We continue our series of interviews with decision-makers about the strategic priorities of companies and their transformation challenges in an uncertain context with Jeanne Renard, Human Resources Director, Communication and CSR at Groupe Rocher, who gives testimony ongoing transformations and the management of change within the retail group.
Known through 9 brands, including the emblematic ones Yves Rocher and Petit Bateau, the Groupe Rocher is a family-run and Breton-based group that is now present in 110 countries with nearly 3,000 stores, including 650 in France. A company with a mission since 2019, The group of 15,000 employees is committed to «reconnecting women and men with nature», in accordance with its raison d'être.
10 testimonies from leaders
What levers of transformation in the uncertainty?
How do you identify and assess the major challenges that the Rocher Group faces in the face of uncertainty?
J.R. After the multiple crises that all companies have experienced since 2019, our first priorities today are: Financial, results and profitability issues.
We also have issues of product recognition and positioning. To do this, we analyze the results, the voice of the customers, market shares, fairly conventional indicators in strategy, which allow us to reposition ourselves.
Another important lever for us is The voice of the collaborator. There, we use an annual «employees» survey, which will soon switch to a so-called «Pulse» dynamic, where we can more flexibly track the feedback from our employees. This allows us to continuously adapt our actions, just as we do with the voice of the customer.
Have you decided to prioritize certain issues?
J.R. We prioritized 3 key issues who draw the vision and the implementation of the strategic plan for the next three years and who are summarized in three words: profitability, desirability and commitment!
- Profitability Increasing the profitability of the company is our primary objective for the next 18 months.
- Desirability The desirability of the brands and the company for our employees...
- Engagement This issue is very closely linked to our DNA, to our history, because we are an enterprise with a mission, Because we are very active in CSR matters.
Regarding the latter aspect, we will work on developing more responsible products within the product portfolio, on reducing our carbon footprint, and on improving our energy efficiency. the ability to engage our 15,000 employees in the company’s mission consciously, on a daily basis, in all group activities.
What are the exogenous factors that most impact the Rocher Group?
J.R. Two major changes impact our activities:
- the change in habits and consumption, which impacts the consumption of our customers with logics and problems of Purchasing power which force us to constantly improve price positioning, This ability to be accessible to the greatest number;
- The change in the way we view work which particularly affects us in a certain way business model in our group that is the social selling, where independent sellers will sell our products [in some of our activities]. Since the Covid crisis, this sector of the business has been declining worldwide and people are no longer motivated to seek this additional income. We are therefore working to revive the promise of recruiting this key workforce for our brands.
In the face of an uncertain future, would you prioritize innovation or a return to the fundamentals of your businesses and the group’s DNA?
J.R. We are working on both aspects, and primarily on returning to the fundamentals and the brand’s DNA. Yves Rocher which is the heart and flagship brand of the group.
We are strengthening our fundamentals, This means plant-based cosmetics that are committed to using active ingredients with powerful effects, while relying on our own natural resources. Research & Development at the heart of innovation. We want to focus on the history of the Yves Rocher brand and remain true to our values. precursors and a punch force to offer products focused on nature.
We also want to rethink our organizations to better adapt to the context and realities of this VUCA world, gain in agility, and open ourselves up to the outside world.
Today, we have a lot of competition around the Engaged plant cosmetics. There are many competitors, both large and small, in this market that consumers love, and it is important for us to be able to offer them a product that is of the highest quality. Continue to innovate and invent. We have initiated a major effort to reviewing the company’s structure and culture, for open ourselves to more diversity and innovation.
How do you ensure that your company remains agile while preserving a very strong DNA and values?
J.R. We are experimenting with many things today.
First of all, we continue to work our mission« Reconnecting women and men with nature »who is the first driver of our employees’ engagement" This is part of our roots and it is an extremely strong asset, which is also part of the third pillar of our strategy: The commitment that allows us to find meaning in an uncertain world.
We are also in the process of reviewing all performance measurement systems in a world where we can no longer set goals for the year, but must rethink them more regularly, on a quarterly basis, both for individual and collective goals at the company level.
We therefore need to rethink performance while maintaining the kindness that is part of our corporate cultural core.
This renewed performance dynamic, in the short term, requires considerable agility.
We are also working on make our organization more agile by rethinking the company’s end-to-end processes – what is known as the «process” end-to-end »– to inject much more dynamism, reduce the time-to-market, Breaking down the silos that sometimes existed between brands and between professions. All of this is a huge undertaking. restructuring the company’s operations to be more competitive, more innovative, and faster.
How do you speed up the transition from strategic vision to its implementation?
J.R. In 2023, we changed the governance of the company to embody and accelerate this transformation and activate a new way of managing the company.
We opted for the OKR methodology (Objectives & Key Results) which allows the strategic vision to be translated into very simple, unique key objectives and results for the entire company, and which are then implemented by each member of the Comex, in each function, in each brand.
In a cascade, the OKRs have been implemented down to the individual goals of our employees To achieve this agility and acceleration, but also to achieve greater consistency within the company. Today, even though we are still in our first year of experimentation, we are already seeing the benefits of gain in speed, cohesion and, above all, in alignment.
The OKRs have also enabled us to working on giving up, This is very important during a period of transformation. It allows everyone to agree on these issues: what are the major priorities? How do we align the teams? What do we have to give up at every level of the organization? In a historical culture of demanding excellence, giving up is a difficult ordeal for some, but thanks to OKRs, it gives meaning and promotes the collective.
The OKR method enabled us to initiate the movement and we will continue in the coming years with great joy, because it already brings us benefits. Positive feedback from our employees regarding a better clarity of the vision, from Comex to the last management level for this first year.
What strategies and mechanisms have you put in place to support your teams in this context of continuous change?
J.R. First of all, OKRs are an integral part of the tools we have put in place to change and evolve the culture towards a culture of results, of value for the final customer, whether they are consumers, partners or employees. We are therefore in the process of operating a shift between a culture of means and a culture of results.
We have also worked on the Vision of a social model which is being deployed and that will touch on HR policies, the management system, employee development, recognition (monetary and non-monetary), the logic of organizing working time, well-being and psychosocial risks, diversity and inclusion, etc., which are also extremely important topics in the transformation phases we are going through.
Across all these areas, we are putting in place new policies that all aim to develop the responsibility of the employee and the manager to move from a rather hierarchical management model to a « Servant leadership ». We are in fact putting together a program for Supporting managers towards a new management model.
We also have work on digitalization, and in particular a pilot on the use of Generative artificial intelligence in our work processes. It is a key component in transformation, whose main goal, if used properly, is to absorb the transformations and simplify activities by reducing repetitive tasks.
Would you say that there is an evolution in the way change is being driven today?
J.R. This is a good question that is at the heart of the reflections we are currently having on how to lead change in an environment in constant and daily crisis, which causes disruptions, peaks, and changes in context that lead us to to rapidly pivot the strategy and priorities.
This evolution involves work on employability, on training, and on this the ability to learn continuously These are concepts that are not new, but which it is urgent to put into practice, not only at the level of leaders and managers, but also for operators, for salespeople in stores, etc.
The question that we ask ourselves today, at the heart of these accelerating transformations, is how overcome fears and prepare our employees to be agile, To live serenely in contexts where nothing is certain, and to learn to rejoice in what we have learned and accomplished in the last few months, to project ourselves into the near future…
The great transformation of the moment is therefore to succeed in absorbing and transforming this stress, which is naturally linked to change and which affects everyone. The role of the company, HR and management becomes crucial in order to find the keys to navigating together in a more serene world.
Interviews conducted in July 2024 by Cyrille Chaudoit, Co-founder of talenco, as part of our White paper on the levers for transforming companies in uncertainty. Many thanks to Jeanne for her testimony!
Management training and change management
