The Challenge: To reduce the downward business trends and transform the culture.

The Solution: To create a high performance organization through mission, vision, and values creation and improved leadership skills.

The Results: Increased customer satisfaction, improved sales, and store expansion.

Big Lots—the nation’s number one broadline closeout retailer—is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. It has nearly 1,400 stores, employs more than 45,000 associates across the United States, and has annual revenues that exceed $3.9 billion. That’s today.

When Mike Potter was named CEO, Big Lots was in a downward business trend. Potter set a goal of becoming a High Performing Organization (HPO)—an organization that over time produces outstanding results along with high levels of human satisfaction and commitment to success. Using the Blanchard HPO framework and working in conjunction with two of its top training consultants, Penny Davis, Big Lots’ Vice President of Associate Relations and Development, helped by facilitating new mission, vision, and values statements and the development of new business strategies.

Company-wide dialogue and an HPO survey raised awareness of Big Lots’ leadership, communications, and learning styles. Participants ranked the organization on seven elements essential to achieving high performance—shared power and high involvement, shared information and communication, compelling vision, individual knowledge, organizational knowledge, relentless focus on customer results, and energized systems and structures. Wedged between the collection of first- and second-year results, was an announcement of five new key strategic initiatives—building the Big Lots brand, converting to customer-driven merchandising, creating customer-driven stores, adopting supply chain management, and focusing on building the Big Lots team.

Results

Survey results from four consecutive years indicate that Big Lots has succeeded in becoming a High Performing Organization, in driving impact and change, in meeting its strategic initiatives, and in becoming a provider, employer, and investment of choice. The transformation lead to record-setting increases in customer transactions and store expansion, proving that becoming an HPO has positive impact at the bottom line!

Penny Davis is Vice President of Associate Relations and Development with Big Lots and has more than 20 years of experience in human resources. In addition to associate relations, Penny oversees technical and leadership training for 45,000 people in over 1,400 stores and five distribution centers.