ENT 588 Week 5 Planning to Scale an Innovation Example

From One Store to Twelve: Planning to Scale a Circular Gear Program Without Losing What Made It Work

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

ENT/588: Innovation and Design: Capstone Project

Week 5 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Timberline Outfitters, its stores, teams and figures are composites written for a model paper.

Weeks 2 through 4 developed and tested Timberline's circular gear program and designed staged financing for it. Same-day repair and trip-length rentals succeeded in pilots at the flagship store. The redesigned trade-in program will supply inspected used gear to rentals and an in-store rack. The second funding stage depends on scaling repair to 12 stores and rentals to four cities within about 14 months. This paper plans that scaling, wave by wave, with the people, skills and systems it needs to succeed.

What Research Says About Scaling

Sutton and Rao (2014) studied organizations that spread good practices and argued that scaling is a ground war of spreading a mindset, not just adding locations, and described a choice between a Catholic approach, replicating practices exactly, and a Buddhist approach, adapting them to local conditions, with most successful efforts combining a fixed core with local variation. They also stressed cutting cognitive load, making it easy for people to do the right thing.

Szulanski (1996) studied the transfer of best practices inside companies and concluded that the biggest obstacles had less to do with willingness than with knowledge: causal ambiguity about why a practice works, recipients' lack of absorptive capacity and difficult relationships between the source and the recipient units. Practices that seem simple often depend on tacit skills that do not travel easily.

Tushman and O'Reilly (1996) described ambidextrous organizations that run mature businesses efficiently while building new ones, often by giving new units their own structures and cultures under a senior leadership team that integrates them.

What Made the Pilots Work

The team listed the elements behind pilot success. For repair: a skilled technician who could fix most problems in under 30 minutes, a visible counter where customers watched the work, simple fixed prices and a stock of common parts. For rentals: high-quality gear in good condition, easy booking, a friendly handoff with tips for the trip and flexible returns. Across both: staff who believed in the program and talked about it with pride.

The Core and the Flexible Parts

Core, to be identical everywhere: repair quality standards and turnaround promise of the same day for listed repairs; fixed price list; rental gear inspection standards; booking system and customer data; the program's name and promise.

Flexible, adapted by each store: counter location and hours, mix of rental gear by local activity, such as more ski gear in mountain towns, and local partnerships with clubs and guides.

The jacket must come back the same day in every store; whether the counter faces the door or the fitting rooms can be left to the store.

Choosing the First Stores

Wave 1 stores were chosen deliberately, not simply by size. Each has a store manager who volunteered after visiting the flagship counter, enough foot traffic to keep a technician busy and a local outdoor community, such as climbing gyms and ski clubs, to supply rental customers. Starting with willing managers follows Sutton and Rao's advice to begin where the mindset already exists and let early adopters show others what success looks like.

Rollout in Three Waves

Wave 1, months 1 to 4: four Colorado stores close to Denver, where the flagship team can support them. Wave 2, months 5 to 9: four more stores in Utah and Washington. Wave 3, months 10 to 14: the final four stores. Rentals expand with repair counters in Salt Lake City, Seattle and Portland. Gates between waves require each new repair store to meet repair turnaround, satisfaction and volume targets for six weeks before the next wave begins.

People and Skills

Szulanski's findings suggest the hardest part will be transferring repair skill. The flagship's lead technician will become training lead, running a two-week program at a training counter in Denver. Each new store will have one certified technician and one paid apprentice, with a video library and a weekly call with the training lead. Technicians will be paid above regular retail staff and have a clear career path to senior and training roles.

Keeping the Spirit, Not Only the Steps

The pilot team's enthusiasm was part of the program's success, and it cannot be ordered into existence. The plan builds it in three ways. New technicians spend their first week at the flagship counter with the original team, absorbing how they talk with customers as well as how they fix zippers. Each store holds a short monthly huddle where staff share repair stories and customer comments. And the program manager visits each new store in its first month to answer questions and listen to concerns. These steps aim to spread what Sutton and Rao call the mindset behind a practice, not just its checklist.

Learning Between Waves

Each wave will close with a written debrief on successes and problems, shared with the next wave's stores. If Wave 1 stores find, for example, that weekend demand needs a second technician, Wave 2 will be staffed accordingly from the start. This turns the rollout into a sequence of experiments rather than a single launch.

Systems Before Volume

The booking, grading and tracking systems from Week 4 must be ready before Wave 2. Parts inventory will be managed centrally from the Denver hub, with automatic restocking when any store falls below a set level. A shared dashboard will show turnaround times, repair volume, rental utilization and satisfaction by store daily.

Protecting the New Business

Following Tushman and O'Reilly, the circular program will be run by its own unit with its own manager reporting to the chief executive, while store managers host counters and share in credit for add-on sales. Store managers' bonuses will include a circular program measure so the counter is not treated as a distraction from selling new gear.

Risks to the Rollout

Three risks stand out. Technicians may be hard to hire in smaller markets; the training program and above-retail pay address this, and a traveling technician can cover gaps. Rental demand may vary by city; the flexible gear mix and rental gates protect against overstocking. Store managers may resist sharing floor space; the bonus measure and evidence from Wave 1 address that.

Measures and Decision Points

For each store: same-day completion rate above 90 percent, satisfaction above 4.5, repair volume of 40 a week by month three and add-on sales. For rentals: utilization above 40 percent and margin after cleaning above 25 percent. If two or more Wave 1 stores miss targets, the team will pause and fix problems before Wave 2.

Conclusion

Scaling the circular program means spreading a promise, fast and trustworthy repair and rental, rather than copying counters. Research on scaling excellence, practice transfer and ambidextrous organizations guides a plan with a defined core, local flexibility, staged waves with gates, a training model for scarce skills, systems built before volume and incentives that keep stores invested.

References

Sutton, R. I., & Rao, H. (2014). Scaling up excellence: Getting to more without settling for less. Crown Business.

Szulanski, G. (1996). Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17(S2), 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250171105

Tushman, M. L., & O'Reilly, C. A., III. (1996). Ambidextrous organizations: Managing evolutionary and revolutionary change. California Management Review, 38(4), 8-30. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165852