Leading Through Digital Disruption Case Study

Introduction - BlackBerry’s Digital Challenges and Strategic Evolution

The term digital disruption is defined as an effect that modify the fundamental anticipations and behaviours within the industry, culture, process and markers that is caused by several digital channels, capabilities or assets. In other words, it is transformation that happen when new business models and digital technologies massively impacts the value proposition of the accessible goods and services. Digital disruption is beneficial for the organizations because it facilitates them to enter into new markets, increase customer satisfaction, enables innovation, increase efficiency and productivity. Apart from this, the report will be based on the evaluation of digital changes within BlackBerry to continue the ever-changing digital business environment. Additionally the report will confer the analysis of opportunities and challenges face by chosen business and building the digital ready culture as well as digital leadership.

Main Analysis

Task 1: Opportunities and challenges analysis

Overview of BlackBerry

BlackBerry is one of leading Software Company that is specializing in cyber security. The headquarters’ of this organization is situated in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The chosen business was incorporated in 1894 by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Currently this organization becomes the leader in cyber security that helps the government agencies, organizations and safety critical institutions to secure the Internet of Things (IoT) (BlackBerry, 2023). The type of the chosen organization is public and it operates in oligopoly market where few firms are dominating. In the context of size, this organization has 3225 employees in 2022. In the period of 2023, the selected business recorded revenue of 656 million U.S. dollars (Statista Research Department, 2023). In addition to this, the selected organization is provide wide range of services such as embedded software, cloud-based services, enterprise mobility management (EMM), cyber security services etc. In 2021, market size of the BlackBerry was valued at USD 1415.34 million.

Figure 1: Revenue of BlackBerry

Current digital disruption challenges

The chosen business is one of the top players in the market of smartphone. Currently, it is facing wide range of challenges due to digital disruption. These issues are classifying into three significant areas such as emerging technology adoption, marketing and sales as well as business model evolution (Bolton, Chapman and Mills, 2019). The strategies relevant to the marketing and sales of the chosen business is struggling to keep up with the speedily changing the digital background. Due to digital discretion BlackBerry is unable to communicate its value proposition to customers effectively which leads to decline in the market share and customer retention. On the other hand, presently chosen business slow to adopt the updated and latest technologies such as app ecosystems and screen interface which considered as standard features within smartphones. Due to this, the products of BlackBerry become out-dated and customers are not likely to buy. Along with this, the business model of selected business is mainly focusing on sales of hardware which are transformed towards services and software. This organization is struggling to modify its business model to implement to this new reality.

Digital transformation objectives

The following recommendations are mentioned below that can be apply by the strategy & transformation (S&T) leadership team to mitigate the above digital disruption challenges.

Company is advised that S&T leadership team of BlackBerry can enhance the sales and digital marketing strategies in order to meet the challenge. The team of the chosen business can use the several digital marketing platforms or tools such as social media marketing, data analytics and content marketing in order to better communicate its value proposition to the customers. With the help of these tools the S&T leadership team of the business can easily reach and engage with its target customers (Peter and Dalla Vecchia, 2021).

S&T leadership team of BlackBerry can adopt the latest and update technologies to ensure its products or services remain competitive in highly competitive market. For this the company can require to partnering with the technological companies and invest in research and development.

Further, S&T leadership team of BlackBerry should lay focus on adopting its new business model to focus more on services and software. In order to adapt the new business model the chosen business requires to provide cloud-based services, develop new software products or influence its accessible intellectual property to generate more revenue or profits.

Task 2: Digital business agility mode

BlackBerry can implement the digital business agility model in order to survive within ever-changing digital business environment. The organizations that have digital business agility are reacting quickly and speedily to the emerging threats. This model is consisting of three pillars such as hyperawareness, informed decision-making and fast execution (Setiawati et al, 2022). Hyperawareness is all about the data and it states the way of business is capable to detect, monitor and recognize the effects of changes to its business environment. In addition to this, the hyperaware businesses are less probable to be staggered by the unanticipated business developments. Hyperaware companies are capable to identify its own vulnerabilities and make the require adjustments to their business models as well as better distinguish the significant impact of line of business, new rivals or acquisitions. Additionally, chosen business can also require to hyperaware of its competitors, market and technological trends. For this, the company can need to be constant monitoring of internal operation and external environment.

Apart from this, informed-decision making is considered as significant pillar of digital business agility model. This pillar of model is all about what business is do with the data. Informed decision-making is a capability of the organizations to make the effective or potential decisions (Lin et al, 2020). It is common for all the firms to fail in the process of decision-making regardless of having all the essential information due to lack of questioning or testing of strategic assumptions. The organizations which made effective or strategic decisions based on the insufficient informed views of senior executives then they are unable to accomplish and maintain digital business agility. BlackBerry can utilize the data-driven insights in order to make potential decisions. For this it can be crucial for the business to evaluate its data from the several sources to understand patterns, trends and irregularities.

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Further, fast execution is another significant pillar of digital business agility model. In this pillar, the companies can put their plans into the actions speedily and quickly. Inappropriately, it is a rare ability particularly in large organizations where execution is slowed by the cultural inactivity and complexity (Salmela et al, 2022). BlackBerry can require implementing decisions speedily in order to stay competitive within the market. For this the companies can need to executing the changes in an appropriate and timely manner as well as implementing to new circumstances. Implementation of this model can be beneficial for the organization because it allows them too speedily, develop, execute and test the new business strategies that involve enhanced processes, workflows and systems. Digital business agility facilitates the companies to quickly execute and react the needs and pReferences of the customers, changing marketing situations and emerging technologies.

Figure 2: Digital Business Agility Model

Key emerging technologies

There are wide ranges of emerging technologies that can be adopted by the organizations in order to stay competitive in the market and adjust their business models. As per the view of Dogra, Jha and Jain (2020), it can be beneficial for the organization to implement new technologies because it helps in improve the efficiency and overall performance. In addition, IoT is regard as one of the key emerging technologies that can adopt by BlackBerry adjusts its business models. With the help of this technology the chosen business gather and evaluate the data several devices and also offer valuable insights for effective decision-making (Laghari et al, 2021).

As critically contended by da Silva Costa et al, (2022), machine learning is another key emerging technology that can be adopt by the organizations to gain the competitive advantage over the competitors. With the help of machine learning selected organization can enhance its accuracy and effectiveness as well as automate the prediction and data analysis. Along with this, companies can also use robotic process automation (RPA) technology that helps in minimizing costs, enhancing operational efficiency and automotive repetitive tasks. 3D printing is another emerging technology that can use by Blackberry in order to stay competitive and modify its business models (Bozkurt and Karayel, 2021). This technology assist the business in developing the products, facilitates rapid customization and prototyping as well as increase the satisfaction of the customers.

Task 3: Digital ready culture

Digital ready culture is a mutually and shared supporting set of practices and values that facilitates high performance in services of innovation and implementation in a digital business atmosphere. As critically said by Westerman, Soule and Eswaran (2019), building the digital-ready culture is beneficial for the organizations because it helps in gaining the competitive advantage over the competitors within the market. In the current times, the use of technology is rapidly increases so it can be significant for the organization to develop the digital ready culture. Digital ready culture helps the business to improving the communication and collaboration (Machado, et al, 2021). It helps in promoting the use of real-time tools for the prompt collaboration and communication and it also make simper for the business to work together in spite of where workforces are located.

Along with this, digital ready culture also helps in modernizing the change management and user adoption. In digital culture, the employees are feeling more comfortable and flexible in using digital technologies and tools. As critically argued by Çöteli (2019), overreliance on technology can creates the operational exposures particularly in the face of emergency technical failures or challenges. Digital ready culture in the organization can support on-going learning and skill development as well as also ensure the organizations are stay with digital transformation efforts and technological advancements.

Apart from this, to install the digital-ready culture in order to support the digital transformation BlackBerry can focus on significant areas such as instilling a culture of innovation, putting customer first, becoming a digital champion and creating a collaborative culture. According to Chirumalla (2021), for installing the digital ready culture by putting customer first the organization can implement customer-centric approach. It can be significant for the selected business to use several digital tools such as digital customer services and data analytics to understand the needs and preferences of the customers in better or effective manner. Moreover, with the help of data analytics companies can easily understand the requirements and preferences of the customers which help them to attract and retain for long period of time. For digital transformation it is crucial for the organizations to have collaborative culture. The chosen organization can use the digital collaboration tools and cross functional teams to build collaborative culture to support digital transformation. The digital collaboration tools are Google Workspace, Zoom, Asana etc. that can be used by the business to enable the collaboration and communication among the team members (Teichert, 2019). To build the digital ready culture chosen business can influence cross-functional teams to work collaborate on the projects relevant to digital transformation.

As per the view of Dogra, Jha and Jain (2020), instilling the culture of innovation is another strategy to build the digital culture for supporting the digital transformation. The chosen organization can develop the culture of innovation by providing incentives to employees and innovation labs. BlackBerry can also build the digital ready culture by becoming a champion in same field. This can be accomplished by online training and investing in digital technologies.

Task 4: Digital leadership

There are several significant digital leadership skills that are develop by the organizations to support the digital transformation with the help of building new structures, capacities and method of working. It is crucial for all the workforces to have effective digital leadership skills. Moreover, it helps in improving the experience of customers, offer organizational benefits, enhance solution quality, reduce time to market and add meaning to data driven insights. The leaders who have digital skills are capable to drive the digital transformation and maintain the business competitiveness as well as health (Zeike, et al. 2019). In addition to, the digital leadership helps in improving the productivity and performance of the business which ultimately positively impacts its profitability. By using the digital technologies, the leaders of the firms can automate their processes and tasks which help in increase the productivity.

Additionally, strategic planning, collaboration and networking, visionary thinking, data-driven decision making, change management, digital literacy, emotional intelligence are the significant skills that are essential to have digital leaders. The leaders of BlackBerry need to develop visionary thinking skill in order to support the digital transformation. It is vital for the digital leaders to have clear vision about the way technology converts their business and industry. Digital leaders are requiring being capable to communicate the vision and encourage the others to embrace it (Hensellek, 2020). Digital transformation includes massive modification in the systems, processes and culture. Digital leaders require to be adopting the change which involves addressing resistance, communicating the need for change and supporting the workers through transition.

Another significant digital leadership skill is emotional intelligence that are important for the leaders to support the digital transformation. The leaders of BlackBerry require developing emotional intelligence skill because it helps in understand and manage their emotions in better way as well as motivate to other. Emotional intelligence digital leadership skill helps in managing conflicts, developing strong relationships and leading diverse teams (Abbu, Mugge and Gudergan, 2022). Furthermore, digital leaders need to be flexible working with using data analytics in order to make informed decisions. With the help of this skill, the digital leaders can capable to analyse data, determine related metrics and make data drive decisions in order to drive digital transformation.

Apart from this, the digital leaders of blackBerry can also use Goleman’s leadership styles. These leadership styles are developed by Daniel Goleman which assists the leaders to utilize best and effective approach for their organization and situation. Goleman’s leadership are consisting of several styles such as participative, commanding, coaching, visionary, democratic, affiliative and pace-setting (Gutiérrez, et al. 2022). The leaders of chosen business can focus on coaching leadership style of Goleman’s to provide training and development to their employees regarding new and updated technologies. Coaching leadership style is empowering and participative method that majorly focuses on growing and supporting the others. Implementation of coaching leadership style can be beneficial for the chosen business because it helps in improve the engagement and performance of employees, increase innovation and creativity as well as strengthened the relationships with employees.

Conclusion

From the above report it has been concluded that, Blackberry face wide range of challenges in the area of marketing and sales, emerging technological adaption as well as business model evolution due to digital disruption. To mitigate the challenges the S&T leadership team of chosen business can use digital marketing platforms, adopt update and latest technologies as well as new business model. To survive in the changing digital business environment BlackBerry can implement digital business agility model and key emerging technologies such as IoT, machine learning, 3D printing etc. to stay competitive in market and adjust the business model BlackBerry can develop the digital ready culture by instilling a culture of innovation, putting customer first, becoming a digital champion and creating a collaborative culture. To support the digital transformation the leaders of chosen business can require developing digital leadership skills and focusing on Goleman’s leadership styles.

Reference

Books and Journals

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• Bolton, R.N., Chapman, R.G. and Mills, A.J., 2019. Harnessing digital disruption with marketing simulations. Journal of Marketing Education, 41(1), pp.15-31.
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• Chirumalla, K., 2021. Building digitally-enabled process innovation in the process industries: A dynamic capabilities approach. Technovation, 105, p.102256.
• Çöteli, S., 2019. The impact of new media on the forms of culture: digital identity and digital culture.
• da Silva Costa, D.A., São Mamede, H. and MIRA DA SILVA, M.I.G.U.E.L., 2022. ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA) ADOPTION: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW. Engineering Management in Production & Services, 14(2).
• Dogra, A., Jha, R.K. and Jain, S., 2020. A survey on beyond 5G network with the advent of 6G: Architecture and emerging technologies. IEEE Access, 9, pp.67512-67547.
• Gutiérrez, G., De Lena, M.T.G., Garzás, J. and Moguerza, J.M., 2022. Leadership Styles in Agile Teams: An Analysis Based on Experience. IEEE access, 10, pp.19232-19241.
• Hensellek, S., 2020. Digital leadership: A framework for successful leadership in the digital age. Journal of Media Management and Entrepreneurship (JMME), 2(1), pp.55-69.
• Laghari, A.A., Wu, K., Laghari, R.A., Ali, M. and Khan, A.A., 2021. A review and state of art of Internet of Things (IoT). Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering, pp.1-19.
• Lin, J., Li, L., Luo, X.R. and Benitez, J., 2020. How do agribusinesses thrive through complexity? The pivotal role of e-commerce capability and business agility. Decision Support Systems, 135, p.113342.
• Machado, C.G., Winroth, M., Almström, P., Ericson Öberg, A., Kurdve, M. and AlMashalah, S., 2021. Digital organisational readiness: experiences from manufacturing companies. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 32(9), pp.167-182.
• Peter, M.K. and Dalla Vecchia, M., 2021. The digital marketing toolkit: a literature review for the identification of digital marketing channels and platforms. New trends in business information systems and technology: Digital innovation and digital business transformation, pp.251-265.
• Salmela, H., Baiyere, A., Tapanainen, T. and Galliers, R.D., 2022. Digital agility: Conceptualizing agility for the digital era. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(5), pp.1080-1101.
• Setiawati, R., Eve, J., Syavira, A., Ricardianto, P. and Endri, E., 2022. The Role of Information Technology in Business Agility: Systematic Literature Review. Calitatea, 23(189), pp.144-149.
• Teichert, R., 2019. Digital transformation maturity: A systematic review of literature. Acta universitatis agriculturae et silviculturae mendelianae brunensis.
• Westerman, G., Soule, D.L. and Eswaran, A., 2019. Building digital-ready culture in traditional organizations. MIT Sloan Management Review, 60(4).
• Zeike, S., Bradbury, K., Lindert, L. and Pfaff, H., 2019. Digital leadership skills and associations with psychological well-being. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(14), p.2628.

Online

• BlackBerry, 2023. About us. [Online]. Accessed through :<https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/company/overview>. [Accessed on: 22nd December, 2023].
• Statista Research Department, 2023. Global revenue of BlackBerry. [Online]. Accessed through :< https://www.statista.com/statistics/266240/global-revenue-of-rim-since-2004/>. [Accessed on: 22nd December, 2023].