MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample 2023

Task 1: The Case for Change

Primark is the 6th most popular fashion and clothing brand and the brand is growing and operating broadly all over the global fashion market. The brand, Primark is looking forward to a drastic change in digital transformation and for that Primark leaders have initiated the improvement of their brands’ sites. As a result, the product range has been much more visible online to reach maximum audiences while browsed by them (Primark, 2022).

Due to the Covid-19 crisis, Primark moved from profit to loss within a few short days along with no visibility of how long such a condition might persist. In order to emerge e-commerce services in a stronger way, the brand Primark’s CEO and Co-founders are involved with making the right omnichannel retail strategy to unveil a new website (Retailtechinnovationhub, 2022).

The website is featuring more than a thousand products based on its ranges, fresh design products, enhanced navigation along with new features added to the website. Therefore, it will be easier for Primarks’ target or regular customers to check stock availability all across local stores.

The company leader has looked forward to leading the complexity of digital disruption through its latest software purchase along with digital transformation initiatives.

The information is enough valid to understand the cause behind digital transformation to serve as a database for providing contextual information and customer insight on which software systems and enterprise applications are run by Primark (Appsruntheworld, 2022). Thus, Primark’s major propensity is to invest huge capital for deepening its relationship with SAP, Microsoft and IBM to meet IT and digital transformation business objectives.

• To illustrate the necessity of consumer experience for the customer value development
• To form a digital enterprise along with a digital foundation
• To build employee empathy
• To transform digitalise supply chain
• To assure contentiously business development plan
• To take control over concise working capital

Task 2: Gaining Digital Business Agility

It is always a requirement to thrive within the competitive business advancement and even after the threats of the challenging task, and inclusion of the digital business agility has the efficiency to adopt agile mindsets. Furthermore, “Global Centre for Digital Business Transformation (DBT Centre)” is trying to develop a proficient digital business model to evaluate the business agility structure of any specific organisation for long-term success.

Most of the industry is trying to manage rapid evaluation with the initiative of technological advancement, which further required finding various ways to keep up with the trends. In terms of remaining efficient and sustainable, many firms are trying to adopt the agile business mindset (Taifa, 2020). In the context of reputed UK fashion brand Primark, the concept of business agility evolve around managing resources and operations in a responsive manner and flexible manager to maintain maximum business value proportions.

The overall proficiency of the business is updated thoroughly by implementing a digital transformation initiative. The agility adaptation level for Primark is based on three prior levels, operational, organisational, and strategic business agility. It can be mention that the agile mindset of the agile structure of senior executives is very crucial and developed over data-driven decision-making procedures (Obrenovic et al. 2020).

Technological changes are always a part of agile technological development and are associated with the enhancement of quick consumer focus along with revenue growth, steady cost reduction, and risk management efficiency. In all aspects of business agility, competitive corporate performance is the best possible business initiative for Primark. It can be mentioned that no overstating impact of the pandemic is stagnant in the process of the retail industry.

Furthermore, different stores closed down during the criticality of the pandemic, and at the same time, other retail giants move towards a digital-only structure for a bit, and some other businesses make a permanent shift towards digital and it was a remarkable move (Cocco et al. 2022). This message is not only considered by Primark and eventually, but they also hold the entire retail grounds against digital transformations, which it makes deep trouble to handle the supply chain structure as the online consumers flocked.

This effective brick-mortar firm trying to change its physical existence along with drastic changes for the post-Covid retail landscape management and allows the transformation of the digital fashion experiences. This assignment is to try to manage the implementation of digital transformation for Primark.

Hyper awareness

In the effectiveness of the digital age, hyperawareness is a crucial approach for the development of the leadership structure. The digital transformation of Primark needs to start with the priority of top management and it is associated with a profound impact on the total industry. In terms of boarding of the top executives and the understanding of the innovative technology is being advanced, and after that, the digitalisation can be cascade down overall business operation areas (Ilmudeen, 2021).

Difficulties in the retail sector for the Primark brand are associated with understanding the perspective of digitalisation can bring to their consumers. It can be included that a change of generation also provides a change in attitude and provide capabilities in the new age of technical disruptiveness (Kouatli et al. 2020).

Furthermore, hyper-awareness is all about a company’s ability to monitor and detect the changes in the total workplace environment. Hence, the inclusion of AI-based technological eminence can be advisable to gain Digital Business Agility. 

Informed decision-making

The management team of Primark believes that implementation of the digital evaluations is associated with prior disruptions in the positive customer service experiences. The thought process of Primark is not to include digital proficiency within their firm and this perception can be avoided by managing a trial of a click-and-collect programme.

The decision for the dip a toe within digital waters has been introduced by various organisations and it is the reflection of an informed decision-making initiative (Lin et al. 2020). In terms of assuming more returns, this decision of digital transformation has the absolute ability to provide sustainability for Primark’s position as a modern or reputed brand.

It can be recommended that the inclusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the perfect initiative for Primark to maintain shoppers’ purchasing behaviours along with the brand’s risk of obsolescence (Jonathan, and Siegfried). The affordable assessment of the individual brands will enhance the accessibility of the buyers and it is quite a helpful move

Fast execution

Primark’s unbeaten business drive is continuing within its recent growth results and as the value retailer, they are able to beat again the market and crash around it. The secret formula of the business management assistance of Primark is been associated with existing executions of the business management plans and furthermore, introductions of Augmented Reality (AR) will allow strengthening the total business structure of Primark and modest the net income increased among the all retail sector.

Some of the researchers critically mentioned that Primark stores could face various challenges affirmation only because of not implementing digital transformation (Hendriyani, and Raharja, 2019). Additionally, to become comprehensively shop during a time crunch, the online channel has major efficiency.

Figure 1: Global Centre for Digital Business Transformation model

(Source: IMD, 2022)

Strategic views for the organisation

The strategy of Primark is assisted them to become the market leader despite having an eminent extensive presence in the retail industry. They are trying to continue their business growth by expanding their business network through various business outlets.

Additionally, this retail business is stands out by analysing the perceptions of many other value retailers business and demonstrating their business through their well-designed stores, which include the customer satisfaction initiative (Ahmad et al. 2021). Furthermore, the digital agility model is effectively portrayed with the implementation of a Machine learning perspective that allows long-term growth as well.

Task 3: Create a Digital Ready Culture

According to the identification made on Think with Google (2017), building digital-ready culture is required to develop a relationship between humans and machines or technology to create something innovative, new and special. The nature of digital ready culture is a clear indication that brands like Primark can easily be successful to become more agile, efficient and successful by considering digitalisation as an important aspect.

As per the information written in the Think with Google (2017), on digital-ready culture, it will be better for Primark to plan and budget requirements into creating a digital-ready culture and then find the best solution for teams, talents and culture (Thinkwithgoogle, 2022). In addition, it will be highly important for Primark to pay immense attention to collecting the right data and customer insight, which is also needed for Primark to make its application and website use more flexible, easier and digitalised.

The major cause behind digital ready culture is to deliver standard quality services among customers and improve their purchase experience online and culture of proper collaboration among teams and departments. As stated by Lam and Law (2019), digital transformation fits better for those brands that are the way to create or have already developed a digital-ready culture. Technology adoption is a source of multiple creative, unique and extraordinary ideas that comes from a person, as technology is just a featured source made with human knowledge (Almaazmi et al. 2020).

Therefore, it can be said that a digital-ready culture might be an actual source of extreme-level thought processes, by which people upgrade their interest or enthusiasm towards the use of digital technology and promote ideas to lead to digital disruption.

Table 1: Suggestions for creating a digital-ready culture for Primark

Task 4: Steer Collaboration

Authority of CCO

• Conduct audits
• Proper clarity on collaboration purpose and experiences
• Oversee and handle strategic customer management revenue: Profitability
• Decision-making budget and business strategy
• Cross company matrix and foundation
• Establish customers accountability and forums
• Integrate across the silos
• Line authority, customer decorum, acquisition, process authority and retentions
• Collaboration management among team members and departments based on incorporated collaboration

The above-listed bullet points are the key role and responsibilities of Chief Collaboration Officer (CCO), which makes them more capable and successful to maintain proper steer collaboration within a workplace. CCO is responsible for building teams and influencing networks within interconnected digital organisations (Waschull and Emmanouilidis, 2022).

Therefore, it can be stated that it is highly necessary for a brand to appoint a CCO to train talents, empower talent management and a leader that values reward management to maintain a degree of collaboration among different team members and departments.

Recommendation for CCO to improve collaboration strategy

The recommendation is based on chosen company Primark, then the statement is going to be made that CCO in Primark needs to be aware of talents to conduct open communication. It will be better for the CCO of Primark to guide team members and department managers to work united and allow the idea pool to be upgraded (Strouse et al. 2021).

In this present time, there are huge competitions that have taken place among the workforce of Primark, in the case of its finance department or team members of the finance team. It should be major concern for CCO to align the thought process over one company’s aim or objective to neglect disruptions or conflict chances among people due to poor collaboration.

Task 5: Develop your Leaders

Goleman’s leadership styles are highly recommended for a leader to play his role effectively and eventually. In this present modern era, it has become completely important for leaders to train youth by adopting digital techniques and approaches. People are often interested in learning and utilise the learning in practice.

Thus, in order to make this work mode more accurate in order, it is required for a leader to learn and develop an in-depth account related to Goleman’s leadership styles to provide the best suggestion out of the requirements. [Referred to appendix: 2]

Goleman’s leadership styles

• Authoritative
• Coaching
• Affiliative
• Democratic
• Pacesetting
• Coercive

Among these Goleman’s leadership styles, coaching leadership style will be appropriate for leaders of the technology department in Primark to take proper initiatives to train workforce and improve their morale to lead to success and more digital transformation. Based on this suggestion, it can be expected that the leader might take advantage of the coaching leadership style and ensure team members are well aware of company goals and adjust the work efficiency accordingly (Ansari and Kumar, 2022).

In order to apply a proper approach, then it is greater to pay attention to coach and director approaches to train people with an absolute purpose and make them aware of the major cause of it. Coaching leadership style might be essential to learning smart techniques to address causes behind employees’ poor performance and ways to mitigate such situations (Gutiérrez et al. 2022).

The manager of Primark should suggest team members and departments get more accessible for open communication, share their own perceptions of experience with others to generate new ideas and lead the brand to more success in digital transformation. On the other contrary, the leader of Primark must value or focus on GROW model in order to lead with the complexity of digital disruptions.

Grow model utilisation might be a smart initiative for different departments or team leaders to create a proper plan, aim and objective for their team members and instruct them to follow (Thapa and Parimoo, 2022). Therefore, there might be a possible chance for managers of Primark to hold a greater base of emotional intelligence while boosting their respective team members’ morale and dedication to the job responsibilities. The approach and techniques to play coaching leadership style both require to be fulfilling the objective and goals of the business.

References

Taifa, I., 2020. Domestic supply chain for UK apparel manufacturing as a digital business: A computer simulation approach (Doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester).

Obrenovic, B., Du, J., Godinic, D., Tsoy, D., Khan, M.A.S. and Jakhongirov, I., 2020. Sustaining enterprise operations and productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic:“Enterprise Effectiveness and Sustainability Model”. Sustainability, 12(15), p.5981.

Cocco, H. and De-Juan-Vigaray, M.D., 2022. A typology of omnichannel retailer activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, (ahead-of-print).

Ilmudeen, A., 2021. Moderating role of turbulent environment between IT dynamic capabilities, business agility, and innovative capabilities: Empirical evidence from Sri Lanka. Journal of Management Matters, 8(2).

Kouatli, I., ElKhalil, R. and Karam, K., 2020, November. Agility decision-making model in digital enterprise markets driven by turbulence of cultural cognition and technological Innovation. In 2020 International Conference on Decision Aid Sciences and Application (DASA) (pp. 756-760). IEEE.

Lin, J., Li, L., Luo, X.R. and Benitez, J., 2020. How do agribusinesses thrive through complexity? The pivotal role of e-commerce capability and business agility. Decision Support Systems, 135, p.113342.

Jonathan, H.U.K.E. and Siegfried, P., 2021. Finance methods in the automotive sector-business agility in the age of digital disruption. International Journal of Automotive Science and Technology, 5(3), pp.281-288.

Hendriyani, C. and Raharja, S.U.J., 2019. Business agility strategy: Peer-to-peer lending of Fintech startup in the era of digital finance in Indonesia. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 8, pp.239-246.

IMD, 2022. Digital business agility [Online]. Available at: https://www.imd.org/contentassets/8a2ce62869734197a5af45f43bdb8030/60—digital-business-agility.pdf. [Access on 6 September, 2021]

Ahmad, N., Haque, S. and Islam, M.A., 2021. COVID-19 and global clothing retailers’ responsibility to vulnerable workers: NGO counter-rhetoric. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.

Appsruntheworld.com, 2022. Primark UK Software Purchases and Digital Transformation Initiatives. [Online] Available at: https://www.appsruntheworld.com/customers-database/customers/view/primark-uk-united-kingdom [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Retailtechinnovationhub.com, 2022. Retail technology innovation hub. [Online] Available at: https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2022/4/13/primark-has-the-right-omnichannel-retail-strategy-in-place-heres-why [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Primark.com, 2022. About us. [Online] Available at: https://www.primark.com/en-gb/about-us[Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

McTiernan, N., 2021. COVID-19 and the dynamics of digital transformation: Reshaping the fashion industry (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School). Available through: https://esource.dbs.ie/bitstream/handle/10788/4302/Dissertation%20Niamh%20McTiernan%2010570940.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Palazón, M., López, M., Sicilia, M. and López, I., 2022. The customer journey: a proposal of indicators to evaluate integration and customer orientation. Journal of Marketing Communications, pp.1-32. Available through: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manuela-Lopez-3/publication/359650677_The_customer_journey_a_proposal_of_indicators_to_evaluate_integration_and_customer_orientation/links/6246de7f21077329f2e80fe2/The-customer-journey-a-proposal-of-indicators-to-evaluate-integration-and-customer-orientation.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Kontić, L. and Vidicki, Đ., 2018. Strategy for digital organization: Testing a measurement tool for digital transformation. Strategic Management, 23(1), pp.29-35. Available through: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1821-3448/2018/1821-34481801029K.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Almaazmi, J., Alshurideh, M., Al Kurdi, B. and Salloum, S.A., 2020, October. The effect of digital transformation on product innovation: a critical review. In International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and Informatics (pp. 731-741). Springer, Cham. Available through: https://www.academia.edu/download/80065294/978-3-030-58669-0_65.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Lam, C. and Law, R., 2019. Readiness of upscale and luxury-branded hotels for digital transformation. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 79, pp.60-69. Available through: https://e-tarjome.com/storage/panel/fileuploads/2019-07-22/1563785771_E11469-e-tarjome.pdf

Thinkwithgoogle.com, 2022. Digital transformation. [Online] Available at: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/future-of-marketing/digital-transformation/digital-transformation-solutions/ [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Waschull, S. and Emmanouilidis, C., 2022. Development and application of a human-centric co-creation design method for AI-enabled systems in manufacturing. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 55(2), pp.516-521. Available through: https://research.rug.nl/files/216690734/1_s2.0_S2405896322002476_main.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Strouse, D.J., McKee, K., Botvinick, M., Hughes, E. and Everett, R., 2021. Collaborating with humans without human data. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 34, pp.14502-14515. Available through: https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/file/797134c3e42371bb4979a462eb2f042a-Paper.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Gutiérrez, G., De Lena, M.T.G., Garzás, J. and Moguerza, J.M., 2022. Leadership Styles in Agile Teams: An Analysis Based on Experience. IEEE Access, 10, pp.19232-19241. Available through: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6287639/9668973/09712259.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Ansari, H. and Kumar, R., 2022. Examining the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence with Leadership Styles and Effectiveness among Managers in Indian Banking Sectors. International Management Review, 18(1), pp.27-103. Available through: https://americanscholarspress.us/journals/IMR/pdf/IMR-1-2022/IMRv8n1-art3.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Thapa, A. and Parimoo, D., 2022. Transactional Leadership Style and Organizational Performance: The moderating role of emotional intelligence. Parikalpana KIIT Journal of Management, 18(1), pp.53-70. Available through: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ashish-Thapa-4/publication/361733433_Transactional_Leadership_Style_and_Organizational_Performance_The_moderating_role_of_emotional_intelligence/links/62c25cc4894d625717c56237/Transactional-Leadership-Style-and-Organizational-Performance-The-moderating-role-of-emotional-intelligence.pdf [Accessed on: 6th September 2022]

Appendices

Appendix 1: Self-evaluation assessment

Appendix 2: The Six Leadership Styles by Daniel Goleman

(Source: https://www.leadershipahoy.com/the-six-leadership-styles-by-daniel-goleman)

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