A & P And Kroger: Chapter Analysis

This chapter begins with talking about two great companies, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company and Kroger. These companies were and excellent choice because their example perfectly models the exact point that the chapter is trying to get a cross. This chapter has several very important points that can help lead a company from good to great. We will discuss these points in detail and explain how they are useful and why. We will also relate these points to both A&P and Kroger to show which company used these points effectively and which did not. The chapter dives right into the concept of confronting the brutal facts within your company. This is hard for some people because the facts are not always something you want to hear, but they
Roy Ash was the CEO of AG and he is one leader that did not face the process with the brutal facts of reality. AG was a little company with only about 670 employees, but Ash had a vision to try and dominant the likes of IBM, Xerox, and Kodak in the emerging field of office automation. This plan was definitely not thought through because AG had only previously dominated the envelope-address-duplication business. According to Business Week, Ash refused to face the evidence that his plan was doomed to fail and might take down the rest of the company. But, he continued to milk down AG’s assets and they later filed for bankruptcy and fired
A&P. A&P opened a store called “The Golden Key” to experiment with new methods and models with innovative new departments and ideas. The store began to evolve into a modern superstore which customers liked. The top management at A&P did not confront the brutal facts that they needed to update their business model and decided to close “The Golden Key” because they didn’t like the fact that the customers like the new store better than their old stores. Kroger also experimented during the 60’s with the superstore concept. By the 70’s Kroger’s top management confronted the brutal fact that the old-model grocery store was extent. Kroger decided to eliminate, change, or replace every single store. By the 90’s they rebuilt their entire system and was on its way to becoming the #1 grocery store in America. Kroger was like Stockdale, and A&P was like the optimist who always thought they’d be out by Christmas. All the Good to Great companies maintained unwavering faith that they would not just survive, but prevail as a great company. Also, they became relentlessly disciplined at confronting the most brutal facts of their current reality. The Good to Great leaders are able to strip away noise and clutter and just focus on the few things that would have the greatest impact. They operated on both sides of the Stockdale Paradox, never letting one side over shadow the