When it comes to technology, I think businesses have responded in many different ways. Some have been leaders in forging ahead with technology, even at times against consumers will. Apple is an example of this; their most recent push ahead was to get rid of the USB port and replace it with a USB-C port (Dunn, 2016). Many consumers have been against this move as it requires them to use dongles to continue connecting to the rest of their technology (Dunn, 2016), however, in spite of this, Apple still has a cult like following. Perhaps the reason for their success is that they have a history of strong foresight. This can be seen throughout their history as a company as they have consistently moved their products forward. While there may be initial anger from consumers, Apple seems to be constantly right in their projections of what will be necessary and what will not. Personally, I was outraged when they eliminated the disk drive from their laptops, however, I can remember a single time in the past five years that I actually missed having a disk drive.

Other businesses have followed behind these leaders in technology. In January 2018 Amazon opened a store without cashiers where customers scan an app, take what they want, leave and their Amazon account is charged (Pagano & Green, 2018). Walmart followed behind by creating their Scan and Go app where customers could scan their own groceries through an app on their phone and avoid standing in line or going to a cashier (Peterson, 2018). While Amazon is forging ahead with projections of opening three thousand new Amazon Go stores in the next three years (Pagano & Green, 2018), Walmart has ended their Scan and Go app due to low customer participation (Peterson, 2018). I would suggest that the difference in success between these two companies was that Amazon seemed to have “employees [who] were particularly skillful in making sense of environmental context” (Malgeri, 2010, p. 40), and they also understood that they could not “focus on external customers without the full support, engagement and creative contribution of their internal customers, namely, their employees” (Gebauer, Edvardsson, & Bjurko; Polese, Carrubbo, & Russo as cited in Kandampully, Bilgihan & Zhang, 2016, p. 156). Smart says that we all have crowds of people we are connected to who are better at solving problems than we are (Smart, 2015). If Amazon and Walmart attract different crowds, this could be a big contributor to why Walmart’s attempt to follow Amazon seems to have failed.

If I had been involved in the decisions Walmart made, I would have done a few things differently. First, I would have tried to harness the creativity of employees and customers (Kandampully, Bilgihan & Zhang, 2016) by conducting a survey asking employees and customers what they saw as a need. A survey could also have been done before implementing the Scan and Go app to determine how engaged customers were going to be. Second, instead of focusing on the technology I would have focused on how the technology could improve the company culture (E-learning, 2016). While I did not conduct extensive research, a preliminary reading seems to suggest that Walmart was simply trying to keep up with Amazon instead of focusing on building more value in their own brand.

As technology continues to progress, how do we ensure that the changes we implement in our various contexts contribute to our company culture and values? How do we avoid copying what others are doing to try and keep up?

References:

Dunn, J. (2016, November 27). A brief history of Apple killing off ports and drives you loved — and others you didn’t [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-history-killing-ports-headphone-jack-2016-11

E-learning. (2016, June 23). Keys to success from Jack Ma – Self-made billionaire and CEO of Alibaba [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w

Kandampully, J., Bilgihan, A., & Zhang, T. (Christina). (2016). Developing a people-technology hybrids model to unleash innovation and creativity: The new hospitality frontier. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 29, 154-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.07.003

Malgeri, J. (2010). Organizational foresight and stewardship. The Public Manager, 39(4), 39-42.

Pagano, A., & Green, D. (2018, November 13). Amazon wants to open 3,000 cashier-less grocery stores — and they’ll have a major advantage over their competitors [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-go-open-3000-automated-stores-2018-9

Peterson, H. (2018, May 15). Walmart just abandoned cashierless checkout, and it reveals a huge challenge in its battle with Amazon [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-abandons-scan-and-go-cashierless-checkout-2018-5

Smart, J. M. [John M Smart]. (2015, April 8). John Smart – Leadership of tech change – WFS 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdWqLNUJns