Digital Transformation of Westfield: Ethical and IT Governance Analysis

This case study explores the digital transformation of Westfield and its ethical and IT governance implications. It discusses the frameworks for analysis, ethical consequences, and recommended strategies for maintaining a competitive advantage.

Running head: WESTFIELD CASE STUDY
WESTFIELD CASE STUDY
Name of the Student
Name of the Organization
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The main aim of the study is to research the case study regarding the digital
transformation of Westfield by properly depicting the frameworks for the analysis that is the
ethical and the IT governance. This is done by deciding upon and the utilisation of proper
frameworks for analysis. All the ethical consequences of the movement to a digital firm upon
diversity as well as inclusion. All the IT governance issues are considered and some technologies
are utilised for achieving the inclusion during the maintenance of a competitive advantage. At
the end of the report, a number of recommendations are made which have to be convinced for
adopting all the recommendations.

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Introduction
After the Westfield Group has been challenged by the profound change in the behaviour
of shopper which has been driven by the particular connectivity enabled by technology, it has
become very much apparent that this can be a great disruption with a huge band or rather an
opportunity which will be transformative for connecting the shoppers who are digital with huge
number of centers for shopping which greatly improved the experience of shopping. It has been
observed that by the year 2012 several Westfield Labs have been set up for leveraging the
ecosystem of retail with a fully innovative mobile, social as well as opportunities for digital
marketing which will be converging all the online shoppers with that of the physical world. The
main aim of the study is to provide all the ethical consequences of the movement towards a
digital firm on both inclusion as well as diversity. There are a number of recommendations
which have been provided at the end and all such recommendations are to be well convinced by
the management for adopting them. It has been observed nowadays that several digital
storefronts, collect and click hubs, networks of Wi-Fi, frictionless payment services of the
parking of car, apps for mobile service of food and the web platform of mall which is searchable
are all integrating retailers as well as helping all the shoppers a lot for searching what they
mainly require in their local shopping center of Westfield.
Framework for analysis
IT governance
Framework for the Enterprise IT governance will be mainly aimed at aligning with all the
values, visions and all the missions of the enterprise. This will be mainly a framework which will
be describing all the methods where all the ICT professionals will be able to monitor, implement

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as well as manage the governance of IT within the enterprise. It mainly comprises of all the sets
of practices as well as responsibilities which will be undertaken by the management of the top
for providing a strategic direction and also for achieving all the objectives as well as the risk
management. It will also be verifying that the enterprise is utilising all the resources of IT
responsibly.
 Drivers of Business related to the governance of IT- It has been observed that the Westfield
heavily rely upon the IT for running their operations of business and enabling a number of
full new strategies and also competing in the marketplace which is fast moving. There are
some sections which can elaborate such drivers of business in a much detailed way:
 Keeping on running the business- Nowadays, systems of IT are seen to be executing millions
of several instructions in just few seconds. Hence, systems of IT are totally indispensable for
Westfield in order to keep the business running.
 Realizing of the value of business- The organization must realize the value of business and
must adopt full new strategies for making all the IT initiatives successful and for keeping all
the issues which are very much potential into consideration.
 Increasing compliance which is regulatory- Legislation has been seen to have a much greater
impact upon the business and the utilisation of IT. It has been seen that a compliance which
is regulatory is a prerequisite for the organization.
 Accountability establishment- All the stakeholders and all of their interests must be upon the
achievement of all the initiatives of the governance of IT which will be involving each and
everyone in a particular group for performing their particular roles as well as responsibilities
for completing their tasks successfully.

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Ethical Governance
The ACS code of ethics is mainly responsible for describing all the principles as well as
values which every members of the group must see in the particular course of their respective
works (Acs.org.au. 2019). Such rules of conduct are mainly for guiding all the behaviours while
acting within or on behalf of Westfield. Being member of ACS, it is very much important for
upholding as well as advancing the effectiveness, dignity as well as the honour of being a
specific professional. This is seen to be involving in addition towards being a good citizen as
well as acting within the law. The ACS code comply with such values of ACS which involves:
The public interest’s primacy- In this particular context of this Code, the interest of the public
mainly takes the main precedence over all the private, sectoral as well as personal interests and
any kind of conflicts are to be resolved in the interest of the public.
Quality of the improvement of life- The ethical approach to the work must be helping a lot in
recognizing as well as minimizing all of the effects which are adverse.
Honesty- It is to be remembered that the confidence of the public in the profession is not to be
broken and a specific trust is to be built among all the stakeholders.
Competence- Only those work is to be accepted by an individual which he will be capable of
and who will not hesitate much for obtaining an extra knowledge from all the individuals who
will be suitably qualified whenever it will be advisable.
Professional development- It is very much important for staying informed about all the full new
technologies, standards as well as practices which will be relevant to the work. Several steps are
to be undertaken for ensuring that difficult experience is conveyed in such a way that all the
recipients strive for the promotion of their individual skills and taking upon extra responsibilities.

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Professionalism- Everyone possess with the right to be well treated with both respect as well as
dignity. Discrimination is considered to be a behaviour which is considered to be totally
unprofessional like a form of harassment. It also provide support for taking several proper
actions involving all the irregularities which will be reporting and it is to be found that any
member of the ACS code of ethics is involved in a behaviour which is totally unethical.
Ethical consequences and technologies
There are ethical consequences associated with business, when a firm moves its
operations to a digital platform based on inclusion and diversity. The movement raises IT
governance issues and therefore understanding of the type of technology required to handle the
issues is of major concern. On analyzing the case of Westfield mall in Australia, who has moved
its traditional services to an enhanced digital service, the idea of embracing inclusion in the
business process has a high chance of inculcating humanity and sensitivity in the workforce of
Westfield mall. The organizational culture and behavior plays vital role in establishing the pillars
of strength for an enterprise or an organization. Behavior plays a crucial role in improving the
overall customer shopping experience and satisfaction. The framework of a business process is
heavily depended on the ethical code of conduct. Ethics is highly important in the business
process to hire new job applicants and provide them the capability to demonstrate their acquired
skills like resilience, patience, communication, empathy, self-motivation and flexibility. The
abilities mentioned hold the potential to provide Westfield an added competitive edge in the
market place when compared to others. Digital transformation is of primary concern, to
constantly develop itself in the growing market and truly enjoy the potential of the IT tools
implemented in the business process. The effective strategy to move to a digital firm, requires
smart handling of the new changes occurring in the market place with proper addressing of the

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connected ethical issues. If and when a firm fails to incorporate the digitalized world into their
business system, there is a high chance of the organization falling prey to Digital Darwinism.
Digital Darwinism greatly affects the growth and development of an organization. The Westfield
mall has implemented numerous IT tools in their system to converge the digital customers to the
physical shopping mall. For aligning the ethical conducts with the instances of the firm,
Westfield not only focuses on the technologies but also need to make critical decision for
maintain IT ethics and governance. Trust and integrity can be leveraged which would possibly
transform inclusion from a program driven concept into the competency driven concept. The
transformation of inclusion will surely improve customer experience and build a decent shopping
ambience. Incorporation of AI and cloud services in the business model will add value to the pre-
existing IT models in the organization. AI will improve the working of the business model by
positively impacting customer service and delivery. Data can be easily collected from the cloud
and it is one of the greatest reservoirs for data storage. IT governance is an integral part of
organizational governance; therefore Westfield requires to make a thorough analysis of the
objectives set by the organization and build a supportive framework with repetitive processes.
This is done to support the numerous decisions which are in line with the IT investments syncing
with the aims and objectives of the organization. IT governance in a firm helps ensure that the IT
decision taken by the company focuses on the following facts that are as follows:
 Monitoring the multiple stages of IT for achieving the desired aims and schemes.
 Direction and evaluation of IT tools to serve and support the objectives of the organization.
 Usage of the various strategies of IT and the associated policies in order to achieve the
purpose it solves.

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 Aligning the set of strategies of the IT system and tools to sync with the goals of the
company.
The process of developing and effective governance must take ethical issues into
consideration which will be a significant part of the transformation process required and desired
by the organisation. Westfield mall should work in accordance to the set ethics which are highly
important in execution of various business processes in the company. To create a string base for
the digital platform implemented in Westfield mall, management and governance play a crucial
role. COBIT 5 and ISO/IEC 38500 frameworks are required to be analysed in the IT domain of
the Westfield mall. The standard specifically provides the guidelines to serve the members of the
governing body of the firm on the basis of effectiveness, acceptability and lastly efficient
utilisation of the IT tools implemented in the organisation. The guidelines provided by ISO serve
as a mean for organisations to link the concept of corporate governance. The Westfield Company
should align the process of transformation to this standard and work accordance to the principles
that are as follows:
1. Acquisition: In the case of IT governance, IT acquisitions are aligned to gather valid reasons
which are based on the analysis provided currently along with the decision making process of the
organisation. The appropriate balance in IT governance regulation lies among benefits, costs,
risks and several opportunities both in the short and long term.
2. Responsibility: To properly function in the work domain, it is crucial for the employees of the
organisation to clearly understand individual role in the organisation and work efficiently to
increase self-productivity which will culminate to increased organisational productivity.

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Employee responsibility improves the strategic plans in regard to the IT services and the demand
is addressed for the transformation to a digital platform.
3. Strategy: When an organisation is developing a strategy, it is important for the organisation to
consider both the present and past market condition to develop a potential IT plan. IT capabilities
of the past and present, and its incorporation in the organisation aids in satisfying the ongoing
requirements in the strategy development of the business.
4. Performance: IT performance is of crucial value to enhance the productivity of the
organisation. IT supports the numerous business operations in the firm by providing services
which are of quality value for the execution of business processes in the organisation.
5. Conformance: Practices and policies should be clearly defined and implemented for the sake
of customer satisfaction and experience. IT policies should be in accordance with the mandatory
regulations and legislation in order to bring in the required transformation in the business process
of the organization.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that there are three technological trends which involve the ubiquity of
information in the form of digital, the huge spread utilisation of the networks of computer and
the faster proliferation of the world wide web have profound a number of implications for the
way any intellectual property has been created, accessed as well as distributed by virtually most
of the sectors of the society. Similarly the rise in the digital market opportunities and the
introduction of several digitally enabled innovations have helped a lot in gaining huge
competitive advantage in the market. It has been that while providing a proper access level to the
digital intellectual property lies centrally for realizing the promise of the infrastructure of the

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information. It can be noticed that while ensuring this particular proper level of access becomes a
specific reality which is capable of raising a huge number of tough issues which may finally
constitute the digital data. On the other hand, there are a number of benefits which will be
enjoying greatly by the enterprise. Some of them will be including the reduction in the cost,
consolidation of the operations, analytics, better focus which will be customer centric,
development of full new products as well as services, accurate segmentation within the market,
improvement of the silos, universal experience of the customers and increment in both
innovation as well as agility.
Recommendations
 Although it has been observed that all the recent trends are expressing themselves to highly
varying degrees in several markets around the entire world and it is believed that they are
highly relevant globally and must be taken to heart irrespective of wherever the companies of
mall are operated. It is very much important for understanding some of the strategic
considerations while figuring out how to react for the best.
 Evolution of the offering by clearly defining a clear proposition of value for both the retailers
as well as the customers by directly anchoring it upon the deeper insights of the customers
and several economics which will be bullet proof. Among all the larger options for the
enhancement of the experience of the customers, it is highly possible for identifying all the
initiatives which will be able to substantially boost the satisfaction of all the customers.
 Increment the production as well as the efficiency of the recent base of the mall with the help
of a review mainly a strategic one of the mix of the tenant by taking into account all the
needs of consumers and all the various economics of the retailers. This analysis may be

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helping a lot in guiding the rent pricing management and the overall planning which is
commercial. The actual focus must be upon the strict management of all the costs which are
both direct as well as indirect combined with the efficiency which will be highly operational
and this will be critical for a successful transformations of the experience of the customers.
 Several teams are to be created for the customer experience which will be highly responsible
for the integration as well as the creation of a unified customer initiative’s vision.
 Creation of few teams of retail which will be highly capable of working upon several
partnerships with several retailers or rather alternatively by operating several retail operations
themselves.
It is to be remembered that the world of retail is altering dramatically to a great extent but
still the mall may possess a central role in all the societies which are both urban as well as
suburban. Thus for avoiding becoming what is called a historical anachronism which will be an
aberration not at all meeting all the needs of the public, the operators of the mall of Westfield
must be continuing the expansion of their respective horizons of what a mall can actually be.

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References
Acs.org.au. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-
documents/Code-of-Ethics.pdf [Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].
Acs.org.au. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-
regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf [Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].

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