New direction and momentum for East of England Co-op
Background
The East of England Co-op is an independent society owned by 260,000 members and employing over 3,000 colleagues. The organisation’s main operations include food retailing, funerals and property.
In 2019 the executive team and board recognised that community priorities, consumer behaviours and competitor activities were all changing, and that the business had to adapt quickly to take advantage of the shifting landscape.
They approached Mimo to help rediscover the organisation’s strengths, to engage colleagues with their values and help define and deliver new strategies.
“Mimo were a driving force behind our strategic review at East of England Co-op.”
— Niall O’Keeffe, CEO East of England Co-op
A 3-stage programme
1.
Internal & External Research
We conducted top to bottom internal colleague interviews, workshops and store visits to identify the main characteristics and nuances of the existing business challenges culture.
We also undertook member and customer ethnography to understand the role of the brand in their lives, in communities and in the competitive landscape.
2.
Strategic & operational recommendations
We worked closely with the management team to create a new vision and mission, to direct what the organisation should strive for and prioritise.
We refreshed the ‘values’ to direct how colleagues could best deliver the resulting strategies.
3.
Engaged the
organisations in
the new strategies
We played a key role in helping to develop an internal training programme to deliver the new ‘Our Co-op’ programme to over 3,000 colleagues.
We designed and ran workshops that engaged colleagues in new values, and created messaging frameworks for all internal communications.
Outcome
“Mimo’s strategic thinking, creativity and drive is contributing significantly to cultural change within our business.”
— Niall O’Keeffe, CEO East of England Co-op.