Week 2 Carrefour

Carrefour is the seconde largest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart, therefore it has a huge working capital and it has many competitive advantages compared to other retailers. Carrefour was a very successful company until its shares fell down by 45% in 2011. They deliver good products and long queues.  The CEO in an organisation like Carrefour is very important. Key stategic decisions need to be made every day and if the man at the top of the organisation does not have the knowledge, the qualifications and the expertise to make decisions, then he shouldn't.  We can argue that he was under a lot of pressure because he was given a 6 months deadline to make things right. But in my opinion that wasn't the case for Mr. Lars Olofsson because as you can imagine a CEO at a company like Carrefour earns a few good million pounds a year. So I would say he wasn't under a lot of pressure. Yes, he was under presure to demonstrate the world and the bord of directors that he is a capable CEO and has the power to make things go back to normal where everybody was happy (making money).  Mr. Lars made hasty decisions in my opinion, with the Brazillian merger, with the 'Carrefour Planet'. If we think about Carrefour Planet, why have they invested so much in a project without asking their clients? What if the client doesn't want that? At this point a simple suvery might do the job and save millions... A good leader would make informed decisions in order to minimise the risk. He/she should be well aware of the fast changing environment and make changes to adapt to the environment so that the business would not have to suffer. A leader should communicate the objectives set for the company so that eveyone within the company is aware of what is required from him/her so that the company can achieve the objectives in the best possible way. A good leader will always consult with other people before making any decisions, he should have the final verdict, but he should ask and listen to other's opinions on the matter. I belive the group of people that I have worked with in class, has been a very communicative one. Every issue was discussed in detail. My participation was proportionate to others. Unfortunately we did not have sufficient time to debate more within the group. Sadly, I can't make a comparison with what has happened last week because I wasn't there. Hopefully this will never happen again. From today's class I remember we have to reflect on every action so that we can learn from every mistake and from every good aspect in order to make it (even) better.