Change management: the CBC case

Résumé du document

For this assignment, I decided to use a company which I will call CBC, and in which I did an internship for 7 months. This Swiss Group provides chocolate-based products, is present in several countries, and generates a sales turnover of nearly 3 billion €. However, this company faced strong difficulties in managing the necessary change in its structure in order to stay competitive. Consequently, I think it would be interesting to analyze the process used and the difficulties faced in applying the theoretical issues of the course.

We will first describe the company in detail, and then analyze the difficulties that CBC faced. To conclude, we will present suggestions on how the company may improve its necessary change management.

CBC belongs to the Chocolate Industry. On a global scale, the company generated a sales turnover of CHF 4.1 billion for the fiscal year 2006/07 (or $ 3.9 billion). CBC's headquarters are based in Switzerland, and the company is established in 23 countries. The company uses more than 30 production facilities and has 8,000 employees worldwide. CBC has been producing cocoa for more than 150 years, and has been listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange since 1998.

The company has continued its growth and geographic expansion with acquisitions (groups from Switzerland in 1999, from Germany in 2002, from the USA in 2003, etc.), important contracts (major outsourcing contracts with Nestlé, Hershey's and Cadbury in 2007) and with the opening of sales offices (Japan, India) and chocolate factories (USA, Russia, Mexico, China, etc.).

Its activity can be divided by 3 sectors in the chocolate industry. The first activity, is the sourcing or research of good quality cocoa beans worldwide; the second one is the production and sale of semi-finished products such as cocoa butter and chocolate powder; and the third sector is the production and the sale of high-quality finished chocolate, which corresponds to three divisions: “Chocolate for Artisans and Chef”, “Chocolate for Food Manufacturers”, and, “Chocolate for Consumers”.

I decided to use this company to apply the theoretical concepts of the course, because I was employed as a Brand Manager Assistant for the brand B. Indeed, the division in which I worked is the “Chocolate for Artisans and Chefs” division, which we call “Gourmet Service”. This department includes three brands: A, B and C, from three different countries. A is French, B is Swiss and C is Belgian, but all these brands were gradually bought by CBC, and are now managed by the manager of the Gourmet Service.

Tags:Change Management

Extraits

[...] As example, the locations of the brand managers are totally understandable. As you can see with this chart below, the brand managers have normally to work in France and report to the Marketing manager. However, the three brands of the same department are not considered at the same level. Indeed, the Brand manager for the brand C is located in Belgium and report directly to the European marketing Director, whereas the other brands, the French and the Swiss are managed in France. [...]

[...] The best solution, according to me, will be to find a compromise between its current strategy of Economic value and the contrary : organizational capabilities Indeed, the company is too much focused on being profitable without taking into consideration employees / Consolidating improvements and producing more change Another solution for CBC would be to hire young workers in order to dynamise departments and to develop employees who can implement the vision. Employees well illustrate the traditional way of working of the company because they work for the CBC for many years. Indeed, there is a low turnover of the workforce. Young people is necessary to reinvigore the company with new projects. [...]

[...] For example, in France, they do not have enough budget to buy new laptops for employees who need to be out of the office most of their time. To conclude on this part, because of the Audit, I think that CBC is well aware that it has to manage change in order to be successful. I found that their management and their organization were not structured. Consequently, the company has to rethink its way to doing business and I have some suggestions to bring for a good change management that I developed in the next part of this assignment. [...]

[...] The company needs good leaders, motivated people and a good feedback of the market to succeed in this step / Forming a powerful Guiding coalition CBC has to improve its employees involvement in assembling a group with shared commitment. Moreover, this group has to get enough power and motivation to lead the change management. However, as we observed previously, CBC are more focusing on the potential profit and on cost saving than motivating people. Employees do not receive financial motivation and get more and more responsibilities. [...]

[...] These values are universal and could correspond to the necessity to create a vision. However, the company has to develop strategies for realizing that vision and set up a clear process for it. Consequently, CBC well began this step but has to stay on the righ way to succeed / Communicating the vision This step is also well started in the company. Indeed, CBC has the tools to communicate its vision at a worldwide scale. Because the company is implemented in 23 countries, it has to set up really early a good network to facilitate the communication between the headquarter and the worldwide subsidiaries. [...]