MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

Task 1: The Case for Change

The company selected for the current case study is Marks and Spencer, a leading British retailer bringing in the great valuation of food, homeware and clothing to millions of customers who are currently headquartered in London, UK.

Moreover, the current company is found to be operational within the retail sector of the UK. Focusing on the significant threats that Marks and Spencer are currently facing that have forced the company to digitally transform, the company faced huge losses since 2017 due to a significant failure in their online marketing platforms due to a lack of adequate orders or demands.

Therefore, the concerned organisation focused upon incorporating a five-year transformation plan with a “Technology Transformation Programme” enabling it to further improve the overall customer engagement levels with better customer experience along with the creation of an agile commercial technology focused on delivering business growth (Marksandspencer, 2018).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

In addition to that, the major changes being incorporated within M&S adoption of new technology and industry agile methods with the “Technology Transformation Programme” with the inclusion of TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) as the principal technology partner.

Moreover, the concerned technological adoption was aimed at delivering the annual efficiencies of £30 million. However, the concerned organisation was further found to face significant difficulties in managing to record profitability levels for higher rates of store closures diving into losses of over £200 million in 2021 due to the further prevalence of lockdown situations within the UK.

Sales were further found to be affected by the shutdown of cafes and reduced demand for takeaway food items like sandwiches as the majority of the customers preferred working from home (Theguardian, 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample However, the company was further found to plan upon increasing its capacities for selling groceries by 50% in the next 18 months of 2021 to reduce the additional losses incurred.

In addition to that, Marks and Spencer were found to focus on launching online operations as their current digital transformation strategy across 46 different nations by launching their personalised websites from Uzbekistan to Ireland (Bbc, 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample The company has primarily focused on expanding its retail online growth through offering products from homeware and clothing ranges.

Furthermore, the company has further focused to implement an “adaptable website platform” designed solely for increasing their international sales which can help in increasing the localisation of their products in an offer to efficiently adapt to the customer responses.

Moreover, the international online channels were translated into over 10 different languages and currencies aimed at easing the communication and transactional barriers.

Task 2: Gaining Digital Business Agility

Digital business agility in the digital age is further found to focus on the improvement of agile components of “hyperawareness, informed decision making and fast execution” which are required by companies to develop the concerned capabilities for responding efficiently and quickly to emerging threats towards their business organisations for seizing any possible market opportunities.

Therefore, the current section shall focus on evaluating the components of the digital business agility model with advising digital technology initiatives to be incorporated within Marks and Spencer for further growth of sales and profitability.

Figure 1: Digital business model highlighting digital accelerators

(Source: Imd.org, 2016)

The above-depicted figure highlights the three different digital accelerators of the digital business agility model proposed by the “Global Center for Digital Business Transformation”. Hyperawareness refers to the ability of an organisation to detect and monitor any required changes within its respective business environment (Imd.org, 2016).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

However, high levels of alertness or insights help the companies to improve the internal operating environment to quickly understand the positions of opportunities and threats.

Furthermore, the two major digital accelerators relating to the hyperawareness levels within workforces are situational and behavioural awareness. While behavioural awareness was found to focus on the collection of data across different workforces with the requirement of technical assistance, situational awareness focuses on sensing the changes within marketplaces like competitors, partner ecosystem and customer base for meeting organisational objectives (Burmeister et al. 2018).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

Artificial intelligence can be significantly integrated into digital marketing scenarios, through automation tools for the analysis of large amounts of datasets reducing the scope for human effort and providing essential insights to work with large data files.

Therefore, Marks and Spencer can significantly reduce their challenge of changing perceptions and behaviour of their prospective customers through artificial intelligence as it helps organisations in finding the right audience through customer segmentation based on their intent and behavioural levels (Bag et al. 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

As per the opinion of Zulaikha et al. (2020), customer segmentation can be achieved through AI tools through understanding and analysing different parameters like demographics and personality traits which further aids in precise marketing campaigns. Therefore, M&S can implement the same for further expanding their business digitally through efficient implementation of hyperawareness across the new countries from Iceland to Uzbekistan.

Furthermore, focusing on the next digital accelerator, informed decision-making within workforces is found to incorporate strategic decisions in shaping the future of organisations through working with respective employees in meeting automated or faster decisions.

Moreover, informed decision-making is also found to incorporate the decisions undertaken by the respective organisational employees having proper expertise levels with cognitive perspectives and diversified backgrounds (Merendino et al. 2018).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

Moreover, the opinion of Jones et al. (2022) highlighted augmented decision-making delivering the ecosystems for providing the right data within the IT ecosystems for efficiently recommending a particular course of action. Therefore, data-driven decision-making processes can be implemented through the enhancement of human intelligence and machine learning for operating independently by improving human responses in taking important decisions.

Marks and Spencer may hereby focus on improving their informed decision-making within their workforces through the incorporation of machine learning procedures through effectively combining the machine learning tools with their personal experiences.

Moreover, the implementation of chatbots for customer interaction over websites as they are significantly found to learn inputs from past experiences with humans helps in natural language processing (Nuruzzaman and Hussain, 2018). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

This shall effectively help the organisation in understanding the perceptions and buying behaviours of their customers through meaningful necessary information from the past experiences of chatting with their customers over product or security issues for further development in the respective spheres.

The final digital accelerator is highlighted as “fast execution for workforce transformation” which is found to play an efficient role in ensuring speed and excellence levels within organisations through effective utilisation of processes and resources.

According to the words of Grichnik et al. (2014), dynamic resources are associated with financial, human and technology capital which is further found to dictate business conditions via deploying and acquiring positive shifts. Therefore it is found to be important for the allocation of talented employees to further engagement in the interesting and valuable processes.

Underutilisation of valuable employees is significantly found to reduce the value created by the same along with the probability of them quitting the organisation (Wordsworth and Nilakant, 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

Therefore optimal staffing levels can be achieved within Mark and Spencer through implementing a staffing plan by identifying and assessing the requirements and needs of personnel and employees for the respective organisation. The firm has currently emerged to focus on digitally expanding over several countries through online marketing and business platforms that require employees to maintain the strategy and operations within the respective nations.

However, the internet of things is found to be system programs efficient in hiring employees with evaluating the same for job training to quickly access relevant organisation data and provide them with active feedback upon their respective job performances helping them in self-assessment of their performances.

Therefore the self-assessment of individual employees within the organisation shall health in faster execution of the job requirements through excellence and speed through efficient utilisation of dynamic resources and processes via implementation of technology infrastructure for meeting the business needs.

In addition to that, IoT-enabled offices are found to provide their employees with additional security levels to gain entry within their workplaces with the help of biometric scanners and facial recognition systems (Manimuthu et al. 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample Therefore the concern systems can significantly grant access to the respective employees for marks and Spencer by identifying the occupants via fingerprint scanners or surveillance cameras fitted within the company building.

In addition to that, the internet of things and office solutions are also found to improve the planning processes of holding meetings within organisations. The aspects of virtual and physical meetings can be easily formulated by the employees from the respective electronic devices meeting any problems of underutilisation of resources or processes.

The example of Amazon’s Alexa for business can be significantly highlighted as it helps its users to handle data regarding participant invitations, set up reminders or connect to virtual events or meetings easily.

Task 3: Create a Digital Ready Culture

Digital ready culture can be depicted as the technology in racing its ability to move across various digital channels during their interaction with services or brands respectively.

Furthermore, the digital-ready organisations are found to continuously promote four major key values for fostering the right behaviour to improve speed openness impact and autonomy within their communication and digital-ready valuations.

Figure 2: Major features highlighted by Digital ready culture

(Source: Thinkwithgoogle, 2022)

The figure depicted above highlights the major features associated with the implementation of digital-ready culture within organisations for improving different tasks of putting customers first, creating collaborative culture installing cultural innovation along with becoming an overall digital champion.

Customer preferences expectations and changing patterns in purchasing behaviour are found to be at the core reason for any efforts made to digitally transform a business or organisation (Hanelt et al. 2021). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sampleTherefore the digital transformation projects are found to flourish on their own through driving digital maturity with the aim that improvement of overall revenue generation for organisations.

Figure 3: Higher digitally mature companies showing increased levels of growth in net revenue and net profit margin

(Source: Deloitte, 2020)

A recent survey from Deloitte’s insights has highlighted a direct connection between the improvement of digital maturity within organisations with their financial performance to accurately reflect upon a true state of “customer-centric digital transformation”.

In addition, the respective study has highlighted achievable targets including diversity and inclusion customer satisfaction levels corporate social responsibility improvement of product quality to significantly increase gross margin and improve the long-term financial performance of organisations (Deloitte, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample The study has also highlighted a strong correlation between the generation of net revenue and net profit margin through improvement in the digital maturity of organisations.

Employee engagement can be significantly improved through upskilling and reskilling the works forces paying out respective dividends. Organisational employers like Marks and Spencer can significantly utilise digital technology for supporting reskilling rollout programs for further training of the employees for the new positions currently open within the company.

Therefore the interactive analytics-based tools can be utilised for the exploration of alternate career paths and roles for the current employees to digitally boost the overall employee engagement levels (Forbes, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

To overcome the digital complexities, Cadbury’s marketing team was found to incorporate humour and emotion within their Easter 2021 campaign via using first-party data and automated tools for understanding the shift in demand which further aided them to respond with agility (Thinkwithgoogle, 2022). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

A virtual egg hunt was set up for their targeted customers with help of Google to increase a desire to connect with consumers’ loved ones. The campaign was a huge success as it increased the website visits for Cadbury by over 1.8 million for purchasing the chocolate eggs in search of the virtual eggs leading to 2x search interest for the company.

Task 4: Steer Collaboration

The current task focuses on highlighting a job role for Chief Collaboration Officer and focuses upon describing the responsibilities and roles of the same within the organisation of Marks and Spencer.

Furthermore, chief collaboration officers are found to be responsible for leading programming initiatives within an organisation by advancing upon a district-scale sustainable development project. As per the opinion of Ng (2021), chief collaboration officers are found to be members of the executive teams within organisations helping in shaping and managing the organisation’s business strategy professional development initiatives and organisation policies while reporting to the chief executive officer.

The major responsibilities and roles of the Chief Collaboration Officer are hereby highlighted below,

Strategic Management

• Development of annual budget and work plan for strategising the successful execution and supporting of annual business strategy
• Head of leadership development and executive manager in annual business strategy through incorporating the development of objectives goals revenue targets and key performance indicators through the creation of a monthly dashboard and annual report.

Business Development

• Meeting with clients writing proposals and leading business development activities on a regular basis
• Active collaboration with partnerships marketing and engagement directors for the development of an annual plan in shaping fundraising strategies and revenue targets (Ecodistricts.org, 2022)

Project Management

• Development and maintenance of framework for client management with an evaluation of promoting excellence across service delivery platforms
• Improving communication levels with clients and stakeholders during the project delivery process
• Efficient delivery of project deliverables according to accepted proposals relevant to budget and work planning (Hbr.org, 2010)

Task 5: Select your leaders

Goleman has emerged to further differentiate the emotional leadership styles into six different types that are – coaching, affiliative, democratic, commanding, pacesetting and coercive.

However, within the current research context, Marks and Spencer are found to require further implementation of the democratic leadership style or participative style that is further found to incorporate the valued voice of each team member within management and helps in the improvement of overall decision-making processes (Mansaray, 2019).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment sample

In addition to that, the current research has incorporated various methods of including necessary financial operation and business information regarding Marks and Spencer’s digital expansion that can help in gathering valuable insights from the different departments for efficient implementation.

Figure 4: Six Goleman emotional leadership styles

(Source: Influenced by Sejati et al. 2021)

Therefore, to further implement the democratic leadership style, M&S can focus on the GROW model of leadership to incorporate the respective approaches and techniques for digitally transforming the organization.

Figure 5: GROW model of leadership

(Source: Influenced by Watts and Corrie, 2022)

Focusing on the growth factor, the organisation has planned upon achieving a massive digital transformation by incorporating websites across the majority of the European and Asian countries.

Furthermore, the current reality of the organisation can be significantly mentioned to be at a state of loss due to the closing down of the physical stores in 2021 for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic situation. However, M&S has emerged to be determined to expand its business digitally by implementing websites across countries from Iceland to Uzbekistan.

Therefore, the report has recommended the implementation of a digital transformation strategy through following a democratic leadership style by following a digital ready culture depicted by Google and efficient implementation of the digital accelerators highlighted within the digital business model. The implementation of a Chief Collaboration Officer will also help the organisation to shape and manage the organisation’s business strategy, professional development initiatives and organisation policies for further change.

References

Bag, S., Srivastava, G., Al Bashir, M.M., Kumari, S., Giannakis, M. and Chowdhury, A.H., 2021. Journey of customers in this digital era: Understanding the role of artificial intelligence technologies in user engagement and conversion. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Bbc, (2021). Mark & Spencer launches online operations in 46 markets Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56327257 [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

Burmeister, A., Fasbender, U. and Deller, J., 2018. Being perceived as a knowledge sender or knowledge receiver: A multistudy investigation of the effect of age on knowledge transfer. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 91(3), pp.518-545.

Deloitte, (2020). Uncovering the connection between digital maturity and financial performance Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/digital-transformation-survey.html [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

Ecodistricts.org, (2022). Chief Collaboration Officer Available at: https://ecodistricts.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Chief-Collaboration-Officer-Job-Posting.pdf [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

Forbes, (2020). Why Digital Transformation Always Needs To Start With Customers First Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/08/30/why-digital-transformation-always-needs-to-start-with-customers-first/?sh=64c2f3ff2c61 [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

Grichnik, D., Brinckmann, J., Singh, L. and Manigart, S., 2014. Beyond environmental scarcity: Human and social capital as driving forces of bootstrapping activities. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(2), pp.310-326.

Hanelt, A., Bohnsack, R., Marz, D. and Antunes Marante, C., 2021. A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), pp.1159-1197.

Hbr.org, (2010). Who Should be Your Chief Collaboration Officer?Available at: https://hbr.org/2010/10/who-should-be-your-chief-colla [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

Jones, L., Boeri, M., Christie, M., Durance, I., Evans, K.L., Fletcher, D., Harrison, L., Jorgensen, A., Masante, D., McGinlay, J. and Paterson, D.M., 2022. Can we model cultural ecosystem services, and are we measuring the right things?. People and Nature, 4(1), pp.166-179.

Manimuthu, A., Dharshini, V., Zografopoulos, I., Priyan, M.K. and Konstantinou, C., 2021. Contactless technologies for smart cities: big data, IoT, and cloud infrastructures. SN computer science, 2(4), pp.1-24.

Mansaray, H.E., 2019. The role of leadership style in organisational change management: a literature review. Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), pp.18-31.

Marksandspencer, (2018). MARKS & SPENCER ANNOUNCES TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/06/marks-and-spencer-profits-plunge-clothing-sales-fall [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

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Ng, D., 2021. How can chief operating officers succeed in driving, growing and transforming their businesses with digital technology?. Journal of Securities Operations & Custody, 13(4), pp.308-319.

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Sejati, S., Isnaini, D., Fitria, R., Kusmidi, H. and Hadikusuma, W., 2021. The Influence of Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Style on Employee Loyalty during Covid-19 Pandemic:(Surveyin University Islamic State Raden Intan Lampung and IAIN Province Bengkulu in 2020). Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology, pp.2951-2962.

Theguardian, (2021). Marks & Spencer to step up store closures after £200m loss Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/26/marks-and-spencer-to-step-up-store-closures-after-loss-covid [Accessed on: 18/06/2022]

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Wordsworth, R. and Nilakant, V., 2021. Unexpected change: Career transitions following a significant extra-organizational shock. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 127, p.103555.

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