Burberry Digital

Burberry was the first luxury fashion house to declare Digital as a core strategy 

Seen as a high risk move, Burberry experimented and fine-tuned their digital operating model every year, learned quickly and became  an industry leader 

Organisation Strategy

Evolved the operating model four times over four years

Ownership of P&L and distribution proved to be critical design decisions

Distinguished digital marketing, digital platform from digital commerce 

After 49 years the British Council could teach English directly in China.  This required a 4th legal entity in a fast growing, large operation where the Diplomatic entity was over stretched

Organisation Challenges

Leadership changes impacted long standing relationships

Speed of growth coupled with long recruitment lead times left capability gaps in critical roles

Separate legal entities with distinct commercial and diplomatic goals tested the One British Council ambition.

Following 13 years of inquiry and 6 years of construction, T5, Europe’s biggest, most complex construction program opened in March 2008 on time, on budget and with an award winning safety record. 

Organisation Strategy

Leadership skills/capabilities evolved to match construction lifecycle

Targeted interventions on values, behaviors: Safety, 'One Team', 'I Built T5'

Strategic talent sourcing, development, retention

After scaling the heights of the FTSE 100, the 4th biggest UK bank by share of lending, in February 2008 Northern Rock was in ruins then nationalised

European Commission required the bank to split into two parts in 9 months

Organisation Challenges

External EU mandate determined strategy, timelines and pace; CEO –singular priority

Single design principle accelerated the task  - 6 layers, span of 7

Additional task of merging ‘bad’ bank NRAM with Bradford & Bingley 

For years the South Korea market was a reliable top performer. Then one year income and margin slipped for consecutive quarters a red flag in the retail sector 

While the market showed mild slow down, competitors were not impacted.  That led to the belief that internal operations was impeding performance.  The immediate reaction was to re-structure  

On initial diagnosis the root cause required a less dramatic yet more sensitive intervention

This case study covers the importance of diagnosing root cause, navigating a hierarchical culture and motivating a talented team unfamiliar with underperformance to change their ways of working

Local teams faced a barrage of 27 ‘global’ change initiatives with varying degrees of engagement and preparation 

Teams felt  their local market needs had not been considered so that solutions could be embedded fairly and effectively to achieve sustainable change

Change leads from South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria decided to host ‘cross-portfolio’ sessions so global teams could understand change from a local perspective

By looking at the impact from the country’s perspective rather than a single project perspective the teams were able to quickly focus on the top 11 change initiatives, develop an integrated plan and fast-track decisions that had delayed progress for six months