Lulumelon Case Study
Strategies Used to Implement Culture Change
Lulumelon used various strategies to implement cultural change because it was experiencing underperformance issues. One of the strategies was training employees to help them set goals, educate them about the company’s culture, and equip them with the skills they could use to enhance personal accountability. The second strategy was customizing stores to reflect local communities. This strategy aimed to encourage customers to connect with the brand so that they would be more willing to purchase its products (Tushman, 2010). The company also restructured its organizational structure to improve its leadership because, during Bob Meers’ tenure as CEO, he had appointed various outsiders to form the company’s upper management team, leading to poor leadership and management of the organization’s operations (Tushman, 2010). Restructuring the organization’s culture included promoting Christine Day to the CEO position. Christine Day would help the organization address its management and underperformance issues by applying the leadership expertise she had acquired by being a leader for 20 years at Starbucks.
Agreement and Disagreement with the Steps Lululemon Took to Implement Change
I agree that training employees was essential in achieving cultural change in Lulumelon because it would enable the company to equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to align their behaviour and actions with the company culture. I also agree with Lululemon’s step to change its CEO by appointing an experienced leader. Christine Day, the new CEO, could use her leadership expertise to enhance the organization’s performance and adapt to the changes in the organization’s business environment. According to Gordon (2017), leadership plays a vital role in the success of an organization because leaders influence employees to achieve a specific goal aimed at achieving organizational development and growth and increasing innovation. Christine Day demonstrated her ability to use her leadership expertise to transform the organization by explaining the need to customize Lulumelon stores to reflect their local communities. She explained that it was important to engage everyone involved in the execution of the strategic plan even though the strategies were created at the head office (Tushman, 2010). This made it easier for managers to embrace the idea of customizing their stores to support the company’s brand extension strategy. Although customizing the stores would help the company to connect with their customers and increase customer satisfaction, I disagree with the decision to give managers the authority to customize their stores because it would create the risk of mismanagement of resources and conflicts of interest, especially if the stores are located in a region where local communities have different preferences, values, and beliefs.
Application
The lessons learned from the Lulumelon case study can be applied to help my organization implement large-scale change.
- One of the lessons is that leadership can impact the choice of changes needed in an organization and how to implement them, thus affecting organizational performance. For example, Lulumelon’s performance decreased because of poor leadership that led to changes that caused underperforming issues. I can use this information to monitor the impact of the leadership in our organization on the organization’s change implementation process and determine whether there is a need to change the leader to achieve the organization’s goals. I can also use this information in implementing large-scale change by selecting a leader with the knowledge, skills, and expertise required to implement the change and guide employees throughout the change process.
- The second lesson I learned is that training is essential in educating employees about the changes in the organization’s culture. I can use this information to implement large-scale change in the organization by designing training programs that equip employees with the knowledge, skills, and values that align with the new organizational culture and inform them about what they are expected to do to implement the changes.
References
Gordon, G. (2017). Leadership as it relates to organizational behavior and performance. Leadership through Trust, 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56955-0_2
Tushman, M. (2010). Leadership, culture, and transition at Lululemon. Leadership, Culture, and Transition at Lululemon – Case – Faculty & Research – Harvard Business School. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=39817
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Question 
Lulumelon Case Study
According to research on organizational change, most initiatives fail to meet expected and hoped-for outcomes. That is particularly true when it comes to transforming organizational culture. Canadian athletic-wear company Lululemon experienced first-hand the challenges of trying to transform organizational culture. Your assignment for this week is to read the Lululemon case study and watch the videos attached to the case. After doing so, answer the following questions:
What strategies did Lululemon use to implement culture change?
In what ways do you agree with the steps Lululemon took to implement change, and in what ways do you disagree?
How could you apply what happened at Lululemon to help your own organization implement large-scale change?