John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury, the founders of ‘Sainsbury’ created one of the most highly profitable grocery companies. After 120 years of staying in front of its competitors, the company took a major downfall and fell tremendously. This Case Study will outline the lessons learnt from what went wrong with the company, why the events happened and what can be learned.
What went wrong?
After 120 years of success, Sainsbury fell behind its competitors. Becoming too comfortable and managing the company without innovation. The introduction of the automobile had a huge impact to the grocery industry which enabled ‘self-serve’ type of shopping. Innovation sparked, customers had new ways of shopping. Failing to meet the customers’ expectations would have negative impacts.
Why did things go wrong?
Sainsbury’s competitors (Tesco & ASDA) engineered there existing operational methods (also introducing modern procedures) in accordance to present and future situations. Sainsbury completely relied on its existing supply chain and did not introduce or improve their operational methods, allowing the company to fall. The company needed to adapt …show more content…
Theoretical the plan would take seven years to complete, however the management decided to complete the plan within three years to gain speed over competitors. Sainsbury’s renewal program once completed would introduce innovative technologies to allow efficient performance. The program was very practical for Sainsbury’s situation. However, cutting the amount of time to complete the program was not. Technically rushing the plan can increase the amount of errors within the system and program as there would be less time to review certain procedures. Sainsbury however did have reasons to cut the timeframe of the program, extending the time even just by a year or several could have resulted in improved