ALDI
ALDI in Poland operates over 200 stores and employs nearly 3,500 people. The company focuses on long-term, fair, and reliable business relationships with suppliers, while also meeting the standards of a socially responsible company.
The rapidly expanding network in Poland faces a number of challenges, the successful execution of which could potentially be hindered by crisis situations.
Challenge
The rapidly expanding network faces a number of challenges and crisis-related risks, which can be divided into two groups. The first concerns the growth and expansion of the network, which involves the construction of new stores. The second – as with any retail network – relates to the products sold in those stores.
We were asked to prepare crisis simulations, during which we, along with ALDI’s communications team in Poland, would identify potential crisis risks in the Polish market, develop simulations, and assist ALDI managers in addressing these issues using best practices and in line with the procedures outlined in ALDI’s crisis management manual.
The conclusions from the simulations were to supplement the crisis management manual for the network.
The Strategy
Together with ALDI’s communications team, and after analysing crisis situations experienced by retail networks in Poland and Europe, we identified predictable crisis risks that could arise during the construction of new stores, as well as those related to the sale of products – particularly sensitive items such as fresh food.
In addition to the identified group of situations, we included simulations of events that had not yet occurred but were deemed likely to happen.
This strategic approach aimed to develop cooperation mechanisms among the management team, not only for situations they were already familiar with but also for new, unforeseen events that could arise.
The implementation
We invited managers to participate in the simulations, selecting those whose skills and responsibilities aligned with the types of risks identified.
As Icon Strategies, we prepared an introduction to crisis management, covering best practices and guidelines in this area. ALDI’s PR team prepared a reminder of the key crisis management principles outlined in the network’s crisis manual.
We built crisis event scenarios and moderated their resolution, starting with those that were easy to predict and progressing to more complex and unpredictable situations.
The workshops were conducted in a way that allowed participants to develop their roles in the crisis management team naturally, based on their competencies. They then worked on resolving the situations personally, outlining the best mechanisms for action and information exchange across the entire dispersed organisation.
Results
As a result of the workshops, the ALDI management team developed detailed procedures for handling both predictable crisis situations and unforeseen events.
The detailed action plans developed during the workshop were added to the crisis management manual for the network in Poland.
The findings from the workshops were also presented to the company’s board.
An additional outcome was the strengthening of cooperation among managers who usually work in different locations, as well as a better understanding by all workshop participants of their key roles and interdependencies in the crisis resolution process.