Lars Olofsson as the CEO and navigator of Carrefour failed - in my opinion - to manoeuvre his organisation "through the rough sea" of increasing competition. That lead to a situation where Carrefour is
- selling products that nobody wants
- at prices that no one is willed to pay
- using a business model that every one knows is outdated
- caused by insufficient stakeholder communication & lack of trend analysis
Could the CEO have done a better job?
Sometimes it might be better to first think and then act instead of deciding overhasty and trying to deal with the consequences afterwards. In other words, it might be better for Olofsson and his company to convince investors of a long-lasting strategy instead of focusing on short-term price fluctuations of shares. However, what rests unclear to me is: Is it the CEO or the cards he was dealt with who leaded to this fiasco?
What would a good strategic leader do?
Follow the Deming Cycle:
- What issues do we have?
- What data is missing to answer these questions?
- Which model(s) should we make use of in order to make decisions?
My participation in the group exercise differs from last week as follows:
This time I kept my nose out of leading the discussion. Mainly because other team members seamed quite experienced in solving case studies of this format. As last week I proposed an approach to get all strategic issues that affect Carrefour listed and gave some inputs to the group.
+ What went well?
- Focus on the task
- Divergencies lead to discussions within the group (which in my opinion gets ineffective at a certain point because a consensus is not mandatory in this case)
- Team play
- Reflecting in action: Talking to people and analysing& reflecting immediately their reaction
- Reflecting on action: Sitting back, taking some time, "what real lessons can I take from a specific situation?"
- The closer to the action - the more effective reflection on it
Great start - good analysis but also great presentation. It looks really good - well done.
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