In 2005, Cadbury completely transformed its commercial strategy process and capabilities. It had achieved two years of good performance, however, they were below the levels of most packaged goods company peers’ performance and investors were demanding more. The program transformed the way that commercial opportunities (e.g., new consumers for existing products, new products to satisfy consumer needs, etc.) were identified, addressed, and executed. Also, it developed a highly collaborative, cross-department working approach to increase productivity.
The program included multiple templates to assess the current business and evaluate future options. About six months after the training was completed, some parts of the business were still using old templates to do their analyses. They only used the new ones for presentations to head office. By not using the new process they were missing out on its benefits, and the extra work involved using two sets of templates was wasteful and inefficient. Then, the extra work was blamed on the new process, which created an additional barrier to adopting the new ways of working.
Although the need for the new program and the benefits it provided were clear, some people couldn’t give up their old ways of working, which created extra work and reduced the benefits from using a consistent approach.
