MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
Task 1) The Case of Digital Transformation
Walmart has been one of the largest retail organisations operating since the 1960s. The company has extended its operation over 26 countries all across the globe targeting the rural middle-class market in the past few decades based on its policy of offering low prices on retail products and selection of a wide variety (Corporate, 2022). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
The operation of Walmart has been divided into three major segments namely, Walmart International, Walmart US and Sam’s Club. based on these three distinctive divisions, the company has gained expertise in both warehousing and discounting departments.
As a result, in 2021, the company has earned over 555 billion USD in net sales all across the globe (Statista, 2022).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample In addition, the company has exhibited a 6.8% increase in 2021 in their total sales (Statista, 2022). [Refer to Appendix 1]
This massive growth in the business operation of Walmart can solely be considered as the outcome of its dedication to digital transformation. Over the past few years, the company has exhibited intense dedication to the adaptation of its digital transformation.
According to the opinion of Zhou (2019), the company has invested a massive amount between 2011 and 2014 for their digital transformation through the incorporation of autonomous robots, IoT led devices and other applications of e-commerce.
As for its recent initiatives of digital transformation, in 2018 also, the company has also formed a partnership with Microsoft in order to accelerate its journey of Cloud Computing in business operation (Chan, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample In addition, Walmart has also applied AI and Machine Learning Technologies for enhancing its inbound and outbound logistics operations.
However, the major driver of this digital transformation in Walmart has been instigated by the threat it has faced from its biggest competitor Amazon. Hence, the digital transformation in Walmart has been led by the vision of evolving itself and reinventing the shopping experience with the successful application of Digital technologies. The objectives of this Digital transformation in Walmart have included –
- To gain a competitive advantage within the market
- To reduce the growing challenge from Amazon
- To enhance customer experience
- To increase efficiency and speed in daily operation
Task 2) Gaining Digital Business Agility
A critical Overview of the Digital Business Agility Model
As an organisation aims to incorporate digital transformation within its operation, Digital Disruption appears to be one of the major threats that may cause a cease-fire within the dynamic nature of its operation.
As per the opinion of Malik et al. (2020), Digital transformation can be considered as one of the major facts that may cause an overturn within the potential incumbents.
This may eventually lead to a reshaping of a faster rate. On the other hand, for dealing with these preoccupied incumbents within the business model of a particular organisation or the existing market, it becomes essential to consider this model of digital disruption to continue the effective operation of the business.
As per the concept laid forth by the DBT or Global Centre for Digital Business Transformation, the agility within a business operation can be conferred through its three distinctive elements (Abbu et al. 2021). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
From the figure 1 below, it can be observed that these three elements include the ability to develop a Hyper-awareness for sensing the change within the internal or external environment of the organisation, developing the skills of Informed Decision making for ensuring the continuity within the business operation and Executing Fast Operation for ensuring the successful implementation and maintaining efficiency as well.
Figure 1: Three Abilities of Digital Business Agility
(Source: Abbu et al. 2021)
Implementation of Digital Business Agility Model in Walmart’s Transformation
Implementation of Hyper Awareness in Walmart for Sensing the Change
As per the framework provided by DBT, hyperawareness has been considered the basic foundation of the Digital Business Agility Model. In this Framework, Hyper-Awareness refers to the ability to detect and monitor the change within the internal environment of the organisation (Abbu & Gopalakrishna, 2022).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
Hence, it can be stated that Hyper-aware organisations lay a strong focus on analysing the probable opportunities and threats within the organisation and leading it through the approach of informed Decision-making.
In the case of Walmart as well, while going through digital transformation, the biggest challenge was to manage its supply chain network and inventory management as well (Ronzon et al. 2019). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
In addition, challenges have also been observed in the case of logistics operations. The extreme tech-savvy approach of Amazon and the growing popularity of various e-commerce platforms have created a major challenge for Walmart as well.
Initiative
In order to mitigate the rising challenge in logistics operation and inventory management and reduce competition from Amazon, the company has attempted to digitise its Supply chain management through an omnichannel strategy.
This initiative taken by Walmart has helped them to bring efficiency to their inbound and outbound logistics. On the other hand, it has also helped to make faster and more effective communication throughout the entire supply chain.
Technology
In order to digitise supply chain management, Walmart needs to incorporate both autonomous robotics and IoT-led devices. The application of these two technologies would assist Walmart to track and monitor inventory management all across its warehousing facilities and retail stores.
On the other hand, it has also been observed that the application of IoT-led devices has helped organisations to gain access to a large pool of data within the Supply chain (Böttcher & Weking, 2020). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
Other than Walmart, DHL Logistics has also made relevant use of IoT facilities in managing their inventories. In addition, the application of IoT facilities has caused a 40% savings to DHL logistics in their energy-cost of supply chain management.
Implementation of Informed decision in Walmart
Based on the identification of the challenges through the Hyper-Awareness model, it becomes essential to develop informed-decision making within the contemporary scenario.
As per the framework of Digital Business Agility, informed-decision of business operation needs to be based upon real and authentic data of past transactions and records to enhance future abilities (Udovita, 2020). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment SampleHence, it can be stated that the Informed-decision making may help an organisation to entail a workforce transmission within their business ventures.
In the case of Walmart as well, the challenge that has been observed in Supply chain management has been directly associated with their cost or pricing policies.
The bargaining power of Walmart over its suppliers appears to be a major tool for this informed decision-making (Reitz et al., 2018).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample However, in recent cases, it has been observed that Walmart has faced major challenges in their decision-making of cost strategy as they have found disruption in collecting information, storing them and analysing them properly.
Initiative
Hence, in order to ease the process of decision making within the organisation, Walmart has taken an initiative to bring integration within the information collection and its communication within the supply chain management and analyse its properly to determine the cost strategy to gain a competitive advantage.
Technology
As a result, in order to bring integration within the data collection and analysis within the supply chain management of Walmart facility, the company needs to incorporate the technology of Machine learning and analytics.
These two major aspects of advanced Information Technology would allow Walmart to accelerate their Augmented Decision-making approach based on ubiquitous analysis (Shahiduzzaman & Kowalkiewicz, 2018).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample The application of Machine learning technology would analyse the data and develop an informed decision based on the system dynamics.
As a result, the application of this technology would also provide integration to the process of informed decision-making in Walmart, as it has done in the case of Apple Inc. Apple Inc. has made extensive use of the Mac Learning facility for developing decisions regarding strategies and device transition.
Implementation of Fast Execution in Walmart for Leading Through the Changes
After developing the informed decision regarding the contemporary challenges and reducing threat factors, it becomes essential for an organisation to develop a fast execution of that particular decision.
This fast execution of decisions helps the organisations to gain a competitive advantage within the market, increase their efficiency and maintain the effectiveness of the developed decisions (Kraus et al. 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample Hence, in the Business Agility model, fast execution can be mitigated through either Agile Talent Management or Agile Technology as well.
In the case of Walmart, based on the informed decision, it has been observed that the major challenge to its execution has been its vast size and its proper monitoring. Scheduling the changes within the supply chain or inventory management on such a big stature has created a major obstacle to the fast execution of its informed decision.
Initiative
Consequently, in order to reduce this obstacle to the fast execution process, Walmart needs to take the initiative to increase the speed and develop remote controlling measures within their supply chain and inventory management.
Technology
As a result, Walmart needs to incorporate the Cloud computing technology aided by AI to develop a faster execution of scheduling and the operation of inbound and outbound logistics within the supply chain management.
The application of AI-supported Cloud computing facilities would bring speed to communication and simplify the process of execution over a vast network (Parusheva & Aleksandrova, 2021). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
The best example of a successful AI and Cloud computing incorporation can be observed in the business operation of Walmart’s biggest rival, Amazon. The company has developed its own cloud-based computing facility, namely, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to accelerate its business operation.
Task 3) Creating a Digital Ready Culture
A digital-ready culture allows an organisation to reinforce its values and set of practices to accelerate innovation and successful operation as well.
As a result, with the gradual development of a Digital Ready culture, Walmart may also successfully manage their business operation and ensure growth as well. In order to develop successful incorporation of Digital Ready Culture, Walmart needs to consider the following stages of successful transformation-
Developing a Consumer-oriented Approach
Enhancing the customer experience appears to be one of the major pillars of ensuring digital transformation within the organisation. As per the recent statistics, it has been observed that since 2020, almost 80% of multinational organisations have increased their customer interaction to accelerate their digitisation process (mckinsey, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
Figure 2 below represents how\ with the emergence of the recent Covid-19 pandemic; the importance of customer interaction has evidently increased in both global and regional contexts. In Europe, in the last 3 years, customer interaction has increased by 55%, whereas in the USA, it’s 65% (mckinsey, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
Figure 2: Acceleration of Customer Interaction in Digital Transformation
(Source: mckinsey, 2020)
As a result, in the case of Walmart as well, the entire process of digital transformation needs to develop a consumer-oriented approach.
In order to maintain this approach, it becomes essential to collect feedback from the customers regarding the quality of services and products based on Blockchain technology and improve user experience (Popov et al. 2022).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample Blockchain technology, along with features such as chatbots, may help Walmart to develop a customer centric approach.
Enhancing Collaboration within the Successful operation of Business
Collaboration appears to be another major feature of digital transformation. In order to ease the complicated process of digital transformation, it becomes essential to develop a successful collaboration between the internal and external stakeholders of the organisation with the application of daily communication (Zhang et al. 2019). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
As a result, Walmart may enhance their internal collaboration with the incorporation of technologies such as Email, instant messaging facilities, VoIP calls (Voice over Internet Protocols) etc.
Incorporating Innovation within Organisational Culture
After developing a successful collaboration and a customer-oriented approach within the business operation, it becomes essential to integrate innovation as a part of organisational culture and practices.
Hence, the incorporation of innovation within the organisational culture of Walmart would help the organisation to expand its expertise, increase its customer base and lead to growth of business as well (Blobel, 2020).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample Hence, in order to promote innovation within the organisation, Walmart needs to embrace technologies such as that Artificial Intelligence or Cloud Computing.
Enhancing Digital Skills within Business Operation
In order to complete the process of Digital transformation and the successful exhibition of Digital transformation, it becomes essential to gain expertise in the Digital skills of the organisation.
Hence, reorientation within the business operation with the help of latest technologies such as Virtual Reality Learning, IoT-led facilities or Machine learning may help Walmart to become a champion in digital transformation.
Task 4) Steering Collaboration within Organisation
In order to promote further collaboration within the organisational culture, it becomes essential to develop an effective strategy and imply proper leadership. In order to steer collaboration within the organisation, the hierarchy needs to include a new job role titled as Chief Collaboration Officer (Nwakanm et al. 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
The primary function of this job role needs to focus on ensuring the successful achievement of organisational goals through effective team management.
Roles and Responsibilities of CCO
- To develop the business strategies and successfully execute them
- To ensure coordination among the team members
- To handler the aspects of fundraising and development of business
- To manage the requirements of Clients
- To evaluate the ongoing programmes and plan the business progress accordingly.
- To monitor the employee performance and guide them through the execution of the process.
- To establish a fluent approach within internal communication
Hence, in the case of Walmart operations, the CCO needs to develop strong communication among the suppliers and the internal stakeholders of the company. In addition, the CCO of Walmart also needs to gather information from the client regarding their requirements for various products and feedback on previous services.
After that, it becomes essential for Walmart to communicate with the team members and ensure that the requirements of the consumers are met through product development. In addition, the CCO of Walmart also needs to be held responsible for improving the digital skills of the team members.
Task 5) Selection of Leaders
In order to adopt a successful digital transformation, it becomes essential to adopt a successful leadership style and strategy.
As per the concept of leadership proposed by Goleman and his style of leadership, it has been observed that a range of leadership styles can be incorporated within the organisation for the successful maintenance of innovation and digital transformation (Thoha & Avandana, 2020). http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
These styles may include Coercive Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Affiliative Leadership, Coaching Leadership, Authoritative Leadership and Pacesetting Leadership.
In the case of Walmart, the company needs to increase successful collaboration among the internal and external stakeholders of the organisation and bring effectiveness to the management of its supply chain and inventories.
Hence, it becomes appropriate to incorporate a balanced approach between Authoritative and Transformational Leadership. On the one hand, the Authoritative Leadership style would help the hierarchy of Walmart to inflict the changes of digital transformation within the organisation with a strong emphasis (Tshabalala & Marnewick, 2021).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample
In addition, Authoritative Leadership would also help to manifest thorough monitoring of the supply chain management and inventory management. Hence, it can be stated that it would evidently help the organisation to achieve its specific goals of Digital Transformation.
On the other hand, the application of Transformational Leadership would help to motivate the employees and other internal stakeholders to adopt the ongoing changes and incorporate organisational vision as their own (Vasilescu, 2019).http://MSc Management Leading through Digital Disruption Assignment Sample In addition, transformational leadership by Walmart leaders may also help to increase flexibility in their operation.
Reference List
Journals
Abbu, H. R., Fleischmann, D., & Gopalakrishna, P. (2021, March). The Digital Transformation of the Grocery Business-Driven by Consumers, Powered by Technology, and Accelerated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. In World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (pp. 329-339). Springer, Cham. Retrieved From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Haroon-Abbu/publication/347986730_The_Digital_Transformation_of_the_Grocery_Business_-_Driven_by_Consumers_Powered_by_Technology_and_Accelerated_by_the_COVID-19_Pandemic/links/5ff0d7c545851553a014f70b/The-Digital-Transformation-of-the-Grocery-Business-Driven-by-Consumers-Powered-by-Technology-and-Accelerated-by-the-COVID-19-Pandemic.pdf
Abbu, H., & Gopalakrishna, P. Digital Transformation Powered by Big Data Analytics: The Case of Retail Grocery Business. Retrieved From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Haroon-Abbu/publication/357553705_Digital_Transformation_Powered_by_Big_Data_Analytics_The_Case_of_Retail_Grocery_Business/links/61d3c718b6b5667157c5aff7/Digital-Transformation-Powered-by-Big-Data-Analytics-The-Case-of-Retail-Grocery-Business.pdf
Blobel, B. (2020, September). Application of industry 4.0 concept to health care. In pHealth 2020: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health (Vol. 273, p. 23). IOS Press. Retrieved From: https://ebooks.iospress.nl/pdf/doi/10.3233/SHTI200613
Böttcher, T. P., & Weking, J. (2020). Identifying Antecedents and Outcomes of Digital Business Model Innovation. In ECIS. Retrieved From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timo-Boettcher/publication/341180088_Identifying_Antecedents_and_Outcomes_of_Digital_Business_Model_Innovation/links/5eb90e8492851cd50da8b09b/Identifying-Antecedents-and-Outcomes-of-Digital-Business-Model-Innovation.pdf
Chan, J. O. P. (2020). Digital transformation in the era of big data and cloud computing. Int. J. Intell. Inf. Syst, 9(3), 16. Retrieved From: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bdbd/d0c75a304a536277e815a4e5ca1b1f7eaa95.pdf
Kraus, S., Jones, P., Kailer, N., Weinmann, A., Chaparro-Banegas, N., & Roig-Tierno, N. (2021). Digital Transformation: An Overview of the Current State of the Art of Research. SAGE Open, 11(3), 21582440211047576. Retrieved From: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/21582440211047576
Nwakanma, C. I., Alilu, G. E., & ChigozieNwakanma, J. (2021, January). Flattening the Curve of COVID-19 through Emerging Disruptive Technologies in Nigeria. In 1st IEEE Multi-Conference Technical Series MCTS 2020 (pp. 68-73). Retrieved From: http://www.aeuso.org/includes/files/articles/Vol11_Iss39_4812-4817_Flattening_the_Curve_of_COVID-19_th.pdf
Parusheva, S., & Aleksandrova, C. A. P. D. Y. (2021). Digital Technologies and Tools-Drivers of Digitalization in Construction. Izvestia Journal of the Union of Scientists-Varna. Economic Sciences Series, 10(1), 63-71. Retrieved From: http://su-varna.org/journal/IJUSV-ESS/2021.10.1/63-71.pdf
Popov, V. V., Kudryavtseva, E. V., Kumar Katiyar, N., Shishkin, A., Stepanov, S. I., & Goel, S. (2022). Industry 4.0 and Digitalisation in Healthcare. Materials, 15(6), 2140. Retrieved From: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/15/6/2140/pdf
Reitz, A., Jentsch, C., & Beimborn, D. (2018, January). How to decompress the Pressure-The moderating Effect of IT Flexibility on the negative Impact of Governmental Pressure on Business Agility. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Retrieved From: https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/50471/1/paper0584.pdf
Ronzon, T., Buck, J., & Eckstein, J. (2019). Making Companies Nimble-From Software Agility to Business Agility: A Conversation with the Authors [Insights]. IEEE Software, 36(1), 79-85. Retrieved From: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/52/8611443/08611459.pdf
Shahiduzzaman, M., & Kowalkiewicz, M. (2018). Digital organisation: A value centric model for digital transformation. In AOM Specialized Conference: Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy (pp. 1-1). Retrieved From: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/122337/15/Shahiduzzaman%2B%26%2BKowalkiewicz%2B2018%2BDigital%2BBusiness%2BMaturity%2BModel.pdf
Thoha, N. & Avandana, I.M.N.W., 2020. Project Managers’ Leadership Styles and Their Effects on Project Management Performance. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 28(2). Retrieved From: http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/resources/files/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2028%20(2)%20Jun.%202020/05%20JSSH(S)-1216-2019.pdf
Tshabalala, M.M. & Marnewick, C., 2021. Agile As An Enabler Towards Innovation-Based Organisational Transformations. South African Journal Of Information Management, 23(1),. Retrieved From: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1560-683X2021000100027
Udovita, P. V. M. V. D. (2020). Conceptual review on dimensions of digital transformation in modern era. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 10(2), 520-529. Retrieved From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Viduni-Udovita/publication/339412785_Conceptual_Review_on_Dimensions_of_Digital_Transformation_in_Modern_Era/links/5e4ff449299bf1cdb93cc256/Conceptual-Review-on-Dimensions-of-Digital-Transformation-in-Modern-Era.pdf
Vasilescu, M., 2019. Leadership styles and theories in an effective management activity. Annals-Economy Series, 4, pp.47-52. Retrieved From: https://utgjiu.ro/revista/ec/pdf/2019-04/06_Vasilescu.pdf
Zhang, L., Liang, Y. C., & Niyato, D. (2019). 6G Visions: Mobile ultra-broadband, super internet-of-things, and artificial intelligence. China Communications, 16(8), 1-14. Retrieved From: http://www.cic-chinacommunications.cn/UserFiles/File/6G%20Visions%20Mobile%20Ultra.pdf
Zhou, F. (2019). Gaining Competitive Advantage through Digital Transformation. Retrieved From: https://www.academia.edu/download/63893047/Digital_Transformation_F._Zhou20200711-70028-6g6pr4.pdf
Websites
Corporate (2022), About, Retrieved From: https://corporate.walmart.com/about
mckinsey (2020), How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever, Retrieved From: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
Statista (2022), Online sales of Walmart worldwide from fiscal year 2019 to 2022, by division, Retrieved From: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109330/walmart-ecommerce-sales-by-division-worldwide/
Statista (2022), Walmart – Statistics & Facts , Retrieved From: https://www.statista.com/topics/1451/walmart/
Appendices
Appendix 1: Growth of Walmart Revenue
(Source: Statista, 2022)
