Strategic Leadership and Organizational Success

Task 1: Role of strategic leader, a case study on Tesco

1. Introduction

Strategic leadership refers to the managerial potential to express the strategic vision and develop effective strategic planning of the organisation through which the leader is trying to lead the management team and achieve future success by motivating and persuading others to acquire the vision (Madanchian et al., 2016). Utilising the strategic planning of the leader is necessary for the organisation to secure future sustainable development in order to conduct the operational activities and run the business sustainably. The aim of the study is to understand the role of the strategic leadership style and the characteristics of strategic leader in order to manage the organisational activities and lead the other members to achieve future success. The study also provides a scope to evaluate the role of strategic leader in Tesco through which reviewing vision of Tesco and the strategic option of the firm will be discussed and analysed for understanding the contribution of the leader to lead the team members and managers to run the operational activities and achieve future success.

2. Background of the organisation

Tesco is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer where the major products and services of the company are super markets, hyper markets and super stores as well as convenience shop. The company focuses on serving as much as possible customers so that they can strengthen their position in the market and gain competitive advantage over other competitive brands in the global retail industry. The company is efficient to raise revenue by maximising profitability and sales volume. Tesco has diversified products such as retailing of books, software and hardware, toys and electronics goods, furniture, clothing and home appliances. The products are good and fulfil the expectations of the customers. The revenue of the company in this year is approximately £63911 million and net income is £1320 million (Tesco, 2019a).

Total numbers of employees in the company are over 450000 in 2019 where the company is also efficient to create values for all the stakeholders and lead the members towards achieving success. the area served by the firm are such as UK, Ireland, Thailand, Hungary, Poland, India and Malaysia, where the strategic leader is efficient to develop effective strategic planning for the success of Tesco (Tesco, 2019b).

3. Strategic leadership

Strategic leadership is necessary for the organisations in the recent era of globalisation in order to develop effective tactics with innovation and creativity to run the organisational activities and fulfil the organisational visions successfully. As per the strategic leadership style, the leaders need to have supportive and directive behaviour where the leader is able to support the workforce and direct them with proper suggestions and training in order to achieve the organisational success. In this regard, the strategic leaders are highly supportive and directive where they try to provide proper training and development program to the employees and communicate the organisational visions so that they can follow suitable path and utilise their skill and abilities to fulfil the visions with more innovation and creativity (Renz and Herman, 2016).

In addition to these, as per the transformational leadership theory of leadership, the strategic leader must be cooperative and communicative where the leader motivates the employees by providing rewards and incentive so that the leader can lead the team members towards strategic aim of the firm. The transformational leadership theory is beneficial to become a strategic leader where continuous motivation and encouragement to the employees as well as providing rewards and incentives and inspire the employees through providing freedom and harmony are essential for the leader to achieve the organisational success in near future.

In addition to these, as per the demographic leadership theory, creativity is encouraged ad rewarded, high productivity, strong contribution from the group and better morale are established as well as leader is the spokes person who encourage the followers by icing innovative ideas to fulfil the organisational visions.

4. Role of strategic leaders

The role of the strategic leaders in the organisation are important to develop effective planning and fulfil the visions and aims of the firm and in this regard, the strategic leader is responsible for distributing the responsibilities after developing proper vision of the firm. The strategic leader tries to communicate the vision with the management team and the employees so that it is possible to let the employees understand about the aim of the organisation for following a suitable path for achieving the organisational success and fulfilling the vision of the firm. In addition to this, the strategic leaders try to reallocate the organisational resources and improve capabilities through technological innovation and creativity. Continuous motivation and encouragement to the employees are also the role of the strategic loader, where the leader is able to lead the team members towards the organisational success through managing cultural diversity and maintaining harmony among the team members (McCaffery, 2018). Moreover, information sharing as well as empowering the team members and employees in the organisational decision making practice are also the role of the strategic leader, where the leader tries to empower the stakeholders and review the alternative solutions for analysing and evaluating the alternative options for making the brand profitable.

It is also the role of the strategic leader to maximise experienced based learning and gather more creative ideas and sharing visions so that all the members at the firm can work as a partnership and maximise the organisational aims and objectives. In addition to these, the strategic leader is responsible to review and monitor the performance of the firm as a whole as well as identify the existing problems in order to develop more creative ideas and innovative strategic planning to maximise the organisational performance and achieving the organisational visions successfully. The strategic leader is also responsible for maintaining the business ethics where they are trying to make ethical decision and follow the ethical practice of the firm so that the leader and the managers can run the operational activities strategically.

5. Characteristics of strategic leaders

The characteristics of strategic leaders are necessary to be considered in the organisational context, where the leaders are trying to improve own capabilities to develop effective strategic planning on order to run the organisation successfully. In this regard, the strategic leader must be visionary and culture builder where proper vision needs to be developed in the organisation as well as the leader is able to develop effective organisational culture which is effective for providing suitable environment to work. In addition to these, the strategic leader must be creative thinkers and they need to have proper problem solving skill so that the leader can evaluate the internal and external business environment as well as develop proper skill to analysing situation so that proper strategic planning can be built by the strategic leader of the company. Hereby, problem solving personality as well as critical analysis skill of the leader further improves the capabilities of the leader to develop proper strategy for the firm so that the company can achieve future success (Thorpe, 2016).

Resource acquirer and allocator is also the characteristics of the strategic leader, where the leader focuses on the resource reallocation on the organisation so that proper outcome can be achieved strategically. Crisis solver and policy enforcer are also the characteristics of the strategic leader, where the leader is able to solve the existing crisis as well as implement the policies and practice in the company so that the ethical practice can be followed where the leader can run the business ethically. In addition to these, the leaders have the characteristics of motivator, policy makers and spokes person where proper strategic planning and policies are built and motivation for the employees at the workplace are established in order to encourage the followers and the management team to achieve future success. Strategy implementer is another characteristic of the strategic leader, where the leader is able to develop the strategic planning as well as implement the strategic planning in order to run the operational activities strategically with proper planning and resource reallocation. The strategic leader must be visionary and looking forward towards new market opportunities so that new strategic planning can be developed well and in this context, the strategic leadership is beneficial for the organisations to review the existing practice and identify the problem sin order to enhance the organisational performance and fulfil the aims ad objectives of the organisations.

6. Importance of strategic leaders

The strategic leaders play a crucial role in the organisation, where the leaders lead the team members and the managers in order to follow a suitable path to achieve future organisational success. The strategic leaders are also responsible for developing new strategic planning in order to enhance the performance of the organisation as well as achieve future success. The profitability and sales volume of the firm can be enhanced and maximised by strategic leadership style, where the leader is able to develop creative strategic planning and enhance innovation for maximisation of the organisational objective successfully. In addition to these, proper organisational culture can be developed through strategic leadership style where the strategic leaders are able to develop suitable organisational culture, motivate the employees and the staff members as well as lead the team members towards achieving future success. Hereby, the capabilities of the organisation as well as the performance of the employees can be enhanced by the strategic leaders where the leaders are able to maximise the organisational performance as a whole and fulfil the pre-specified vision of the firm.

7. Analysing strategic leadership in organisation

The company Tesco is a famous retail firm operating across the UK, Poland, Malaysia and India. The company recently have more than 450000 colleagues as it serves millions of customers every week in their stores and also through the online website of the company. The leader of Tesco is Dave Lewis, who is the CEO of the company and the John Allan is the non-executive chairman of the firm, who take initiative and creative solutions for running the organisation efficiently. The leader develops the strategic vision of Tesco which is, ‘To be the most highly valued business by the customers we serve, the communities in which we operate our loyal and committed colleagues and of all our stakeholders’ this s the visions of Tesco, where the core purpose of the organisation aims to understand the needs and preferences of the customers create values for the employees and other colleagues, create values for the social communities and providing high return on investment to the stakeholders of the firm as a whole including the managers employees, customers, government, social communities, shareholders and suppliers who are playing active part in running the organisation strategically. In addition to this, the mission statement of the company is, ‘We make what matters better, together’ The core purpose of the firm is, ‘Serving the shoppers a little better every day’, Where, the company aims at strengthening their customer’s base by retaining more old and new customers through delivering the quality products and efficient services. The leader of the company develops the strategic planning o delivering high quality products according to the needs and preferences of the customers, where the organisation set competitive price of the products so that the customers can afford it and they can serve more customers as possible in the global retail market (Tesco, 2019c). The leader of Tesco focuses on demographic leadership style which is shared leadership where the company focuses on shared working practice, where all the members are included and work as a partnership basis. Demographic leadership style at Tesco provides a scope to the leader to motivate the employees with proper incentives and creating values for them and apart from that the leader tries to develop proper training program to enhance the skill and abilities of the employees. Continuous communication with all the employees as well as cooperation at the workplace further help to build strong relationship among them which in turn helps the leader to communicate the organisational vision and lead the employees towards achieving the organisational success through innovation and motivation. The characteristics of the leader of Tesco includes motivator, planning implementer, policy implementer, continuous motivation and creativity as well as innovator where the leader is able to develop strategic planning which is beneficial to achieve future organisational success (Tesco, 2019d).

As per the strategic wheel of Tesco, the leader focuses on fulfilling the aim of ‘every little helps;’ which is also the tagline of the company, where the strategic leader is successful in delivering quality products ad efficient services to the customers at affordable price which in turn helps the company to gain high market share and fulfil the strategic visions of the firm. For enhancing the performance of the company, the leader focuses on people, finance management, operational activities enhancement and customer service management and maximisation of the values for social communications. For managing the people, the leader aims at,

Working as a team

Improving trust and respect

Developing proper organisational culture

Listening supporting

Sharing knowledge and experience

Motivation the employees

Through the above mentioned strategic planning, the leader is able to achieve future success and maximise the strategic goal of the company in future. the strategic leader is responsible for maximising the organisational performance and enhancing the values of the brad in the market and in this regard, the mentioned strategic planning are build by the strategic leader of Tesco who focuses on creating values for all the stakeholders including the customers social communities, government, employees, managers, shareholders, suppliers and distributors through continuous innovation and creation were the company is successful to secure future sustainable development as well as serve the customers with quality products and services at affordable price which in turn provides a scope to Tesco to gain high market share and competitive advantage in the global retail industry (Tesco, 2019e).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, it is necessary for the organisations to have efficient strategic leader in order to develop strategic planning with continuous innovation and creativity so that the strategic visions can be fulfilled well in the organisation. As per the theories and concept of strategic leadership, it is beneficial for the organisation to have efficient leader, who have proper problem solving and decision making skill with latest innovation and creativity so that the leader can develop creative solutions for the maximisation of the organisational vision in near future. The company Tesco is able to manage the operational activities, were the leader is capable of developing effective strategic planning to enhance the organisational performance as a whole and enhance creativity to serve the customers in a better way.

Reference List

Madanchian, M., Hussein, N., Noordin, F. and Taherdoost, H., 2016. The Relationship between ethical leadership, leadership effectiveness and organizational performance: A review of literature in SMEs context. European Business & Management, 2(2), pp.17-21.

Renz, D.O. and Herman, R.D. eds., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Thorpe, R., 2016. Gower handbook of leadership and management development. London: CRC Press.

Task 2: Global strategy of Unilever

1. Introduction

Global strategy of the company provides a scope to review the internal and external business environment and analyse the upcoming business opportunities and market growth so that the leader and the managers together can develop effective business strategic planning for future success (Cokins, 2017; Bryson, 2018). The aim of the study is to develop internal and external analysis of the company in order to understand the market forces and business environment to run the operational activities strategically. The internal analysis in being conducted through SWOT analysis and the external factors are evaluated through PESTEL analysis in regards to the company Unilever.

2. Organisational background

Unilever is the British transactional consumer goods company where the major products delivered by the company are such as food and beverages, cleaning agents, beauty products and personal care products which are in good quality and the organisation focuses on delivering these products at competitive price so that the customers can be make effective purchase decision for the products of Unilever. The company is situated in the UK and the organisation is able to serve the customers worldwide through their stores and online e-commerce services (Unilever, 2019a).

The revenue in the last year has been deteriorated in €50.982 billion and the total asset and equity have also been hampered. The total numbers of employees in 2019 are 155000, where the company focuses on creating values for all he employees and lead them towards achieving success (Unilever, 2019c).

3. Internal analysis of Unilever

SWOT analysis is one of the effective models through which he internal analysis of the company can be conducted efficiently, where the strength and weakness of the company will be evaluated as well as market opportunities and threats are also valued further (Cassidy, 2016). Through the SWOT analysis, it is possible to conduct the internal analysis of the company Unilever which will be represented further.

The strengths of the company are such as strong brand and reputation as well as broad mix products and strong global market presence for which, the company is running their operational activities across the international market where the customers can make effective purchase decision for the organisation. In the other hand, there are weaknesses of the company for which the organisation faces many problems in running their operational activities in the market. The weaknesses are such as limited business diversification, dependence on the retailers, imitable products, lack of efficiency of the employees, poor marketing strategy, lack of resource utilisation and poor finance. These are the major weaknesses for which the company fails to raise their profitability and sales volume in the market. Lack of finance, resource allocation as well as poor marketing and inefficiency of the employees in the market are the major cause of poor performance in the market. As per the analysis, here are several business opportunities in near future which are, business diversification, technological advancement, changing customer’s preferences, market development business enhancement, globalisation and product innovation for health and beauty products in the market. The company hereby has the scope to explore more products according to the personal needs and preferences of the customers and utilise the era of globalisation for expanding the business successfully. However, there are some threats of expanding the organisation Unilever such as high competitive threats, threats of substitute products in the market, variety of products and changing need and preferences of the customers for which the company faces difficulties in exploring the opportunities and grab the customer’s base in the market.

4. External analysis of Unilever

The external analysis is also necessary for understanding the business environment where the firm is going to operate and strengthen their customer base by retaining more customers in the market. For conducting the external analysis, PESTEL analysis is effective for understanding the business environment. The PESTEL analysis of Unilever is effective o understand the political stability and social development in the country, economic growth, technological development, environmental sustainability and ethical perspective of business will be evaluated.

As per the above PESTEL analysis, it has been explored that, there is political stability in the market where free trade and expansion of business are playing as opportunity for the organisation Unilever to explore more scope to expand their business across the international borders. The economic growth and growing national income as well as enhancing of the developing and developed nation are also contributing factors for the growth of Unilever where the organisation can focus on expanding their business worldwide. Additionally, social development, educational rate and the health consciousness are also playing as opportunities in the market for the company Unilever to expand their business strategically where the company can grab new market opportunities and strengthen their customer’s base with product diversification. As per the technological factors, it is beneficial for the organisation Unilever to expel more scope by utilising the latest technological innovation, where implementing latest technology, expansion of e-commerce service and business automation process further provide a scope to the company Unilever for maximisation of the organisational mission successfully. Considering the ethical perspective, the company follows the legal rules and legislations for establishing the brand ethically and the company also focuses on creating social values for environmental sustainability so that it can secure future sustainable development successfully (Nickols, 2016). As per the PESTEL analysis, it has been explored that, the economic growth and social development as well as political stability provide an opportunity to the company Unilever to expand their business by maintaining business ethics and environmental rules though technological innovation and creativity so that the business strategic planning can be developed well for enhancing their profitability and sales volume in near future.

5. Recommended suggestions for better performance

There are several economic factors that influence the activities the business such as consumer behaviour, interest rate, foreign investment inflation rate in the country as we as wage rate and unemployment and government monetary and fiscal policies. In this regard, the activities of the organisation will be evaluated to understand the economic performance of the firm to examine the effects o economic factors and recommend some suitable suggestions in order to mitigate the economic factors and expand the business strategically by developing effective strategic planning. The financial data will be evaluated further for understanding the performance of the company.

As per the performance data and financial information of the company, it has been seen that, the revenue generation and gross profit of the firm is deteriorating since 2016 due to lack of efficient strategic planning. Though the economic growth and social development are the contributing drivers of the business of the Unilever, the company fail to strengthen their customer’s base. This is the main reason of deteriorating the profitability and sales volume. The deterioration in the finance income and rise in finance cost are also negative contribution in the organisation (Unilever, 2019d). Hereby, as per the financial performance of the company, it has been seen that, there lacks proper strategic planning and implementation of financial planning for which the organisation fails to maximise its profitability and sales volume during the years, 2016 to 2018 (Unilever, 2018).

In this context, it is necessary to suggest effective recommendations so that the company can develop effective strategic planning and mitigate the effects of the economic factors in the organisation. The major economic factors is consumer behaviour where the company needs to understand the actual market trend and he personal needs and preferences the customers. Without doing proper researcher on consumer behaviour and their expectations, it is not possible for the company to predict the requirements of the customers. The organisational representative needs to understand the market trend and acknowledge the actual needs and preferences of the customers so that the company can provide proper products according to the customer’s requirements. In this regard, the organisation Unilever needs to invest more in the research and development program so that it is possible for the organisation to identify the customer’s demand ad their expectations and requirements.

In the recent era of globalisation, the customers are health conscious and they acquire knowledge through internet surfing and thus it is the responsibility of the organisation Unilever to understand the perception of the customers and the requirements of them for quality products and pricing offers. In this regard, Unilever needs to reallocate the resources in the organisation and focus on product diversification strategy so that it can promote huge variety products in the market. After conducting the market research, it is necessary for the firm to implement the strategy of product diversification to maintain effective product line and provide a huge variety of products to the customers.

Managing proper economies of scale is necessary for the firm to maintain the profit margin. Rising cost of raw material sis another economic factor where the company needs to utilise the raw materials by maintaining its economies of scale through producing a huge amount of product so that the marginal cost would be minimised. This is an effective solution for the firm to gain high competitive position by mitigating the competitive threats where the company is able to deliver quality products at lower price to the customers.

Another major strategy needs to be implemented in the organisation through resource reallocation which is to invest in marketing. It is essential for the company Unilever to promote the organisational products and services across the globe through developing effective marketing mix strategic planning. increasing competitive threats and the threats of substitute products is also economic factors where the company Unilever needs to invest in marketing for promotion so that it is possible to improve brad visibility in the market and strengthen their customers base with new variety of products, in this regard, social media advertisement though uploading all videos and posts with relevant content are effective to attract the customers in the market and strengthen their customer base.

In addition to these, the company needs to attract more foreign investment and improve the operational activities to provide high return on investment so that it is possible to reallocate the resources, develop effective marketing strategic planning, conduct more research and development, production of new variety of products and run the operational activities strategically. Financial investment with proper planning is necessary to hire skilled workforce and implement business automation process to attract the customers across the globe.

These are the major recommendations through which, it is possible for the organisation Unilever to attract more audiences and improve their operational activities through online business and e-commerce for strengthening their customer’s base and maximise profitability and sales volume successful in near future.

6. Reflective learning

Reflective learning is beneficial to evaluate own skill and abilities in the organisational context. Kolb’s reflective model, in this regard provides a scope to share own experience and improve own abilities through evaluation and analysis of the performance in the organisation. As per the Kolb’s reflective model there are four stages which are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, where it is possible to evaluate own learning and development as well as crate new plan for personal and professional development.

Concrete experience:

Sharing experience is effective to review on contribution in the organisation and in this regard, I try to participate as change agent in the organisation in order to recommend same suitable suggestions to mitigate the effects of economic factors and maximise the organisational performance in the market. during the coursework, it is possible for me to evaluate the performance of the company through reviewing the financial performance as well as conducting proper internal and external analysis, which helps me to identify the existing problems and market opportunities, where try to improve my problem solving skill and critical analysis skill so that I can lead the situation with proper solutions in the firm.

Reflective observations:

Reflecting own observation through reviewing the experience also help me to share my experience. During the change management process, I try to improve my leadership skill and manage the employees and managers to let them understand about the positive impacts of the strategic recommendation for the company. The experience that I had gathered during the coursework is helpful for me to improve my skill and abilities to think critically and evaluate the business situation for developing further strategic planning to run the business sustainability. Proper critical analysis skill and decision making skill are helpful for me in this context were I try to utilise my knowledge and understanding for successful change management.

Abstract conceptualisation:

It s necessary for the me to improve my skill and capabilities to conduct research and develop new creative solution as a change consultant where I try to improve my analytical skill as well as decision making skill so that I can develop effective decision for maximisation of the organisational vision. I also try to improve my communication skill and interact with the leader and management team of the organisation for understanding the tactic of the business and review the financial performance through annual report of the firm so that I can analyse the situation and develop proper decision for the betterment of the firm in near future.

Active experimentation:

It is necessary or me to improve my experience in near future through conducting more in depth research and experiments so that I can provide more suitable recommendation and global strategy to the firm for maximisation of the organisational aim. In this regard, I also try to improve my decision making skill and technological skill so that the business automation process can be enhanced. In the recent era of globalisation, there is high scope of business automation, production automation, automation process in warehouse and e-commerce which are beneficial for the successful establishment of the business. Hereby, I try to improve my capabilities through gathering more business strategies concept as well as improving technological skill so that I can provide more applicable decision to the firm for effective change management through which the organisation can secure future sustainable development.

Reference List

Brockbank, A., McGill, I. and Beech, N., 2017. Reflective learning in practice. In Reflective learning in practice (pp. 18-28). London: Routledge.

Bryson, J.M., 2018. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Cokins, G., 2017. Strategic business management: From planning to performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Nickols, F., 2016. Strategy, strategic management, strategic planning and strategic thinking. Management Journal, 1(1), pp.4-7.