scenario:

When Janine Allis opened her first store, she had no idea that Boost Juice would become an international success. In fact, she founded the business to solve a simple problem: she couldnt find healthy snacks to buy for her family when out shopping. During a trip to the United States with her husband Jeff, she encountered juice and smoothie bars and realised she wanted to start a business that offered healthy, good-for-you products. And so, the Boost concept was born.

When the first store opened, Janine threw herself in at the deep end, developing Boosts business plan, operational processes and cultural values from the ground up. Literally. She recalls: I ran it, scrubbed the floors and really learnt the business. It meant I was continually developing and growing it. Boost Juice was built on a can-do organisational culture from the very beginning. Jeff and Janine had only established two stores when they negotiated an agreement with Westfield Shopping Centres to open 18 Boost stores in shopping centres across Australia.

Pulling it off required a very positive attitude and established two of Boosts core values: never take no for an answer and dont try to do it do it! The next challenge was to grow the organisation, which required finding people who understood the Boost philosophy and could put it into practice. Once youve put the right people in place, everything is easy, Janine says. If they dont have the right cultural fit, forget it. Finding like-minded individuals was particularly crucial to the companys success because Boost operates under a franchise model. Franchisees, referred to as partners in the Boost culture, buy the rights to open and operate a Boost store using the companys brand and operating procedures. Janine needed to be sure that the people establishing Boost stores would operate them with the same philosophy, values and emphasis on quality that she had herself. To ensure that franchisees operate as part of the Boost family, Janine operates with a very transparent approach. She and her franchisees share their profit and loss figures with each other every month and talk together about ways to improve the bottom line. We actually tell people at the start, If you dont want to share your figures on profit and loss, youre getting into the wrong company.

Another pillar of the Boost culture is Janines belief that success stems from understanding what the customer wants and giving it to them. More specifically, as Janine puts it, [We] ensure we are giving them what they want, and not just what we think they want or what we want to give them. Consequently, Boost teams are trained to be 110% focused on the customer. The company continuously researches customer wants and their perceptions of Boost by conducting focus groups and encouraging customers to provide feedback. Janine has even worked undercover in her own organisation to find out first-hand how well Boost employees live the companys values in their day-to-day dealings with customers.

The Boost recipe for success has certainly paid off, and the company now has more than 400 stores in 12 countries around the world. Janine still believes that success is about having a positive attitude and the support of great people. To be successful you need to surround yourself personally and professionally with only the best people, with the best values, she says. Think positive and positive things happen. But a can-do attitude also needs to be matched by a will do work ethic because, as Janine frankly admits, If I did not work the 6080 hours a week at Boost [to establish the company], I would not have been successful.

In your own words, identify and analyse how Boost Juices culture is an asset and made the organisation more effective. Could a change in culture ever make the Boost Juice organisation less effective? Why or why not? Support your answer with examples.