Menu
Menu
We were employed by the Co-operative Group in 2014, after the company’s PR scandal and crisis in 2013. The chairman was named by the press the ‘Crystal Methodist’ and the Co-operative Group had ceased to be taken seriously as a successful company, by many people in the UK. Richard Pennycook, the then CEO, was appointed in 2014 and brought in Xinfu/Beyond Unity to create and deliver the change journey in partnership with the company.
Through many CEO confidant 1:1 sessions, Executive Committee workshops offsite and running a Top 60 event for the Enterprise Leaders in the company, our ambition was to get everybody in the organisation bought into the new vision, excited about this vision and willing to deliver it, to transform the company.
The offsite was hugely effective in taking what had been a vision of perhaps six people, and communicating it to and actively involving 75 people in the company. All of them now share the vision that we wanted to achieve.
“The offsite was hugely effective in taking what had been a vision of perhaps six people, and communicating it to and actively involving 75 people in the company. All of them now share the vision that we wanted to achieve”, said Richard Pennycook, former CEO, Co-operative Group. “The change journey was accelerated through the sessions we ran with the company and it was made much more achievable by the strategic moves that Xinfu/Beyond Unity put in place with the larger team”.
By May 2016, together we re-launched the entire company with a pioneering, community-based model. where memberships to the Group increased to a rate in which the business recovered and grow at an exponential rate. We found memberships increased by 525,048 (27%) since September 2006 to a total of 2,456,009.
By October 2016, the company won Best Retailer of the Year and an outstanding achievement award and the company was entirely galvanised.
“If we hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t be in the position where we delivered a successful change journey”. Richard Pennycook.
“I’d like to thank Beyond Unity for the recent executive team event, which was an incredibly enlightening workshop. Steve and Wayno are distinctly different individuals, but together they operate like Lennon and McCartney, complementing each other perfectly and facilitating our growth. The workshop was unique. We were intensely focused on accountability and outputs to drive business outperformance. The team experienced many deep insights and heart-bursting moments.”