Success Stories

Community-working collaboratively with a shared sense of purpose-lies at the heart of Auntie Anne's success. Success began modestly in 1988, when company founders Anne and Jonas Beiler purchased a farmer's market stand in Pennsylvania and sold hand-rolled pretzels and lemonade. Their vision was to create enough income to offer free counseling services to couples and families in their community. Within four years, Auntie Anne's had established 100 stores in over a dozen states, enabling the Beilers to found the non-profit Family Resource and Counseling Centers and transform their vision into a reality.

Penn State: A Collaborative Partner

When Auntie Anne's came to Penn State Executive Programs, this very successful company had more than 300 franchise owners and nearly 100 stores in 44 states and 21 countries, exceeding its business goals while extending corporate philanthropy to children's hospitals, pediatric cancer research, hunger relief, and childhood literacy. Company executives wanted to take a fresh look at their corporate strategy; one that would define the next wave of growth and success while staying true to Auntie Anne's values. Sam Beiler, then Chairman and CEO, chose Executive Programs because of the collaborative, hands-on approach and their active follow-up beyond planning to ensure success.

Penn State Executive Programs implemented a four-stage approach to strategic planning at Auntie Anne's:

• Assessment of the current state of the Company
• Strategic planning sessions
• Strategic imperative projects
• Strategic planning for franchisees

Executive Programs combined learning modules, guided discovery, and action learning projects that integrated with the overall budgeting and organizational planning process of Auntie Anne's. Throughout the process, learning design was centered on integrating enterprise goals and operational performance requirements, emphasizing the necessity to achieve business results while holding true to the company's values in decisions about how those results would be achieved.

Self-Assessment Maps Organizational DNA

New perspectives, when combined with objective self-analysis, form the basis of real change. Executive Programs began the engagement with an assessment of the current organizational and leadership environment using the Strategy, Leadership, Culture Questionnaire (SLCQ), which measures 18 critical dimensions of organizational effectiveness. The SLCQ feedback was combined with interviews from executive leadership to provide a candid snapshot of decision-making at Auntie Anne's.

Strategic Planning Sessions Create a Shared Vision

Executive Programs faculty next led Auntie Anne's leadership team in a series of planning sessions aimed at building a roadmap for strategy formulation. Focused learning modules and guided discovery were used as catalysts for new ideas.

The leadership team members were asked to define the uniqueness of their business, describe the values that guide their decision-making and operations, identify the core competencies required for success, and explore business model innovations. Their discussions led them to identify potential opportunities for future growth that were then translated into "strategic imperatives" projects. Teams were created to assess the market viability and potential impact of each opportunity. The Auntie Anne's leadership team as a whole decided which imperatives should be implemented as part of the future strategy of their company.

Learning to Lead the "Whole" Organization

The strategic planning sessions facilitated the deep dive into their organizational DNA, allowing Auntie Anne's team members to see beyond their department and view the organization as a system whereby they could assess the resources, roles, and interdependencies required to implement strategy. Critical to their decision-making was an enhanced understanding of the organizational capabilities, operating systems and processes, human resources, and talent required for success, as well as how to link strategy to performance metrics. An important lesson that company leaders took home with them was to integrate three important practical concepts into their everyday thinking:

• Don't be afraid of failure. If a new initiative doesn't work, learn from the experience and move on.
• Keep business interactions in alignment with Auntie Anne's culture of caring.
• Keep internal communications open to direct and productive debates.

Strategy Implementation and Outcomes

When they returned to Auntie Anne's, the strategic imperatives project teams began to implement the projects. Engaging other corporate employees, franchisees, consultants, partners, and suppliers was key. The teams involved all critical stakeholders in agreeing to set priorities and metrics to create buy-in and shared accountability for the results.

Executive Programs faculty continued to work with the leadership team to help communicate the results and assimilate the practice of strategic planning throughout the extended enterprise. Penn State faculty members joined the leadership team to present Auntie Anne's new strategic vision to corporate employees, franchisees, and suppliers at the company's national convention. They also led a strategic planning workshop for Auntie Anne's leadership group of franchisees focusing on how strategic planning can positively impact sales for all stakeholders.

The Penn State approach-using guided discovery and embedding coaches into the teams-has helped to institutionalize strategic thinking, business analysis, and decision making to create an environment that fosters sustained integration of strategic business analysis and immediate impact on business results. In the words of one company executive:

Penn State brought us a willingness to look hard at product that we wouldn't have been willing to consider before. We were asking how else to grow, how else can we have people experience our brand . . . The framework we brought from Penn State was a system for us to use when ideas came up internally or from outside. Before, we were reactive. Now we are proactive.

Developing Leaders at Office Depot

Investment in People and Process

Office Depot provides office supplies and retail services to its customers through 1,400 worldwide stores, e-commerce sites, and business-to-business sales. The company has annual sales of approximately $11.6 billion and employs about 38,000 associates around the world.

Office Depot recognized that its keys to remaining successful lay in the leadership and culture of the organization. Using leadership development and education as an accelerator, Office Depot, working with Penn State, transformed its workforce to tackle significant complex strategic initiatives, break down silos of functionality and communication, and implement continuous process improvement as a way of operational life.

Supply Chain Leadership as a Competitive Edge

In 2010, Office Depot's Supply Chain organization realized what could be gained by changing from tactical expertise in a single element, such as warehousing, to an end-to-end perspective that utilizes strategic thinking to generate business results. Further, the leadership team recognized that both a mindset shift and cultural change were required to transform tactical managers into true supply chain leaders. They felt that a well-designed learning process would help them accelerate this transformation.

Office Depot chose to partner with Penn State Executive Programs out of our willingness to collaborate, ability to extend action learning beyond the classroom, and our outstanding reputation in supply chain research and education.

Leadership Development as an Accelerator

Cohorts were formed based on supply chain responsibilities from both corporate and field locations as well as from other business areas including IT, Finance, HR, Retail, and Merchandising. Together, Penn State and Office Depot created an integrated Supply Chain Leadership Development solution that included:

• Campus-based executive education programs for two levels of management with customized learning modules, case studies, simulation, and applied learning.
• "Office Depot Challenges" where cross-functional teams applied program concepts to address strategic initiatives.
• Executive-level involvement.
• Benchmarking, research, and networking with other supply chain executives through membership in the Penn State Center for Supply Chain Research™

Outcomes

The impact of the engagement far exceeded the expectations of Office Depot Design Team:

• Office Depot's earnings press release for the second quarter of 2011 list reduced distribution costs, a factor in improved performance.
• Supply Chain directors championed the launch of the Office Depot GreenerOffice Delivery Service, through which customers can receive their supplies in a paper bag instead of a cardboard box. During the pilot phase, over 90 percent of customers opted for the GreenerOffice Delivery Service. The program was projected to replace 5 million cardboard boxes with paper bags over 12 months -- resulting in major environmental benefits.
• A sustainable pipeline of supply chain talent within Office Depot allowed several participants to be promoted, including two into vice president roles.
• Integration of change management and effective supply chain problem solving techniques into everyday business processes.

In 2011 Chief Learning Officer magazine awarded Penn State Executive Programs with its gold Learning in Practice award for our academic partnership with Office Depot. It is the second consecutive year we earned this accolade.

Empowering Healthcare Leadership and Innovation at Penn State Hershey

Energizing Leaders, Aligning Goals

Penn State Hershey, with nearly $2 billion in annual revenue and over 10,000 employees, is among the vanguard of healthcare leadership and innovation in the nation today. However, in 2012 due to a rapidly changing regulatory and competitive healthcare environment, the organization needed to re-evaluate its overall strategy.

To align and execute on new goals, Penn State Hershey needed to energize its leaders to translate strategy into action. Many of these leaders were accomplished physicians, researchers and clinicians with outstanding technical skills but no formal training in business leadership. Recognizing the need for an educational solution, Penn State Hershey partnered with Penn State Executive Programs to form the Penn State Hershey Leadership Academy for Excellence in Academic Medicine — an interdisciplinary education effort designed to enable physicians, researchers, and administrators to excel in leadership roles. The Leadership Academy is now in its seventh year.

New Roles Require Business Acumen

Leveraging Penn State Executive Programs' business strategy acumen, participants learn to think systemically to improve the performance of the healthcare system through competitive assessment, strategy formulation, strategic and financial decision making, conflict management, and collaboration. Additionally, participants are taught to strengthen collaboration with strategic system partners and hospitals throughout to enhance training, research, and patient care. The Leadership Academy combines a variety of curricula to ensure a successful learning experience: face-to-face learning modules; Executive Programs' proprietary Strategy, Leadership, Culture Questionnaire (SLCQ®) organization assessment; 360-degree and individual self-assessments; case analyses; simulations; and peer coaching. Additionally, applied learning projects provide a practical forum for leaders to immediately apply new knowledge and key concepts while solving real issues facing their organization.

Strategy In Action

As a result of this partnership, Penn State Hershey has realized clinical advancements and innovations, research breakthroughs, and the creation of interdisciplinary units. On an individual level, several participants have been promoted to new appointments, including Vice Chairman of Research and Department Chair. Many business innovations as well have been implemented at an organizational level, including a strategic planning framework; flexible, competency-based curricula; inclusion of business and lean education in the family medicine residency program; and creation of a Center for Enterprise Innovation award. In 2016, Chief Learning Officer Magazine awarded Penn State Executive Programs with its Learning in Practice award for our academic partnership with Penn State Hershey. It is the third of six awards we have received for our distinguished partnership achievements.