Leading through digital disruption

The report discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev while digitally transforming and the importance of technologies and human factors to lead this transformation. It covers the company's objective of digital transformation, ways of gaining digital business agility, creating a digital-ready culture, steering collaboration, and developing leaders.

Leading through digital disruption

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK – 1 (THE CASE FOR CHANGE)..................................................................................1
Overview of the company......................................................................................................1
Why Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev is digitally transforming?...............................................1
Company’s objective of digital transformation......................................................................2
TASK – 2 (GAINING DIGITAL BUSINESS AGILITY)........................................................2
Hyperawareness......................................................................................................................3
Informed decision making......................................................................................................3
Fast execution.........................................................................................................................4
TASK – 3 (CREATE A DIGITAL READY CULTURE).........................................................4
Putting the customer first........................................................................................................4
Creation of collaborative culture............................................................................................5
Instilling a culture of innovation............................................................................................5
Becoming a digital champion.................................................................................................5
TASK – 4 (STEER COLLABORATION)................................................................................6
Job description of Chief Collaboration Officer (CCO)..........................................................6
Ways of increasing collaboration across team members and departments............................6
TASK – 5 (DEVELOP YOUR LEADERS)..............................................................................6
Leadership style......................................................................................................................6
Approach from developing leadership style...........................................................................7
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Digitalization is being regarded as an important method that makes sure the success of
the companies. There are different firms who have turned their business into digitalization
and has protected the market share without having any physical stores. However,
transforming the firm into digital model involves huge difficulties (Vial, 2019). Considering
this, Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev, a UK based drink and brewing company is being taken
into account who are transforming into a digital model and making use of artificial
intelligence and cloud. The current research report will emphasize on opportunities and
challenges being faced by the leaders while this transformation and will throw light on
importance of technologies and human factors to lead this transformation. Reflection on
mechanism required for building teams will also be included.
TASK – 1 (THE CASE FOR CHANGE)
Overview of the company
Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev is a UK based drink and brewing company based in
Belgium founded in the year 2004. The global functional management office of the company
is in New York. Furthermore, the company is being involved in the manufacturing,
distribution as well as ales of beer, soft drinks and other alcoholic beverages all across the
globe. Due to the current covid19 pandemic there has been disruption in the present
distribution networks and this has forced AB InBev to invest heavily on online supply
technology firms by its corporate firm ZXVentures for meeting the desires of the company in
particular field (Helgøy and Homme, 2017).
Why Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev is digitally transforming?
Because of the Covid19 pandemic, there has been different challenges being posed to
the business corporations. Currently, it is becoming quite difficult for the companies like AB
InBev to replenish their market as well as organizational creativity for exploiting novel ideas
in the firm. For alignment of activities of the business for meeting the requirements of the
clients, firm is implementing innovations in this new standard for encouraging digital
transformation. Moreover, this consumer-based products industry came across with varied
flocking issues such as non-movement of non-essential goods etc. Due to this, the business of
the firm moved one step back and forced them to reconsider their marketing distribution,
management along with the other operations of their cash flows.
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Company’s objective of digital transformation
Considering the current situation of the market and the pandemic trend, there has been
rise in the trend of online delivering platforms such as Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato and many
other serving beers to the clients (Rose, 2020). Thus, AB InBev want to make use of this
electronic commerce delivering platforms and food supply applications for boosting their
income and attaining more market share. One of the important objectives behind digital
transformation is to have zero incidents of their fleet and technology can help in attaining this
target. The floors of the company are being presently premeditated for tracking, protecting as
well as managing safe comportments such as heavy breakage, high pace and utilization of
dangerous way using seat belt sensors, telemetric along with safety alarms. Another objective
is to augment their market ration by 3 percent in next three year and finally, boosting the
satisfaction level and loyalty of the customers by 10 percent increase in coming three years.
TASK – 2 (GAINING DIGITAL BUSINESS AGILITY)
For the purpose of gaining digital agility through leveraging on the model being
industrialised by the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation that is “Digital
Business Agility Model” it can be decided that which technology or initiatives can be utilized
by the company. This model is quite significant as it helped in indirection of construct of
digital vortex for conceptualizing the manners in which digital disruption impacts the
industries as well as companies.
Figure 1: Digital Business Agility Model
(Wade, 2016).
According to the digital business model, there are basically three things which are the
firm is required for becoming agile that is hyperawareness, informed decision making and
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finally fast execution. It is important for Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev to develop these
abilities for responding speedily as well as successfully towards the developing intimidations
to their business due to covid19 pandemic and other business environmental factors as well as
for seizing the opportunities present in the market. In addition to this, although these abilities
can be considered as disconnected or separate, they are in fact the main interrelating and
complex base for the overall company (Hedges and et.al, 2019). Some of the initiatives as
well as technologies that can be utilized by the company for each of the component of the
digital business agility model is being elaborated in the subsequent paragraph:
Hyperawareness
Talking in relation with the hyperawareness, it is being referred as the capability of
the firm in terms of detecting as well as monitoring alterations in its business environment.
Those firms who are hyperaware are adjusted or familiar about the things going on around
them specifically the alterations which acmes threats as well as prospects. For gaining
insights from the employees as well as customers, AB InBev can make use of feedbacks.
Feedbacks can support the firm in comprehending their customers, competition as well as
partners in its workplace and will allow them to update their strategies along with set up
novel manners of working for enhanced outcome (Escamilla, Fransoo and Tang, 2020). Other
than this, for gaining insights from the customers as well as employees, the company can
make use of internet of things for the purpose of building more enhanced, detailed and
insightful comprehension of the expectations, perceptions as well as requirements of the
customers. There are different applications such as Waggl that supports in offering an easy
manner for the workers to provide unidentified feedback in real time. Through this, the
company can foster a listening culture which can again support them bringing valuable
negative feedback to the surface.
Informed decision making
Informed decision making is defined as the ability of the firm to undertake the best
possible decisions in a particular condition or circumstances. For excelling in the informed
decision, it is important on the part of AB InBev to cultivate mature data analytics
competences which increases the human judgement. Nevertheless, there are chances that the
firm might not succeed in spite of having data being needed for making right movements and
transformations due to the fact that the suppositions being detained by the top-level
management might not have questioned and tested. Because of the pandemic, there were
shortage of products and more and more people were asking for products via online means
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for preventing physical contact (Ahmad and Murray, 2019). Thus, with the digital
transformation, AB InBev can act quickly and effectively. Firstly, with the help of the
inclusive approach, the firm can manage, check as well as encourage the performance level of
the workers in line with the demand in the market. Moreover, data driven decisions must be
taken by the company which is an amalgamation of both intuitions and observation. With the
help of monitoring of behaviour of the workers, company can collect data on activities of the
workers. Furthermore, for informed decision making, integrated strategy can be utilized for
reaching the workers through communication tools like Slack, which is a cloud-based
messaging as well as notification system, for sharing ideas on business transformations
(Cenamor, Sjödin and Parida, 2017).
Fast execution
Articulating about fast execution, it is the capability of the firm to performing out
their plans effectively and speedily which allows the company to put their decisions into
action hurriedly, mobilizing human assets along with the resources enthusiastically. There are
two important fronts on which the fast execution for digital transformation is being hinged on
that is resources and processes. Dynamic resources are again segregated into two parts that
agile resources and technology which defines the capability of the firm to find new
technology and workers for meeting the business needs. For this, AB InBev can make use
video interview platforms and artificial intelligence for assessing the competencies of the
candidates. Even virtual reality can be utilized for experiencing a tour of the workplace.
Furthermore, dynamic processes comprise the structured activities through which goals of the
firm can be achieved (Alavuo, 2020). This can be attained by making use of artificial
intelligence as well as machine learning for enhancing the experience of the clients using the
chatbots and drone. This will help the firm in keeping in touch with the customers, fast
supplying of products and will drive more sales as well (Paramita, 2020).
TASK – 3 (CREATE A DIGITAL READY CULTURE)
For supporting digital transformation in the organization AB InBev, it is quite crucial
to instil a digital ready culture through leveraging the characteristics of a digital-ready culture
identified by Think with Google and this can be done by following ways:
Putting the customer first
For the purpose of transforming the business model into digitalized model, it is
important for the leader to take into account customers as their priority. Moreover, it is
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important to take into account their requirements and needs and then making available those
desires to them effectively (Cakir, Bezbradica and Helfert, 2019). For the current case, the
company can collect feedbacks and surveys through making use of different emergent
technologies such as emails, smart phones, google Docs and etc. In addition to this, it is also
important to develop less friction in the journey of the customers such as development of
varied methods of making purchase of brews and other alcoholic drinks both online and
offline, reduction in the number of clicks at the time of making purchase via online means,
development of profile of the clients online with the features of auto information and finally,
zero click process related to ordering of products using smart phones.
Creation of collaborative culture
This can be developed by AB InBev through integration of both physical along with
the online or digital channels so that clients can without any difficulties easily flip among
them. In addition to this, it is also crucial on the part of the company to wipe off the silos
amid the different teams and must work on their alignment with a common key performance
indicators. Development of the cross-functional groups along with the collaboration amid the
leaders, managers and top-level management on the same level will help in e3ngaing each
and everyone in the company for better outcome (Tang and Liao, 2021).
Instilling a culture of innovation
It is also significant for the company to instill a culture that fosters high level of
creative and innovative solutions and ideas and takes into account calculated risk. This can be
done by creation of building, learning, testing and repeating strategy through running a lot of
small-scale projects and launching of different small innovations instead of having one big
innovation or project such as driverless delivery, GPS tracking, AI ordering etc.
Becoming a digital champion
It is important for the firm to become a digital champion by employment of different
digital technologies in to their processes and system. Firstly, the firm can make use of voice
command for google home and artificial intelligence for ordering in order to reduce friction
from the ordering experience while purchasing online. Secondly, for regular orders of the
clients, the company can make use of zero click mobile applications (Vives, 2019). Thirdly,
different and new ordering platforms can be launched on the website of the company and
finally, they can send drink emoji over social media.
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TASK – 4 (STEER COLLABORATION)
Job description of Chief Collaboration Officer (CCO)
Essential functions of the chief collaboration officer are to develop a lead for staffing
plan encompassing recruitment, on-boarding, compensation and benefits and job analysis. A
chief collaboration officer is also liable to manage multi0dsiucplinary teams both internal and
external that emphasize on the three main lines of business strategies, for example leadership
training, strategic project support and municipal strategy and policy. Some of the other roles
and responsibilities are as follows:
 Business development as well as fundraising appeals
 Lead development as well as execution of annual business strategy
 Creation as well as management client management framework (Humphrey, 2019)
 Management of staffing requirement encompassing recruiting as well as hiring
Ways of increasing collaboration across team members and departments
In order to augment the level of collaboration between team members and other
departments within AB InBev, there are creation things which needs to be adopted by the
CCO and these are:
 Communication of the expectations to the team members clearly
 Development of supportive working environment
 Working with the strengths of the workers
 Making use of online communication
 Motivating staff members to make use of brainstorming
TASK – 5 (DEVELOP YOUR LEADERS)
Leadership style
There are six important leadership style being defined by Goleman such as coercive,
authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching leadership style. For
supporting the digital transformation within AB InBev, it is important for the leaders to take
into consideration democratic leadership style. It is also being known as the participative
leadership style in which each and every member of the team must be given a chance to have
a valued voice which the top-level management genuinely desire to hear from (Ebert and
Duarte, 2018). With this leadership style in place, the company will be able to become more
flexible as well as collaborative. However, for sustaining collaboration and flexibility, the
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leader is requiring to make arrangement for frequent meetings for discussing opinion of every
member and hashing out ideas.
Approach for developing this leadership style
For making sure that the leader must have democratic or participative leadership style
for supporting digital transformation within the case company, GROW model can be utilized
effectively. This model provides a framework for coaching session, a meeting, and
interaction and is quite famous coaching model in the present world.
Figure 2: Grow model
(The GROW model: Similarities between Coaching and UX. 2021).
The acronym GROW stands for goal, reality, options and wrap up. it is important for
the leader of the AB InBev to first establish the long-term goals of the followers and
employees and must set the goals considering the SMART goal setting. This is the stage
where the leader of the company addresses the specific problems. Further, in the next stage it
is crucial to check the reality of the situation through conducting self-assessment, obtaining
feedback from others through using 360-degree method and testing the assumptions.
Additionally, at the third stage different options are being outlined for bridging the gap amid
the present reality and the objective (Bughin, 2017). Once the solution of the issue is being
selected it is put up into action. Finally, the leader of AB InBev examines the choices being
made by the supervisor that whether it is effective or not and whether the objective has been
reached or not. The actions taken by the sub-ordinates or followers are being reviewed at this
stage.
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CONCLUSION
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that for the purpose of having a
competitive edge over other competing firms in the market and to remain sustainable in the
market for extended period of time, digital transformation is very essential. The report has
clearly determined the important of digital transformation for AB InBev by keeping in
account the needs of the customers. The report has also offered insight on to the importance
of leaders in the process of change and for development of processes which allows the
company to remain effective in the competitive market.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahmad, M.U. and Murray, J., 2019. Understanding connect between digitalisation,
sustainability and performance of an organisation. International Journal of Business
Excellence. 17(1). pp.83-96.
Alavuo, N.H., 2020. Modern recruitment process as a competitive advantage in
talent acquisition: A Recruiter's Playbook.
Bughin, J., 2017. The best response to digital disruption. MIT Sloan management review.
58(4).
Cakir, G., Bezbradica, M. and Helfert, M., 2019. The Shift from Financial to Non-financial
Measures During Transition into Digital Retail–A Systematic Literature Review.
Springer, Cham.
Cenamor, J., Sjödin, D.R. and Parida, V., 2017. Adopting a platform approach in
servitization: Leveraging the value of digitalization. International Journal of
Production Economics. 192. pp.54-65.
Ebert, C. and Duarte, C.H.C., 2018. Digital Transformation. IEEE Software. 35(4). pp.16-21.
Escamilla, R., Fransoo, J.C. and Tang, C.S., 2020. Improving Agility, Adaptability,
Alignment, Accessibility, and Affordability in Nanostore Supply Chains.
Production and Operations Management.
Hedges, A.R., Johnson, H.J., Kobulinsky, L.R., Estock, J.L., Eibling, D. and Seybert, A.L.,
2019. Effects of cross-training on medical teams’ teamwork and
collaboration: use of simulation. Pharmacy. 7(1). p.13.
Helgøy, I. and Homme, A., 2017. Increasing parental participation at school level: a ‘citizen
toserve’or a ‘customer to steer’? Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy. 3(2).
pp.144-154.
Humphrey, R., 2019. The Importance of Empathy as a Distal Leadership Attribute in the
Emergence of Leaders in Small Groups. In Emotions and Leadership. Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Paramita, D., 2020. Digitalization in Talent Acquisition: A Case Study of AI in Recruitment.
Rose, N., 2020. Will Competition Be Another COVID-19 Casualty? The Hamilton Project,
Brookings.
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Tang, M. and Liao, H., 2021. Multi-attribute large-scale group decision making with data
mining and subgroup leaders: An application to the development of the circular
economy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 167. p.120719.
Vial, G., 2019. Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 28(2). Pp.118-144.
Vives, X., 2019. Digital disruption in banking. Annual Review of Financial Economics. 11.
pp.243-272.
Online references
Wade, M.R., 2016. Digital business agility and workforce transformation. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/digital-business-
agility-and-workforce-transformation/>. [Accessed on 5thApril 2022].
The GROW model: Similarities between Coaching and UX. 2021. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-grow-model-
similarities-between-coaching-and-ux>. [Accessed on 12thApril 2022].
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