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Retail Store Management

Notes Such values provide clear guidelines, which give basic operating principles for the way in
which Homebase people can and should behave.
The values are also highly motivating because they place a strong emphasis on teamwork
and the role that individuals play in teams. This is demonstrated by the Homebase Retail
Staff Award and the Homebase Recognition Award – see sections 04 and 05 for more
details.
Homebase gives further guidance to its employees on appropriate behaviour, by setting
out the following guidance in so called ‘Buzz sessions’ (teamwork training sessions):
The customer is our No. 1 priority.
Look after our customers and they will look after us.

Everything we do must benefit the customer.
Treat customers as you would expect to be treated yourself.
Listen to our customers and go the extra mile.
We never want any customer to have a wasted journey.
Building an Improvement Strategy

An organisation’s strategy is the plan to achieve desired objectives. A continuous
improvement strategy is one that involves constantly seeking to make improvements,
however small.

The organisation that continually makes improvements keeps ahead of its rivals. Homebase
emphasises continuous improvement – seeking to identify and then deliver new and
better ways of meeting customer needs. The review/plan/do approach is used at every
level in the Homebase organisation.
The review stage involves looking at current performance, identifying what the organisation
and its people need to keep doing and what needs to be changed.
The planning stage involves first being clear about what should be achieved and then
organising thoughts, actions and people. Planning is systematic rather than a random
process and must be fitted into a clear time frame.
Finally, the do stage, involves carrying out the plan. The skills of the organisation and its
people must be organised to make each part of the plan work. Once the plan is being
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