by Hilary Wingfield
Premier Farnell
FEATURES AT A GLANCE
, INTERNALIZING VALUES AT
PREMIER FARNELL
, THE TWO DIMENSIONS OF
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
, MANAGING THE HR
CHALLENGES OF A MAJOR
GLOBAL MERGER
, RETHINKING REWARD AT THE
NATIONAL CRIME SQUAD
, THE “FIT FOR PURPOSE” HR
FUNCTION
16
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2004. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
Internalizing
values at Premier
Farnell
Engaging employees with company values
to increase customer focus
Hilary Wingfield, group
P
REMIER FARNELL IS A global marketer
and distributor of electronic, maintenance,
head of organizational repair and operations (MRO) products and
specialist services. This article describes how,
effectiveness at Premier over the last six years, it has transformed itself from
taking a one-size-fits-all approach, to being a highly
Farnell, describes how the customer-focused business. As CEO John Hirst put it,
“We used to be a company that said, ‘We’ve got
company used internal hundreds of thousands of products – come and see.’
Now we say, ‘We’re a company with hundreds of
values to engage thousands of products: tell us exactly what you need –
because we understand.’”
employees to become
Setting the scene
more customer-focused When Hirst joined the company in July 1998, he saw in
Premier Farnell a business with huge potential. The
and deliver sustainable, Group was formed in 1996 through a US$2.8 billion
acquisition of the North American electronic catalog
long-term, profitable giant, Premier Industrial Corporation, by the British
company, Farnell Electronics. The UK business was
sales growth. acquiring a much bigger US organization and, as is so
often the case, the change process was not a smooth one.
The HR division was briefed by Hirst to set in place
HR strategy, processes and policy that would drive an
overall culture change. In 1999, the Group launched its
“Investment for Growth” program – to which the
complementary HR strategy was pivotal – including a
multi-million dollar investment in new systems, talent
and technology.
One of the first steps taken by the newly appointed
Volume 4 Issue 1 November/December 2004
 Group HR director, Brian Lewis, was to bring on
board a senior team, including myself as an
organizational effectiveness specialist, to develop and
deliver the Premier Farnell people strategy.
The main challenges we faced included the
implementation of our new customer relationship
management (CRM) system, and the alignment of our
Americas organization and that of Europe and Asia-
Pacific. With the geographic businesses being largely
self-contained, we wanted to create a greater sense of
unity, of being a group.
Changing people and culture
The Investment for Growth program was designed to
underpin our overall objective of becoming a customer-
focused organization. Historically, our two major
businesses had been perceived – and seen themselves as –
product-driven distributors. Although this model had
been extremely successful in the past, it wasn’t sustainable
in our changing business environment. We were aware
that our customer base was shifting; expectations were
changing and we had to keep pace with them.
Our HR team – the Group HR director, US and
European HR heads and myself – didn’t set out to
implement a wholesale culture change immediately. In
the first instance, we looked, at creating consistency in
HR policies and practices, reward and remuneration,
job descriptions, training and development. HR had an
opportunity to act as “organizational glue” by
establishing commonality in the way people were
treated, on which we could then build. From that point
forward, we would be able to drive overall
organizational alignment.
Beginning culture change
In order to change the culture, we also had to develop
our leaders who would drive it. As a starting point, our
top team developed a definition of what we wanted
leadership to be within the organization. Then, in
October 1999, we ran a conference for around 200 of
our most senior staff where we launched this leadership
definition to provide a basic competence framework for
them. This step also enabled us to develop our first
360-degree feedback and performance review processes.
Building on this, in 2000 we ran leadership
development programs which would become one of the
major drivers of cultural change. They were attended
by all senior staff to engage people from different
businesses and geographies together in order to create
greater interaction and understanding of what
leadership means in our organization.
Finding a niche in the market
The next step on the ladder was to examine the group’s
brand and position in the market. Work began in
January 2001, when external market research revealed
areas for potential competitive advantage through
Volume 4 Issue 1 November/December 2004
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2004. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
KE
! PREMIER FARNELL
Premier Farnell is a global marketer and distributor of electronic,
maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and specialist services.
It operates in 21 countries and trades in over 100; and employs 5,000
people worldwide. It links over 3,000 suppliers to their markets and has a
database of 1.2 million customers worldwide.
strengthened relationships with key customer groups
and rebranding some of the businesses to support this.
Building on this new focus, in January 2002 we
carried out an organizational climate survey among our
top 50 executives. The feedback was presented to the
top team at a workshop. The issues that came up were
fascinating, highlighting the need for greater trust and
collaboration between our businesses, and a
requirement to clarify our vision and strategy more
sharply. As part of that meeting, the top 50 were also
introduced to the new plans for rebranding. To create
buy-in, we made the business case for change clear.
Gearing up for rebranding
Later that year, we brought the same group together to
do more work on the Premier Farnell-wide strategy and
to lay down our core values.
By this point the top team was really getting behind
the concept of rebranding and in August 2002 they
came together to develop a set of core values based on
the findings from the market research. These values
would underpin our brand promise – what we stand
for and how we position ourselves in the marketplace.
Before we were ready to convey this to customers,
however, we needed to be living the values internally.
In order to ascertain to what extent the company was
doing this, it was critical we got feedback from
employees. Employee focus groups, therefore, ran in
October 2002 as part of a values analysis.
One of the primary outcomes of the focus groups was
to separate the values and the rebranding for two reasons:
• We wanted to launch our values externally only once
they were fully integrated into the corporate culture
internally.
• We were only rebranding some of our businesses and
the CEO wanted the values launch to apply across
the entire group.
Launching the rebrand
The rebranding was launched in early 2003. The main
Premier Farnell businesses involved in the rebranding –
Farnell, Newark, Buck & Hickman
and MCM – became Farnell Hilary Wingfield
InOne, Newark InOne, joined Premier Farnell in
September 1999 in the
BuckHickman InOne and MCM,
newly created role of group head,
an InOne company.
organizational effectiveness. Prior to joining
In each of the businesses, we had Premier Farnell, Wingfield worked at BOC and,
a central branding team and t before that, spent 10 years with Mobil.
branding representatives,
17
 Figure 1. Premier Farnell’s values
internalization timeline tmostly from marketing or sales, who
ensured that the perception of the
January 2001 – Start of market Group amongst suppliers and customers
research.
was unified. Adding the “InOne” suffix to
the four brands reminds people we are a
global team; it was an opportunity to bind
people and break down geographic and
June 2001 – Market research business barriers in order to provide better
conclusions presented to top
team. Potential market service for customers.
opportunity identified.
Creating communication tools
With the rebranding over, the next step
January 2002 – Organizational
climate survey. Top 50 udpated was to focus on communicating and
on group strategy and branding internalizing our corporate values. Like the
project.
rebranding, the emphasis on core values
June 2002 – Strategy workshop was driven from research which identified
for top 50 – introduction to a market position into which we could
concept of values.
move. At the center of this was the
August 2002 – Final core values
selected by top team based on question, “What do we stand for?” When
desired market position. customers described Premier Farnell
October 2002 – Core values Group companies, what would they say
employee focus groups.
about us?
In April 2003, we brought together the
January 2003 – Launch of top 50 senior team for a three-day
rebranding.
workshop, part of which focused on the
values and how we would communicate,
April 2003 – Workshop for top 50. educate and create awareness of them in
Values communication tools
designed. the organization. We took a decision to
May-August 2003 – Big Picture 1 use pictures as one of our primary
finalized. "Our Journey to Success"
sessions designed. communication tools, based on strong
September 2003 – Top 50 plus 75 evidence that these were the best channels
other key leaders trained to guide through which we could engage people at
BP1 sessions.
all levels in the organization.
October 2003-January 2004 –
Rollout of BP1 sessions. Further After the workshop, the draft of the first
development of communication picture (Big Picture 1) was sent round the
tools. Big Picture 2 finalized and
sessions designed. world and all the leaders gave input to the
November 2003 – Measurement
artist via live telephone link-up. The top
methodology designed. Core values 50 also had input on the design of the
rollout is key people peasure in workshops where we would communicate
corporate balanced scorecard. Two
surveys to measure employee Big Picture 1 to employees globally. What
awareness and perceptions of had been the branding team now evolved
organizational change.
into the core values team, bringing
February-March 2004 - Random together marketing, communications and
sample of 15 percent of employees
take assessment survey. Results very HR – this consistency was one of our key
positive. success factors.
March 2004 – Big Picture 2 sessions
start. Local follow-up planned. Big Picture 1: preparing for values
Our first Big Picture – or BP1 – was alternatively
titled “Our Journey to Success” and graphically
described Premier Farnell’s strategy, where we’d come
from and where we are going (see Figure 2, right). The
values were launched via three-hour, facilitated,
participant-led workshops with a maximum of eight
employees at each session. The sessions were designed
to help all employees understand and recognize:
• The reason we needed to change.
• Our strategy and direction for the future.
18
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2004. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
• The importance of applying our core values to
enhance the customer experience.
We felt strongly that these sessions had to be owned
and facilitated by the senior business leaders of the
organization. We knew it was a lot to ask – each leader
would need to commit to a coaching session, detailed
preparation and around eight sessions each. We trained
about 125 session leaders from the top team. For
example, CEO, John Hirst and CFO, Andrew Fisher,
ran sessions in some of our warehouses. It was a huge
undertaking, but they felt strongly about it because, as
a consequence of their earlier work, they had taken on
a strong degree of ownership.
In the space of four months in 2003-4, nearly all of
our 5,000 employees in 21 countries participated in a
session facilitated by a senior leader. We wanted all
staff to feel enthusiastic about the future direction of
Premier Farnell and their part in achieving success.
Everyone was encouraged to explore the group’s
journey over the previous five years and to understand
the reasons behind the decisions and actions taken.
Through a deliberate mix of job functions at the
sessions, employees gained a better understanding of
each other’s roles and new relationships were forged.
We wanted to demonstrate the core values – that
center around employee empowerment – through
these meetings. Everything we’re doing as part of our
cultural change is to empower front-line employees: we
can’t deliver the customer promise without those
people being at the center of it.
Big Picture 1 also, hopefully, demonstrated that we
truly value our staff. As there were only eight people in
each session, for three hours, with very senior leaders,
there was recognition amongst employees of the value
and commitment being assigned to the process from
the very top. The design of the session was also very
empowering, calling for ideas and contribution from
the whole group. After all, if we’re going to compete
on customer service, then only our people and their
ideas can give us competitive edge.
Big Picture 2: living the values
During the rollout of BP1, Big Picture 2 (BP2) and its
communication tools were being designed and
finalized by the top team. Whilst BP1 was designed to
raise awareness of the values in the context of strategy,
BP2 would go into more detail about the values
themselves. The driver for BP2 came from a test to
ascertain whether we’d achieved our goals for BP1. We
surveyed a random sample of 15 percent of employees
in February 2004. The survey was very simple, with
questions such as “Do you understand the core
values?” “Can you explain them to other people? “Can
you see how they fit in with your role?” and “Do you
think we’re committed to living them?” The results
showed that, while people said they understood the
Volume 4 Issue 1 November/December 2004
 core values, they rated their ability to describe them to
others as lower.
KE
! KEY POINTS
As a result, we launched our second Big Picture –
“The Great Customer Experience.” This focused in
more depth on the core values to help people get to
grips with what they truly meant in practice,
particularly the behaviors that we would see if we were
living them every day.
BP1 had been such a great success for both
employees and the session leaders that we had no
trouble in convincing the top team to launch BP2 in
the same way. Our 125 business leaders again gave
their total commitment – training, preparation and
facilitating sessions with small groups of employees.
The purpose of the BP2 sessions was to:
• Explore the core values in greater depth to
understand the behaviors and actions which should
stem from them.
• Think about the choices we face and what we can do
in our daily lives to apply the values.
• Take the first step to follow up and reinforce the
values with our colleagues.
• Premier Farnell was formed in 1996 through the merger of a US and UK
company.
• The HR division was briefed by CEO, John Hirst, to set in place HR strategy,
processes and policy that would drive overall culture change.
• Challenges included the implementation of a new CRM system, and the
alignment of the Americas organization with that of Europe Asia-Pacific.
• HR acted as organizational glue by creating consistent HR policies and
practices. The leadership development program was key.
• In 2001 the company undertook external research which found it could
build competitive advantage by becoming more focused on building
relationships with its customers.
• A first step was rebranding under “InOne” to demonstrate the new,
improved service to customers.
• Internal values to help the company achieve its desired market position
were designed and rolled out by the top team.
• “Big Pictures” and workshops facilitated by senior leaders educated and
engaged employees with the values.
• The values rollout forms the key people metric on the corporate balanced
scorecard, measured by two employee surveys and customer feedback.

We wanted participants to see how the choices they
make every day affect our customers and to encourage
them to feel excited about their ability to make a
difference. A side benefit of the sessions was that there
was a huge amount of leadership development. As a
result of their involvement with the sessions, senior
management became much more aware of the issues at
the front line for their employees.
work around the values roll-out is still ongoing. We will
continue to work on engaging and educating
employees, and measuring the results of our efforts until
we can say that we’re truly living the values every day.
, CONTACT
Hilary Wingfield
E-mail: HWingfield@PremierFarnell.com

Measurement methodology
The company has adopted a balanced scorecard
approach to measuring progress on strategy. The roll-
out of the core values is the key people measure on the
corporate scorecard. This was introduced for the fiscal
year 2004 and is gauged through two employee surveys:
the awareness survey and the internalization survey. The
latter formed part of the original employee focus groups Figure 2. Extracts from Big Pictures 1 and 2
in October 2002, so will allow us to chart our progress
on living the values since then. It will focus on the
descriptors of the values and will ask employees how
well we’re doing as a company; it examines the
organizational evidence as opposed to the personal.
We’ve also introduced a series of follow-up activities
from BP2 that are designed to take place in natural work
teams within departments, functions, sites, etc. For
example, teams examine and discuss who their customer
is, how they can demonstrate the core values to
customers, and what they can improve. Externally, we’re
starting to introduce specific questions in our customer
surveys that, although they aren’t labeled as values, do
reflect the questions in the internalization survey.
External recognition of our efforts have included
several large contract wins and a place in Management
Today’s “100 Most Admired Companies” list. However,

Volume 4 Issue 1 November/December 2004 19

© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2004. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com