customers see the changes and are satisfied the organization will experience more success.

Conclusion

  • Customer satisfaction is crucial in the success of an organization
  • A current big weakness that can be turned into an opportunity by Walgreens is customer dissatisfaction with the current store layouts.
  • If Walgreens takes the steps suggested by Kotter to make changes and changes their layout customer satisfaction will increase and therefore cash flow will increase.
  • Walgreens needs to make customer satisfaction a core competency of their organization, their cashflow and success will increase.

Questions

  1. Are there any changes you would recommend for Walgreens as shoppers?
  2. Do you have any concerns with or suggestion for the proposed change?
  3. Have you personally had an experience where you have seen make a change that positively impacted your view of the store you were shopping at?

Credits:

Created with images by JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens" • JeepersMedia - "Walgreens"

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