Change Management Impact

Change Management Plan- Ralph Lauren Corporation
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Change Management Plan- Ralph Lauren Corporation
Introduction
Change is inevitable for organizations wishing to stay competitive in their industry and markets. The frequent shuffling of the management and strategies can be among the changes a company can employ to maintain and improve its market share. Ralph Lauren Corporation is a company dealing with men and women wear. Last year the company announced some leadership changes that saw it unveil the CEO position in Novembers last year. The position was created to support the growth of the business in the global market that is increasingly becoming complex. Furthermore, the chairmanship and CEO position was meant to tap any arising investment opportunities that can create a competitive advantage for the company. The leadership change affected most of the human resource functions since several roles are now under the new position including assessment and progress reporting. According to the HR leader of the company, since the CEO position became operational, there has been no overriding of roles in the company and roles distribution in the company has been enhanced hence increasing their productivity of the workforce.
The Purpose of the Change
Owing to the increasing competition in the clothing industry the company decided to reshuffle its management to cope with the demands. Furthermore, according to the HR manager, the company had started losing some of its crucial consumers to other businesses that produce substitute goods to theirs.

These lead to a reduction in the revenues of the company making it harder to compete with the rivals effectively. Consequently, employee retention became involving since most of them were lured by the promising pays from the rival companies. Due to these challenges, the introduction of the CEO position and overall change in management became paramount. The change was meant to address the issues and bring back the company’s image onboard. The CEO Stefan Larsson reiterated that to revive the company, and there will be an absolute need to shake up all the corners of the organization including shutting down all the non-performing stores (Halzack, 2016).
The Impact of the Change
Since the introduction of the CEO position in the company and the change in management, the organization has regained most of its markets. The change has heavily impacted on consumers who reside in areas whose stores were shut down. These were meant to reduce the unnecessary expenses costs of running unproductive stores of the company. Further, according to the HR manager, due to this move, some employees were laid off due to the closure of the stores they were operating. However, the leadership of the company under Stefan Larsson has seen the company pick and start dominating several markets in the United States. Among those to be affected by the changes in the leadership of the company includes; Roger Farah, Jackwyn Nemerov, and Christopher Peterson. Farah will become the vice chair of the organization, Nemerov the president and COO while Peterson will become the chief administrative officer, CFO and executive vice president of the company. Altogether, approximately 1000 jobs in the Ralph Lauren Corp. will be eliminated due to this strategic management process (Halzack, 2016).
Change Implementation Methods
Organizations need to match their changes with their internal strengths and weaknesses so that that to utilize any external opportunities and handle threats. Ralph Lauren Corp. implemented its change in leadership by employing different techniques. The company used Stepwise changes. They applied this method in improving its management. This was meant to allow support for one change after the other from the other stakeholders. Furthermore, this method according to the Human Resource Manager enabled the company to continue producing and experienced a light effect of the change in its operations. As a result, the changes become easily integrated into the organization’s operations and culture (Jyothi, 2013). Additionally, it gives all the employees a chance to familiarize with the change.
Inclusiveness and mapping out method proved to be working for the company. Employees were allowed to get informed on what the change entails and their contributions towards the modification. Enthusiasm among the staff about a change in management is paramount (Phillips & Gully, 2013). For this reason, Ralph Laurent Company decided to involve its entire staff in authorizing the change hence creating a mutual understanding of what the change is meant to bring to the organization. In addition to this method of implementation of their strategic management process, the HR manager argued that positioning the changes has helped the company in the implementation of its strategies. Letting the stakeholders know the positive and negative side of the change creates a platform for comparison and thus allows them to support or criticize the change. This technique proved to be fruitful for the company and is allowing it to implement its strategic management process with ease.
Measurement of Success/Metrics
Having the plan to measure the efficiency of a strategy is imperative if a business has to get an insight on the real effect of the change (Robbins, De Cenzo, & Coulter, 2014). According to the HR manager of Ralph Lauren, the major metric used in tracking the success of their strategies in management is the use of customer and employees scores. Customer satisfaction/voice is measured by the feedback they give after being served by the company or after using the several stores’ products. Employee satisfaction, on the other hand, is determined by scheduled Gallup surveys that allow the employees to engage the company’s management freely I both positive and negative approaches. According to the interviewee, this has helped the company in building a cohesive workforce and has facilitated transparency in the operations of the company. Particularly, these metric has enabled the company to track its progress and adjust effectively to the needed change while zooming in on bureaucracies that may be existing within the organization. In addition to these metrics, the company also uses its cash flows to follow up on their financial performance.
Budget Concerns and Timeline
Ralph Laurent Company new CEO decided to minimize the costs of operations of the company to the lowest values possible. Before the establishment of the Chairperson’s Position, the company had several stores that were not performing hence increasing the operational cost of the company. The efforts of streamlining the management of the company are associated with a one-time cost of $120-$150 million. The closure of close to 50 nonperforming stores by the end of April 2017 will allow the company to save approximately $220 million. The entire change in the management and recruitment of top management is expected to take a whole year since ending January 2017 (Halzack, 2016).
Recommended Follow-Up Plan
Owing to the complexity of the management is Ralph Lauren Corp.; there is an absolute need for a definitive mechanism of keeping up with the impact of the change in management. First, tracking the financial data of the company since the initiation of the strategic process in comparison to the past data can be essential. These will indicate the success of the company in implementing its change. Second, to ascertain the effects of the change on human resource functions, the company can frequently identify the weak areas in their workforce and recruit new staff to fill the gaps for a smooth operation. Third, the organization can set short term goals for the entire department to check their alignment compatibility with the company’s set goals. Lastly, for a clear and transparent oversight of the organization progress, they should continuously replenish their workforce and have specific roles for each member of staff.
Schematic Diagram
Tracking the impacts of the change
Initialization of the change
Identification of the needed change
Strategic management process development
Step1step 2step 3step 4

Recycle from step 1 2 3 or 4 as needed
Revise needed

Make amendments
Revise as needed

Revisiting the steps (only in the event of failure or needed improvement)

Conclusion
Organizations find hard to operate with a stagnant management throughout its lifespan. Change is needed in the process as it helps many organizations to cope with the changes within the marketplace as well as the introduction of fresh ideas in the management. For a better and successful change, a management plan is thus needed. It acts as a reference and guide for the whole strategic management process ensuring all the objectives of the change are followed to the end. Furthermore, the plan provided a mechanism to follow up on the progress of the company’s change and ascertain if it brings a positive or adverse effect on the organization. The importance of change is thus vital in any organization and cannot be avoided as long as there is competition in the market.
References
Halzack, S. (2016, June 7). Big changes are ahead at Ralph Lauren. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/06/07/why-big-changes-are-ahead-at-ralph-lauren/
Jyothi, P. (2013). Human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2013). Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Centage Learning.
Robbins, S. P., De Cenzo, D., & Coulter, M. (2014). Fundamentals of Management: Essential concepts and applications. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice Hall.