Creative Change And Innovation

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, the multinational corporate firms face challenges to run their business in the global market due to critical issues at the market such as political instability, lack of economic growth, technological change and high competition (Heath, 2018). These are the major issues, which deteriorate the firm’s performance in the global competitive market. The aim of the study is to identify the critical issue of the organisation, which deteriorates the firm’s performance in the market. The study also provides a scope to develop appropriate strategy to tackle the issue s that the firm would be able to develop suitable tactic to run their organisational operations by mitigating the external problem. The study also helps to develop organisational framework to provide proper strategy the organisation so that it is possible to manage change and tackle the issue successfully in long run.

Organisational issue

The organisation Lidl is the global discounted supermarket chain which serves mainly in Europe and United Sates. The company is efficient to provide quality retail products including health and beauty products, home and kitchen appliances, clothing and accessories, daily necessities of the customers and medicines, groceries, which are effective to attract the audiences at the retail supermarket industry. The company has employee base to manage their operations and expand the business successfully by delivering high quality products and services to the customers (Lidl, 2020).

In the rennet globalisation era, the firm is facing an external issue of high competition, where intense competition is there in the global retail market. The company fails to gain high market share due to such problem in the external retail market. The organisation also face high competitive thetas due to presence of efficient competitive brands such as Tesco, Wal-Mart, Morrison, Asda, Aldi and Sainsbury’s, which are famous retail supermarkets in the UK and USA to deliver high quality products and services to all the customers. Their string customer’s base is also another threat for Lidl to gain market share where the firm is facing issue in retaining the long run customers and improving trust and loyalty among the consumers. The organisation Lidl is also facing the threat of substitute products, as there are presences of substitute products in the market where other retail firms are able to provide high quality and a huge variety of products to the international customers (Cardoni et al., 2018). The company is hereby also facing issue in strengthening their customer’s base and gain high competitive advantage in the global retail market. This is a major issue that the firm is facing in the recent era of globalisation for which it fails to gain competitive advantage and establish the brand successfully in the market. Though there is financial stability and string employee base, the company fails to expand their business due to lack of customers base, where the customers have the scope to switch to other retail firms in which the switching cost is low due to presence of other competitive brand such as Tesco, Asda, Wal-Mart, Morrison, Aldi and Sainsbury’s.

Strategy to tackle the issue

It is necessary to tackle the issue successfully so that the company would be able to manage their operations and establish the brand successfully. For tackling the external issue of high competition, the company must focus on the strategies such as,

• Product portfolio management
• Effective marketing strategies
• Developing the organisational online activities
• Strengthening their supply chain
• Managing customers service excellence

These are the major five strategic planning, which provides a scope to Lidl to tackle the issue of high competition and gain high competitive advantage in the global retail sector. The company in this regard, must focus on managing product portfolio so that it is posi8sbel to increase the availability of the huge variety of products and services at the organisational store. The companies needs to develop product diversification strategy and must conduct in depth research about the customer’s recent trend and demand so that it would be possible to develop product base. This is one of the effective strategies to tackle the issue and expand their business across international markets (Phillips and Moutinho, 2018b). On the other hand, strengthening their supply chain is important to handled product stock, manage procurement and warehouse and deliver the products to the customers on right time. The order processing management system and order placing is mandatory for the suppliers where ERP system must be developed at the organisation, so that the supply chain can be improved (Hoffman et al., 2016). The organisation also needs to develop Information system, MIS and cloud computing with ERP system which is an integrated technical framework to manage the sales volume and maintain the product stock and warehouse the serve the customers in a better way.

In addition to this, it is required for Lidl to develop marketing strategic planning, so that it would be possible to promote the organisation successfully. Social media advertisement is necessary to be developed where FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter must be utilised by the firm for posting their products and services and sharing adequate and relevant information related to the organisational process, products availability and pricing (Nickols, 2016). In addition to this, in such an era of digitalisation, it is necessary for Lidl to develop efficient mobile application for e-commerce activities and online purchase facility so that it is possible for the firm to provide the chance to the customers to make effective purchase decision online through reviewing the products availability, comparing the price ranges of the products from other competitive brands and reviewing the customer’s feedback on the product. This is effective strategy to strengthen their customer’s base and manage the global consumers successfully by delivering high quality retail products and providing 24*7 customer’s services. Customers service excellence must be ensured by the organisation so that the principle of Lidl to satisfy the customers can be fulfilled as well in near future.

Organisational framework to manage change

In order to implement the above mentioned strategic planning at the organisational workplace of Lidl, it is necessary to develop proper framework. Lidl focuses on vertical structure, where the framework is developed according to the business functions and operations. There are different departments such as finance, human resource, sales and marketing, manufacturing and technology, where the management team aims at managing the staff in each department and ensure high organisational performance as a whole (Phillips and Moutinho, 2018a). The marketing managers are responsively to conduct market research and develop effective planning for successful promotion of the brand. The sales and marketing team are also responsible to manage sales volume and provide efficient customers service across the international markets. On the other hand, the manufacturing department take care of the production and storage of the products and the operation department manage the stock, maintain distribution and handle the availability of the products at the organisational store.

On the other hand, human resource department focuses on managing the staff by providing monetary incentives, managing healthy and safety and developing suitable organisational culture. For technical advancement and implementing the above mentioned strategic tactic to handle the external issue of high competition, Lidl must enhance communication and cooperation at the workplace and in this regard the leader and managers also focuses on developing partnership working practice so that the employees can enhance their abilities and perform better together. The leader also support and direct all the employees to manage change and enhance organisational productivity through more communication, empowering the employees and creating values for them.

Conclusion

Lidl has the potential to strategise their organisational activities for developing the brand and establish it successfully in the market. The major strategies of tackling the issue of intense competition in the global retail market are managing product portfolio, offering huge variety of creative products, setting competitive price for the products giving efficient customers service, strengthening supply chain and distribution network as well as developing promotional activities through social media and creating attractive organisational website and mobile application to strengthen their customers base an gain high competitive advantage.

Reference List

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• Heath, R.L., 2018. Issues management. The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication, pp.1-15.
• Hoffman, D.L., Bechtold, D., Murphy, A. and Snyman, J., 2016. Strategic planning and field based consulting. Small Business Institute Journal, 12(1), pp.1-9.
• Lidl, 2020. About us. [online] Available at: https://www.lidl.com/about-us [Accessed on 21 April 2020].
• Nickols, F., 2016. Strategy, strategic management, strategic planning and strategic thinking. Management Journal, 1(1), pp.4-7.
• Phillips, P. and Moutinho, L., 2018a. Strategic thinking. In Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management (pp. 251-267). London: Routledge.
• Phillips, P. and Moutinho, L., 2018b. Contemporary issues in strategic management. London: Routledge.
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