Nameera Aslam

 Leading through digital disruption [Name of student] [Date] Contents Introduction:3 Task 1 (ILO1): The Case for Change:3 Task 2 (ILO2): Capture Insights:3 Task 3 (ILO2): Make Fast Decisions:4 Awareness of the current market situation:5 Understanding change:5 Build your skill and keep learning:5 Learn to live with uncertainty:6 Embrace change:6 Task 4 (ILO4): Acquire and Engage Talents6 Willingness to pay for the talent you need:6 Redesign the HR department7 Empowerment:7 Training:7 Task 5 (ILO3): Create Digital Ready Culture:8 Build the practices that set digital firms apart:8 Aligning Culture with Strategy:8 Aligning Employee goals with Organizational Goals:9 Task 6 (ILO4): Steer Collaboration9 Task 7 (ILO3): Select your Leaders11 Turning into the environment:11 Challenging the prevailing company’s wisdom:11 Communicating a compelling aspiration:11 Building coalitions:12 Learning to persevere:12 Making everyone a hero:12 Applying appropriate leadership qualities:12 Conclusion13 References13 Introduction: Digital transformation is moving towards digital technology to enhance the performance and value of your business, by changing the way of operation and delivering quality services to your customer. In this report, we are going to discuss how the IKEA Swedish furniture company adopt digital transformation, what techniques will be used for leading in digital disruption, and what objective they achieve through the digital transformation (Vial, G., 2019). (68 words) Task 1 (ILO1): The Case for Change: IKEA Swedish furniture retailer is a global behemoth, operating in 38 countries and started their business in 1943, and employing over 200000 employees globally. Overall these years IKEA has covered a significant market area, but in a few years its seems like they aren’t satisfied with the status quo, that’s why the company is moving towards the digital transformation to attract more customers with their quality services and products, earn handsome revenue, and attract the customer from all over the world. IKEA aims to have a zero-emission delivery fleet in the targeted areas by 2020. But a major threat faced by IKEA Company while going through the digital transformation was the availability of competitors like Amazon and other e-commerce giants, to compete with them IKEA company need to delivery it’s service in a unique way. In this fast moving world, where everything is available at our fingers tips, customers usually avoid going out and do shopping that’s why it’s an opportunity for the IKEA company to develop or create the SEO optimize website or mobile friendly Apps to facilitate the customers and enhance its customer services which is not only help to earn handsome revenue, but also will be the first step in the digital world. As a website or App has created, the company should pay close attention to customer complaints about the website or App issues’ they are facing while using them. To be successful in the digital world, having a experienced digital team is very important which would solve the technical issues and resolve the problem of customer, which indirectly enhance customer service and increase the chances of earning handsome amount (Reinartz, 2019). (280 words) Task 2 (ILO2): Capture Insights:   We live in a society driven by digital technology. Digital technology has so much impact on our life that, every citizen doesn’t have running water, but own smartphones. So as digital marketing, it plays a vital role in the success of any business. In order to be a successful business in digital era, the company has to adopt quality digital marketing strategies. But the most important thing is to capture insights about their competitor and macro-environment., which the company can achieve by exploring the following factors (Cayla, 2014); 1. If the company wants to know about your competitors, Google trends offer free tools to compare IKEA Company with its competitors which helps the company to know the interest of their customers. 2. Google Auction insights reports help to know the seasonal behavior of customers and also provide the report of paid advertisement to know exactly how their competitors are growing their businesses and their targeted areas. 3.  Facebook audience insights is another tool that can be used by the IKEA Company to capture the insights of their competitors, macroeconomic trends, and partners. 4. Insights about the macroeconomic trends can be captured by doing different surveys about the company’s products and services. 5. Customers are the essential asset of any company, that's why it is important to know their interest and opinion about the business. The opinion of customers about the company's competitor is also important because by doing this company can identify their weaknesses. 6. Market research is pretty expensive, but costs can be saved by doing or conducting your own study. Because with the right research company can target (Mandal, 2018). (272 words)   Task 3 (ILO2): Make Fast Decisions: The following approaches should be adopted by the IKEA Company to quickly adapt to the changes in the market: Awareness of the current market situation: It is the most important approach that should be adopted by the IKEA Company because we live in a society, where things and trends change within seconds. That's why it is important that company should be aware of the situation of the market and its competitors. In the case of IKEA company, as many retailers are moving towards digital marketing and targeting the customer that's why it is important that the company also adopt the digital marketing strategies and grow their business (Bogue, 2017). Understanding change: Confidence comes with understanding, that’s why it is important for a company to understand the change and its impact on the organization, IKEA Company should show flexibility and willingness to embrace the change because it will help the company to survive in the market. In the case of IKEA, as many customers resist visiting the outlet that's why they are more comfortable with online shopping so company should create a mobile app or improve their mobile app with more features to survive in the market (Greenwood, 2017). Build your skill and keep learning: When a company adopts the changes, it will be required by the company to change its organizational structure and employ individuals with appropriate skills to enhance the performance of the company. And also arrange the training program for the current employees to learn new skills. In the case of IKEA Company, the company should make a new department called the digital marketing department and hire the individual with appropriate skills and knowledge (Halberstadt, 2019). Learn to live with uncertainty: In the fast-changing world, sometimes a company need to make the decision about knowing all the facts and figures, but if the company is willing to accept the ambiguity and uncertainty this behavior of the company will ultimately enhance the reputation and performance of the company (Burns,2016). Embrace change: It seems many companies are afraid of changes and usually avoid the changes, Nokia is one example, Nokia avoided embracing the change that's why in the mobile industry, and this company lost its market share. It is important to adopt the change and try new technologies because they are there to make things easier for us (Rao, 2015). (390 words) Task 4 (ILO4): Acquire and Engage Talents IKEA Company is moving toward the digital transformation, the step is to get the appropriate talent and skills that need to do the job. There are different ways Ikea can use for digital business transformation: Willingness to pay for the talent you need: Digital transformation requires various skills and talent and it is not possible for a company to have the required skills, that's the organization needs to outsource some skills. There are various problems regarding outsourcing but sometimes it is a cost-saving technique for the organization. In this fast-moving world, where many companies are going through digital transformation, the availability of a good digital team is short in supply. That’s why the demand for digital teams is increasing so as its cost. In order to be successful in digital transformation IKEA company needs to appoint the experienced digital team members or outsource this to the digital team and should be willing to pay whatever it needs to get them indoor (Patil,2016). Redesign the HR department IKEA Company also needs to focus on its departmental structure. Like most traditional HR function might not be appropriate for the digital age or HR department may be unaware about the particulars role and their qualification for example, about the developer who will create a mobile app for the company, in this scenario, there is possibility to appoint the person who is not competent for the job (Zhang, 2018). Empowerment: In the transformation process, upper-level management may be aware of their responsibilities but the lower-level management might be unaware of their roles and responsibility, that's why they usually resist the change. In order to implement the changes within the organization, the management of the IKEA Company should communicate the importance of the change and empower the employees to see that their involvement in change is beneficial for both, them and the company (Bakotić,2017). Training: Digital transformation requires skills and talent, however, the company should arrange the training program for their employees regularly, because skills become obsolete with the passage of time, and training program will be beneficial for employee because it will help them to be update with the required skills. Training program also plays vital role in boosting their confident (Weiner, 2020). (369 words) Task 5 (ILO3): Create Digital Ready Culture: Leaders are the backbone of the company and are responsible for bringing new and enhanced trends in the organization that not only motivate employees but helps an organization to grow. The digital-ready cultures are valuable and practice the needs that are used to bring innovation to a digital organization’s environment (Westerman, 2019) The leaders in a digital-ready organization bring these 4 values to the organization: 1. Speed 2. Impact 3. Openness 4. Autonomy The steps leaders can take in fostering digital-ready culture are: Build the practices that set digital firms apart: The leaders should promote the nature of experimentation and make specific frameworks that help in assisting better decision making. This enables companies to provide more sense of leadership and control to the employees giving them the motivation to work for the organization. The strategy of leaders often leads to enhanced team effectiveness (Passaro, 2020). Aligning Culture with Strategy: To make an organization digital-ready leaders should align the culture of the organization with organizational goals and strategies. If an organization has a culture that shows innovation would lead to workers being able to understand the digital transformation and why it is necessary for the organization and would not hesitate to adapt to the new trends brought in by the leaders in the organization (Harrison, 2017). Aligning Employee goals with Organizational Goals: The leaders need to understand the goals that are being persuaded by each employee and access what motivates them. Some employees are motivated with constructive feedback, some are motivated if given more responsibility and some are motivated with rewards. The employee can use these motivation factors to align each type of employee with that of the objectives and goals of the organization. This helps in making a similar culture and thinking in the organization and increase the effectiveness of the organization as a whole. This procedure will help in making the organization digital-ready as employees will be motivated and would not hesitate to adopt new changes, technology, and procedures implemented by the organization (Bayo-Moriones, 2020). (335 words) Task 6 (ILO4): Steer Collaboration Employees are the main force for the organization and are the ones who are most familiar with the procedures of the organization. Therefore, when making a new strategy or implementing new regulations, managers and senior management try to communicate with employees to gain feedback and see their choices and what are possible rooms for improvement. In a well-structured organization, employees are also asked to give their suggestions on how particular issues should be dealt with because this feedback and suggestions help the management in decision making. However, the main challenge is the fact that many individuals in the organization hesitate to share their viewpoints, and management is always concerned regarding the lack of collaboration between the main workforce “employees” and the senior management. Following are some tools that can help in improving Collaboration within the organization (Eidelman,2020). 1. Slack: This was a messaging tool used for game developers but is now used by organizations for collaborations. Slack conversations are organized according to user preference. It is simple and easy to use and also has the function to share pictures, documents, and videos with colleagues. The video option calls up to 15 people simultaneously is also a good feature for meetings. 2. Cisco WebEx: This is the most famous and common conferencing application used by the work. The maker of the meeting room is usually the host but the host can also opt for another person as the host of the meeting. It has features of video conferencing, audio conferencing, sharing of pictures, documents, and videos. Members can also give live presentations and can also write on virtual whiteboards. 3. Zoom: This application became famous during the COVID 19 lockdown situation when conducting meetings were hard for companies due to lockdown and work from home restrictions. It has high-quality audio, video, and document sharing features with virtual whiteboard and presentation functions that are quite useful for organizations in conducting meetings and collaboration with its employees. All these applications are the best tools which IKEA Company can use to conduct successful meetings with their employees to discuss strategies, formulating policies, and making decisions (Fletcher, 2020). (353 words) Task 7 (ILO3): Select your Leaders While implementing the transformation in the IKEA Company, the leader should have the following attributes: Turning into the environment: Leaders should create a network to get information about the market and the changes occurring in the market, which will cause the change for the company necessary. Also, create a network of sources to get information about the competitors and their future course of action but in a legal way (Farrell, 2017). Challenging the prevailing company’s wisdom: Leaders should be ready to challenge the general perception and belief that is followed by the company for the past years, and accept the change and also visualize how things should be done to achieve goals (Kezar, 2017). Communicating a compelling aspiration: Communication is key, that's why there should be effective communication between the leader and the team member about what company’s objectives are and why the change is necessary, but it can only be possible when the leader has a clear vision of change and its importance (Al-Ali, 2017). Building coalitions: One of the qualities of a good leader is a good team and strong bonding between them because a leader cannot achieve everything on his own. It is important to win the support of your team members to get advantages from all the individuals with the required knowledge and skills for the change (Pollack, 2014). Learning to persevere: Consistency should be adopted by the leader because there will be setbacks and defeats while implementing the changes in the company but the leader should persevere and never give up on the goals of the company (Block, P., 2016). Making everyone a hero: When a person receives appreciation for their efforts, they get motivated and continue to achieve more. That's why the leader should give credit by giving rewards or promotions to all who make efforts to introduce change in the organization (Hoe, S.L., 2017). Applying appropriate leadership theories: Leader should align its change management strategies with the company goals with effective leadership styles, it can be achieve by providing knowledge, and support to employees. Usually, it is seen that transformational leadership style put more influence on the motivation and creativity of employees to be successful during digital transformation. Hence, transformative leaders and emotional intelligence might integrate for supporting inspirational leadership which would translate into fruitful digital disruption (Bowers, 2017). (386 words) Conclusion The IKEA Swedish furniture retailer company is going through a digital disruption, while undergoing this process the company needs to adopt different strategies to be successful in the digital world. Like capturing the insights of the competitors, macroeconomic trends, and partners, making appropriate decisions or action in the appropriate time. While stepping into the digital world the company need the appropriate skills to engage the talent with the organization. When implementing the changes, leaders play an important role. That's why while selecting the leader, care needs to be taken and the leader must have a clear vision about the change and the objective of the company, so by adopting all the above mentioned techniques and approaches required for digital business transformation, IKEA company can successfully step into digital world (Matt, 2015). (131 words) References Al-Ali, A.A., Singh, S.K., Al-Nahyan, M. and Sohal, A.S., 2017. 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