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Strategic Performance Management at Block &

Quayle (B&Q)

Introduction

In order to achieve these learning objectives, I drawn upon some practical work experience

together with the primary and secondary research through various resources. This would primarily

be divided into two segments within the domain of learning objectives as defined above. It takes

the view that performance is constructed by the management system and by managers from his

own experience of working at B&Q local store and taking a more macro view of the organisation.

Performance management precedes performance measurement and gives it meaning.

1 Setting performance targets to meet strategic objectives

B&Q is a UK-owned Multinational (DIY) company with revenue of £4,444 million (about £161 million in

the UK) (B&Q, 2009 to 2010). B&Q was founded in 1969 by Richard Block and David Quayle in

Southampton. The store was originally called Block & Quayle, but this was soon shortened to

B&Q. The chain quickly expanded and by 1979 there were 26 stores across the UK. By this time, the first of

the co-founders had left the business: Block left in 1976 and Quayle in 1982. B&Q uses a mix of different

performance management tools. In this assignment we would be discussing score card methodology that

B&Q has modified.The objective of the team is to provide our customers with solutions to enable

them to accomplish their home improvement ambitions, in particular by removing the cost barrier

to home improvement, and to create and maintain rewarding relationships for both our customers

and B&Q.

What this means we do is:

Identify appropriate financial services and products.

Build these products.

Manage them (in terms of systems and operations) and any third-party providers that sit Behind them.

Ensure we are integrated with the rest of the B&Q customer proposition – in particular Marketing, but also working with Commercial and Ops to identify business opportunities.

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Manage the relationship with our customers (e.g. through promotions, statement Messages,

etc.).

Figure 1 -

Wheel encapsulates all the performance targets which B&Q needs in order to achieve its

objectives.

The link between team performance and strategic objectives

If the team performance on the steering wheel is green then the strategic objectives would be

attained whereas if it is red then it won’t. The greener the steering wheel the close that Store is to

achieve its objectives. The same principle is used at strategic level.

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Organisation’s strategic objectives

B&Q is one of Britain's leading multinational DIY and home improvement retailer , with 331 stores throughout England, 57 in china and 9 in republic of Ireland. The no of stores increasing day by day due to increasing demand because we are ensuring a quality product for our customers.

customers the best value for money and the most competitive prices.

eeting the needs of customers by constantly seeking, and acting on, their opinions regarding innovation, product quality, choice, store facilities and service.

roviding shareholders with progressive returns on their investment improving profitability through investment in efficient stores and distribution depots, in productivity improvements and in new technology.

eveloping the talents of its people through sound management and training practices, while rewarding them fairly with equal opportunities for all.

orking closely with suppliers to build long term business relationships based on strict quality and price criteria

articipating in the formulation of national food industry policies on key issues such as health, nutrition, hygiene, safety and animal welfare.

the well-being of the community and the protection of the environment.

Workforce requirements that are capable of achieving the organisation’s objectives

On the store level, B&Q uses the classical hierarchical management. Depending on the size of the

store, it is divided into six sections usually they are, front end (check outs), produce and fresh,

merchandising, stock control, administration, personnel and ambient. All sections have

operational staffs that are supervised by a team leader. This team leader reports back to sectional

manager and sectional manager in return report to store managers. Who are answerable to area

managers? Operational level staff does not require any skill but training starts from there

onwards. There are 29,962 B&Q employees worldwide. As B&Q is venturing out into more markets

such as financials or property market, the need for expertise is ever more increasing.

Tools and techniques available to set team performance targets

The following core purpose has been directly derived from two resources, B&Q own website. The

operational performances of B&Q stores on the wheel’s objectives are reported and reviewed

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quarterly at board level and afterwards a summary report is sent to the top 2000 managers to

cascade to staff in the stores. It allows a daily performance measurement which could also be used

for the long term strategic purposes. As a collection of individuals, the suggested measurement process

here has to do with team-based project work undertaken in the context of a specific learning intervention.

For example, measuring a team’s development is difficult unless the team is participating on the same

initiative or course. Where there is a requirement for a team-based project, measurement takes the form of

an assessment of the financial and non-monetary impact of the project undertaken. The project sponsor

who is external to the team would be tasked with quantifying the benefits of the improvement project upon

completion. Daily, weekly and monthly targets are reviewed regularly. An important consideration

is to make sure the objectives remain appropriate and robust measures of performance in the

stores. The purpose, vision go hand in hand and complement each other in managing the

corporate performance. Therefore, it is imperative to understand B&Q ‘purpose’.

B&Q core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty

B&Q’s success depends on people. The people who shop with them and the people who work for

them. The idea is If customers like what they offer, they are more likely to come back and shop

with them again. If the Tesco team find what Tesco does rewarding, they are more likely to go that

extra mile to help their customers. This is expressed as:

“No-one tries harder for customers and Treat people as we like to be treated “.

We regularly ask our customers and our staff what we can do to make shopping with us and

working with us that little bit better. This is our Every Little Helps strategy.

Shopping trip

Customers have told B&Q what they want — clear aisles, to be able to get what they want at a

good price, no queues and great staff.

A great place to work

B&Q has learnt from their staff what is important for them — to be treated with respect, having a

manager who helps them, having an interesting job and an opportunity to get on. B&Q recognises

that it helps achieve what is important to staff will help B&Q to deliver an every little Helps

Shopping Trip for customers.

The way B&Q works

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The way B&Q works is how it delivers Every Little Helps to make B&Q a better place to shop and

work in. They use simple processes so that shopping is Better for customers, Simpler for staff and

cheaper for B&Q.

Processes that deliver outcomes based on organisational goals and aims

B&Q uses balanced score card methodology throughout its organisational operations. Every

department has tweaked the balance score card according to their needs. These performances are

measured during team meetings at store level and waste is discussed at strategic level.

Appropriate methods for evaluating performance

Every staff has a PDP (Personal Development Planning) folder, this folder contains all the

performance appraisals, the training already done and the future training needs, some

departmental performance data for example if it is front end then the number of people served or

mystery shopper check etc. Again, colour coding of steering wheel helps identify the progress

made on people, community, and finance customer and operations level.

Review capacity and capability of current workforce

Using the current work force B&Q has become the largest retailer and employer in UK private

sector. Despite the tough construction laws imposed, B&Q is still expanding by leaps and bounds.

The UK market has enough labour to cater for the recruitment at UK level. However, for

international operations, the capability to recruit from UK diminishes; the recruitment is carried

out at local countries. With the current workforce of 39,000 people in UK alone B&Q is more than

capable to sustain itself against any future expansion plans.

Plans that meet long, medium and short term requirements

Some of the B&Q plans include, moving into the property markets within the next year, plans to

create 11000 new jobs within the next 5 years, B&Q plans to train its staff in Macro 4 to deliver

ongoing benefits, including fewer CPU upgrades and reduced systems software, B&Q plans to

centralise IT applications across...strategy which began five years ago, B&Q plans to centralise its

Oracle Financials...reduce staff travel costs, B&Q plans to roll out fixed-mobile technology within

the next 5 years, B&Q plans to extend its use of XML later next year to give each customer a

tailored Web site that will reflect their specific needs, and eventually within the next 2 years it

plans to operate its online business as a separate entity (B&Q, 2009). All of these plans meet the

objectives criteria and are in alignment with the growth.

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Communicate workforce plans

B&Q communicates above mentioned plans through its staff briefings, pamphlets, staff benefits

periodical, staff’s own website, intranet, films and advertising. The use of flexi hours is very

popular in organisation at B&Q due to the nature of people doing part timer jobs at operational

end therefore each department maintains a rota and extra hours available folder through which

employees can communicate and leave message for each other along with using staff message

boards.

Improvements made are in line with the organisation’s vision and objectives

The following figures show the improvements, which are in line with the organisations set goals

and objectives.

Kingfisher had a better performance elsewhere. Like-for-like sales at its stores in France rose by 2.6pc over the

ten-week period, while sales at its other international stores - which include a chain in China - rose by 0.8pc.

Overall, group sales fell by 0.8pc on a like-for-like basis.

Ian Cheshire, the retailer's chief executive, said that Kingfisher had put in a steady performance.

"This is a solid performance in an uncertain environment for our customers right across Europe. Consumer

spending remains under pressure, notably in the UK, and so we continued to focus on carefully targeting our

promotions to drive profitable sales, improving our cash margins and vigorously controlling our costs. As a result

our expectations for first-half cash and profit out turn remain on track," he said.

He added that he remains "cautious" about the outlook for consumer spending.

However he said: "We are confident that the strengths of the group and our well established self-help initiatives

leave us well-placed to continue our good progress over the balance of the year."

Improvements to reduce gap between what customers and stakeholders want

The success of the B&Q means that the stakeholders at all levels are very happy with the B&Q

performance. B&Q’s share is considered to be the most reliable on the market. B&Q rolls out

cheap brands and lines monitor which keeps track and competes with the competitors on prices.

Thus keeping customers happy. The gap between customer and stakeholders is substantially

reduced by keeping the community and different stakeholders at the heart of scorecard where the

progress is checked on recurrent basis.

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Agreeing team performance targets to meet strategic objectives

This sections aims to look into the team performance targets at store levels which match with the

ultimate strategic gains.

Required performance targets within teams against current performance

It is required of local stores to engage with the community and find out about their local shopping

preferences. Teams are urged to be polite, helpful and cordial. Every store has Seasonal

(Christmas, Easter etc.) and weekly targets. These targets are compared with the year on year,

season on seaon and like for like weekly targets. All the section managers and staff have the

access to the relevant information and these targets are reiterated through an internal

communication channel which is called ‘Team 5’. Every single staff working at B&Q has to sign

Team 5 once every week, ultimately agreeing or not agreeing on the targets set.

The type of skills, knowledge, understanding and experience required to undertake current and

planned organisational activities

At operational level, there is not much need for high skills required but along with the increment in

the hierarchy of the management, the relevant skills are also increased. For example, sectional

managers have to be versed in time keeping and management of rota, store managers are more

project oriented and have to be more financially aware. B&Q’s PDP help identify the training needs

of its staff. As the Tesco is becoming more technologically oriented, B&Q is investing a lot in the

training of XML, Macros and other systems such as self help check outs monitoring and online

reporting. B&Q employees can manage their own profile these days online and have their

personnel related matters sorted through this channel. All this needs to be communicated and

people are trained through B&Q Academy.

Systems for collecting and assessing information on the overall performance of the organisation

to identify opportunities for improvement

B&Q relies heavily on digital ways of collecting and assessing information. Although, it does

engage with community through local leaflets and local surveys but on strategic level it engages

through CSR (corporate social responsibly) initiative. It has found out that It needs to invest in

greener and more fair trade products. Every transaction on B&Q front end is stored for 5 years,

this hige amount of data helps analyse and compare sales data on the overall performance of the

store. B&Q loyalty club card helps understand particular individual buying, shopping patterns

allowing B&Q to do targeted marketing.

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Encourage individual commitment to team performance in achieving organisational objectives

Every little helps motto lies at the core of gaining commitment from staff. Staffs are encouraged

through motivational techniques such as staff value awards competition, employee of the month

and encouragement for every staff to become team members. Such techniques help raise the staff

morale ultimate resulting in getting individual’s commitment.

Context of delegation, mentoring and coaching to achieve organisational objectives

The concept of mentoring is used at graduate training schemes where graduate recruits get their

mentor for a year or so period. Operational staff tends to get more coaching and any limitations in

their skills are catered for locally in the staff training room. At grass root level there is not much of

delegation involved, more or less the operational teams do the jobs that they are asked to do with

a very little chance of job rotation.

Monitor activities to improve team performance

A strategy implementation to improve team performance process has to be a top to bottom

approach. Communication lies at the heart of strategy implementation. If the top management

doesn’t have the required motivation coupled with strong communication channels then it would

be hard to monitor any strategic systems and processes. Therefore, B&Q has adopted various

channels for the smooth flow of information and introduced various checks and balances so that

the balance score card is measured according to the objectives set. For example, at store level, a

document called ‘plan and review’ is used by every staff member who enables them to think and

measure their performance against the five segments of the ‘steering wheel’. This whole process

encompasses the involvement of supervisors, team leaders and other managers during staff

appraisals which are conducted twice a year. Employees are encouraged to take part in B&Q’s

development programme which is labelled as personal development planning (PDP). Every

employee develops his own objectives and how he will carry these out in ways that are consistent

with the needs of the steering wheel. The progress is monitored through PDP folder and staff

appraisals. Identification of the work objectives, key dates and support materials are provided by

the management and also at their daily and weekly staff meetings so that staff can measure their

contribution.

Monitoring team performance

Following a resource based review of the adopted balance score card methodology at B&Q,

devised a strategic performance model specifically for B&Q. It encapsulates the daily, monthly,

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quarterly and annual strategic control and the steps through which it is controlled and monitored

as described in the figure 2 below.

Figure 2

According to above figure, B&Q’s score card focuses on alignment and integration of the human activity factor with the operations. It conditions how people work instead of directly trying to influence people (employees and community) what they should achieve. The steering wheel helps review the objectives and progress through all structures of management and at all levels. B&Q recurring operational issues are discussed at weekly or monthly basis whereas; the strategic issues come up more often at managers meetings on quarterly basis. This is in alignment with the classical view of the balance score card evolution. From its advent in Japan to its newest models in western organisations such as B&Q.(2008)

Evaluation of team performance against agreed objectives

Team performances are evaluated through 360 feedbacks, team briefings and by adopting

Deming’s PDC approach. The areas of improvement are colour coded and are communicated at

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once through Team 5 exercise. Mystery shopper findings are of real importance as this is the

ultimate test of customer satisfaction and the helpfulness of the staff.

Contribution of influence and persuasion to team dynamics

Since the evolution of different management theories, the modern business world uses a mix of all

these. Employee motivation through monetary means is still a bigger factor behind better labour

output. The contribution of these motivational techniques to influence the team dynamics is

measured in this section.

Methodologies to gain commitment to action

B&Q management uses a combination of Taylorism and Maslow theory of need such that it

enriches the job satisfaction by really involving its staff into decision making allowing them to

become a part of the organisation and by giving them monetary incentives through bonus and

other performance related pay increments. This is a proven methodology to gain B&Q Staff’s

commitment in achieving the targets. B&Q employs over 39,000 and all of them take part in Staff

Question Time Sessions which enables the B&Q management to obtain a valuable feedback about

the work conditions (Talking B&Q, 2009). This is a 360 degree exercise such that it not only gives

feedback to employees but also enables staff to share their experience and opinions to help serve

customers better.

Staff Training and development is another successful tool that B&Q uses to engage with its staff

and to enrich their experience of working with them. A good CPT programmed such as B&Q’s own

PDP (Personal Development Programme) is highly effective in experienced staff retention. Staff

retention and loyalty is a trademark of every successful organisation.

B&Q motivates its staff through profit sharing and ownership sharing through subsidised share

schemes for employees such as ‘Save as You Earn’ and ‘Buy as You Earn’. B&Q pays the double of

the amount that the staff contributes. Such schemes allow employees to regard highly of their

employer and become a loyal staff.

Impact of individual dynamic on securing commitment to action

The impact of the chief executive on securing its staff‘s commitment to action is distilled at all

levels of B&Q organizational structure. For any strategic action has to be channelled through

effective top level management. B&Q’s current boss has earned industry as well as its employee’s

respect by achieving various awards and taking B&Q success to an unprecedented level.

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Perhaps the most significant decision ever made by a retail giant has been the introduction of

loyalty card and loyalty schemes. Before this, B&Q used to trail behind Sainsbury and Marks and

Spencer (B&Q, 2009). Introduction of a scheme which was never used before in B&Q organisation

required a lot of influencing and persuasion skills. It is not only that but the securing or

commitment of its entire work force is an uphill task altogether wonderfully. These efforts were

duly recognized by CMI (Chartered Management Institute).

Conclusion

The above assignment has tried to explore B&Q within four learning outcomes as specified above

and has found that due to visionary leadership and innovative performance management

measures, B&Q has secured a top notch in the retail industry and continues to grow to date. The

four learning outcomes inspected setting of performance targets through the purpose and balance

score card methodology adopted by B&Q. B&Q further uses various controlling and monitoring

mechanism together with it’s ‘Steering Wheel’ to help implement its objectives. Different

motivational techniques are used to build up the morale and generate higher labour output by the

team members. These teams include enrichment of employees experience through training and

development, sharing of success through shares and profits incentives. And eventually, the all

important strategic leadership has been discussed. It is argued that without the visionary

leadership of management B&Q would not enjoy the benefits that it is enjoying today. Despite

being the leading supermarket, B&Q continues to expand into more diversified portfolio and the

author of this article, having worked in one of the stores, feels confident that the trend would

continue in the future.The Quality Assurance team sits within the overall Commercial department

and is responsible for ensuring all products purchased and sold within B&Q meet and comply with

regulated safety and quality standards. Furthermore, they ensure that factories used to

manufacture our products meet specified Health and Safety standards.

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