What challenges prompted you to change your management and why did you choose the ecosystem model?

We worked in a fairly conservative business - selling shoes. A lot of time has passed in this area, and changes have hardly taken place. On the other hand, buyers themselves have changed very quickly in recent years. First, they began to pay more attention to technology. Today we have more than 70% of visitors looking for purchases through the site using phones.

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Secondly, the market itself has already changed. People are less and less buying classic shoes, and more and more people are paying attention to sports shoes. This has become a trend.

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Three years ago, we realized that if we did not change and respond more quickly to the challenges, it would not lead to anything good.

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It was then that I turned my attention to ecosystem approaches and began to think about implementing these approaches in our company. It is worth noting that I first looked at what different schools offer (foreign and Ukrainian) and my choice settled on the kmbs program. When we met with the head of the program Helena Savruk and talked about the topic, it became clear to me that this program will be able to bring our company to a new level.

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What are the benefits of the program?

This program teaches that with the help of partner logic and the involvement of various participants, businesses can scale, increase capital and change the rules of the game in the markets. It provides a unique mix in communication between civil servants, businessmen and artists. And it's very cool, because government systems are much more complex than business. And although business is more flexible than public institutions, large-scale change requires ecosystem solutions that allow business to be viewed from different perspectives, providing strategic benefits to all participants in the process. For example, thanks to a new approach to work, our company is growing by 60% every year and this has been happening for 2 years.

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It is worth noting that at the beginning of my studies I had some doubts. It seemed to me that we were too immersed in software things - issues of values, vision and mission, the nature of systems, capabilities. Many schools use a hard-core approach that provides instructions, a focus on tools, skills, and methodologies that clearly indicate what to do next.

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The kmbs School of Strategic Architect uses a different methodology that explains not only what to do, but also why, seeks meaning.

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What have you managed to achieve thanks to the ecosystem approach?

Every year, together with the team, we finalize the company's development strategy. We meet and discuss where the company will move next. When I came after the program, I noticed that I spoke to the team in almost different languages. I proposed an ecosystem approach to transformation, building a mutually beneficial partnership based on trust, because in Ukrainian society it is so lacking. In addition, he used terminology and addressed an ideology that was not clear to everyone. So we decided to train the whole team.

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Our top management, company owners, other shareholders and the best specialists from other technology companies for 6 months underwent a training course on a specially adapted program for us and, at the same time, continued to develop a strategy.

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The main thing that we have changed: instead of just being a shoe retailer and just having shops, as it was before, now we are turning into a technological fashion company.

We used to track the emergence of something new in the industry and try to reproduce it in our country. With the help of the ecosystem approach, it has become much easier for us to navigate the world. Now we use the experience of technology companies, they connect to us, and we, in turn, cooperate with them, offer their product to our partners. That is, through us they get the opportunity to reach a new level, to offer their services to global brands, to which they would not get on their own.

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The main thing that we have changed: instead of just being a shoe retailer and just having shops, as it was before, we are turning into a technological fashion company.

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What risks did the company face?

We were worried that we might lose market share due to competitors. There was a risk that we would not be able to become a technology company, that we would not change, however, now our site is the first in the fashion business.

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How does a company determine its own uniqueness in the market?

We have the results of NPS (Consumer Support Index - ed.) For customers, as far as they are satisfied with our service, we receive about 30 thousand calls to our hotline, and we see the financial results. We receive feedback from customers and track statistics.

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It should be added that we also conduct surveys among our employees. Every six months, we make a kind of measurement of team satisfaction with the company through an anonymous survey, as well as collect online wishes of employees about the changes they would like to see. Our research shows that from year to year satisfaction rates increase. And the most gratifying thing is that students from 3-4 years come to us for temporary work, and then stay to work with us and achieve success and career growth quite quickly. We have powerful social elevators in the company. We are constantly actively developing and growing.

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So we can say that the ecosystem development program has given us all more meaning and understanding of how the company should grow.

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Source: nv.ua.