MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample 2023
Introduction
Digital transformation plays a circular role in the growth of a business as in the modern era, there is a huge impact of digital transformation. In this report, the digital transformation of Sainsbury will be discussed as it has been observed that effective execution of digital transformation is extremely essential and creates a positive impact in improving the decision-making of an organization.
Task 1 – The Case for Change
Sainsbury’s is one of the biggest supermarkets in the United Kingdom as it has been observed that online selling is increasing significantly in this company as during 2020-21 the online grocery sales of the company have increased by 120% (About.sainsburys.co.uk. 2021). On the other hand, it may be implied that during Covid-19 the online sales of the company increased, however, the company did not have sufficient digital support to fulfil the requirements of online customers.
In addition to that, after analysing the atmosphere the management of the company has decided to implement a digital change which may be extremely essential to maintain the online order effectively. Moreover, it may be argued that the company is facing several threats which need to be resolved through the proper implementation of digital transformation. Due to a lack of IT infrastructure the company is not able to improve the online website of the company which may harm the growth of the company in the future.
It needs to be implied that if the company is not able to implement digital transformation then the customer of the company will not get proper castles or service from the company.
One of the main approaches to implementing digital transformation is to manage and handle the extra pressure in online orders which may help Sainsbury’s in becoming a successful retail company in the UK. Moreover, the management of Sainsbury’s needs to design a digital transformation model which will help the company to execute digital transformation as it may play an essential role in understanding the requirements of customers during online shopping.
Additionally, Sainsbury’s has also planned to improve the service of digital purchasing as it may be immensely essential to mitigate operational costs (Refer to Appendix-1). The company is also planning for a digital finance service that may help online customers to buy grocery products easily. Moreover, Sainsbury’s is a customer focused and if the company is able to execute the digital transformation professionally then the company may be able to resolve the threats the company.
Task 2 – Gaining Digital Business Agility
The digital business agility model is mainly based on three pillars such as hyperawareness, informed decision making and fast execution this model is extremely useful in understanding digital threats and opportunities which is immensely essential in ensuring the strong foundation of the organization (IMD business school. 2022).
Capture Insights/ Hyperawareness
It needs to be implied that the company requires the use of some digital tools which may help the company to implement the digital transformation professionally as it may be extremely useful for the company to sustain itself in this competitive market. In the modern and digital era, every company prefers to achieve growth and development through innovation as it is extremely important for the survival of the company to implement digital transformation (Albukhitan, 2020).
On the contrary, Sainsbury’s needs to implement cloud computing as during the Covid-19 online orders are increasing and the proper execution of cloud computing may help the company to track online orders. In addition to that, every retail company wants to make a strong customer base as cloud computing may help the company to process thousands of orders within a short time.
Moreover, the company needs to use social media and promote the products of the company on social media platforms which may be extremely useful for the growth of the company.
It is one of the biggest duties of Sainsbury’s to import a technically driven order system with the help of technical experts as the company needs to recruit so many technical experts which may help in creating a popper online website for the company. More specifically, it has been argued that the retail sector is trying to combine offline and online services which will be immensely beneficial in providing improved customer experience as using a technical framework may help the company to become more customer-focused (Ferreira et al., 2020).
Additionally, there are many competitors of Sainsbury’s such as Tesco, Aldi and many more while the main move of the company will be to use effective digital tools to gain a more competitive advantage over the competitors of the company. It may be argued that one of the main benefits of using improved digital tools will be to understand the macroeconomic trends of the retail market as it may also help the company to achieve sustainability and profitability.
Figure 1: Digital business agility model
(Source: Ferreira et al., 2020)
Informed decision making
It may be implied that if a company’s not able to implement digital transformation then the decision-making process of the company became ineffective which also poorly impacted the growth of the company In addition to that, Sainsbury’s also faced issues of ineffective and slow decision-making process as the company requires to use digital assessment tools which may help to improve the decision making process of the company.
On the other hand, technological advances play an essential role in developing the decision-making prices of a retail company as the combination of technology with the decision-making process may be immensely useful to get positive customer feedback. Moreover, many modern organizations use the Media Richness Theory (MRT) immensely to make fast decisions in the organization as Cross Channel Integration is related to MRT and may help a company in making fast and effective consumer decision-making processes (Li et al., 2018).
Additionally, one of the main approaches of the company is to improve the decision-making process which may help the company to design an effective and digitally driven business strategy.
In the modern era, every retail brand wants to understand customer behaviour while before Covid-19 the amount of online ordering was not huge after Covid-19 the scenario has changed in this case Sainsbury’s wants to change the decision-making process by using digital tools. Nowadays, many retail organizations focus on creating the Internet of Things (IoT) which plays a crucial role in improving the decision making process and may help organizations to understand the perspective of customers (Park and Jeong, 2021).
It needs to be asserted that the decision-making process of Sainsbury’s is mainly divided into three parts such as pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase as IoT may help the company in improving the decision-making systems of the company through maintaining coordination among these stages. Moreover, the employees of the company face many challenges as the implementation of these digital tools is extremely complex and the company needs to give proper training to the employees which will enhance the effectiveness of this digital equipment.
Fast execution
Acquiring and engaging talents is one of the biggest challenges of a company if Sainsbury’s is able to engage the talents the decision-making prices of the company will be fast and effective. In addition to that, the company needs to execute several digital techniques which may help the company to acquire and professionally engage talents. The digital techniques which need to be used by the brand are as follows:-
- To design a training program that may help the employees to understand the approaches to digital transformation and fast execution process
- To improve the online website of the company through digital transformation
- To design a proper strategy that may help the company to achieve a competitive advantage through fast execution process
- Use IoT which will be immensely useful to understand the purchasing behaviour of the customers
- To improve the decision-making process and fast executing approach through digital transformation
- To enhance the brand image and brand awareness of the company through using social media platforms
It may be opined that technical change has been observed in retail sectors as the use of IoT, automation, robotics, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been significantly increased which is immensely essential to improve the skills of employees in the retail sector (Woods et al., 2021).
On the contrary, the management of the company always focuses on skills as the company needs to utilize the talents even though the use of e-meeting may help the employees to understand the entire processor of the company. One of the main approaches of the company is to inspire the employees which may help the company improve better service as it may create a positive impact in meeting the satisfaction level of customers.
Moreover, the company needs to monitor the performance of employees as the implementation of digital technology may make this process fast and effective which may help the company to utilize and acquire talents. The HR strategy of the company is collaborative and creative as the Junior Talent Business partner of the company plays a vital function that may ensure the development and growth of employees through improved talent plans (Refer to Appendix-2).
Task 3 – Create a Digital Ready Culture
Putting customers first
Real time communication and support to the customers by Omni channel communication strategy put Sainsbury to always ready to betterment of customer’s concern throughout the shopping journey. Quick resolution of customer issues with dedicated after sales service help- Sainsbury to satisfy the consumer interest and brand perception in putting the customer first.
Companies worldwide are transforming the operation digitally to become closer to customers and provide a better business market where the Information technology (IT) team are rigorously working to create a user-friendly interface to communicate with the market demand to generate business flow. Sainsbury’s Management will have the eye for a future business operation to enable all the processes digitally with respective growth in skills of employees to deliver the best product in less time.
Creating a collaborative culture
Collaboration of different teams and leaders at different levels helps to reorganize the business as per the need of time where the changed strategies come in handy to implement the strategies without delay and operate effectively from the first minute. The inclusion of diversity, open mindedness and cultural competency help Sainsbury to stimulate the collaborative culture in the organisation with increased interoperability.
Innovative culture
The technological revolution starts the age of industrial revolution 4.0 which elaborates the need for digital transformation of business where Sainsbury is also on the verge of digital transformation to compete and expand the business globally. Additionally, the management team enables the feature of the business model to the employees to clear the confusion to communicate with the end customer (Schallmo et al., 2020).
The Sainsbury management needs to adopt technical innovation with the incorporation of the entire IT department to make the digital transformation of the business viable with market standards. Creativity and innovation of leadership help to deal with large amounts of data and information more diligently for social skills and fast decision making (Schwarzmüller et al., 2018).
Digital champion
IT departments are recruiting skilled human resources to viable the digital architecture of the business model with certain software and skilled resources. The leadership will be accountable to train the existing resources according to the current need and scrutinize the working performance to enhance productivity in less time without much stress.
The use of Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine learning (ML), automation, robotic process automation (RPA), Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) becomes inevitable in the present age of technology where these technologies will come effectively with the command of IT teams to achieve the conveyed business goal. Recruiting digitally skilled employees and training existing employees to boost the digital culture in an organization is the market need to gain a competitive advantage (Refer to Appendix-3).
Task 4 – Steer Collaboration
The business communities are expanding globally with economic globalization to enhance the revenue which needs consistent collaboration among the different processes and teams to accurately deliver the product at the consumer’s doorstep. The digital transformation of Sainsbury forecast the need for collaboration among the team and leaders to increase productivity and business accountability with transparent nature.
Specifically, the introduction of certain software to work on collaboration effectively to grow the viability of the business is essential whereas Microsoft Teams, Skype, GoToMeeting, slack, Red booth and proof hub are some collaborative tools that need to be incorporated in Sainsbury. The present scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic shows the necessity of digital transformation where Chief Collaboration Officer (CCO) will communicate with the team through virtual meeting rooms to train and direct the subordinate to follow the certain procedure of business operation.
The collaboration among business units helps to hold a key role in a business competition where effective decision-making in accordance with change management helps leaders to implement strategies actively (Verma et al., 2020).The IT leaders and teams will hold meetings and video conferences to cooperate with other processes while attending general meetings and seminars to boost the company performance in the age of digital transformation of business.
Task 5- Leadership Skills and behaviour
The leadership of the organization is the main driving force of the organization’s objective through propelling employee performance and the Skills of leadership are mandatory to transform the business operation digitally. High emotional intelligence of leaders is necessary to reflect the duty and responsibilities properly through awareness and optimization of resources which took positive steps for the digital transformation of Sainsbury.
Intercultural competencies of leadership help to mitigate conflict in workplaces through problem-solving and decision-making for a healthy work environment. On the other hand, digital transformation of business will help the manager in near future to digitally monitor the performance and quality of the product for advanced competitiveness.
Saxena et al., (2017) stated that Goleman’s leadership style is actualising the six leadership styles to integrate the leadership skill with self awareness, empathy, motivation, self regulation and social skill. The Goleman’s leadership style of coaching and Affiliative leadership fuses the positive work culture in the organization where coaching is highly beneficial for transforming the organization through innovation and collaborative organisational culture.
Positive behavioural traits of leadership will help to recognize the ability of employees and the need for training to transform the business digitally considered more effective in digital transformation. The leading goal is to empower the employee to achieve success in work-life balance and personal goals as well as in business commitment. The innovation of shared value is necessary for the leaders to perform strategic changes along with doing social work through Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) activities to improve (Lichtenthaler, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that digital transformation is the trend of modern-day business and to withstand it, companies need to acquire an IT department to grow the digital culture by recruiting skilled employees with positive approaches to change management. Digital transformation of business needs the effective skills of a Leader who is responsible to drive the organization towards success.
References
About.sainsburys.co.uk. 2021. Results, Reports and Presentations. [online] Available at: <https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/investors/results-reports-and-presentations> [Accessed 4 October 2021].
Albukhitan, S., 2020. Developing digital transformation strategy for manufacturing. Procedia computer science, 170, pp.664-671.
Ferreira, M.J., Moreira, F., Pereira, C.S. and Durão, N., 2020, April. The digital transformation at organizations–the case of retail sector. In World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (pp. 560-567). Springer, Cham.
IMD business school. 2022. Workforce Transformation Reimagining Work for Digital Business Agility. [online] Available at: <https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/reports/workforce-transformation2/> [Accessed 29 August 2022].
Li, Y., Liu, H., Huang, Q., Yang, F. and Lee, M.K., 2018, January. Consumer Decision Making in Multi-channel Retail: The Effects of Online Channel Media Richness and Cross-channel Integration. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
Lichtenthaler, U., 2017. Shared value innovation: Linking competitiveness and societal goals in the context of digital transformation. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 14(04), p.1750018.
Park, I.H. and Jeong, S.W., 2021. The Internet of Things (IoT) applications and value creation in the retail industry: focusing on consumer decision-making stages. Journal of Digital Convergence, 19(1), pp.187-198.
Schallmo, D., Williams, C.A. and Boardman, L., 2020. Digital transformation of business models—best practice, enablers, and roadmap. Digital Disruptive Innovation, pp.119-138.
Schwarzmüller, T., Brosi, P., Duman, D. and Welpe, I.M., 2018. How does the digital transformation affect organizations? Key themes of change in work design and leadership. mrev management revue, 29(2), pp.114-138.
Verma, P., Kumar, V., Jha, A., Muthukumaar, V., Do, M.H., Sharma, N.K. and Gupta, S., 2020. The degree of collaboration between business units in diversified corporation: A strategic perspective. Business Strategy & Development, 3(4), pp.449-460.
Woods, R., Doherty, O. and Stephens, S., 2021. Technology driven change in the retail sector: Implications for higher education. Industry and Higher Education, p.09504222211009180.
Saxena, A., Desanghere, L., Stobart, K. and Walker, K., 2017. Goleman’s leadership styles at different hierarchical levels in medical education. BMC medical education, 17(1), pp.1-9.
