Many maintain that the poor implementation of the new supply chain systems was a symptom rather than a cause of its present problems, and the underlying factor, as with all retail malaise, was senior management losing sight of the retail plot. In the case of Sainsbury's, the problems had been building for at least the past 10 years and started when the chain failed to match the INVESTMENTS being made by rivals, Tesco and Asda. Davis's unveiling of his "business transformation programme" three years ago may have been a case of trying to do too little, too late.