University of Liverpool: Change Management - Deseret News Case Study

This report examines the challenges of change for Deseret News, focusing on best-case and worst-case scenarios for the company's future operating environment. It considers the impact of technological advancements, the success of Deseret Digital, and potential shifts in consumer preferences. The analysis explores the importance of design and control in managing innovation and risk, highlighting the need for a flexible business strategy in the digital section while maintaining the core business model for print publication. The report concludes that scenario planning is crucial for organizations to anticipate and adapt to future challenges, enabling them to take proactive measures to enhance their strategic position.

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
The Challenge of Change
Belal Saad
University of Liverpool
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THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
Introduction
The operating environment of business environment is constantly changing due to a variety of
factors and therefore business organizations needs to focus on repositioning their core business
and also on focusing on developing a separate disruptive business which will help in creating
competitive advantage for an organization. The current report focuses on development of a best
case and worst case scenario for Deseret News.
Discussion
The best case vision for the operating environment of Deseret in the coming 5 years could be as
follows:
 As stated by Buchanan (2011) the latest technological advancements which are being
adopted by the company has been successful in meeting the demands and expectations of
the customers and the Deseret Digital is largely successful in generating high revenues
for the company and also in gaining competitive advantage for the company in the
market.
 Increase of the circulation of the Deseret News print newspaper as a result of increasing
demand of the newspaper among the millennial and growth in the print advertisement
revenue of the company due to increasing costs of digital advertisements.
 According to Gilbert, Eyring and Foster (2012) adopting disruptive business model in the
Deseret Digital section of the company in order to disrupt other competitors in the
market.
The aspects of the operating environment which can be particularly influential over the planning
decision which Deseret News will make in the current time are as follows:
Design- Deseret needs to focus on designing their business model of the Deseret Digital so that
they do not get disrupted owing to the adoption of disruptive technology or approaches in their
operations.
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Control- Deseret also needs to focus on controlling the rate of innovation and risk taking in the
company as excess rate of innovation or risk taking in the operations might not get accepted by
the customers in the market.
The worst case vision for the operating environment of Deseret in the coming years could be as
follows:
 According to Konno, Nonaka and Ogilvy (2014a) failure of the Deseret Digital section of
the company to cope with the expectations of the customers in relation to service
experience as the target readers or customers seek for unique service experience which
the company may fail to fulfil owing to lack of market research.
 Reduction in the revenue of Deseret Digital from online advertisements and classified
advertisements owing to increased costs and growing popularity of online advertisements
and classified advertisements in certain disruptive platforms.
 Less popularity of the issues which the Deseret News mainly focuses on such as family,
faith, education, care for the poor, financial responsibility and media’s influence on the
values add greater popularity and demand for issues like sport, entertainment,
international relations, economics and healthy lifestyle resulting into low popularity and
demand for Deseret Newspaper.
As stated by Konno, Nonaka and Ogilvy (2014b) the worst case scenario is most likely to
develop for Deseret News as though the company has effectively re-positioned its legacy
business and have also focused on development of future technologies which would help in
creating competitive advantage for the company but as a result of the presence of critical
uncertainties and also due to the influence of a large number of environmental force, Deseret
News is likely to face a variety of challenges and issues in the future. As Deseret is a News
company, which provides news and information to their readers, therefore it is very difficult to
estimate the preference of the content among the readers as it gets affected by a variety of factors
over time.
The specific things which Deseret News needs to do in order to cope with either version of the
future are as follows:
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 As opined by Nadina (2011) Deseret News needs to keep the core business strategy and
business model intact in nature for its print publication and focus on adapting its core
business model to changing market to preserve the advantages that the business model
offers.
 As opined by Whelan-Berry and Somerville (2010) Deseret News needs to keep the
business strategy and business model of Deseret Digital flexible in nature to enhance the
adoption of advanced technologies and disruptive innovation approaches.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be stated that best case and worst case scenario provides an
opportunity to business organizations to take necessary actions in order to enhance the future
state of the organization. It can be also stated that Deseret News needs to maintain its core
business strategy or its print section and needs to develop flexible business strategy for its digital
section in order to sustain in the future.
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References
Buchanan, D. A. (2011). Reflections: good practice, not rocket science–understanding failures to
change after extreme events. Journal of Change Management, [Online]11(3), 273-288.
Gilbert, C., Eyring, M., and Foster, R. N. (2012). Two routes to resilience. Harvard Business
Review, [Online]90(12), 65-73.
Konno, N., Nonaka, I., and Ogilvy, J. (2014a). Scenario planning: The basics. World
Futures, [Online]70(1), 28-43.
Konno, N., Nonaka, I., and Ogilvy, J. (2014b). The mind of the scenario thinker. World
Futures, [Online]70(1), 44-51.
Nadina, R. R. (2011). Methods of identification of the need for organizational change as being
opportune. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, [Online]20(2), 707-
712.
Whelan-Berry, K. S., & Somerville, K. A. (2010). Linking change drivers and the organizational
change process: A review and synthesis. Journal of Change Management, [Online]10(2), 175-
193.
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