Case Study: Understanding Hidden Capacity in a Retail Network
A national fashion retailer asked Conductor to help explain why overall revenue growth was stalling.
A national fashion retailer asked Conductor to help explain why overall revenue growth was stalling, despite continued traffic, consistent pricing, and no significant change in product mix.
What We Did
Using Conductor’s PS25™ survey, we benchmarked the networks psychological safety culture to understand the human performance capacity and willingness, and correlated these results against a range of store level KPIs.
Results showed both psychological safety and business performance metrics varied dramatically between locations within and across regions. Results showed a strong relationship between PS scores and Sales Conversion Rate.
What We Found
Sales Conversion ranged from 8 % – 32 %.
15 % in the high band (27-32%)
35 – 40 % in the medium
band (22-26% %)
45 – 50 % in the low band (< 22 %)
Half of the network was functioning at less than 70% of the conversion capacity already proven possible within the same brand.
Only 1 in 6 operate near the top band
50%-60% of paid human capacity is being affected by friction - not market demand
The variance wasn’t explained by location, range, or promotions.
The difference lay in operating environment — clarity of goals, support to contribute, and leadership practices.
In other words, it was Human Performance Potential: how effectively the operational environment turned human willingness and capacity into value.
What It Meant for Leadership
COO saw the systemic patterns creating performance drag, not individual effort.
CFO could finally quantify the cost of that drag — roughly 10–15 percentage-points of recoverable capacity, equal to millions in unrealised revenue.
Leaders now had a roadmap for what “good” leadership looked like and could achieve.
Outcome
Our analysis reframed the problem.
Instead of the next transformation project or restructure, the focus shifted to improving the conditions that unlocked the capacity and willingness of staff to contribute, to improve execution across the network.
Over 90 days revenue increased by 46.7%,
Sales conversion improved by 14.3% ,and
One-quarter of the network moved to a higher sales conversion band - 33-62%.
Revenue elasticity showed every 1% improvement in conversion delivered a 3.26% increase in revenue. Outperforming typical retail benchmarks (2–3%).
Staff weren’t just making more sales, they were converting sales at a higher value.
Key insight:
Every store had the same systems. The only difference was how clearly, fairly, and confidently people could work within them.
We built Conductor because we believe organisations can do extraordinary things without exhausting the people who make them possible.
Our job is to help you find that balance. The place where people and performance move together.
HOW TO START
Begin where you are…
We’ll help you see your Performance Potential, find where the system slows people down, and show you how to free it.