MBA501: Disruptive Innovation and Strategic Leadership Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Essendon Food Solutions (EFS), examining its innovation capabilities from internal, external, marketing, and technological perspectives. The report highlights the company's organizational structure, competitive environment, and leadership challenges. Internal factors such as the competitive culture between subsidiaries and the lack of employee empowerment are identified as hindering innovation. External factors, including intense competition and the need for customer insights, are also analyzed. The report critiques the company's marketing and technological approaches, particularly the reluctance to gather customer feedback and the limited use of technology for innovation. Furthermore, the report assesses the strategic leadership, noting the need for leaders to foster creativity and provide employees with more autonomy. The report concludes with recommendations for EFS to improve its innovation processes, including fostering a more collaborative culture, prioritizing customer insights, and leveraging technology to enhance business management.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Internal Perspectives:.................................................................................................................3
External Perspective:..................................................................................................................4
Marketing Perspective:...............................................................................................................5
Technological Perspectives:.......................................................................................................6
Strategic Leadership:..................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................8

2MANAGEMENT
Introduction:
The practice of the creative or innovative thinking is observed to increase in a notable
manner in the contemporary world of business and that is visible with the incorporation of the
creative ideas in the formulation of the business products and services of the mainstream
business organizations (Amabile and Pratt 2016). The companies are seen to be improve their
flexibility through the organizational restructuring for increasing innovative and creative
appeal in their business management. Considering the intense level of competition in the
modern world of business, Sarooghi, Libaers and Burkemper (2015) claimed that the
alignment of the advanced technology and innovative solutions in the design of the products
and services along with the operational activities of the companies have been a major trend
for the companies. As a result, the business organizations are observed to put strong emphasis
on the efficient management of the innovation and creativity in their business. The study is
based on one such company named as Esseondon Food Solutions which is in need to improve
the creativity and innovation in their business management. In addition to this, the study
focuses on four broad perspectives which are internal, external, marketing and technology
perspectives and apart from this, the study also assesses the strategic leadership of the team
for the evaluation of their contribution to the creativity and innovation in the organization.
Internal Perspectives:
With the formation of two different subsidiaries in the name of EnzymeTech and
Essendon Emulsifiers, the company is observed to establish a competitive work culture in the
organization, Esseondon Food Solutions. Both the subsidiaries are led by the general
managers of the same and are seen to report to the Chief Executive Officer of Esseondon
Food Solutions, Jonathan Jacob. Having said that, the board of directors along with Jonathan
Jacob and Henry Shultz, are observed to create such an intense level of competition amongst

3MANAGEMENT
the subsidiaries that the general managers along with the executives of both the subsidiaries
are trying their level best to outdo the other.
In doing so, the employees of the subsidiaries are seen to be managed like machines
and in doing so, they leave considerably limited amount of scope for the employees to do
anything differently other than abiding by the rules and orders that the higher authority pass
to them. The lack of freedom delivered to the employees of the organization for the
management of their business, is one of the main concern coming from the internal structure
and culture of the organization, in improving the ability of the organization in thinking
creatively or innovatively (Caniëls and Rietzschel 2015). As a result, it becomes important
for the higher authority of the company to reduce their intensity of passing orders to the
subordinate employees rather than focusing on empowering the employees for taking the
operational activity related decisions.
External Perspective:
One of the prime factors that is seen to affect the business actions of the company is
the intense level of competition in the mentioned industry. There are several other business
organizations that are increasing the level of the business competition for EFS and in such
situation, it gets considerably difficult for the company to maintain their level of market
growth. With a detailed consideration towards the dynamics of the industry, the necessity
faced by the organizations for introducing new products is observed to be notably high.
Majority of the competitor organizations of EFS are seen to be keen in identifying the
preferences of their customers for the formulation of the bestseller products. In doing so, such
companies are observed to reach out to the customers to gain important insights that they can
incorporate in the design of their services and products to make it bestseller (Kocas, Pauwels
and Bohlmann 2018).

4MANAGEMENT
However, majority of the employees operating in the research and development
department of the company, are observed to be considerably relaxed in their approach which
is evident with their apathy in going out to the customers to source customers insights. Apart
from the frustrating know- it- all mentality of the employees of the research and development
department of the company, the Chief Financial Officer of the company along with the team,
are observed set such a high price tag for their services and the products, it becomes difficult
to sell the same to the customers. As recommendations, the company is in need to come up
with plans of increasing the collective creative thinking of their employees so that the new
product development becomes easier for them. At the same time, the company has the
necessity to motivate their employees to reach out to the customers for attaining their insights
as that will be substantial in creating new bestseller products.
Marketing Perspective:
As mentioned earlier, the primary issue with the marketing and product development
of the company is the challenge that they are facing in influencing their employees to be open
towards the customer insights. With a precise consideration towards the activities of the
employees of the research and development department of the company, it is understandable
that the employees are portraying an inappropriate behaviour. The employees of the research
and development department of EnzymeTech are observed to have considerable amount of
apathy in meeting the customers to gain their inputs for the design of their product and
services. In addition to this, the executives of the Essendon Emulsifiers, are observed to have
be reluctant in acknowledging the significance of the Asian market which has delivered 30%
of the profit and 20% of the revenue in export sales of the company.
Apart from this, an important aspect of the marketing actions of the company is the
setting up of the pricing for the products and in such situation, the company is observed to be

5MANAGEMENT
incompetent in acknowledging the situation of the market. The Chief Financial Officer of the
company in association with the finance team of the company, were seen to set up such price
tags for the products which makes it irrelevant in the market competition (Atikiya et al.
2015). As a result, the company has the necessity to reach out to the customers for their
inputs and to assess the situation of the market prior to the formulation of the pricing
characteristics (Wada 2018).
Technological Perspectives:
The company is considerably limited in the utilization of the technology for
innovation and creativity and that is prominent with their incapability in gathering the
customer insights for the development of the bestseller products. Even with the apathy of the
employees of the research and development of the company in reaching out to the customers,
the company has the possibility of gathering the same through their customer relationship
management system (Navimipour and Soltani 2016). However, the company lacks in the
same and is suffering from the inappropriate formulation of the pricing for their customers for
the same reason. Hence, the company requires to enhance their ability in utilizing the
technological gadgets for the betterment of their business management.
Strategic Leadership:
With a detailed focus on the leadership team of the company, it is visible that the
company is lacking the desired intervention from the part of the leadership team in
motivating and influencing the employees for thinking creatively and innovatively (Szobiová
2015). At the same time, the leaders are required to be open to different ideas and opinions of
their employees which is currently neglected. At the same time, the leadership team have the
necessity to provide a certain amount of freedom to the employees for the management of
their business actions as that will certainly play a crucial role in empowering the employees.

6MANAGEMENT
Considering the position of the CEO, the company has the necessity to consider the
participation of the external candidates as it will enhance the scope of the company in turning
around in a smooth manner.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, the company is suffering from an intense level of business
competition which includes both the competitors along with the subsidiary fights. In addition
to this, the culture of the organization is seen to get bureaucratic and toxic which is limiting
the same from conducting a stable business. The intervention from the part of the leadership
team of the organization is much required for creating a better environment for the
organization.

7MANAGEMENT
References:
Amabile, T.M. and Pratt, M.G., 2016. The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational
Behavior, 36, pp.157-183.
Atikiya, R.U.K.I.A., Mukulu, E., Kihoro, J. and Waiganjo, E., 2015. Effect of cost leadership
strategy on the performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of
Business & Change Management, pp.134-143.
Caniëls, M.C. and Rietzschel, E.F., 2015. Organizing creativity: Creativity and innovation
under constraints. Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(2), pp.184-196.
Kocas, C., Pauwels, K. and Bohlmann, J.D., 2018. Pricing best sellers and traffic generators:
the role of asymmetric cross-selling. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 41, pp.28-43.
Navimipour, N.J. and Soltani, Z., 2016. The impact of cost, technology acceptance and
employees' satisfaction on the effectiveness of the electronic customer relationship
management systems. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, pp.1052-1066.
Sarooghi, H., Libaers, D. and Burkemper, A., 2015. Examining the relationship between
creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and environmental
factors. Journal of business venturing, 30(5), pp.714-731.
Szobiová, E., 2015. Creativity in organizational environment. Acta Technologica Dubnicae,
5(2), pp.69-79.
Wada, T., 2018. Capability-based cost leadership strategy of Japanese firms. Annals of
Business Administrative Science, 17(1), pp.1-10.