Improving the operational processes of retail brand A

• Main Author: Yu, Edilyn Ruth
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Stores; Retail > Philippines; Retail trade > Philippines; Industrial management > Philippines; Personnel management > Philippines
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5494
• Institution: De La Salle University

This action research presents how a fast fashion retail brand in the Philippines has addressed difficulties in its store operations. Overarching issues such as the unequal distribution of work among store-based employees and the limited time available for accomplishing daily operational store tasks have been preventing the team from achieving its operational objective of running business at par with global practices, as implemented by the headquarters. As the brand posed a notable +18% growth in sales revenue in 2017, after three years of sales decline (-9% Compounded Annual Growth Rate from 2014 through 2016), the organization aimed to fully apply global operational practices that will allow them to run day-to-day store operations effectively and efficiently, to help the brand continue its sales growth through 2018 and to bring Philippines operations to a level at par with how the business is run in other countries. Through a detailed review of each operational process done by the store team on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, the collaborators (store managers, along with me - the brand head) identified which processes needed to be either improved or discontinued, along with the implementation of some practices that are not yet applied locally. Action plans were created in order to equally distribute tasks among employees, improve time management, and to ultimately make the brand operate, in the subject jurisdiction, equal to global operational standards.. Through the two cycles, the collaborators were also able to achieve their goal of fully implementing global practices, at a pace faster than what the team was able to accomplish in the past. Results include a marked improvement in our teamwork, as the exchange of ideas and feedback among the store employees increased their participation and passion for their work. Each employees sense of responsibility also improved, as backed up by mutual accountability.