Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement

This report discusses various subjects and questions related to managing innovation and continuous improvement in the community sector of Australia and the Wesfarmers Company.

Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement
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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Assessment task 1......................................................................................................................3
1.7. Sustainable practice:........................................................................................................3
1.8. Five different sustainable strategies:...............................................................................3
1.9. Analysation of the performance report to the Key Result Areas of the organisation:....4
1.10. Two trends in the industry:...........................................................................................4
1.11. Organisation that provides advice upon technological issues:......................................4
1.12. Implementation of two strategies to assist the employees:...........................................4
1.13. Implementation of two strategies to foster the culture of an organisation:...................5
1.14. The community sector of organisation achievements:..................................................5
1.15. Effective communication regarding the innovation and continuous improvements of
the employees:........................................................................................................................5
1.24. Continuous improvement:.............................................................................................5
1.25. Quality improvement theories:......................................................................................6
1.26. One organisational learning principal's role in developing strong learning focus:.......7
1.27. The identified two changes in this industry:.................................................................8
Assessment Task 2.....................................................................................................................9
Part A: Conduct analysis and consultation:...........................................................................9
A. Types of documentation:...............................................................................................10
B. Details of the meeting:..................................................................................................10
Part C. SWOT analysis:.......................................................................................................11
Assessment Task 3...................................................................................................................13
Question A: Possible risks to the implementation of sustainability improvement and
elimination of risks...............................................................................................................13
Question B: Action plan.......................................................................................................13
Question C: Description of process for-...............................................................................15
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Question D: Change management processes.......................................................................15
Question E: Assurance of continuous improvement through evaluation of implementation
plan and future planning.......................................................................................................16
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................16
Reference list............................................................................................................................17
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Introduction:
This report will discuss various subjects and questions, which eventually defines many
objectives and information about the community sector of Australia and the Wesfarmers
Company of the country along with their all sorts of perspectives.
Assessment task 1
1.7. Sustainable practice:
The term defines itself that means leading to a lifestyle in an energy efficient as well as the
resource-efficient way in order to make those resources sustainable in nature1. Examples like
the building of a house with energy efficient feature or with instruments capable to generate
energy from non-conventional sources like solar energy etc. The building of a house with
only non-toxic materials, these are examples of sustainable practices.
1.8. Five different sustainable strategies:
● Resource and environmental sustainability-related initiatives can be taken under
consideration, like environmental management, green office project, various action
plans etc2.
● Waste management and recycling strategy should be implemented in an organisation,
in order to grab the sustainability in both community and business context. It is also
necessary in order to maintain the balance of nature.
● Compliances related to corporate social responsibility manners to achieve
sustainability, for the standing of an organisation in both community and business
environments.
● Implementation of various governmental initiatives, like the initiative of the
Australian government known as the Greenhouse Challenge Plus programme, as the
government also know the value of sustainable practices.
● Initiation of new cultural programmes like green office programme, and a reduction in
the rate of emission of greenhouse gases
1.9. Analysation of the performance report to the Key Result Areas of the organisation:
The performance reports always provide hard data, which must be converted to the graphical
representation for further strategic planning. However, this can be done by the method Key
1 Sharma S. Competing for a sustainable world: Building capacity for sustainable innovation. Routledge; 2017
Oct 3.
2 Ottman J. The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for
sustainable branding. Routledge; 2017 Oct 19.
4

Result Area. This type of graphical representation always in demand for future planning to
the senior employees in the community sector.
1.10. Two trends in the industry:
In this community service sector, two emerging trends are now most prevalent. These two
trends are use of social media for marketing communication and person centred care. The
community service sector includes the public service providers such as old age homes,
nursing care facility, hospice care, and childcare homes, in which the implementation of these
strategies is much needed. As the social media, marketing will help the firm to proliferate or
to serve more through increasing their reach, while the person centred approach in service
quality can make the services more acceptable to the users as it gives more value on people’s
individual physical, psychological, and social needs3.
1.11. Organisation that provides advice upon technological issues:
Brenan IT provides technical support. The company provides diversified services like indoor
and outdoor improvement in the firewall system, general antivirus system and a secured
network connection and provides service related to safety. Along with that in recent time, it
started their services upon the internet too in order to serve their services upon the biggest
platform of the world called the social world.
1.12. Implementation of two strategies to assist the employees:
From the organisational context, it is too much important to perform well in the age of
competition and for this; the teams or the employees should perform at the top of their level
in order to provide the strength to the company. For any reason, if the moral of the team is
down and they are giving an underrated performance, then some strategies need to be
implemented in order to bring them back.
1. First of all motivation talks and discussion about their problems and their solutions, can
be implemented in order to boost them up4.
2. Then another strategy can be, attending a seminar or meeting related to thing along with
the whole team and some kind of refreshment things can bring their performance back in
the track.
3 Price G, Anderson R, Bonn M. Update on Industry Trends and Issues.
4 Cohen E. Employee training and development. InCSR for HR 2017 Sep 8 (pp. 153-162). Routledge.
5

1.13. Implementation of two strategies to foster the culture of an organisation:
Organisational culture also has a role behind learning, creativity, and teamwork. These are
the much-needed things for an organisation to develop.in order to foster the culture of the
organisation or to develop that some kind of meetings, seminars, lectures can be attended in
order to maintain and foster the organisational culture. On the other hand, private classes or
online learning also can be effective in this purpose, as this purpose demand it in order to
develop5.
1.14. The community sector of organisation achievements:
The community sector of an organisation can have the achievements like creativity,
sustainability, innovation, ideas and experiences for improvements of the sector, this kind of
things can be easily achieved by the community sector of the organisation by simply
performing some proliferative events. A special type of seminar can be organised in order to
develop the creativity, the mindset, and the development of the innovative approach inside
each employee of this sector to achieve that.
1.15. Effective communication regarding the innovation and continuous improvements
of the employees:
The organisation facilitate an effective communication strategy for the improvement of the
employees in order to grab that continuous development. However, effective communication
can be done by motivational talking which has the capacity to raise these features inside the
employee. Speech of an experienced and successful person also can be functioned as
effective communication.
1.24. Continuous improvement:
Continuous improvement is the term defined as the organisation achieves the improvement
continuously by just incrementing improvements as well as improve mental strategies by
their old and existing processes of management. This is a much necessary criterion in order to
achieve continuous growth and sustain the position and the brand image of the company in
their industry for a long time.
5 Alvesson M, Sveningsson S. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge;
2015 Sep 21.
6

1.25. Quality improvement theories:
There are mainly two theories present as the quality improvement theory, those are Crosby’s
Theory and Joseph Juran’s Theory. The descriptions are as follows:
Crosby’s Theory: Philip Crosby is the founder of this theory of Total Quality Improvement.
This theory is mainly based on four absolutes, those are
1. Quality is mainly defined by the adherents of organisational requirements.
2. To ensure the best class quality, prevention is the best method.
3. Zero mistakes are the main key performance standard for quality.
4. The price related to non-conformity also defines quality6.
Figure: Crosby's 14 steps of quality improvement
Joseph Juran’s Theory: This theory is mainly known as Quality Trilogy, these are a quality
improvement, quality control, and quality planning if these criteria are maintained
continuously then continuous quality improvement is possible7.
6 Beckford J. Quality: a critical introduction. Routledge; 2016 Dec 16.
7 Belkasseh M. TQM’s Theory. Archives of Business Research. 2019 Jan 15;7(1).
7

Figure: Juran’s Quality Trilogy
1.26. One organisational learning principal's role in developing strong learning focus:
Team learning is one of the most important learning principles, which has a great role in
strong learning focus. This kind of team learning helps the new and inexperienced team
member to learn many new things about the organisation and the industry from their senior
members, which eventually build the main pillar of strong learning focus8.
1.27. The identified two changes in this industry:
1. One of the most important and also identified the recent change of this industry is the use
of social media marketing through which the service of old age home and child care centres is
available and accessible to the whole world9.
2. The next change is the use of artificial intelligence such as security cameras, which have
immense importance in the prohibition of any kind of unethical practices.
8 Schaubroeck J, Carmeli A, Bhatia S, Paz E. Enabling team learning when members are prone to contentious
communication: The role of team leader coaching. human relations. 2016 Aug;69(8):1709-27.
9 Abrell T, Pihlajamaa M, Kanto L, Vom Brocke J, Uebernickel F. The role of users and customers in digital
innovation: Insights from B2B manufacturing firms. Information & Management. 2016 Apr 1;53(3):324-35.
8

The organisation can upgrade their technologies in order to implement this kind of strategies,
as these strategies demand new innovative technology.
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Assessment Task 2
Part A: Conduct analysis and consultation:
1. Quality improvement plans: The Company Wesfarmers provides a large number of
services. From some reports, it is justified that the company undertakes many plans for
the improvements in their service quality. They introduced in social media marketing to
get more customer as well as feedbacks too from which they can improve their service
like cost efficient customer-centric service etc10.
2. Risk Assessment register: The Company also very careful about any kind of risk factor.
From the documented reports, it is clarified that the company performs risk analysis every
6 months and take immediate steps to mitigate the risks if they appear in the analysis.
3. Feedback from service improvement surveys: The Company is one of the fastest
growing company in the country Australia; one of the most potent reason is that they
develop themselves according to the public demand. From the documents of the surveys
conducted by the company justified that, the company needs the feedback according to
which the company can implement their strategy, and also one of the most potent reason
is to get much more feedback, they enter to the social world
4. Internal or external audit results: The report of the company clearly states that the
company performs SWOT and PEST analysis in order to get knowledge about internal
and external environments and also their strengths and weakness and the competency
level also. These kinds of reports also play a crucial role in any kind of strategy
implementation.
5. Performance reports: The annual report of the company states that the company is very
much serious about its performance. So that they perform, surveys in a specific time gap
to determine the nature of their performance, whether it is progressive, or retrogressive
upon which the company takes immediate steps to enhance the performance much more
and better than the previous time.
6. Performance reviews: The Company also give importance to the reviews related to their
performance. The documented reports justify that the company improves its performance
upon the reviews inside their meeting topic also11.
10 Group, D, "Our businesses.". in Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019, <https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-
businesses/our-businesses> [accessed 8 May 2019].
11 Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019, <https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/asx-announcements/2018-
annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=0> [accessed 8 May 2019].
10

7. Policies and procedures: According to the reports and documents, the company take
many policies and procedures upon demand like Anti bribery policy, which mainly acts
according to the laws and regulations along within an ethical manner.
8. Risk assessments: The Company perform risk analysis and assessment every 6 months in
order to maintain the quality of the business operations and to identify any risk and
propose contingency plans to mitigate any risk, justified by reports.
9. Resource distributor records: 2018 annual report of the company justifies that $47.2b
payment was done in the 27th September of 2018; the business was also increased by
21.6% than the previous year12. However, this kind of records simply depicts the growth
of the company.
10. Continuous improvement systems and processes: The annual report depicts the
increase in the business year after year, which depicts the symbol of continuous
development and improvement.
11. IT systems and processes: The report also justifies that the company introduced many
innovative technologies in order to expand their business in the social world also and to
give much more better customer-centric service at an effective value price.
A. Types of documentation:
The above-discussed results and related data were collected from the main two types of the
report related to the company. One is the annual report of the company of the year 2018, and
the other one is the stakeholder’s report of the company. For evidence, these two files are
attached in the appendix section of this report. This kind of accurate and appropriate
information only can be provided by the official reports of the company.
B. Details of the meeting:
In the meeting, Mr Michael Chaney, honourable Chairman of the company and Mr Rob
Scott, honourable CEO of the company shared their valuable times for the welfare of this
project.
Minutes of the meeting: The meeting was about an hour long in which they gave the whole
knowledge about the company. In the first 10 minutes, they mainly described their roles and
their importance behind the success of the company. In the next 20 minutes, they gave each
12 Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019, <https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/reports/wes18-048-2018-
shareholder-review.pdf?sfvrsn=4> [accessed 8 May 2019].
11

shareable detail related to the present growth of the company and recent strategy and
revenues of the company. In the next 25 minutes, they gave an in-depth knowledge about the
strength and weaknesses of the company and about the future planning of the company. In the
last 5 minute, they stated the recent innovative ideas and technologies that the company
applied. According to this schedule, the meeting was performed and it is the real great of
themselves that they gave their valuable 60 minutes for this project work, and this face-to-
face meeting has the deepest impact on this report work.
Part C. SWOT analysis:
Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat
The presence of a
highly skilled
workforce
prepared by proper
training and
learning period is
one of the main
core strength of the
company as this
employee plays the
key role in the
success of a
company.
limited success rate is
present in the outside
market from the core
business and it
creates problems in
the way of further
proliferation and also
in the expansion, and
too its shares also
fails to mix with the
shares of different
sector companies.
The company can
expand their business to
the large market of
underdeveloped
countries like Asia and
Africa, which can give
the company a far bigger
customer base and
consumer chain, which
will be more profitable
to the company.
The competition in this
market can be developed
as a threat as much more
competition if present,
will give rise problems
related to the business
progression.
The use of highly
innovative
technologies helps
them to make their
service very much
cost efficient in
nature, which
eventually attracts
the customers
The structure of the
organisation is
mainly supports the
core business only
and too its
infrastructure, thus it
creates problems in
the proliferation or
expansion of the
The Government Green
Drive programme also
opens vast windows for
the proliferation of the
company as this kind of
acts indirectly helps
companies like
Wesfarmers.
The rising price of the
raw materials can also be
appeared as the threat for
the company.
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much more. company.
Recommendations:
The strategy to upgrade the structure, as well as infrastructure too, is needed by implementing
strategies like the building of a core team who will look after for the steps and will perform
those. To get more success rate outside of its core business the company should collect and
analyse the relevant data related to other industries and only after that, the specific team for
that different industry would implement necessary steps.
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Assessment Task 3
Question A: Possible risks to the implementation of sustainability improvement and
elimination of risks
The major possible risks identified in this regards are:
1. Hazards at the workplace, leading to possible injury
2. Cybersecurity issues of data theft at Wesfarmers
3. Financial risks of losses from the market and economic fluctuation, or environmental
causes
Strategies for risk elimination:
1. Proper hazard management: Covering sharp or pointy edges, maintaining dry floors
and workplace, electrically safe environments
2. Development and maintenance of proper cybersecurity guidelines and firewalls for
protection against theft or other cybersecurity issues
3. Proper financial planning
4. Follow up with the guideline of risk management in AS/NZS ISO 31000:200913
Question B: Action plan
Tasks Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6
Total
quality
manageme
nt
Financial
planning
Risk
evaluation
13 Goffin, K. and Mitchell, R.,. Innovation management: effective strategy and implementation. 2016.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
14

and
manageme
nt
Innovation
sustainabil
ity
improvem
ent
Cybersecu
rity
manageme
nt for
protection
of
Wesfarmer
s data and
the
innovation
Testing
Final
implement
ation
Figure 1: Gantt chart (Time framed action plan implementation)
(Source: Author’s creation)
A modern management report process is to be followed as a protocol for reporting by
employees. Table 1 depicts the responsible individuals for the activities.
Activities In-charge
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TQM Quality control manager
Financial planning Financial advisor, chief financial planner
Risk evaluation and management The risk management team and the head of
operations
Innovation management and sustenance
improvement
CEO
Cybersecurity management for protection of
data of Wesfarmers
Cybersecurity head
Testing of relevant policies and protocols
for implementation
MD/ CEO
Table 1: Activities and in-charge of operations
(Source: Author’s creation)
Question C: Description of process for-
● Communication plan: Face-to-face communication; conference
● Initial training: Meetings, training sessions email for outlining the strategies to be
followed up
● Updated information conveyance: Email
● Consultation for development of plan: Risk management consultants, financial
advisors, strategic planners, change management advisors
Question D: Change management processes
The key change management processes to be followed after the implementations are:
● Defining change and alignment with business and organisational goals
● Determining key factors subject to change and the purpose of change
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● Impact of change and the individuals or key processes liable for disruption due to the
change implementation
● Development of communication strategy
● Generation of feedback and feedback loop
● Conveyance loop
● Effective training for behavioural and skills for accommodating the change
● Designing and implementation of support structures and the need for support
structures14
● Change measurement through assessment of the business goals and outcomes
● Evaluation of alternative pathways of change management
Question E: Assurance of continuous improvement through evaluation of
implementation plan and future planning
The implementation of the Continuous Implementation Model, commonly termed, as the CIP
model can be used in this organisational context of Wesfarmers, for the constant
improvement of sustainability may be undertaken15. In addition to that, the use of tools such
as Six Sigma, TQM and others, may be improvised with respect to the scope of improvement
and sustainability at Wesfarmers.
Conclusion:
From this report, a brief idea about the community sector of Australia and the company
Wesfarmers can be accepted as a part of the knowledge. However, this kind of report dealt
with many questions, reviews, and views and eventually can help anyone to get a brief idea
about these two along with a recommendation.
14 Doppelt, B.,. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government
and civil society 2017. Routledge.
15 de Oliveira, U.R., Marins, F.A.S., Rocha, H.M. and Salomon, V.A.P.,. The ISO 31000 standard in supply
chain risk management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 151, 2017 pp.616-633.
17

18

Reference list
Abrell T, Pihlajamaa M, Kanto L, Vom Brocke J, Uebernickel F. The role of users and
customers in digital innovation: Insights from B2B manufacturing firms. Information &
Management. 2016 Apr 1;53(3):324-35.
Alvesson M, Sveningsson S. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in
progress. Routledge; 2015 Sep 21.
Beckford J. Quality: a critical introduction. Routledge; 2016 Dec 16.
Belkasseh M. TQM’s Theory. Archives of Business Research. 2019 Jan 15;7(1).
Cohen E. Employee training and development. InCSR for HR 2017 Sep 8 (pp. 153-162).
Routledge.
de Oliveira, U.R., Marins, F.A.S., Rocha, H.M. and Salomon, V.A.P.,. The ISO 31000
standard in supply chain risk management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 151, 2017 pp.616-
633.
Doppelt, B.,. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society 2017. Routledge.
Goffin, K. and Mitchell, R.,. Innovation management: effective strategy and implementation.
2016. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Group, D, "Our businesses.". in Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019,
<https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-businesses/our-businesses> [accessed 8 May 2019].
Ottman J. The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable
branding. Routledge; 2017 Oct 19.
Price G, Anderson R, Bonn M. Update on Industry Trends and Issues.
Schaubroeck J, Carmeli A, Bhatia S, Paz E. Enabling team learning when members are prone
to contentious communication: The role of team leader coaching. human relations. 2016
Aug;69(8):1709-27.
Sharma S. Competing for a sustainable world: Building capacity for sustainable innovation.
Routledge; 2017 Oct 3.
19

Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019, <https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/asx-
announcements/2018-annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=0> [accessed 8 May 2019].
Wesfarmers.com.au, , 2019,
<https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/reports/wes18-048-2018-shareholder-
review.pdf?sfvrsn=4> [accessed 8 May 2019].
20