Interim Chief Transformation Officer for Retail Productivity

Productivity that protects the customer offer

The executive will lead a retail transformation programme aimed at improving productive use of labour, space and operating resources. The mandate requires distinguishing avoidable effort from work essential to service, safety and availability. It should create sustainable operating improvement, with clear ownership in the business after the programme ends.

Diagnose the sources of effort

Examine store and support activities through observation, workload information and service outcomes. Identify repeated handling, unnecessary administrative work, unstable processes and tasks created by upstream decisions. Compare stores carefully, taking account of format, demand and assortment rather than assuming that a lower labour ratio always indicates better practice.

Deliver a coherent programme

Prioritise changes that remove work or make it easier before relying on reductions in resources. Coordinate commercial, logistics, technology and store leaders so that local improvements do not shift cost elsewhere. Pilot revised routines, verify their effect and prepare implementation support that managers can use during ordinary trading.

The executive will manage approved transformation resources and make operating decisions within delegation. Workforce changes, material capital commitments and changes to formal policies require the appropriate authorisation and processes. The programme must report customer and employee consequences alongside financial outcomes.

Benefits and accountability

Agree baselines with finance and operational owners. Separate capacity released for better service from cash savings that can actually be realised. Avoid counting the same benefit across several initiatives. Establish an explicit decision on how released capacity will be used and ensure that planned gains are reflected in the operating plan only when evidence supports them.

The result to leave behind

Success means simpler work, more dependable execution and a cost base consistent with the intended proposition. Handover should include process ownership, trained managers and measures that detect deterioration or displaced work. The enterprise should retain the ability to improve productivity without repeatedly launching exceptional programmes or depending on sustained effort beyond normal operating capacity.