From the Editor's Desk

Would You Invite Employees to Vote on Strategic Direction?

As the newly appointed CEO of Hema, a struggling European retail chain with 750 stores and 19,000 employees, Saskia Egas Reparaz faced a daunting challenge. The year before, in 2020, the company had posted a loss of 215 million euros despite having generated 1.1 billion euros in revenue. Hema had been through several private equity owners and leadership teams over the past 15 years, all of whom had failed to turn things around. Yet the new private equity owners had high expectations of Egas Reparaz and were confident that she could get the company back on track.

She did just that, most notably by reversing the company’s long-established strategy of expanding beyond the home market. Hema was operating stores throughout Western Europe and had even franchised some outlets in the Middle East and Mexico. Egas Reparaz closed dozens of stores and focused Hema’s operations in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) as well as nearby France. By the end of 2021, the company was profitable again, and in 2022, gross sales rose 20%.

It’s easy to say that this successful turnaround came from making the right strategic choices. But it was equally important that Hema involved its people in strategic planning. Successful strategic planning goes beyond setting the right strategic priorities; it involves putting your people at the heart of it.

Continued here

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