• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Great Leadership by Dan
  • Blog
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • About
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Blog
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • About
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Blog
    • Popular
    • Recent
    • About
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
  • ×

    You are here Home » leadership

    Responsible Leadership at Market Basket

    Last updated on Aug 20, 2015 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post from Daniel Korschun:

    If your CEO got
    fired tomorrow, would anyone notice? Last year, the board of directors at one
    of New England’s largest supermarket chains fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.

    Instead of
    going about their business as usual, as people at other companies would do,
    25,000 employees at Market Basket (they call themselves associates) protested
    in the streets for six weeks to get Demoulas back. Incredibly, they were joined
    by almost two million customers, who sustained a boycott over that same period.
    Even vendors contributed to this protest. With 90% of sales gone almost
    overnight, the company was basically shut down.

    The crisis
    ended when Demoulas the board agreed to his offer to purchase the 50.5% of the
    company that had been owned by a rival faction in his family. Protesters
    celebrated in the streets and in the aisles; they had won their battle to keep
    their beloved CEO and save their company from a sale to a holding company.

    What was it
    that led to such fierce loyalty to a CEO? In my book (co-authored with Grant
    Welker), which chronicles the history of the company and the unprecedented
    protest, we lay out some of the management principles that he follows. He
    relies on many of the tenets of what might be called responsible leadership.


    Create a sense of family: Many companies say they create a sense
    of family, but it is hard to imagine a company that does it better than Market
    Basket. Associates work very hard, and a lot is expected of them. But the
    company also looks after them. It starts with generous wages and profit
    sharing. However, there is a sense of caring that goes well beyond these
    monetary rewards. Arthur T. himself has been known to attend funeral services
    when an associate loses a loved one. In these times of personal crisis, someone
    at the company often steps in. This personal touch, combined with the pay and
    good work conditions creates a caring environment where associates feel
    appreciated and even loved.

    Encourage questions: Associates at Market Basket say that
    no matter what level or function in the company, they feel that if they have a
    question it will be answered. Some of them add, “you may not get the answer you
    were hoping to hear, but you’ll always get an answer.” The associate takes this
    as a sign of respect, and in turn give the most respect to managers who adhere
    to this sort of openness. Some managers at other companies seem to equate
    allowing questions usurping power; Market Basket managers tend to encourage
    questions within a strong chain of command.

    Give work meaning: So many associates we’ve spoken to at
    Market Basket tell us that their job description may not be glamorous, but that
    they are contributing to something very important. They see themselves as
    helping people, often low-income families or elderly get food on the table at a
    price they can afford. Arthur T. and other members of the executive teams
    remind associates constantly that everyone is needed in order to achieve that
    goal. These executives say something along the lines of, “the person bagging
    groceries is just as important, maybe more
    important, when it comes to making sure that customers leave the store with
    what they need.”

    Arthur T.
    Demoulas and his management team have been extraordinarily successful in
    growing the business. They are also unsurpassed when it comes to employee’s
    remaining loyal; they almost never jump ship. We saw that loyalty in full
    effect during the protest last year. Part of the secret is a commitment to
    responsible leadership, where leaders try to create a dignified place to work, where
    associates feel valued and respected, and where they feel that they are
    contributing to something larger than themselves.

    Daniel Korschun is an Associate Professor of Marketing
    at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business and a fellow of both the
    Center for Corporate Reputation Management and the Center for Corporate
    Governance at LeBow.

    Dr. Korschun
    works with companies to develop innovative Corporate Social Responsibility
    (CSR) practices that generate value for both the company and society. Some of
    these innovative practices are profiled in his first book, Leveraging Corporate Responsibility: The
    Stakeholder Route to Business and Social Value
    (co-authored with
    C.B. Bhattacharya and Sankar Sen, Cambridge University Press).

    His latest
    book, We
    Are Market Basket
    (co-authored with Grant Welker, AMACOM), tells the true
    story of a grassroots movement to reinstate a beloved CEO and save a $4.5
    billion supermarket chain.

    Find Dr.
    Korschun @danielkorschun or on
    LinkedIn.
    « 10 Timeless Time Management Techniques
    How to Apply Lean Startup Ideas to Achieve Product-Market Fit »
    AFTER ENTRY

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    dan-mccarthy-great-leadership-by-dan

    About Dan

    Dan is an expert in leadership and management development. For over 20 years Dan has helped thousands of leaders and aspiring leaders improve their leadership capabilities. Read More

    ebook-dan-mccarthy

    Trending:

    • Top 12 Development Goals for Leaders
    • How to Write a Great Individual Development Plan (IDP)
    • 25 Great Leadership Development Quotes
    • The Performance and Potential Matrix (9 Box Model) – an Update

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    • Home
    • About
    • Contact

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2022

    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy