"It's the Business" and "CFM Q&A Special" programmes, 4 May 1999

Recording of "It's the Business" programme and a special programme about "Customer First Management" (CFM) for Sainsbury's staff (mainly store management teams). "It's the Business" was the anchor business television programme on the "SMART" network (Sainsbury's Management and Retail Television). Both programmes were broadcast on 4 May 1999 by satellite to Sainsbury's stores, depots and offices. "It's the Business" was live but the special programme was pre-recorded. Both were presented by John Howard in the studio, and the special programme features "One Company, One Agenda" graphics. When they were originally broadcast there should have been a five minute break between the two programmes but the break is not included on this recording.

Trials of CFM had been underway, and it was now ready to be rolled out to all stores. The project involved a major restructuring of the management teams in Sainsbury’s stores with changes to job titles, roles and responsibilities. The new structure was intended to be more customer service focussed and more efficient with more of the work on stock ordering being handled centrally rather than at individual stores.

Contents:
1. Introduction by presenter John Howard.
2. Studio interview with John Adshead (Director, HR & Information Systems). Discusses: recent changes to the company including restructuring, CFM [Customer First Management] in stores; job losses; ‘WWW principles’; speculation on Sainsbury’s being taken over.
3. Report by Jane Constantinis about the introduction of the Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself range of lower fat foods. Interviews are included with Gill Fine (Company Nutritionist), Russell Morris (Brand Manager), ‘vox pops’ with customers and staff. Footage is included of: Be Good To Yourself product displays in a store; Be Good To Yourself products; customers and staff tasting products.
4. Television commercial promoting the Be Good To Yourself range. The advert features ‘Lucy’ who treats herself to products from the range after splitting up with her boyfriend ‘Colin’.
5. Studio interview with Bill Williams (Retail Director). Discusses: problems with centrally allocated special offers with some stores running out of stock; special offers – to have less but stronger offers.
6. Report about the launch of the new Sainsbury’s Central store format for town and city centres with the new Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow store. Includes interview with Nick Jones (‘Central’ Format Manager) and Mike Price (Store Manager). Footage is included of the Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow Sainsbury’s Central store including displays, customers, staff, counters, coffee bar, and the store exterior.
7. Studio interview with Bill Williams about the Sainsbury’s Central format.
8. Report on the Asset Performance Management Programme with Bryn Page (Senior Manager, Asset Marking). The programme enabled the company to keep track of its assets in stores (eg store equipment) and help manage them (eg assessing how often breakdowns of equipment occur). Footage is included of employee putting asset labels on equipment; and screenshots of ‘PGS register’ computer system.
9. Concluding remarks by presenter for the “It’s The Business” programme.
10. (23:12): Introduction to "One Company, One Agenda" programme.
11. Studio discussion with Bill Williams (Retail Director), Terry Wells (CFM Project Manager), and Fraser Stevenson (Duty Manager, Leamington Spa) answering questions about the Customer First Management (CFM) project to restructure store management. Discusses: the small proportion of job losses in store management team positions; redeployment of staff in other positions and other stores; accountability for stock results; duty manager roles; changes for department managers; promotion opportunities; trainee managers; status of petrol station managers and other parts which are managed separately; how the overall number of staff hours in stores will not reduce so it will result in more staff on the shop floor rather than dealing with management tasks; why they need to be more efficient to compete with other companies like Tesco.

Duration: 38 minutes (23 minutes for "It's the Business" and 15 minutes for special programme). Produced by Sainsbury’s Group Internal Communications in association with CTN [Corporate Television Networks].

There are two additional videos of unedited footage ("rushes") for this video.