top of page
  • Kristiana Sotirova

The Rise and Fall: A Kmart Case Study in Retail Strategy


 


The image is a black and white photo of a Kmart store, with a large, prominent sign above the entrance. A line of customers extends along the storefront, indicating a busy day or a special event at the retail location.

Kmart

Context:

A large chain of retail stores  in Australia and New Zealand, founded in 1969, faced the need to adapt in an age of unpredictable and accelerating change.



WHY:

  1. Serious disruption from Covid caused supply issues and the organisation was not set up in a way to operate effectively under new conditions.

  2. Needed to adapt at pace to stay competitive and serve customers needs

  3. Opportunity to ‘bottle’ agility that teams showed in Covid response


Approach:

  1. Early step taken to form an Executive Action Team (EAT) to define questions and how they would be answered to manage balance between changing and running the business

  2. Created 6 pillars in an enterprise blueprint that was the starting point pattern for all teams

  3. Started by trialling an approach with one initiative, establishing an OKR and governance framework linking work towards end state vision. Made changes to the funding model. 

  4. Created autonomous cross functional teams leveraging a hypothesis-driven approach to deliver through experimentation. 


a business strategic planning tool called the "Outcome Canvas," featuring elements such as Problem Statement, Customer Segments, and Key Results. It outlines objectives and key results (OKRs) with a focus on improving customer experience and market share through initiatives like increasing app downloads and implementing online ID verification.

Impact:

  • Better

- Market valuation

              - Use of fabrics - 50% consolidation


  • Value - Delivery of OKRs


  • Sooner - Ability to start work, similar to a start up 

               - Digital prototype lead time reduced by 4 weeks


  • Safer - 9% improvement in lost sales in supply chain (sales lost to being out of stock)


  • Happier - Teams who wouldn’t go back to ‘old’ way of working



Link to the video: https://youtu.be/AmjfOojtz5k?si=YHtepenQj3LZQVdZ



bottom of page