Managing Digital Practice Report 2022

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Managing Digital Practice

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Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to analyse how emerging technologies transform common
organisational operations of companies which provides them with a competitive
advantages. Examples of Unilever, General Electronics and Netflix is analysed in this report
to understand how emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Additive
manufacturing and Big data provides them with a competitive edge respectively. These
technologies reduce operational, supply chain and marketing costs of these companies
while making it easier for them to manage their operations while focusing on the interest of
their customers which sustain their growth in the market.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion...................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
Appendix..................................................................................................................................10
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Netflix and use of Big data........................................................................................10

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Introduction
In today’s competitive business world, organisations are relying on emerging technologies in
order to improve their business operations which allow them to generate a competitive
advantage in the market. The use of emerging technologies allows companies to change
their current business practices by adopting more cost effective and efficient methods that
revamp their current operations. As per Higgins (2018), emerging technologies have
transformative potential since they can completely change most common aspects of
organisational operations of businesses which build and sustain new competitive advantage
for companies across hyper connected customers. Connecting with customers is a good
example since these technologies also allow organisations to connect with new customers
on a global scale and develop products and services which cater to their needs (Porter and
Heppelmann, 2015). Currently, the adoption of technologies such as additive manufacturing
or 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big data, and others open new opportunities for
businesses to improve their supply chain operations. Furthermore, these technologies also
allow challengers to disrupt the market share of incumbents by finding new ways of
production and delivery of services which gives them an edge through reduction of costs
and improvement in the quality. These technologies have both positive and negative
impacts of businesses which enforce them to invest in research and development (R&D)
operations to make sure that they find ways to adopt these technologies in order to
improve their business operations. The objective of this report is to evaluate three emerging
technologies which include AI, additive manufacturing and big data to understand how
companies such as Unilever, General Electronics and Netflix and how they affect their
organisational operations respectively.

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Discussion
There are various common organisational operations which are improved and revamped by
organisations through the use of emerging technologies. Artificial technology or AI is an
emerging technology which includes all those technologies that are aware of their
environments, and they are able to learn. These technologies include machine learning,
neural networks, robotic process automation (RPO) and natural language processing (Bini,
2018). The use of this emerging technology enables Unilever in improving the efficiency of
its recruitment and selection process by reducing its costs and hiring employees from across
the globe. Unilever is a British-Dutch company that operates in the consumer goods
industry, and its headquarters is situated in London, England. The company uses AI in order
to improve its recruitment process as it receives job applications from all across the globe
which creates challenges for its human resource department to screen each candidate and
determine whether they are suitable for the job or not (Black and van Esch, 2020). The
company assess its job candidates while interviewing them on social media sites to analyse
their body language and word choice to determine whether they are right for the job or not
(Booth, 2019). AI is able to screen hundreds of job applicants on a daily basis which is not
possible with human recruiters. Unilever receives over 1.8 million job applications each
year, and it recruits more than 30 thousand employees, and selection of the best candidates
for the job is only possible through the use of AI (Marr, 2018). The company uses this same
technology to provide training to its new employees. It relies on machine learning to find
out key gaps in the skills and knowledge of its employees which makes it easier for the HR
managers to train them in order to eliminate those flaws. The adaptation of AI has also been
cost effective for Unilever since the organisation is able to save its costs which otherwise
incurred in screening, interviewing and training these candidates, which benefits the
company.
Another popular emerging technology which is used by companies is additive manufacturing
or 3D printing; it is referred to the process of building three dimensional objects by using
computer designed models that creates new products by adding material layers (Bhushan
and Caspers, 2017). This emerging technology is being used by General Electric (GE) in order
to improve its supply chain operations and develop better ways of manufacturing small

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parts with high precision. The company manufactures fuel nozzles for new Leap jet engines
by using this technology; the company is able to produce over 85 thousand of these
products (GE, 2018). These products require high level of precisions which is achieved due
to the use of 3D printing and the final products which are manufactured by this technology
are lighter and stronger than compared to others products which were manufactured in
traditional assembly. However, a key challenge with the use of this technology is that it is
not able to produce these products fast enough to meet market demand. These parts are
used by GE Aviation which is a subsidiary of GE that operates in the aviation sector. The
company has formed collaboration with Morris Technologies that supply 3D printers, and
they are using them in the manufacturing process (Conner et al., 2014). These printers are
able to deliver better quality products since they did not cause human errors, and they
ensure a high level of precisions which is crucial while building aircraft. Currently, GE has
over 300 3D printers, and the company has decided to increase its number to produce over
100,000 by 2020 (Kellner, 2017). Slowly the company will be able to rely on this technology
for massive production, which will improve its supply chain operations by reducing costs and
improving overall quality of the manufactured products. This will generate a competitive
advantage to GE over its competitors by improving its common organisational operations.
Big data is another emerging technology that has the potential to change common
organisational operations of companies; it is referred to a field in which large data sets are
analysed by companies in order to systematically collection information that allows them to
identify patterns relating to human behaviours and interactions (McAfee et al., 2012). These
data sets are too large in size, which makes it complex for companies to analyse them using
traditional data processing application software. Netflix is a good example that uses big data
to its advantage by improving its common organisational operations. Before making
investment decisions in new ventures, the company relies on big data to identify the
viewing patterns of its customers to make sure that they invest in those shows and movies
which generates higher views (Krumholz, 2014). For example, the company signed 4 movies
contract with Adam Sandler who has become unpopular in both the United States and the
United Kingdom; however, his old movies had been highly successful in Latin America, and
people showed a positive pattern of watching his movies (O’Neill, 2016). The company
knows that most of its content is focused on attracting a particular viewer base and the use

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of big data technology enables the company to find the interest of its customers which
allows it to deliver content as per their preferences. Furthermore, it also uses big data
analytics in order to target advertising; the company has over 100 million subscribers, and
its data enables the company to understand their viewing patterns (Figure 1). This allows
the company to improve its recommendations features which suggest movies and television
shows to its users based on their preferences (Kopanakis, 2018). This technology provides
the company insights regarding their interests and viewing patterns which lead to higher
viewing rates on the platform. The use of this technology has provided a competitive
advantage to Netflix, which enables the company to ensure that it sustains its growth in the
market by venturing into new business ideas.

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Conclusion
Based on the above observations, it can be concluded that emerging technologies have the
potential to change common organisational operations of companies which provides them
with a competitive advantage. Companies such as Unilever, GE and Netflix rely on emerging
technologies such as AI, additive manufacturing and big data to improve their operations
respectively. These technologies allow them to improve their recruitment and selection
process, supply chain operations, marketing and investment decisions that benefit them in
expanding their market share. Unilever, GE and Netflix are market leaders, and they have
sustained their position in the market through innovation and identifying cost effective ways
of managing their operations while delivering quality products and services which cannot
otherwise be achieved without investment in emerging technologies. The use of these
technologies allows them to find cost effective ways of managing organisational operations
and other decisions that allow them to generate and sustain a competitive edge over their
competitors which cannot otherwise be achieved.

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References
Bhushan, B., & Caspers, M. (2017). An overview of additive manufacturing (3D printing) for
microfabrication. Microsystem Technologies, 23(4), 1117-1124.
Bini, S.A. (2018) Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and cognitive
computing: what do these terms mean and how will they impact health care?. The Journal
of arthroplasty, 33(8), pp.2358-2361.
Black, J.S. and van Esch, P. (2020) AI-enabled recruiting: What is it and how should a
manager use it?. Business Horizons, 63(2), pp.215-226.
Booth, R. (2019) Unilever saves on recruiters by using AI to assess job interviews. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/25/unilever-saves-on-
recruiters-by-using-ai-to-assess-job-interviews [Accessed 12/04/2020].
Conner, B.P., Manogharan, G.P., Martof, A.N., Rodomsky, L.M., Rodomsky, C.M., Jordan,
D.C. and Limperos, J.W. (2014) Making sense of 3-D printing: Creating a map of additive
manufacturing products and services. Additive Manufacturing, 1, pp.64-76.
GE. (2018) New manufacturing milestone: 30,000 additive fuel nozzles. [Online] Available at:
https://www.ge.com/additive/stories/new-manufacturing-milestone-30000-additive-fuel-
nozzles [Accessed 12/04/2020].
Higgins, D. (2018) How to unleash the transformational potential of emerging tech. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ey.com/en_qa/advisory/how-to-unleash-the-transformational-
potential-of-emerging-tech [Accessed 12/04/2020].
Kellner, T. (2017) An Epiphany Of Disruption: GE Additive Chief Explains How 3D Printing Will
Upend Manufacturing. [Online] Available at: https://www.ge.com/reports/epiphany-
disruption-ge-additive-chief-explains-3d-printing-will-upend-manufacturing/ [Accessed
12/04/2020].
Kopanakis, J. (2018) 5 Real-World Examples of How Brands are Using Big Data Analytics.
[Online] Available at: https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/5-real-world-examples-of-how-
brands-are-using-big-data-analytics/ [Accessed 12/04/2020].

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Krumholz, H.M. (2014) Big data and new knowledge in medicine: the thinking, training, and
tools needed for a learning health system. Health Affairs, 33(7), pp.1163-1170.
Marr, B. (2018) The Amazing Ways How Unilever Uses Artificial Intelligence To Recruit &
Train Thousands Of Employees. [Online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/12/14/the-amazing-ways-how-unilever-
uses-artificial-intelligence-to-recruit-train-thousands-of-employees/#2642f30b6274
[Accessed 12/04/2020].
McAfee, A., Brynjolfsson, E., Davenport, T.H., Patil, D.J. and Barton, D. (2012) Big data: the
management revolution. Harvard business review, 90(10), pp.60-68.
O’Neill, E. (2016) 10 companies that are using big data. [Online] Available at:
https://www.icas.com/thought-leadership/technology/10-companies-using-big-data
[Accessed 12/04/2020].
Porter, M.E. and Heppelmann, J.E. (2015) How smart, connected products are transforming
companies. Harvard business review, 93(10), pp.96-114.

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Appendix
Figure 1: Netflix and use of Big data
(Source: Kopanakis, 2018)