The subsidiary of a large mail order company with almost 1,000 employees had experienced several management changes in three years. Digitalization was being driven forward - and staff turnover had increased significantly. Now a cultural change was to be initiated. The interim manager was hired as a change management consultant to accompany the cultural change process. She was tasked with developing a concept based on the new corporate strategy and values that would involve all employees and motivate them to follow the path together. The CEO's goal was to move from theory to action as quickly as possible.
New Work: bottom-up instead of top-down for sustainable cultural change
Corporate cultures can only be changed sustainably if there is unconditional commitment from managers on the one hand and employees are consistently involved on the other. This is why the interim manager involved the workforce intensively in the cultural change process right from the start.
The new brand values were developed in a bottom-up process with 12 exploration workshops with 220 employees from a wide range of departments (marketing, sales, product, service/logistics, customer data management, planning & control, IT, finance). Based on this, the teams defined concrete implications and action derivations for projects (quick wins and lighthouse projects) under the moderation of the interim manager, which the employees presented to management in the form of elevator pitches.
Cultural change synchronized with customer journey and corporate strategy 2020
The selected projects were synchronized with the corporate strategy 2020 and the customer journey, which had been coordinated in advance with the department and division heads. The projects were then successively implemented in the departments. To ensure rapid and sustainable success in the operational business, managers were appointed as project mentors and coached by the interim manager.
The interim manager also designed a "DNA playbook" for employees, in which the key steps and results of the cultural change project were documented in an entertaining and interactive way. Together with the HR managers, she also developed and supported communication measures to anchor and consolidate the cultural change.
New corporate culture motivates and improves performance
The new mission statement has further consolidated customer focus, creativity and digital expertise as key drivers of success. Specific projects have had a consistently positive effect on employee behavior: They are more motivated and willing to perform, which in turn translates into better performance for the company
