Bringing the transformation to life
How Harrods delivered on the promise of its largest transformation programme by empowering business leaders
CLIENT STORY
The challenge
Harrod’s Change Programme Team had crafted a vision for the combined redesign of its growing Buying and Merchandising divisions to enhance processes, redefine roles, capitalise on automation, and embed a culture of continuous improvement.
While the new structure and strategy were clear and well-defined, the next step was critical: to successfully hand over implementation to leaders within the business.
These leaders faced the challenge of executing a plan they hadn’t created and were not yet familiar with, which, naturally, bred uncertainty. Given the scale and impact of the transformation, building confidence and commitment across this leadership population would be essential for success.
A one-day workshop was scheduled to bring together the leaders of the two affected functions with the following objectives:
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Transfer ownership from the Change Programme Team to Business Unit Leaders.
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Build trust and cohesion within the group, preparing them to lead through the change together and individually.
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Clarify the activities and resources required to logistically enable the change.
Our approach
We designed and facilitated a one-day offsite for 30 senior leaders from the two affected functions as well as members of the Change Programme Team.
Key elements of our approach included:
1 / Co-creation and co-facilitation
We collaborated with key stakeholders to design and deliver a session that integrated the psychology of change with real implementation planning.
Our diverse facilitation team (featuring a KCM business psychologist, a change expert from within the Harrods project team, and leaders from across the business units) helped to provide a compelling range of energy, viewpoints, and challenge.
This ensured delegates could fully understand the rationale behind the change, process their own reactions, define their roles in driving the transformation, and develop plans to guide their teams through the transition.
2 / Transfer of ownership
We facilitated conversations around emotional ownership, helping leaders process their own responses to the change.
We challenged them to commit to actively making the transformation a success (as opposed to ‘passively allowing it to happen’), and to think through what that would look like in their role and for their teams.
We also equipped them with science-backed strategies to bring their teams on board, ensuring they could motivate and retain people through the transition
3 / Operational readiness
The session included practical exercises that allowed leaders to quickly identify key business deliverables and plan for their teams’ readiness. Leaders also defined the support they would need to successfully implement the change in real time.
These outputs were collected, shared following the workshop and built into the overall transformation implementation plan.
The impact
The workshop resulted in leaders who were not only clear on their responsibilities but also emotionally committed to the change.
Trust was built within the leadership group, and they left with actionable plans to guide their teams through the transformation.
At the start of the day, leaders said they were feeling…
By the end of the day, leaders said they were feeling…
“I would not hesitate to recommend Kirsty. In the past, our big challenge has been getting leaders to genuinely take over the implementation of any big change designed by our team.
Spearheaded by the offsite Kirsty helped us put together and run, this has been the most successful transition of ownership from the Programme team to operational leaders in my experience at Harrods.
Not only did operations realign to the new model, but it's been the gift that keeps on giving - with more strategic change building directly on this transformation two years later.”
– Programme Business Change Lead at Harrods