I think that one of Augustín;s mistakes was overly trusting the process. The “4-year plan” argument seemed to rationalise a lot of his failures just because he was over-confident that he would achieve his results. These results, however, were not backed by any prior research, and when Nico pointed this out to argue against ‘Figure it out’, Augustín argued that the bigger vision he had would justify the steps he’s skipping along the way. He made no effort to better understand the needs of his existing customer base for retailer Emilia, which are comprised of middle-aged or older women, and tried replacing them altogether by attracting younger customers who wouldn’t have the same desire to seek deals before making a purchase. However, with this approach, not only did he approach an entirely new customer base with no supporting research, he also left the unfulfilled needs of his existing customers completely unaddressed. What’s more, he employed tactics that felt condescending to customers, further proving that he had committed to a vision that was solely his own and had nothing to do with the people shopping from Emilia.
If I were to advise Augustín, I’d first suggest that he delves deeper into the needs that are left unaddressed before committing to a pivot. Since I’m “recently” consulted to advise Emilia, I’d suggest that whatever stage of their pivot they’re in, they take a few steps back to see what isn’t working and why. Some steps to achieve this could be to examine customer complaints (the most glaring source of aspects they ought to change), see where customer engagement is lacking, and take into serious consideration the way their customers react to marketing and campaigns. For this, I’d like to see Augustín set reachable and well-defined goals, ideally spread out throughout teams instead of him running a one-man show. I’d also like to see these goals on defined schedules and timelines so that he knows what he’s targeting over a smaller period of time, and not just an idealistic multi-year plan. Finally, I’d advise that if their customers love shopping cheap, he finds a way to accommodate that need instead of shifting his customer base altogether.
