In so doing, he reversed certain things that had been started by his predecessor, Stuart Rose. Certain sub-brands. Positioning in regard to foreign expansion. One thing he didn't change, he mentioned pretty much in passing, was the company's commitment to Plan A - its sustainability programme.
Every new CEO comes into the job with the intention to be a new broom, making their mark early as someone that can lead the business to greater heights. How does a head of sustainability or CSR ensure that the company's commitment to social responsibility is a beneficiary, not a casualty, of such a clean sweep?
Of course, a lot depends on the character and conviction of the person concerned. If they come in believing that CSR is a communist plot to force businesses to sell their shareholders short - well, at best you're reorientating your approach to play the long game. At worst, time to dust off the resume. Conversely, if you suddenly find you've acquired a committed and convinced champion, the following action points become easier. A LOT easier.
Here are some thoughts.
1. It begins before the new guy arrives.
Very rarely is a new CEO going to slam on all the brakes and believe that the way forward is to completely reinvent the organisation. Even when a company's systems are seriously broken, the CEO is going to be looking out for what works that they can build upon. Make sure that one of the things they see is that commitment to sustainability.
So maybe the old CEO didn't see sustainability in a strategic way. Maybe the vision for how the company will be successful in the future doesn't quite match the scale of the challenges you know actually lie ahead.
But at least you should be planting seeds in each of the business units, trying to get them to recognise and move on their most immediate issues. If, when the new CEO arrives they look across the business and see good things happening in all departments on sustainability, they might just be open to the argument that since it is such a widespread corporate asset - one way forward might just be to utilise it better. And show what's being done more effectively to the customer.
And the more you've got effective programmes in place across the different business units, the more likely that there will be senior directors to whom the CEO speaks in their early days who share your enthusiasm for the company's work in this area.
And, of course, if it's an internal appointment that director currently at the head of the company's fastest growing product line might just become the new CEO. So begin the work of winning over all the top executives BEFORE they get to the top job. It will be much easier than starting from scratch at the same time as everyone else is queueing up for some face time with them.
When was the last time you looked at the likelihood of leadership change within the next three years, and planned ahead for how you would utilise that particular moment of opportunity to further the commitment to sustainability within the company, and fend off the danger that a new hand on the tiller would throw such commitment overboard?
2. Know your leader - find the areas of common cause
New leaders don't emerge as a blank slate onto which anything could be written. They have a history - a record of achievement (and a certain amount of political game-playing) that ultimately took them to the top slot. As soon as you know who the new boss is going to be, you need to find out a little bit about their track record.
Were they involved with dealing with CSR issues in their previous role? If yes, which ones? What was their style in that role? How did they work with their team? What were they trying to achieve?
Leaders usually go to a new company and do pretty much what they did at their previous company that they believed worked. It may not be identical, but it will be similar.
It's why 3M got Six Sigma when James McNerney arrived as CEO in 2001. Six Sigma was what he had done at GE, so regardless as to whether 3M fitted the approach as well as GE, that was what he did.
The aim is to find the point of strongest agreement, so that when you are first briefing your new broom on what you do, you can make it sound effective from the beginning.
