Meet Colruyt Group, Belgium’s number one retailer. We feel every day how we are confronted with challenges and challengers. We believe two key ingredients will help us deal with this: empowered teams and customer driven validation. But plugging these in into an existing organisation appears to be quite a journey. Join us to hear about our bumpy ride, our lessons learned, and how we are taking them forward.
So, you’ve probably guessed that I am Filip. I was the business architect on the program, but I tried to evolve my role into more of an innovation coach. Throughout this project, I learned a lot, and I even got to work with Karen, who joined me for about 18 months on this journey. We will share the story of a corporate organization that had a vision to create a new business but faced significant challenges in doing so. The idea had been around for some time, but because it spanned multiple business units and brands within the group, it became rather complicated.
Before we begin, I want to emphasize that this is our story. We were both external to the corporation—we were not part of it. We tried to bring Tom, the business owner, along with us today, but that wasn’t possible. However, I interviewed him last week, and you will see some video snapshots of that interview throughout our presentation.
Introducing the Company
For those of you from Belgium, you may already be familiar with this company. It is the number one retailer in Belgium, with a small presence in France. The company has existed for 80 years, remains family-owned, and is highly value-driven. These values are not just words on a poster—they truly live inside the company’s culture. They employ about 30,000 people across three countries and operate under several brands, ranging from discount retailers to organic food stores, toy stores, baby articles, and even their own consumer academy. They also produce and sell green energy, making them an energy provider.
As Karen mentioned, their values are deeply ingrained in their operations. Many companies claim to prioritize values, but this is one of the few organizations where I, as an external consultant, truly felt it. For example, they emphasize work-life balance—not by allowing remote work, but by experimenting with a commuter bus where employees can work comfortably during their travel. You may argue whether or not that is the best solution, but it highlights their commitment to work-life balance.
The Innovation Challenge
Despite their strong history of innovation—introducing smartphone apps, creating their own products, and experimenting with unique checkout systems—this particular new business venture presented significant challenges. We have chosen to share this story by focusing on four key moments over an 18- to 24-month period. Through these four snapshots, we will highlight the dilemmas and tensions we encountered, as well as the lessons we learned.
Scene 1: Boot Camp – A Different Approach
Like many large corporations, they had established processes for everything, including strategy development. Traditionally, their strategic planning process was slow, involving several workshops over an extended period. We decided to do things differently. Instead of following the conventional approach, we organized a three-day boot camp.
We invited 15 people from different business units who had a strong interest in the new idea. Over three intensive days, we worked from early morning to late at night, using interactive and creative sessions while avoiding endless discussions. By the end of the boot camp, we had a vision, a mission, ambitions, and tangible new value propositions.
However, in hindsight, we made a mistake: we didn’t have a clear momentum plan for after the boot camp. There was no dedicated team ready to take things forward. After the boot camp, it was just Tom, me, and a business architecture colleague. Everyone else was volunteering their time while still managing their main jobs. This made it difficult to maintain progress.
One of the key lessons we learned was the importance of having a well-defined strategy and a dedicated team from the start. Without a clear and precise strategy, communication with stakeholders and sponsors becomes challenging, and decision-making processes become slow. Keeping the number of decision-makers small and maintaining transparency in decision-making is crucial, especially in a corporate environment.
Scene 2: Tension Between Business and IT
Fast forward eight months. By this time, we had a dedicated business team and a large IT team. Unfortunately, they weren’t working well together. The business team was more focused on preparing for the next governance gate review rather than focusing on their next iteration. The tension became too significant to ignore.
We decided to take a timeout with the business team and used the metaphor of a boat to reflect on what was propelling them forward and what was holding them back. This was similar to a health check, and we repeated this exercise multiple times throughout the project.
One realization was that many of the perceived hurdles were actually just that—perceptions. For example, in this large organization, decisions were typically made by consensus, involving everyone and taking significant time. However, this was more of a habit than a requirement. No one was actually forcing them to operate that way. Looking back, we should have challenged these perceived hurdles more often instead of simply accepting them.
Scene 3: Experimentation and Customer Validation
One of the key takeaways from this project was the importance of real-world customer validation. Many companies invest time in upfront research and analysis, hoping to design the perfect value proposition before launching. However, real customer behavior can only be observed through actual market experiments.
We conducted our first experiment—a simple online link between two brands—and the positive results far exceeded our expectations. We learned that insights gathered from research, interviews, and surveys are often based on intentions rather than real behavior. Real-world experiments provide actionable data that is far more valuable.
Despite the success of this initial experiment, we faced resistance in making continuous customer validation a regular practice. Fear of reputational damage, technical challenges, and organizational inertia prevented us from fully embracing experimentation.
Scene 4: Project Closure and Resilience
About a year ago, we received the message that the project was being shut down. While it wasn’t a complete surprise, it was still difficult for the team, as they were deeply committed to the work. Instead of letting disappointment take over, we decided to do something with that energy.
Two days after receiving the news, we gathered the team for a session to digest the message. We recognized that everyone processes such news differently, so we provided multiple ways for them to reflect. After lunch, something remarkable happened—resilience kicked in.
In just 30 minutes, the team compiled a list of everything they had learned over the past two years. They wanted to share these insights with the rest of the organization. They proposed a TED Talk-style knowledge fair, which was quickly organized and became a success. This event gave them recognition and acknowledgment for their work, helping them move forward with a sense of accomplishment rather than failure.
Key Takeaways
- Set the Scene: Before launching a major initiative, ensure that you have a dedicated, focused team in place. Making course corrections later in large organizations can be difficult.
- Turn Frustration into Action: Tension and frustration are sources of energy. Channel them into productive actions rather than letting them become obstacles.
- Make It Small: Instead of growing a single team, create multiple small, independent teams. Keep teams focused, cut dependencies, and allow experimentation to happen at a manageable scale.
- Deep Listening: Encourage teams to listen without bias or fear. This enhances customer validation efforts and supports innovation.
- Separate Innovation from Transformation: Innovation and transformation require different governance processes. Mixing them can increase the risk of failure.
As Tom put it, "The risk of failure by mixing innovation and transformation is too high. What helps innovation is too light for transformation, and what helps transformation blocks innovation. So dare to make a good choice."
Thank you for your time!