BSBINN801: Leading Innovative Thinking and Practice for Sim's Hardware

This report examines the challenges faced by Sim's Hardware, an Australian retail enterprise, and proposes strategies for leading innovative thinking and practice. It begins with an executive summary outlining the company's history, current issues such as employee turnover and declining sales, and the need for innovation to achieve customer satisfaction and profit. The report delves into generating innovative thinking and creativity, including techniques like De Bono's six hats, scenario analysis, and brainstorming to identify and address internal and external issues. It analyzes how trends affect the company, compares past and present innovation theories, and identifies drivers and enablers of innovation. The report then focuses on leading innovative practices, advocating for a participative-transformational leadership style to engage employees in the change process. It includes risk identification and management matrices. Finally, it discusses means to introduce and promote innovation, including communication strategies and resource allocation, and suggests quantitative and qualitative feedback formats to sustain innovative thinking and practice. The report concludes with an overview of the impact of change and employee feedback.

RUNNING HEAD: Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice
Sims’s Hardware, Australia
Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice
Change and innovation management

Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice
Executive Summary
Form the last decades it has been an important part of the Australian retail landscape, established
at George St Sydney with single store developed rapidly in four multipurpose stores. In 1928
‘Sim’s Hardware’ hired the 60 full-time staff in by expanding the branches. After facing the
down-fall in 1930-1940 ‘Sim’s Hardware’ focused the effective staff management and training
to deal the issues and increase the productivity. In the present scenario ‘Sim’s Hardware’
required the identification of the challenges and creation of innovative ideas to achieve the
mission of customer satisfaction and profit. This report will analyse the internal and external
issues affecting the growth and profit of the company. After the evaluation of risk factor this
report will discuss the use of techniques that lead the innovative thinking with the team support.
This report will lead the process of change with the effective leadership style and change
management tools. To effective control over the process this report will use the risk
measurement tool and risk management tool. At the end of this report a detailed discussion about
the impact of change and feedback of the employees towards the change.
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Task 1 generate innovative thinking and creativity.....................................................................................4
Present issues in the company.....................................................................................................................4
How trends will affect the current and future trends of the company......................................................7
Past theories v/s present theories.............................................................................................................8
Innovation drivers................................................................................................................................9
Innovation enablers.............................................................................................................................9
Mechanism to support the innovation..........................................................................................................9
Task 2 lead innovative practices................................................................................................................10
Effective leader......................................................................................................................................10
Participative-transformational leadership style..........................................................................................11
Identification of risk in the organisational context.....................................................................................11
Risk measurement matrix..........................................................................................................................12
Risk management matrix.......................................................................................................................13
Task 3 Introduce and promote the innovation...........................................................................................13
Means to communicate or introduce the plan........................................................................................14
Resources to innovation............................................................................................................................15
Task 4 sustain innovative thinking and practice........................................................................................16
Quantitative feedback format for Sim’s Hardware....................................................................................16
Qualitative feedback format regarding customer...................................................................................17
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................17
References.................................................................................................................................................17
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Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice
Introduction
‘Sim’s Hardware’ is an enterprise dealing the supply of the hardware tools, gardening tools,
paint and home furnishing tools along with the outdoor housewares from a long time in
Australia. As the organisation is very old, it have a unique identity and brand position in the
market serving with the 138 single and multi-purpose stores in the country, successfully
operating to perform the adequate supply with customer satisfaction delivered by approximately
10,000 experienced and skilled employees (Hayes, 2018). Hence it is one of the Australia’s
largest retailing enterprise but facing some issues with the technology and operative performance
that result the loss and decline in the revenue of the organisation hence this report will discuss
the issues and lead the management by the innovative thinking towards the success (Bernard,
2004).
Task 1 generate innovative thinking and creativity
Innovative thinking and ideas are adopted when an organisation felt need to introduce innovation
and change in aspect that is facing challenges in issues. An innovation manager needs to be very
creative to identify the issues and previous trends that need to be changed. First duty of an
innovation manager is to identify the issues prevailing in the Sim’s Hardware (Talley, 2015).
Present issues in the company
 Employment turnover
Sim’s Hardware retailing stores are facing the loss of employees regularly due to many issues
they are facing in the stores (Jones, 2016). At the time of leaving interview the main reason listed
by the employees were the internal issues they are facing and lack of proper communication
mean with the senior authority other reason listed was lower income and tough competition.
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 Poor sales and lower inventory management
Sim’s hardware is facing the regular fall in its routine sales and also facing the issues from the
delivery of the required goods. Due to delayed delivery company is facing lower inventory due
to this employees are failed to fulfil the market demand on the proper time.
 Labour market and industrial change
In the present era of technological world change is common to be introduced but challenging to
adopt (Elsemore, 2017). Many amendments and changes in the labour rules and industrial aspect
are resulting challenges for the company in order to attain the profitable sales company have to
deal the changes in the scenario.
Tools and techniques useful for the innovation
 De Bono six hats tools
Edward de Bono’s six hats is a very useful technique that allows the management to put the
perspective in separate group and issues and tries to create alternative or innovative idea to make
the organisation succeed.
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Source- (Tool, 2019)
This technique is combined with the parallel process of thinking and innovation allows the
personal and group more effectively with the organised thinking (Tool, 2019).
 Scenario analysis
To identify the issues faced by employees and the customer in the stores manager needs to use
the scenario analysis tool. This tool is helpful to conduct the research in the determined manner
to evaluate the aspect causing uncomforted to the buyers or employees. Use of tools is designed
to get the answer from the people facing the issues. Here manager focus the identification of the
problem and analyse its effects in the company (Kwasnicka, 2016).
 Brain storming
This is a method useful in generation of new ideas that are designed to solve the problems,
usually it include the large groups that deliver their ideas in direction of the leader. Generally it
follows the given statement:
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No judgements- The very first
principle of brain-storming that no
idea will be judged but all ideas
need to be welcomed.
Think freely- Brain-storming
never limits the thinking; it allows
the ideas and thinking how broad
they can deliver the ideas.
Big numbers- The more
ideas the more choice. This is
the reason to involving more
employees in the discussion.
Many heads are better than one-
brain-storming allows the effective
contribution of active employees
contributing by the qualitative ideas
in huge quantity opening door to
many choices.
How trends will affect the current and future trends of the company
 On the basis of activities
Application of the new techniques, tools and theories will result the huge changes in the
operational activities of the company in the present scenario. The brain-storming tool will
identify the ideas that will help to remove hurdles and make the present and future activities
effective (Kitchen & Finbarr, 2002).
 On the basis of progressing of trend
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Tools of scenario analysis will help the management to identify the effective trends affecting the
progress of the company in the past situations (Jones, 2016). This analysis helps the increase the
use of newly emerging trends to growth the production and sales in the current target and to set
the high profit standards in the future.
 On the basis of potential outcomes
Six thinking hats technique is useful to diversify the challenges and outcomes based on the
different colour denoting concept that help to increase the efforts to make the effective sales and
set the potential increment in the future positive outcomes of the high increased income and
development of the departmental stores (Iqbal, Anwar, & Haider, 2015).
Past theories v/s present theories
Past theories Present theories
Disruptive innovation
Sim’s Hardware used the Disruptive
innovation that is unclear and
ambiguous for the firm operating the
multipurpose operations in the stores
with the wide range of the store
chains.
Portfolio management
Accepting the challenges with the proper
training and management to the team
members to support the over-all change
in the company, developing the
creativity and innovation techniques to
of the change introduction and
management.
Dual innovation
This is the challenging innovation that
faces challenges in the innovation and
acceptance of the change. Sim’s
Hardware faced challenges to
Open innovation
Open innovation is the result of the
brain-storming tool that allows the large
peoples contribution on the idea of
changing and innovation that lead the
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innovate the change in the policies
with the dual innovation.
success of the organisation.
Innovation drivers
Those factors that affect the introduction and change in the innovation, these factors are known
as the driver of the innovation. In the Sim’s Hardware, as it directly deal with the suppliers and
the buyers in buying and selling of material and object of home management, its important
drives to led the innovation in the scenario are as follows (Elsemore, 2017);
Customer behaviour
Market shifts and duty hours
Changes in the technology
Innovation enablers
The factors that help the leaders to identify the barriers faced by the management and make the
management leading to accept the changes and the innovation as to remove the issues from the
company. Sim’s hardware facing the issues with the internal organisational conflicts, this will
lead the following enablers (Choi, Kim, & Kang, 2017).
Organisation culture
Skilled workforce
Technology
Mechanism to support the innovation
Mechanisms are the factors that affect the innovation or change in positive and negative both
manners to individual personally as well as collectively in the process of innovation. These
aspects are presented in the organisation on small and at large level these are the main
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mechanism of Sim’s Hardware that affect the change process to innovate the new thinking’s
(Busse & Regenberg, 2018).
 Flexible nature of employees
 Support for the innovation
 Unambiguous innovation policies
 Effective leadership
Task 2 lead innovative practices
After the identification of useful trends and theories in the organisation, a manager took his next
step is to select the favourable and profitable leadership style that can help him to successfully
introduce the change in the organisation and provide guidance and training to the employees to
successfully adopt the change and give the profitable outcome to the organisation. An effective
leadership use two-way communication where every person feel connected with the process and
he easily participate in the training programs and help to apply the change successfully in the
management (Bernard, 2004). Hence to make the employees collectively participate in the
leading and innovative change leader can use the given leadership styles to train and lead the
employees of Sim’s Hardware towards the achievement of goals with the change and innovation
in the operations (Anderson & Peter, 2017).
 Transformational leadership
 Participative leadership
Effective leader
A leader needs to be energetic and full of positive attitude though he can easily handle the
negative thinking of the employees and can lead them through motivation and enthusiasm in
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them (Al Khajeh, 2018). The change and innovation leader leading the Sim’s Hardware change
program need to follow the given characteristics;
 Integrity
 Forward thinking
 Effective delegation
 Committed leadership style
Participative-transformational leadership style
Leadership style suitable for the Sim’s Hardware is to transform the change and innovation in the
environment of the organisation with the effective participation of the employees (Alvesson,
2015). Identified risk of Sim’s hardware were relevant to the decrease in the sales due to
unsatisfied employees and buyers, hence this leadership style will lead the employees with
motivation and will create the challenges and interest of the employees in their job responsibility
as the following situations;
 Effective participation of the employees in the over-all development of the organisation.
 Emotional motivation of the employees to tie them with the organisation success as their
personal success.
 Command over the activities of employees and feedback with the help of effective
communication.
Identification of risk in the organisational context
To identify the internal factors affecting the organisational performance manager can use the
SWOT Analysis; this will help to identify the reasons causing internal management issues
(Helmes & Nixon, 2010).
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