In the postmodern-day organisation, acknowledgement of the facts today is that the
retail sector has changed dramatically over the past ten years. Boom periods, surplus
shopping and good times have ended. We have entered an era of harsh changes,
business collapse, mergers, acquisitions and turbulent competitive environments that
demand a constant review of business structure, financial performance, business
practices and value creation to provide any hope of the ability to trade sustainably into
the future.
Responsiveness by retailers in this modern day driven by market need changes causes
an almost instantaneous response by retailers to adapt and service the consumer
demand. Thus, in evaluation of the underlying reasons for retail market shifts, one
starting with the basic premise and rule of the law of natural selection – adapt to the
environment, or die. No doubt that customer demand and the competitive landscape
dictate effective and quick response from retailers, driving the form, shape, volume and
nature of change.
Present day marketplace forces are generally forming a worldwide consumer
marketplace that will appear dramatically different since 2010, pushing retailers to bring
about fundamental improvements to their methods and business models in order to
survive. Conventional campaigns will stop being sufficient to deal with trends which may
drive the retail markets into the realm of extreme conditions.
Retailers in South Africa, albeit not directly, are impacted by global shifts and changes.
In an environment with increasing competition and the growing demands for operational
efficiencies, sustained profits and customer orientation, SA retailers are looking beyond
their traditional business models and organisational boundaries to develop and leverage
the resources and capabilities of international best practice to create superior value and
drive competitive advantages in the marketplace.
Value-add in making things work better for customers, albeit through various business
enhancement and improvement initiatives, the longer their relationship will endure with
the company. Thus the potential of adopting a deliberate creativity approach within the
broader strategic planning process of a company, might well be the value-add activity
that provides the catalyst for closing the performance gap, through bridging and integrating the core concepts of creativity and applying these concepts within real
business operations, with the explicit aim of improving business profitability.
To this end, the study originated from a need for a creativity-driven approach to
enhance business performance in a retail organisation and not only challenge current
paradigms, but redefine furniture retailing and create new furniture retailing operating
models. In so doing, using a deliberate creativity-driven approach, that will catapult
furniture retail onto a new performance curve that ultimately creates shareholder value
through an enhanced customer proposition. The researcher embarked on a journey to
establish whether a structured deliberate creativity change management framework
could improve a company’s competitiveness, effectiveness and profitability; and to what
degree a creativity framework can be used to enhance performance within a company.
The research study results and findings, together with the financial performance results
revealed that the creativity interventions deployed did in fact enhance business
performance (financial, cultural, productivity and organisational behaviour) over the
specific study period.
The study also includes the design of a Conceptual Deliberate Creativity Framework,
Conceptual Deliberate Creativity Strategy, Conceptual Deliberate Creativity
Implementation Plan and an Integrated Beyonder Scorecard, which can be applied to
any type of retail business across numerous diverse disciplines. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/12232 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Arendse, Sedick |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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