During a presentation by Anselme Jalon, CEO of NUMA, at the Master Executive Stratégie et Management de la Transformation Digitale (Executive Strategy and Management of Digital Transformation) at Sciences Po Paris, Dimitri Lecocq, Deputy Managing Director of Leroy Merlin France, presented his company's best practices in terms of transformation. He stressed the importance of mobilizing all employees around a common project.

"Transformation is above all a human evolution".

Dimitri Lecocq, DGA at Leroy Merlin France

Transformation isn't just about adopting new processes and tools. It depends above all on the involvement of all employees. By involving each and every employee in this dynamic, a company can create a collective movement capable of meeting challenges and adapting to change. This is the conviction that drives the management of Leroy Merlin France, and which the company has made a central point of its strategy. 

Building a common vision for 28,000 

A striking example of transformation at Leroy Merlin France is the digital transition begun a dozen years ago. In fact, the company chose to integrate digital into the heart of its business model, following the question: " Should our website remain a simple showcase or become a fully-fledged e-commerce site? This decision led to a complete overhaul of internal processes, with the conviction that to succeed, we need to "transform people's hearts" in order to develop a shared vision that gives meaning to their commitment.

To build this vision, Leroy Merlin France drew on methods adopted in the 1980s from the United States, laying the foundations for a know-how known as the "vision process". This process is part of a long-term dynamic. It aims to redefine the company's collective consciousness with all employees, to better understand Leroy Merlin France's place in the market and thus determine the direction to follow for the next 10 years. Today, Top Management has decided to relaunch this process: "voyages of discovery" are offered to managers to explore new models and return with concrete proposals to enrich the company's vision. According to Dimitri Lecocq, this is when we really start to touch the hearts of our employees: after these trips, these managers are deeply committed to the project and become true ambassadors of this transformation. 

Mobilize the entire team around this transformation 

These initiatives are not limited to managers alone, but also involve all teams in a collective dynamic. Indeed, the ideas and proposals brought back from these "voyages of discovery" feed into a broader strategic reflection, to which all employees are invited to contribute. At present, the teams are in their third cycle of reflection, with ideas projected over a 10-year vision. This process aligns the company on a common trajectory and asks employees an essential question: "Do you want to commit to this future? 

To achieve this, management ensures that the managers of each department are involved in all these processes, giving them the tools they need to support their teams through this change and help them grow. Each manager ensures that the vision is embodied by everyone, and not just empty words. 

Nurturing employee momentum to make it sustainable

To ensure that everyone remains committed to this vision, specific support is provided for new arrivals through an integration period called "Leroy Merlin Preparation" (PLM), which lasts from three weeks to one month. During this period, they observe and discover the practices of the various stores and head office in order to understand the Group's different challenges and what is expected of them. This is essential to ensure that everyone understands and embraces the company's vision.

Beyond onboarding, the culture of Leroy Merlin France plays an essential role in reinforcing this momentum throughout the employee's career. Founded on values such as autonomy and responsibility, it is organized around four axes: wanting, knowing, being able and having. The "want" translates into a willingness to commit to the company and contribute to the collective vision; the "know" refers to the business knowledge needed to invest oneself fully; the "power" reflects the ability to commit oneself fully once skills have been acquired; and finally, the"have" represents the sharing of the value created collectively. This culture transforms employees into key players in the project, by involving them directly in the transformation decisions and processes.

At Leroy Merlin France, collaborative momentum has been and remains the real driving force behind the transformation. By involving every employee, fostering a culture of autonomy and responsibility, and ensuring ongoing communication, the company has succeeded in adapting its model to the new demands of the market and guaranteeing collective support over the long term. The next major challenge for the company will be to make the transition to an even more socially and environmentally responsible model (CSR), by fully integrating these issues into its practices and future strategy.