Sustainable Procurement at Sncf: An Impressionist's Approach to Transformation

17 Pages Posted: 30 May 2017

See all articles by Gerry Yemen

Gerry Yemen

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Ronald Kamin

ISC Paris School of Management

Karen Delchet-Cochet

ISC Paris School of Management

Abstract

With a global leadership and sustainability perspective, this case uses SNCF, a state-owned railway and public service company based in France, to set the stage for an analysis of change management in a large company. It also allows for an exploration of sustainable development within the context of a large company. Written from the field, it depicts the firm's overall strategy to adopt sustainable practices and provides an opportunity to introduce basic leadership, strategy, sustainability, and operational terms that can be explored in subsequent classes. The case opens with a summary of urgent issues that include pressure to present the accounting department with financial metrics to evaluate the sustainable procurement efforts, a public scandal around a supplier that employed undocumented workers, and an influential employee who resists new policies. In a big-picture view, Olivier Menuet, VP for sustainable development, and his boss, Pierre Pelouzet, CPO, want more visibility around sustainable development not only within the procurement function but throughout the organization. How might changes already made at SNCF be driven deeper into the company?

Excerpt

UVA-OB-1029

Rev. Apr. 4, 2014

SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT AT SNCF:

AN IMPRESSIONIST'S APPROACH TO TRANSFORMATION

With varying levels of support, Olivier Menuet, directeur délégué achats durables et solidaires (vice president for sustainable procurement), and his boss, Pierre Pelouzet, directeur des achats (chief procurement officer, or CPO), were pushing a new strategic direction for France's national railway, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), and its procurement practices. They wanted to implement a more aggressive sustainable procurement (SP) process—indeed, they had both been hired to do that. They believed not only that changing the way the railroad purchased would lead to a more efficient supply chain but that it was the right thing to do. Traditionally, railroad initiatives were driven by running trains on time and safely. As a whole, the railway industry considered the very nature of the work to be environmentally friendly; convincing an entire industry otherwise was a hefty ambition.

By 2011, Menuet and his boss had achieved great strides in implementing SP, which they believed was instrumental to operational excellence. Some members of the SNCF leadership team supported it, some were open to it but not committed, and some had other strategies based on their own agendas. And Pelouzet and Menuet faced another challenge: neither had a railroad background or was from a railway family, what the French called cheminot.

. . .

Keywords: large-scale change management, competitive advantage, change agent, change model, change target, disconfirming data

Suggested Citation

Yemen, Gerry and Kamin, Ronald and Delchet-Cochet, Karen, Sustainable Procurement at Sncf: An Impressionist's Approach to Transformation. Darden Case No. UVA-OB-1029, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2974818 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2974818

Gerry Yemen (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

Ronald Kamin

ISC Paris School of Management ( email )

22, Boulevard du Fort de Vaux
Paris, 75848
France

Karen Delchet-Cochet

ISC Paris School of Management ( email )

22, Boulevard du Fort de Vaux
Paris, 75848
France

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