Strategic management and organisational analysis.docx

Importance of team work

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Importance of Team Work and On Leadership
Name: Nesiagho Patience Nesiagho
Institution: University of Dundee

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Introduction
Leaders at the top level of organizations are meant to control every aspect of the organization. In
nearly all, if not all organizations, the leaders operate in a top-down model, where the
management is structured in a hierarchical manner. This kind of hierarchy enables a smooth
operation and coordination between the management and the rest of the organization. According
to Aarons et al (2017), this type of organizational leadership enabled success in numerous 20th-
century organizations. However, in the 21st century, the radical technological and business
environment changes have changed the narrative of leadership in organizations. For instance,
according to Wetzel & Nees (2017), today’s organizations are no longer stable because they face
increasingly changing customers, markets, and technology. Thus, they need to embrace, accept
and implement changes in business models depending on the changes in technology, customer
preference, and strategic concerns.
Nonetheless, organizational leadership plays a major role in monitoring the constantly increasing
threat from competitors and new market entrants. This makes organizational leadership an
important but more challenging role than before. Therefore, the main aim of this essay is to
evaluate the importance of organizational leadership and teamwork. With specific reference to
Sephora Cosmetic Company, the essay will define the meaning of leadership and strategic
leadership. Next, there will be an analysis of the nature of leadership at Sephora Cosmetics
before comparing the available academic literature with the company’s strategic leadership.
Ultimately, the essay will make suitable recommendations on how the company can improve its
strategic leadership based on the academic literature.
Meaning Of Leadership and Strategic Leadership

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Vito (2017), Luo & Jiang (2014) and Chatman (2014) define leadership as an organization’s or
individual’s ability to lead or guide other organizations or teams respectively. However, there is
a noticeable contrast of how scholars from different areas or jurisdictions define leadership. In
the US, leadership is perceived as the ability of an individual to socially influence, direct and
support others towards the achievement of a particular goal (Shirley 2012). On the other hand,
according to Van (2016), academicians from the rest of Europe perceive leaders as people who
seek power and authority to influence decisions in social spheres. All in all, leadership is all
about influencing decisions towards achieving certain goals, regardless of whether it is within the
context of a team or an organization.
From an organizational point of view, leadership is by breath and depth the backbone of
organizational success. According to Shirey (2013), formal organizations tend to define and
design specific means of achieving their goals considering their departments, divisions, jobs,
positions and the specific tasks involved. Hence, for an individual to enter a leadership position,
they have to pass through the hierarchical ladder depending on merit and qualifications. Battilana
et al (2010) further explain that the higher an individual rises, the greater the responsibilities and
privileges they obtain within the organization. Equally, individuals in the higher positions are
presumed to have the requisite skills, knowledge, and expertise to oversee functions of the lower
ranks. Ultimately, according to Seo et al (2012), this bureaucratic nature of most organizations
sets the centre stage for the appointment of departmental heads and senior executives who are
given the authority and resources to practice organizational leadership.
Strategic Leadership

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The 21st-century organizations have invented a new way of leadership called strategic
leadership. According to Shirey & Calaroc (2014), strategic leadership involves influencing
teams and other members of the organization into being committed and engaged in pursuing
organizational long-term goals and success, which is majorly within the perimeters of financial
prosperity and profit maximization. Often, leaders prefer change as the best avenue to
organizational financial prosperity. While initiating this change, they depend on tools and skills
for framing and implementing their strategies (Taylor-Bianco & Schermerhorn 2006). Thus,
according to Seo et al (2012), strategic leadership entails the conceptualization, initiation,
implementation, and management of organizational change with an aim of achieving financial
success or profit maximization. In doing so, leaders provide a sense of direction and align with
their team members for effective strategic achievement (Boga & Ensari 2009).
Majorly, strategic leadership adds focus to organizational decisions regarding visions, missions
and core values that set the organization high above its competitors. According to Banutu-Gomez
& Banutu-Gomez (2007), this calls for a higher ability to adapt to the changing business
environment, and sensitivity to economic, technological, and organizational risk factors.
Likewise, Magliocca & Christakis (2011) argue that the adaptability of the organization to its
changing environment is the epitome of strategic leadership.
Therefore, according to Seo et al (2012), strategic leadership demands a high-level analytical
perspective with more focus on team building and human capabilities during strategy
formulation. Equally, strategic leadership provides for a continuous dialogue between

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organizational stakeholders for quicker and more successful definition, implementation, and
achievement of strategic success (Wetzel & Nees 2017).
The Nature of Strategic Leadership at Sephora Cosmetics
Strategic leadership means change management. In the recent past, Sephora Cosmetics showed a
renewed commitment to being a market giant in the cosmetic industry through increased digital
presence and better digital trading platforms. For instance, according to Yu et al (2017), the
company introduced a new technology which enables them to send customer loyalty updates to
customers through its digital platform. This illustrated the company’s ability to test ideas and
determine their suitability to customer satisfaction as an element of strategic leadership (Faulds
et al 2017).
According to Saarijarvi et al (2014), the ability to develop and test new ideas is an important trait
of strategic leaders. Furthermore, integrating such ideas into the company’s value delivery
channels is a major milestone towards achieving the organization’s strategic goals. By
developing the customer loyalty program updates and delivering it through its online platform,
the company demonstrated a high-end strategic leadership capability, creating more
opportunities for market success (Cowan et al 2015).
The company adopts technology to improve its commercial operations. For instance, according
to Sephora Annual Report (2016), it plans to introduce a new program that will enable the
subscribers of its Countour mobile app and Rogue Beauty Insider to experience free shipping. By
rewarding customer loyalty, the company aims at gaining more customer loyalty and increasing

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its sales revenue (Girod & Rugman 2005). This is a remarkable way to introduce a change in
sales revenue because it delivers value to customers while creating more opportunity to push
products in the market (Cao & Pederzoli 2013).
The company has also ventured into delivering customized products to its consumers. According
to its 2016 reports, it would introduce a reality app that would provide a greater opportunity for
customers to customize their preferred products as they make in-store visits. In this regard, Blitz
(2016) argues that customization increases customer loyalty and a more memorable shopping
experience with a potential for increasing sales revenue and brand loyalty. Thus, the company
has demonstrated a great adoption of strategic leadership by opting to include product
customization as one of its success strategies.
The Countour mobile app is not the company’s only technological advancement. According to
the company reports, it has also invested heavily in other innovative ideas and platforms aimed at
improving their shoppers’ experience. For instance, the company has invested in an innovation
lab aimed at promoting state-of-the-art product research and development. In what seems to be
the heartbeat of the company’s strategic leadership, the lab provides deeper insights of what the
next products should be and how they should be delivered into the market (Sephora Annual
Report 2016). Furthermore, according to Sephora Annual Report (2016), the lab has enabled a
successful development of the company’s most sophisticated technological advancements
including the Sephora To Go app, which enables in-store customers to scan and read products
reviews and ratings before making the purchase.

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Literature Review
Various bodies of literature have attempted to understand strategic leadership from the viewpoint
of direction and vision setting, a wider organizational perspective, a set of short-term actions and
strategic thinking rather than strategic planning. According to Cavender & Kincade (2014),
strategic leadership entails setting both medium and long-term direction of the organization,
where the organization needs to be and how it aims to satisfy the needs of its customers. Based
on this argument, it is clear that strategic leaders foresee the organization’s future and create a
dialog among their team members on the avenues to take towards that future (Aaker 2015). In
the case of Sephora Cosmetics, the company has clearly defined its vision and numerously
attempted to match towards that vision. For instance, the company aimed to be a market giant in
the cosmetic industry. To achieve that, the company partnered with other cosmetic brands (Mark
Jacobs) to produce a new product called Mark Jacobs Beauty (Sephora Annual Report 2016).
Strategic leadership involves new and innovative thinking. According to Mahdi & Almsafir
(2014) strategic thinking defines the act of inventing new and unique perspectives as opposed to
practicing the traditionally mechanistic way of strategizing. While strategic thinking has largely
been confused with strategic planning, Bing et al (2017) give a much more distinct definition of
strategic thinking by noting that it is the process by which organizational leaders gain strategic
perspectives that are both futuristic and self–explanatory. Thus, strategic leaders must be skilled
enough to look forward while having a proper understanding of the company’s current situations,
enabling them, to make calculated risks and avoid previous mistakes (Akhtar et al 2017).
Looking at Sephora, there are elements revealing that the company’s leaders have been strategic
all through; from its inception to date. For instance, when the company launched the Mark

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Jacobs Beauty product, the company avoided public glare and the media as opposed to its
partner. According to Kaufman (2017), this was because the company’s underlying product that
inspired the Mark Jacobs Beauty product was part of a larger strategy to release a wider range of
products to its customers. Indeed, as documented by Strand (2014), the company now controls
12%, 15% and 27% of United States, China, and France’s cosmetic markets respectively.
Sephora’s strategic leadership is also largely evident in its strategic way of merchandising.
According to Jaradat & Mashhour (2017), the company’s stores are highly furnished, decorated
enough to give the customers a piece of mind as they shop. Likewise, the stores are well
designed to provide more comforting and consumer-relaxing environment as compared to other
traditional store counters (Tarigan 2016). This reiterates ideas by Aaker (2015) that customer
satisfaction as a strategic objective which is achieved by providing a good environment and a
superb customer experience.
Sephora has also been praised by market commentators for having adopted the strategy of
developing niche lines, enabling it to gain a stake in the market that has seen an exponential
growth in the recent past. According to Bing et al (2017), the company’s strategy of buying or
partnering with new or young companies has enabled it to gain foot into markets that it could
easily not penetrate. For instance, the company helped Bare Essentials and Benefit, two
companies that were struggling but gained a significant development immediately they joined
hands with Sephora (Strand 2014). This confirms the literature by Kaufman (2017) that
takeovers, partnerships, and collaborations with smaller competitors are a strategic move that
enables organizations to take on larger competitors as well as grow its stakes in the market.

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The company’s product development has also proved to be an embodiment of its strategic
leadership. Since 2010, the company has developed various products including Sephora
Originals, a product that has been released in a series of versions including Charlotte Ronson,
and Tarantino (Tarigan 2016). Cavender & Kincade (2014) comment that the strategy was aimed
at delivering variety of products that could promote product optionality. According to Aaker
(2015), providing customers with a range of options to choose from ensures that they have the
most satisfying products, leading to brand loyalty.
Sephora’s strategic leadership has enabled it to thrive amid various economic downturns in the
US retail market. In the recent past, economic commentaries have written much about the retail
crisis describing how shoppers prefer e-retailers for cheaper purchases and variety. However,
according to Bing et al (2017), companies like Sephora did not get a hit of the market downturn
because their sales revenues seemed to be stable. Part of the reasons why Sephora’s sales
remained stable is the fact that it has revolutionized the way customers shop for cosmetics. For
instance, the company has won the hearts of its customers with the ‘try-more-buy-more’
marketing philosophy, where through virtual technology; customers can try out cosmetic
products before making the actual purchase (Tarigan 2016). According to Cavender & Kincade
(2014), such strategies provide a stepping stone for organizations to prevail upon their
competitors and obtain brand loyalty at better levels than the competitors.
Recommendation

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Strategic leadership is a learned skill. When organizations make the learning an on-going
process, it gets easier to make it a culture. According to Kaufman (2017), strategic leadership
entails giving little reliance on professional expertise, functional capabilities, and technical
know-how. Instead, the organization gets more focused on organizational internal or external
environment, giving priority to things that matter. Hence, for Sephora to improve its levels of
strategic leadership, it should spend more time and resources in understanding its competitive
advantages, how to increase the sales revenue, the industry’s general direction and its strategic
priorities and plans.
According to Strand (2014), the company can also elevate its strategic leadership by giving more
attention to customers, talking to them and understanding their desires. This should be done
within the confines of the organization’s structure, observing how different departments and
functional units collaborate and integrate (Aaker 2015). Moreover, according to Cavender &
Kincade (2014), establishing a better strategic leadership entails knowing the organization and
being conscious of what is really not known. In doing so, leaders are expected to explore all the
information pertaining to the organization that they may not be in knowledge of, documenting
them and sharing them with other team members.
The next recommendation for improving Sephora’s strategic leadership is by working on
organizational decision-making. Upon having a better understanding of the organization, the
company’s executives should apply their experiences; knowledge; judgment and wisdom in
making good decisions that can move the organization forward (Aaker 2015).

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In conclusion, this essay has highlighted various ideas that assist organizational leaders and
executives to introspect on their leadership roles. Strategic leaders are majorly faced with two
challenges. The first challenge is the increasing pressure from short-term plans. In this regard,
the increasing technology and globalization have exposed leaders to changes in leadership tactics
especially in the areas of e-commerce and communication. Likewise, leaders have recently been
accustomed to the notion that everything is ‘urgent’ and require immediate response.
Consequently, the leaders are left with little time to focus on strategic leadership. The second
challenge is the situation where leaders are so much enclosed in making little short-term
decisions and not taking ‘strategic steps’ towards doing things differently. As a result, leaders
find it hard to think strategically or differently. It is believed that the recommendations made in
this essay will assist and encourage organizational leaders to practice both.
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