Case Study: Leadership Challenges and Digital Marketing for Wirkkala

This case study analyzes Wirkkala, a company facing leadership challenges as it aims for global expansion and implements digital marketing strategies. The analysis examines the internal conflicts among the founding partners, the advantages of their healthy product line, and the challenges of expanding operations. It explores various leadership theories, including trait, contingency, and situational leadership, to assess the most suitable approach for Wirkkala. The study also evaluates the company's digital marketing advantages, such as an educated workforce and global distribution, while identifying challenges like maintaining transparency and addressing legal issues. The case concludes with a discussion of the ethical and privacy considerations related to digital marketing and provides recommendations for overcoming leadership obstacles and effectively leveraging digital marketing for sustainable growth. The analysis highlights the importance of aligning leadership strategies with company goals and adapting to the dynamic market environment.

CASE STUDY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Question 1....................................................................................................................................4
A) Leadership challenges that Wirkhala may face in achieving the developmental goals.4
B) Evaluate the advantages that Wirkkala has and the challenges that the company may
face with identifying the strategy of digital marketing......................................................8
CONCLUSION..........................................................................12
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management are core components for a business. This is because leadership
sets a vision and direction that where business wants to be in future. Management sets plans
and strategies that how goals and objectives are to be attained. They both are interrelated to
one another in effective way. Alongside, there are different types of leadership and
management styles which is followed. Also, there is a great impact of leadership and
management on business growth. There are several operations which are to be managed. In
present time it is necessary for business to remain competitive and sustain for long term. for
this it is required to implement strategies in efficient way. Leader role is to motivate and guide
employees to execute strategy (Al-Ali and Sohal, 2017). Also, leader work with staff to
develop strong relations.
In present times, digital marketing has emerged as a new concept for business to expand in
other markets. It is a platform where promotion and marketing is done through social media,
internet, website, etc. Thus, it has allowed business to attract more people and generate
revenue. Furthermore, it has allowed in doing marketing in effective way and creating
awareness easily. However, most businesses are highly relying on digital marketing to grow
and expand. It is transforming way of interacting with customers and taking their feedback.
This report will describe about a case study and leadership challenges that are been faced
by Wirkkala in their development goals. Also, it will evaluate advantage and challenges that
company can face in implementing digital marketing strategy along with some ethical and
privacy issues.
Question 1
A) Leadership challenges that Wirkhala may face in achieving the developmental goals.
Four people started the company after graduation and after achieving a good response
to their start up one of their partner Alison is looking forward to expand their operations and
make their brand renowned globally. For that they had to keep many things in mind such as
agreement of all the partners, knowledge of all the areas and the availability of resources
which could help them to promote the brand on a global basis. One of their partners Alison has
looked for the opportunities which are available for the company. Among the four of them she

was the one who wanted to promote the brand on a global level. The reason behind it was that
she was inspired by her mentor (Alas and Zernand-Vilson, 2018). The other two people
Kristine and Anne feels that if they focus on increasing the level of operations or work on
making their brand global then they may loose their integrity or core focus from the
standardized products they are offering and loose everything for which they have worked hard
to build. Dianne is the only partner who is agreeing with Alison and looking forward to
developing the image of the brand using various tools of media. This may create difficulties
for the company as not all of the leaders are on the board and if Alison and Dianne continue
their idea then it will increase the chances of conflict between them. Although the product line
in which the company deals is safe than others and there is a good chance of recovery as they
deal in healthy shakes and smoothies and people are shifting on buying healthy products than
unhealthy products. This gives Wirkhala a slight advantage over companies who sell
unhealthy drinks. There are many challenges that the company will face such as
Lack of development-
All of the leaders are not on the board to diversify or extend their line which is the
reason that it will affect the company to develop the measures and bring changes in the
structure which can help them to increase their productivity.
Lack of Support-
They don't have support of each other to commence their operations which makes it
risky and slightly more challenging. In this situation either they have to join hands and work
on it together or either go ahead or start a conflict which will affect the chances of availing the
opportunity and remove the focus from core area (Binham and Bennis, 2018).
Challenging Environment-
This can affect the chances of growth and influence the leadership of the company.
Wirkkala needs to assess the environment and other forces so that they can train their staff
with effective measures as there are other competitors in the market who can affect the
business of the company if Wirkkala does not maintain the standard of their measures.
Personal Limitations-
Kristine and Anne feels that if they focus on diversification or making the brand
global then they will loose their established market. They are doubting on their own strength
and feels that this move will lead to failure.

At the time of beginning leaders of the company many challenges other than this which
were totally concerned to securing the investment until the product offered by the company
has established their place in the market. One of the main advantage that the company had that
people were changing their needs and wants and preferring healthy drinks instead of unhealthy
drinks. Leaders of the company faced the challenge of introducing new product line in the
category of healthy products (Cole and Fahy, 2017). Leaders of the company had to attract a
lot of people who were ready to invest the money in their project. They wanted investment for
the facilities of satellite manufacturing and for establishing a distribution network on a global
level for their range of products. The leadership of the company is not stable because there are
no fixed rules and regulations for the culture of the organization. There culture do not reflect
any values which affects their image in the market and create difficulties to attract the
candidates to apply for a job. Leaders of the company needs to take out effective strategies of
leadership so that they can assess the forces of environment and predict the right measures
according to the situation.
Trait Theory-
This theory helps to identify a pattern, personality or behaviour of leaders. For instance
level of confidence, courage, extroversion which determines the potential of leaders. Leaders
of Wirkkala needs to understand the traits of each other and focus on a specific area according
to their expertise so that their traits can help company to meet their goals and objectives.
Contingency Theory-
This theory helps the company to work according to some of the variables which are
particular which are suitable and the best alternative according to the situation. This theory
states that no style of leadership is best and will give out the expected results in every
situation. Leaders who are good are able to assess the needs of their team and adjust the
pattern of behaviour accordingly (Crews, 2018). This theory ensures success when it depends
on the variables which also consists the style of leadership. If the leaders of the company
needs to achieve success then they have to depend on a set of variables and understand the
need and wants of their staff.
Situational Leadership-
This theory allows the leaders of the company to change their style of leadership
according to the situation and take out the right measures so that they can assess the factors of

the situation and by using effective strategies they will be able to reduce the impact of those
factors. Different styles are used in different situations such as authoritarian style is used by
those leaders who possess the knowledge and experience of work but this style of leadership is
not suitable for Wirkkala as there are four leaders and four of them cannot change the style as
it will create conflicts among them.
Relationship Theories-
This theory is also known as transformational theory which are based on the
connection between followers and leaders. This theory states that leaders of the company
motivates their team and help them to understand the importance of task. Leaders who follow
this theory keeps a check on performance of their team so that they can assess that if their
team are working according to their potential or not. Leaders who work according to this
theory are very ethical in nature with standards of high morale.
Behavioural Theories-
Behavioural theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are
made, not born. Consider it the flip-side of the Great Man theories. Rooted in behaviorism,
this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders, not on mental qualities or internal
states (Dickinson and Bismark,, 2017). According to this theory, people can learn to become
leaders through teaching and observation.
Participative Theories
Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the
input of others into account. These leaders encourage participation and contributions from
group members and help group members feel more relevant and committed to the decision-
making process. In participative theories, however, the leader retains the right to allow the
input of others.
After all the theories of leadership most suitable theory of leadership for Wirkkala is Trait
theory of leadership as it is the one which allows to bifurcate the work or task according to
their trait, task and experience of the company. This will help the leaders of the company to
reduce the challenges and issues faced in leadership. Leaders of the company neds to align
their alignment in strategic way so that they can align it with the goals and objectives of the
company. The company has also faced many challenges which are related to legal aspects
from their competitors on the issue of public ally releasing their recipes online. This was not

accepted by other competitors. Wirkkala's strategy was to be transparent in the eyes of the
company. To reduce the impact of this challenge directors of the company has hired lawyers
so that they can work on the lawsuit and settle it with safeguarding their interest. Leaders of
Wirkkala faced many problems at the time when they were working on the innovative product
as they had to find employees who are new and make them understand the mission and
objectives of the company (Eriksson and Torp, 2017). It is beneficial for the company that
most of their team are graduated which gave them the chance to work with educated
employees. The value of the company is based on soft values which creates challenges for the
directors to secure the investment.
B) Evaluate the advantages that Wirkkala has and the challenges that the company may face
with identifying the strategy of digital marketing.
Advantages of Wirkkala has that they have the employees who are educated and
graduated which means they have the sense of professionalism and abilities to handle the work
of the company through various departments. Leaders of the company has been successful in
attracting the investors so that they can bring satellite manufacturing and increase the level of
productivity. Also they have the benefit of having distribution network which is global.
Another advantage that the company possess is that they deal in the line of healthy drinks and
smoothies and more and more people are shifting to the side of healthy food as they are more
concerned about their health and they feel that it is better to take care of their health by
consuming these products then unhealthy products. To prove their transparency they revealed
their recipe of smoothies and drinks which has helped them to gain the level of trust from their
consumers and increased sale in the market. With that many investors are ready to invest their
money in the dealings of the company. Other than this they have a free flow structure which is
not rigid which allows the employees of the company to work flexibly and with less stress.
This helps them to keep the environment of the company positive and focus on achieving
more goals for the company (Knight, 2018). Other than this company has the advantage of
using technology which helps them to connect with their customers face to face. They use
mobile devices, tablets, laptops in order to collect the review or feedback so that and use the
technique of RFID so that they can track the orders at the stage of distribution. Leaders of the
company has realized that in order to gain value they need to focus on the analytic of
customers. With the help of this data company has an advantage of fighting the competition.

Also they will be able to get the insight of the current changes that are happening in the
market. This is the reason why the leaders of the company has been trying out to deal with
suppliers and farmers of that they can come up with a new organic line. Company has a team
of 178 people who are educated which is a advantage for them as they help the company to
maintain the level of standards and make deals with farmers and suppliers so that they can
achieve success in the market.
The facility of Wirkkala has already gained too much attention from media and now
they have the scope to diversify their line from smoothies to some new range of products as
market is fierce (Mkhomi, and Nela, 2020). Alison and Diane is on board with this decision
and they are looking out for new ways and methods to diversify and make their brand global.
Alison is thinking of using digital marketing and other social media tools to promote the brand
so that they can achieve success in their idea of diversification. They need to turn their name
of company into a brand and both the partners know that they are not aware of the working
patterns of digital marketing. They do not possess knowledge which are required to pull of this
strategy. There are many factors which they need to consider such as to use only those
platforms which are appropriate according to the needs with the values which are espoused.
Other than this they need to recognize the suitable platforms and factors which are concerned
with rules and regulations in the country and overseas from UK. Also the issues which are
ethical in the aspect of digital marketing. These are the factors and challenges that the
company needs to cope up with so that they can achieve their task of making the brand global
and diversify their line. Earlier they used a strategy from one of these type of tools that is
YouTube and Twitter , on which they started a smoothie challenge to recognize the reaction of
people when they see what ingredients are used in the process of making it. They got response
from over 600 K which helped them to launch their new smoothie which goes by the name
Berry Berry Smoothie and that was a instant success (Peck and Hogue, 2018). This boosted
the confidence of the leaders of the company to use more of these tools as it helps to capture
the market at a very fast rate. Leaders of the company wants to make Wirkkala be a different
brand then others. They know the issues the giants such as Google and Face Book has faced
and created difficulties for their customers. The customer base targeted by these companies are
those who are young and educated people and the most important issue for them is privacy of
the subject. But after their experiment of using You Tube and Twitter which was a success.

They want to use it on a large level so that they can target audience on a large level. Still there
are many challenges that the company needs to assess such as-
Producing effective referrals-
In order to get even a click on the website of the company, posts or content they need
to build referrals which are effective. This is a tough task a there is a lot of competition in this
area. But Wirkkala can make it happen by making the content short and attractive. For that
leaders of the company either needs to get training and learn about the details of the course or
hire an professional who can do all the work for the employees. They need to analyze those
content which gets more views and work according to that they need to work on other topics.
Generating traffic-
This aspect helps the company to increase the possibility of consumer making a
purchase of the product. In order to convince them they need to put content which attracts
them and is unique (Pihlainen, Kivinen, and Lammintakanen, 2016). Then only it will be able
to target audience. Company can analyze which data got most views and from that they can
select that they want to use this type of content for their product as it is the one which helps
the products to move.
Become an expert of video-
leaders of the company needs to hire an professional who is creative in work and
thinks way different from others as people only spend their time on those things which they
have not seen before. Also the professional needs to customize their content according to the
preference of public.
Investing money in the brand-
People who takes help of this aspect are usually more creative. Consumers need to get
a reaction from the content which makes them amazed and feel closer to the brand. Only this
will help the company to make a buyer. Other than this most important aspect of digital
marketing is to secure the money which is required in the campaign of marketing and
promotion. This requires a large amount of investment. This tool is not cheap and in order to
get a sale company needs to prove their point and influence the customers. Also they need to
boost the financial support in order to carry out the campaign and get a optimum return on
investment.
Keeping up with the digital trends-

Professional of this aspect is the one who gives the idea behind it and is the one who
design the website of the company. On the other hand leaders of the company needs to assess
the forces and strategy which are required to make it successful. If the website is designed in
an complex way and it works slow at the opening and shifting to another page then they will
loose a lot of potential customers (Rothaermel, 2016). Other than this many people use
mobile devices and if the website is not suitable for it or cannot be accessed from it then they
will get frustrated and leave the page. If the website is not linked with SEO then user won't be
able to search it from search engines. In order to safeguard the interest of the company from
all these measures they need to make the website according to the current trends so that they
can get more traffic on their website which will increases the chances of getting a buyer.
Keeping the customer first-
There are many companies who are using this tool in order to gain the attention of
people. For that company needs to think with an approach that is customer first. This includes
everything according to the needs and wants of consumers and how they perceive and react to
things. One way that the company can recognize the needs and wants is through E mail as it
can send questions automatically to the user and wait for the respond. Another way for this is
automated customer service with the help of social media.
Shifting through technologies and platforms-
There are many various platforms and technologies which are new so that they can
take the company to next level (Winkler and Wagner, 2017). Professional who has been
undertaken for this work by the company needs to use the best available technology and
finalize the work after consulting with experts so that if there are any changes which are
necessary then they will be able to keep up with the trends. Digital marketer needs to be aware
about the trends and the changes that are happening day to day otherwise they won't be able to
target their audience and get them to make a sale.
Other than this there are various areas which the leaders of the company needs to keep
in mind such as the privacy and security in digital marketing. The security concerns in this
aspect are the same for everyone who takes their path of business through online platforms.
There are various kinds of cyber security threats which can loose the data of the business
which can affect the working of the company as the leaders of the company may loose all of
their confidential information. In order to safeguard the interest of the company they need to

take the help of virtual private network as it helps to block the outside access to internet on the
basis of area. If the websites gets a malware then the impact or consequences of it would be
catastrophic (Al-Ali and Sohal, 2017). If the data of the client is stolen then the digital
marketer may loose his position and there have been many cases where data have been stolen
which will rise the level of conflicts. Also there are other risks in e mail marketing such as
Phishing and spamming, also there is ransomware which helps to complete the encryption of
files and its data. Email marketing is a powerful tool but it is difficult for the company to
maintain the level of security behind it.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from report that Leadership and management are core components
for a business. This is because leadership sets a vision and direction that where business
wants to be in future. There are many challenges that the company will face such as Lack of
development, Lack of Support-, Challenging Environment. etc. Leaders of the company needs
to take out effective strategies of leadership so that they can assess the forces of environment
and predict the right measures according to the situation, Trait Theory, Contingency Theory,
Situational Leadership Relationship Theories-, etc. Leaders of the company has been
successful in attracting the investors so that they can bring satellite manufacturing and
increase the level of productivity. The facility of Wirkkala has already gained too much
attention from media and now they have the scope to diversify their line from smoothies to
some new range of products as market. Also, there are still there are many challenges that the
company needs to assess such a, producing effective referrals, generating traffic, keeping up
with the digital trends, etc.

REFERENCES
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