Page 193 - Successful Onboarding

“Limited Upside in Flying Blind”: Driving Strategic Insight • 177

an entirely new sourcing strategy, investing in company brands and tech-
nologies. To execute this strategy, Home Depot needed to bring its sourc-
ing and marketing organizations on board. Yet it also would be well served
if all front-line retail new hires in Home Depot’s stores understood the
new strategy and its significance. Without such perspective, front-line
retail hires would never understand the importance, for example, of high-
lighting the tools and other products that are only available at Home
Depot—and specifically what about them makes them special. New hires
might have performed such tasks if management specifically directed them
to do so, but they would not have done it with anywhere the same zeal
unless managers had explained Home Depot’s new strategy to improve
margins and maintain share against a growing formidable competitor.
Companies should also take care to provide new hires with sufficient
information about suppliers. Questions you might answer include:

• Are suppliers exclusive to us, or do they serve all industry players
with the same products? Regardless of this answer, employees
should understand the implications of the current supply
structure.
• What are we asking of our key suppliers? Is it innovation? Low
cost? Flexibility?
• Where have we chosen to vertically integrate? Have competitors
decided similarly? What are the implications?
• How healthy are our relationships with key suppliers? What are
the points of tension?

If an organization could articulate that its win plan relies heavily on having
differentiated, innovative products, and that the strategic sourcing (supply)
organization should therefore negotiate exclusive deals with suppliers who
can provide unique goods with proper incentives, then the firm could exe-
cute well against its strategy of being an industry innovator. Behavior on the
ground in the sourcing department would change; new hires might try to
nurture long-term relationships with suppliers rather than aim at lowest cost
no matter what. Customers comprise another especially important compo-
nent of the strategic landscape. There are many questions to answer here,
as part of onboarding. What customer segments exist and which has the