Why your change processes need to be tailor-made and not copy-paste

With more than seven hundred stores and four formats, Carrefour occupies a unique position in Belgium. The retailer has a network of hypermarkets, supermarkets and local stores, supplemented with a diverse e-commerce offering. In line with its vision, Carrefour is strongly committed to digitalization and automation. By doing so, it responds to customer demand while ensuring that employees have more time for customers.
 

Trust in human ability

One of Carrefour Belgium's recent digitalization projects is the rollout of F&R, Forecasting and Replenishment. “That is an SAP module for better and automated order proposals,” explains Thierry Michiels, Director Customer & Operational Excellence at Carrefour. “Of course we already had order systems, with F&R we now have a much more powerful and intelligent system, which we are rolling out in the stores in phases. We started with the most difficult group: fruits and vegetables. In the past, it was mainly the department managers who decided what the store purchased. To do this, they relied on their years of experience and customer knowledge.”

“Careers have been shorter in recent years, which means we can rely less on that human ability. Moreover, we also want to take into account objective input via purchase and sales figures. Enter F&R, which relies on various indicators to place orders more accurately. The department managers still check, but no longer choose everything themselves. There is 5 to 10 percent leeway, for example to take local events into account,” says Michiels.

Michiels was pleasantly surprised that this happened quickly in the transformation process. “You shouldn't wait for implementation to communicate. On the contrary, if you communicate too late, you run the risk of missing support and buy-in from the start, which are precisely the success factors for achieving the desired end results. Unfortunately, we have seen that too often," says Van Ingelgem.

According to Mottie, every organization has its own culture, with different types of people with different feelings. So you need tailor-made solutions for successful change and communication actions. You absorb this thanks to the role of ambassadors, who function as bridges between colleagues in the project team and colleagues in the stores, and are a lever for creating involvement. “The message from an ambassador was always: get on board, this works in practice. This was necessary to gather sufficient critical mass.”
 

Training and coaching

Michiels gained experience from several digitization projects in various administrative services in recent years. “We always have to make our processes more efficient, improve communication and make training shorter. Everything has to go faster, but also more efficiently," he says.

Copy-pasting from one department to another is a no-go. “We don't have a menu that we can use for everything. On the contrary, since every organization and every person is different and has different needs and emotions, you must first understand who you have in front of you. Every time, you have to start with a broad analysis and work tailor-made,” says Mottie. Van Ingelgem supports her, “It comes down to finding a balance between technological solutions, optimized processes and the people you put at the center.”