In the hearts and minds of the Australian public, Woolworths are, “The fresh food people” and today’s consumer expects more than ever. Expectations that Woolworths needs to exceed if they are to secure their place in the hearts and minds of consumers for another 100 years.
The challenge
With competition in the Australian market intensifying, the need to deliver fresh goods in full, on time and error free for the Australian consumer is greater.
With an ambitious new leadership team in place and an exciting strategy for growth, Woolworths Group Supply Chain knew they needed to do something to engage their 7,000 employees. They wanted everyone to feel excited about their impact and purpose to feed Australia and New Zealand and help them celebrate, and to understand the Woolworths Group Values and Ways of Working. They wanted each employee to feel accountable for creating a culture that would deliver the type of experiences for customers that meant Woolworths would always be their first choice.
The idea was to create a culture at Woolworths Group Supply Chain where everyone understood their role in putting the customer 1st. Thus, Customer 1st Champion (C1C) was born. We started with a 2-day foundation program that brought to life the purpose of Woolworths Group: the values, ways of working and the essentials of operating a safe and efficient warehouse and transport operation.
To get the leaders ready for the roll-out of the ambitious program, we provided three offsites with the senior leadership team and a series of alignment events with the site operational leadership teams. To ensure the program was delivered to maximum quality, but by Woolworths people, we embarked on a national recruitment campaign to find the perfect team of Woolworths Group Supply Chain facilitators to spread the word about C1C.