Client Situation
Our client is a leading hypermarket chain; its core business is to establish & manage hypermarkets in Dubai. Its management is keen to review its current business model and implement a new strategy including Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Objectives, aligned with the growth of the business. Cedar has a good understanding of the client based on its previous engagements in the areas of Business Strategy & BSC, IT Strategy, Implementation Assistance & Vendor Evaluation. The client had thus requested Cedar’s assistance in this regard.
Cedar’s Approach
The primary objective of the program was to assist the client in reviewing its current business model & in developing a way forward growth strategy & an execution plan.
- A market & competitive assessment was first conducted by Cedar, which involved- assessment of the retail market in UAE, understanding of the competitive environment & key players, recent & emerging trends in hypermarkets
- An internal assessment of the client was then conducted which entailed a multi-dimensional analysis of the client’s financials, location & product categories, processes and organisation & IT systems
- This was followed by reviewing the client’s vision, mission, values & strategy
- Further, a detailed SWOT analysis was conducted
- Finally, a way forward strategy plan was synthesized. Focus was drawn towards the client’s business process & IT infrastructures
- Based on this overall operating model, KRAs, KPIs & Skills were outlined & a high level implementation plan was developed
Outcome
The following were the key recommendations rolled out to the client by Cedar:
- Adding new Special Projects Department to facilitate high level special projects by the client
- Formalising the strategic planning function, which ensured separation of this function from the MIS & admin
- Selectively developing category management roles with different IPMs, strategic incentives & growth of the category as a primary objective
- Implementing category management & space management applications to facilitate a data driven assortment strategy in order to improve efficiencies
- Implementing real time store inventory management across all branches, with its roll out capability being at high priority