Assessing Culture and Cultural Fit Capabilities Case Study—Retail

The Challenge

One of the largest food retailers in North America sought a new Senior Vice President to lead their $8 billion consumer brands division—and used the Culture Analyst™ to ensure a strong fit from the start within the company’s broader retail culture.

It was clear that this unit’s new leader would need to have the competencies and experience to manage a world-class consumer packaged goods (CPG) operation, serving not just the company’s stores but rival stores as well. But as a central player in a retail organization, he or she would also have to work collaboratively across a wider range of functions and with a more diverse group of executives than is the case at a typical CPG enterprise.

The ability of the Russell Reynolds Associates engagement team to assess cultural fit in a structured, quantitative way was a key factor in the engagement. As the team began to delve into the search process, they also administered the Culture Analyst™ survey to a group of senior executives, generating an in-depth profile of the company’s culture. The survey was then given to finalist candidates for the position, measuring their individual cultural preferences against the company’s baseline.

The Solution

Prior to the final interviews, the client was briefed on the overall findings and each candidate’s areas of high, medium and low cultural fit. In every area where a candidate was seen as a low fit, the client was given specifically tailored interview questions to probe those areas further. The information gleaned from these questions provided the client with highly useful data that led to an informed and successful choice.