Leadership through digital disruption

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, there is digital transformation of the organisations across the globe, where the corporate leaders and technicians adopt latest Information technology as well as create good software system to run their operations successfully, so that the corporate aim of the firm can be met creatively. Hence, technological innovation further enhances business growth and there is development of leadership style to handle diverse workforce and adopt strategic changes to satisfy the ultimate customers. The study is effective to explore leadership in this digital disruption and the organisation Sainsbury’s is being evaluated, where the leaders and management team are efficient to handle the latest technology and lead the employees creatively towards achieving success.

Case for change

Sainsbury’s is the second largest supermarket chain in the UK, after Tesco. The organisation mainly focuses on providing the best quality products by operating in the UK retail market and gain high competitive advantage. there is 16% market share that the company is able to gain through operating hypermarket, superstore, and supermarket chain and convenience shop. the organisation focuses on providing the quality products to the customers at its best price so that it is affordable for the customers to make effective purchase decisions. The numbers of employees are more than 111,900 in the previous year 2020, and the revenue generated by the firm in 2020 was £28.993 billion. There are 1428 shops across the UK market, where the main business strategies of the firm are providing the best quality products, setting affordable price, retaining customers through brand loyalty and word of mouth as well as running operations by warehouse and supply chain management. The company is facing some threats in running their business in the UK retail competitive market due to existing competitive brand (Sainsbury’s, 2021a).

The major threats are such as threat of having substitute products in the market, threat of new entrants in the market as well as competitive rivalry. Additionally, increasing cost of production due to price rise in the raw materials and operational activities is another major threat for Sainsbury’s to provide quality products at lower price, as the profit margin would not be maintained well. On the other hand, there is lack of promotional practice and digital disruption for which the brand is not able to capture the online market in the UK. the company in the recent pandemic situation focus on expanding their services through online activities, where the organisational website is effective for the customers to place their orders and get home delivery within effective time.

Capture insights

It is important to capture the insights in order to run the business creatively by adopting new innovative technology and recent trend. It is important for Sainsbury’s to capture recent market trend and insights related to the competitive strategies, the activities of the competitors and macro-economic trends, which are helpful to develop strategic change and adopt new practices to expand their business across the markets (de Araujo et al., 2021). Through market research, gathering data from the annual report of the competitive firms, government published report to understand the macroeconomic changes as well as published journals are effective to capture the insights. macro-economic changes include Gross domestic products of the UK, unemployment rate, and purchasing power parity of the customers in the recent years. As per the analysis, it has been found that, due to recent COVID 19 pandemic era, economic growth becomes stagnant and the Gross Domestic product has been deteriorated due to lack of production and consumption activities and door international trade.

Moreover, the unemployment rate is raised die to labour retrenchment and closure of some companies. Cut in salary, remote working facilities and decrease in purchasing power parity are also the recent market trend, where Sainsbury’s must focus on adopting new changes to sustain in such critical market condition. Understanding the competitors is also beneficial for Sainsbury’s to access the market information and develop innovative practice of running the business sustainably (Sainsbury’s, 2021b). The competitive firm Tesco adopts new technology for digital transformation of the business. Recently most of the operations of Tesco are being conducted online, through organisational website, online application where the customers can handle their tracking orders and place orders for the products from their smartphone as well as the Enterprise resource planning and Information and Communication Technology are also effective at Tesco to run the whole operations smoothly. Sainsbury’s must develop mobile application, from where the clients can review their available products and compare prices in order to place their orders successfully (Schwarzmüller et al., 2018). On the other hand, the digital data base management system is effective to handle the client data and product information so that the front desk team can support the clients for placing their orders as per their personal references and needs.

Making fast decision

It is important to male fast and informed decisions, so that the leaders of the organisations can lead the followers towards achieving the organisational aim by strategic change. The approaches for making informed decisions are such as identifying the problems, collecting the data and information, Brainstorming the possible alternatives, weighing the alternatives, choosing one decisions and implementing it through digital transformation as well as strategic evaluation, in order to run the business sustainably. The internet data handling and digital data base management system are the major technologies which are useful to conduct market research (Kapucu, 2020). Additionally, the data analysts and researchers at Sainsbury’s collect diverse data from the annual report of other competitive firms, government published articles for understanding the macro economic trends as well as conduct survey for gathering authentic information so that informed decisions can be made efficiently and the decisions would be inclusive and data driven.

The integrated computerised system, Information and Communication Technology at the workplace as well as data analysis tools are utilised to make the informed decisions, where the managers and employees are involved with the decisions making process at Sainsbury’s so that all the members can contribute and lead the team towards achieving the company goal (Sainsbury’s, 2021b). The techniques of informed decision making is hereby beneficial at Sainsbury’s where the corporate leader and managers provide remote working facilities in the recent pandemic situation as well as introduce online purchasing and delivery system to support the customers. Hence, the online website of the firm as well as the integrated online workspace is effective to involve the employees and develop the best strategy for achieving future success. the organisation mainly aims to serving the consumers with the best quality price at affordable price. Through digital data management process, ICT and Enterprise Resource planning software, it is possible to make informed decisions by empowering the employees and managers so that collaborative decisions can be made.

Acquiring and engaging talent

For talent acquisition at the organisation Sainsbury’s, it is important to develop good strategies so that the best workers can be hired and the workers can contribute efficiently to contribute in the operational activities of the firm. In this case, Sainsbury’s must develop the brand first for job advertisement and choosing different recruitment strategies. it is important for Sainsbury’s to share internal culture of work, working environment, flexibility at the workplace, working schedules and freedom at the workplace as well as partnership working practice, so that the workers can understand the working activities at the firm (Chanias, Myers and Hess, 2019). Secondly, it is important to choose the recruitment strategies and the internal recruitment sources must be applied at Sainsbury’s that includes transfer and promotions at the workplace, where old employees are transferred with new role or being promoted during digital transformation of the business. The firm also must focus on external recruitment sources in order to hire the right talent at the workplace and the external sources are such as job advertisement. Management consultancies and educational institutions, from there Sainsbury’s can hire the best and experienced staff for running the operations creatively (Wrede, Velamuri and Dauth, 2020). Online screening process as well as face to face interview is arranged well and after that the selection process must be implemented to choose the right candidate for the firm.

After recruitment, it is important for Sainsbury’s to choose the practice of engaging the staff so that they are encouraged to show their creativity and contribute positively in working at the workplace. For engaging the employees, it is mandatory for Sainsbury’s to develop good culture, provide friendly working environment, freedom to work, flexible working facilities and transparency so that the employees can feel valued. moreover, the ICT must be implemented at the workplace so that the employees can communicate with each other and gather all the information to work as a team. Improving partnership working practice, developing collaborative decisions as well as empowering the staff in the organisational process are also effective to enhance the staff and provide them continuous support and guidance to work efficiently (Ossiannilsson, 2018). The monetary incentives such as rewards, performance related pay and structured salary are also designed well so that the leader can motivate the staff and lead them towards achieving the future success through change management. The digital technologies such as online recruitment activities, online employment screening process and interview are effective to engage the stakeholders such as the HR, recruiter, hiring manager, the team and candidates and provide them online training and development programs so that the candidates can work efficiently.

Creating a digital ready culture

It is essential for the organisation to create digital ready culture where the members can collaborate with each other for adopting the best technology and increasing innovating in handling their operations. As per the structure of the firm Sainsbury’s, there are different departments such as production, technology, operations, research and development, finance, sales and marketing. There are CEO of the company, operational head, marketing manager, technical head, finance manager and senior researcher who are making collaborative decision to ensure digital transformation (Cortellazzo, Bruni and Zampieri, 2019).

It is important to assess the attributes and behaviour of the leaders and head of the departments so that they can cooperate with each other and manage the strategic changes successfully. Negotiation skill, empowering others during decision making process, giving respect and value to others at the workplace as well as innovative mind set are crucial for developing creative decisions. Moreover, the CEO of Sainsbury’s and managers must have emotional connection, empathy for others, continuous support and guidance mind set, clear vision and being cooperative with others so that they can lead other staff and employees at the workplace during digital transformation (Sainsbury’s, 2021b). Hereby, creating digital culture is possible at Sainsbury’s where the management team and CEO must be cooperative and the members are empowered equally to make cooperative decisions, so that the strategic changes can be implemented smoothly by utilising organisational resources and technical infrastructure.

Steer collaboration

In the recent era of globalisation, team working is mandatory where each employee can share their working activities and knowledge so that the team objectives can be met efficiently. Due to recent pandemic situation, most of the employees are working from home, and it is important for the organisational managers to provide shared workspace where more than one employee can work together and meet the client’s requirements. Moreover, ICT implementation is effective to enhance communication and ensure team cooperation, where the staff members can interact with each other and help others to perform better (Sainsbury’s, 2021b). Moreover, the monitoring process must be unique with integrated computerised system and digital data base management system, where the employees can access the necessary information and work efficiently through the digital technology. The organisation hereby must focus on partnership working practice at the workplace, where the employees are working as a team and utilise the latest technology for data handling and maximising their performance (Promsri, 2019). The organisational official website is also managed well to serve the customers as well as the organisation must design mobile application to support the customers online. The staff members can utilise shared workspace to support the clients and resolve their queries. These are the major technologies through which the employees at Sainsbury’s can work collaboratively and meet the strategic objective.

Selecting the leader

It is important to choose a leader to help building a culture that supports the success of the company during digital transformation. Sainsbury’s mainly focuses on digital transformation of the business by influencing their online business activities in order to sustain in the retail market in such pandemic era. The major attributes of the leader must be the role model, inspirer, enables and achiever. The role model is one of the effective attributes, where the leader can create values for the followers and there are demonstrating integrity, engaging the people with guidance and support and keeping learning (Diller, Asen and Späth, 2020). Moreover, insurer is another attribute which is required ion a leader during organisational digital transformation, where the leader must create inspiring vision, setting the directions, energising the people at the workplace, encouraging risk taking activities and experimentation, where the people are supported to show their creativity and adopt new changes for implementing the latest technology.

Achiever is another quality in a leader that supports in digital transformation where the leader is result oriented personality with discovering and perusing the opportunities. Leading the changes and continuous motivation further helps the employees to work proficiently for achieving the company goal by digital transformation (Tekic, and Koroteev, 2019). Enabler is also another attribute in a leader where the leader is able to empower the others, continuously communicate with the employees and managers for building strong corporate relationship and enhancing partnership working practice in order to manage diversity and change at the workplace. The behaviour of the leaders also matters in order to lead the employees towards achieving the organisational goal by digital transformation. Influencing and continuous support are mandatory in a leader, where the leader would be able to continuously motivate the followers to achieve higher by performing creatively. Moreover, empathy and emotional intelligence are required to develop trust and respect for others. Teaching power, personality to lead the team as well as empowering the others and creating values for the team members are also helpful in a leader to become successful.

Conclusion

Hereby, it is important choose an effective leader, who can handle the team during digital transformation. Sainsbury’s is famous retail chain in the UK, but the company fails to expand their business across the international market as well as the sales volume also has been deteriorated due to such pandemic era. It is important for Sainsbury’s to focus on digital transformation of the business in order to serve the online customers by delivering the products at their home at affordable price. Sainsbury’s must focus on implementing ICT and enterprise Resource planning system for digital data base management as well as handle all the data related to customers, product availability, prices and warehouse management in order to serve the ultimate users successfully. Hence, digital transformation will be helpful for Sainsbury’s to sustain in such competitive retail industry of the UK by continuous support, sleeting good leader and developing good corporate culture.

Reference List

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