Question:

Discuss the leadership of Bradford Banducci

Answer

Introduction 

Woolworths is an age-old company that came into existence in 1924. It has been serving its customers very dedicatedly in such a way that, it has become one of the leading supermarkets around the globe. The owner of the company is Woolworths Group.

This company is inclined towards the provision of top-quality grocery items and some other related products. The CEO of the company Bradford Banducci thought instrumentally to get the company on track according to the modernization of the world and having a strong hold over the retail industry.

The company owes its success to clear thought and immense hard work for the betterment of the company. This paper will revolve around the analysis of the leadership qualities of the CEO, Bradford Banducci.

This paper will also showcase his techniques which facilitated Woolworths to get back on track as it was at the start and gain the lost position in the retail market. The paper will also try to cover all the challenges which were faced by the chief executive officer and the remedial steps he took to resolve all the resistance. 

Background and experiences 

It is important to start from the start to analyse the efficiency of the CEO of Woolworths, Bradford Banducci. He was appointed as the MD of Woolworths in 2015.

Before gaining entry into Woolworths Group and being the managing director and chief executive officer, he served the liquor business from 2012 to 2015. He could join the Woolworths Group only after acquiring the Cellarmaster Group in 2011.

When he joined Cellarmaster Group, he entered as the CEO there as well. He had also served in the position of Director, Non-Executive Director and CFO at Tyro Payments and VP. He also served as a Director at The Boston Consulting Group. 

Under the guidance of Bradford Banducci, Woolworths has been performing incredibly well since his joining but it is never easy to manage the company with a lost reputation at once. Therefore, there were some loss cases as well, which is a part and parcel of any business.

What matters is how a company adopts to avoid the same mistakes and follows better strategies to make up for the loss. Branford Banducci hails from South Africa and is a well-known personality for his marketing as well as sales skills.

Education-wise, Bradford Banducci acquired his commerce degree from KwaZulu-Natal and also has a master's degree from the Australian Graduate School of Management. His skills helped him in becoming an efficient leader whose guidance and strategies proved fruitful for all the companies he has worked for. 

Leadership approach 

A person who serves in a high position and any organization requires to display efficient and proper leadership skills. The approach as a leader means a lot for the company as under their guidance and strategies the company flourish.

Bradford Banducci displays a transformational leadership approach and has applied the guideline of this style of leadership while serving as the CEO of the companies he worked for. For Woolworths also, he has shown the same approach and got successful results. 

Transformational leadership style is considered to be a management philosophy that works by encouraging and inspiring the employees to develop as well as innovate different ways for growing and improving the strategies for a company to achieve success in future.

In this style of leadership, the chief executive officer or any officer at a higher post openly trusts some of the employees completely to make their own decisions keeping the company’s success in mind. The support from the executive comes from the fact that the employees are efficient enough to fulfil the requirement and can provide their strategies for solving the problems freely.

The passion shown by transformational leaders for their work and fulfilling the mission of success for the company are the most. They also target the employees in such a way that the latter gets a scope to improve and achieve while contributing towards the growth of the company.

Transformational leaders are very keen and efficient in identifying the business processes which are working positively and negatively for the company. They work towards streamlining the process, changing the faulty approaches and improvising the capable ones for the betterment of the company.

Transformational leaders are always admired but this is never the expectation or goal of the leaders. Such leaders never hope for praise or adulation because their sole focus is doing the best for the company.

Their risk-taking actions are well thought out and calculated enough so that if the step goes sideways it can be recovered from a backup plan. The confounding work of the team members and the executive’s experiences make them praise-worthy. The decision is taken keeping the vision, values and objectives of the organization. 

Bradford Banducci works by the guideline of the transformational leadership style and always set a target before approaching any problem. This style adopted by Bradford can explain the working relationship between the leader and their employees. The leader is the one who takes a major decision or gives an order.

The leader is the one who also works to evaluate the orders and then decides if the order has been completed as per the expectation of the job. The leader is also the decider of the reward or punishment in case of competencies of the employees witnessed by the leader. when the leader is pleased with the job done by the employees, so no collision takes place.

Any change in the macro and micro environment of an organization should be for the increment of positivity in the company. The actions should be aligned with the aims as well as objectives of the company. Leaders adopting the transformational leadership style aid and instruct the followers to walk on that path that helps them to achieve the mission and vision of the company.
 
The theoretical aspects of the transformational leadership style aid in the creation of opportunities for their people or employees to showcase their ideas in their time of need. The freedom to express their ideas and subsequent implementation of the same has a positive effect on improving the confidence of the employees.

The people also understand their responsibilities towards their commitment to the company. A leader having transformational leadership skills is found to have convincing power such that the latter starts believing the former’s belief and ideas which benefit both parties.

Transformational leaders have immense influencing power which helps in making the employees believe and act according to the guidelines set by the leader. The completion of a task how is not the mission but they try to achieve their goal by keeping the vision in mind for the long-term growth of the company.

One of the key factors to achieving success, objectives and aims of the company is by being loyal. The leaders take proper care of their followers by regularly checking on them and the status of the assigned work.

Transformational leadership style is also advantageous for a company where things change at a greater rate and the employees are very well versed with their respective roles as well as the responsibilities which are assigned for the job they have been hired. 

The different ways of Bradford Banducci’s transformational leadership style 

 The previous experiences acquired by Bradford Banducci prove to be positive for the improvement of Woolworths. He applies the strategies he implemented in his previous workspace and sometimes modifies them according to the need of the situation.

Bradford is appointed at a very high post in the company but he tends to have a close association with the business activity taking place in the company. He tries to monitor the decisions at every step and keep a check on everyone as far as the marketing and sales departments are concerned.

He is a board member but plays an active role in the controlling part of the company. He actively takes part in looking after the activities being done related to the supply of products and the company’s relationship with the suppliers.

He also keeps a check on the quality of the products being supplied to the customers and the service prospects. He takes immense initiative to maintain a healthy relationship with the suppliers and the target group of consumers of the company. 

Bradford is in direct charge of the activities related to the management of the operations and services of the company. Banducci is entitled to bring positive changes in and across various departments of the company with his active engagements and fruitful strategies.

In February 2016, when Bradford Banducci joined the company, he reported about the ongoing problems in the company. It was found that the problems were due to the lack of relayed coordination amongst various departments of the company as well as the poor management of the company.

Bradford Banducci was confident that he would be able to solve the ongoing issue once he starts taking matters into his own hands and commences his role. It has been established that no major changes take place in the company which is not doing good and therefore, sharing the shares by the shareholders was a bad idea.

In such cases or in times of low prices of the share, the fear experienced by the shareholders is that they will incur huge losses if they sell at the time of crisis time.

But, according to the marketing strategies, the shareholders were convinced that Bradford Banducci was taking correct decisions and the action would help in restoring the faith of the consumers in the company.

The related people as well as the employees immensely believed in Bradford Banducci and that he would help in the development of the company and take it out of the losses.

The CEO took the correct measures for controlling, maintaining, and improving the well-being of the organization. Bradford Banducci has been implementing and following strict strategies for developing Woolworths and had been successful on most occasions. He saved the company from disastrous times with the help of its transformational leadership skills. 

 For Bradford Banducci, it was important to increase the staff involved in the company. The company has a history of having chaotic situations because of no proper communication among the staff. Therefore, it was one of the first major crisis solved by the CEO appointed.

He wanted the staff to get involved in the decision-making process actively. This would enhance productivity and the new and improved motto of the company introduced by the leader “ same scope for all”.

According to this vision of Bradford Banducci, the team managers as well as the team leaders were asked to make the team members aware of the company’s active program and initiatives so that the employees do not feel abandoned. This would make the employees take an active part in the decision-making process together with providing their input about a concerning issue.

This also ensures the improvement of the commitment level of all the employees and getting diverse solutions for the problems. Under Bradford Banducci, employees are treated equally and to boost work commitment, the pay structure was also enhanced to retain valuable employees of the organization.

It is very important to comply with efficient staff and to take steps to not lose them and an efficient employee is a gem for any company. As a part of transformational leadership skills and active participation Bradford enhanced the establishment of positive work culture and security of the job.

All the above-mentioned strategies worked towards winning over the staff’s trust and loyalty towards the company, and in return getting active engagement together with enhanced work commitment from the employees for the company.

This strategy also proved to be fair for all and helped in the establishment of a feasible environment in the company which motivated the employees to work hard. 

The following are the renowned approaches used: 

• Work culture: It cannot be denied that work culture is an important aspect of any organization. It is very important for the people working at higher posts in the company like team leaders, coordinators as well as the CEO or Managing Director of the company to look out for the establishment of peaceful work culture in the workspace.

Only by establishing guidelines, peace cannot be maintained for a long time. it is a practice that every employee of a company has to practice, irrespective of their post. The right work culture is advantageous for the implementation of strategies in an organization.

Culture is that aspect that makes an employee join or leave a company.

The belief of Bradford Banducci revolves strongly around this concept and he stresses the fact that positive work culture aids the growth of the company.

He had immense tilting towards the establishment of proper work culture and he successfully achieved it also, which eliminated the broken and unclear communication among the employees.

Positive and proper work culture not only assists in the maintenance of the dignity of the employee but also employees feel respected.

This adds to the productivity of the company and overall growth is achieved. 

•    Grounded leaders: Employees of a company appreciate those leaders who are grounded and remain on the floor, connected with the former. It is a positive practice that is followed by efficient leaders and they work from floors, not from their cabins.

It instils a sense of equality amongst all employees of various levels. Physical appearance is advantageous for the maintenance of positive work culture as well.

Bradford Banducci never ignores anything coming from the employees and encourages all to speak. Walking across the office, and being connected with not only the team leaders but also the team members; not only help identify the issues faced by the employees but also encourages the formation of a bond between both parties.

Bradford Banducci is the founder of induction programs in Woolworths Group. It helps in finding the correct solution required at a particular time. in this program, the workers of the support centre dedicate some time to all the stores trying to know about the problems being faced by the employees.

This helps people at a higher post like Bradford to know about each and everything about the staff’s experiences as well as customers. This approach comes from the fact that Bradford himself was once a staff working on the floor and is now a leader of one such global company. 

• Employees’ empowerment: Positive work culture and grounded leaders can empower the employees to a great extent. It is important to mention that leadership is not just about ordering tasks and worrying about their completion but putting their employees first place.

The organization would collapse if the workers are not motivated enough to feel empowered as they will not be able to serve the customers in the best way possible.

On the other hand, if the employees are empowered then it would help in the establishment of a healthy relationship with the customers, and therefore best service to the latter is offered.

Bradford Banducci believes in the empowerment of staff so that any issue can get resolved instantly. Employees should not be in such a place where they are not able to speak about their difficulties or problems faced by them.

They should not be in a hesitant environment otherwise it would lead to the development of anger in them. When the staff are given the freedom to take independent decisions for the welfare of a company they feel empowered and motivated.

They work more enthusiastically and add to the growth of the company. They feel that they are treated equally in terms of every aspect and work with more engagement towards the growth of the company. 

• Good relations with suppliers: Suppliers are the soul of the company just like the employees. Any organization would not run effectively without efficient employees and a continuous supply of goods.

It is critical to maintaining a healthy relationship with the suppliers as it helps in managing the gaps. This is facilitated by Bradford Banducci with the introduction of communication programs.

He offered the suppliers to have a look at the stores as well as the operations department so that the quality is not compromised. The suppliers get a crystal clear idea about the expectations of the company and also feel near to the core team of the organization.

The suppliers also comply with the demand properly and quality is not compromised so that the consumers are satisfied with positive feedback about the company. 

•    Happy consumers are directly related to profit: Every effort will fail if a company lacks in satisfying consumers and does not fulfil their demands on time, and efficiently.

Bradford Banducci has always put pressure on satisfying the consumers which is directly related to the hiring of a large number of staff. They are employed at the store for delivering an order at a particular rate and time notified to the consumers.

Real-time service is the demand of the current time and the expectations of consumers because there are millions of options available in just one click. Proper and on-time service provided to the consumers does not let the latter opt for any other option.

The consumer remains loyal and comes back again and again. It is critical for the growth of an organization. Periodic interaction with the consumers also aids in maintaining the prices and quality on point. 
Resistances faced by Bradford Banducci and the adopted solutions

Challenges are normal when someone sets in motion to bring about the necessary changes for the betterment. Bradford Banducci also had to face challenges concerning the company’s operations.

The first resistance displayed in front of Bradford Banducci was related to poor marketing schemes of production and the company’s management plan for its operation. The lost position in the market was largely due to the mentioned faulty aspects of the company.

Bradford Banducci implemented some effective strategies for resolving the issues and restoring the lost place of the company in the market.

Strategies to solve the mentioned issues included improvement of customer culture, hence customer satisfaction; hiring of new employees so that real-time service can be provided to the customers; encouraging customers to give feedback; maintaining the quality of products and revising the stock according to the ongoing demand, staying up-to-date and regular changing of prices without incurring a loss.

These strategies were not discussed with the other members of the board and thus, a rift developed between Bradford and the board members. It can be said that this was a bit out of line and that the board members should have been informed about the changes being implemented.

The next resistance was in the form of competition from some potential organizations like Wesfarmers as well as Kmart. The rates priced by the other company were cheaper than Woolworths and thus, consumers started approaching them.

The solution strategies adopted for this problem were to keep the suppliers updated about the consumers’ demand, revise the rates and have honest conversations with the consumers.

It is also recommended that Bradford Banducci should improve the marketing mix for reaching consumers around the globe. When the consumers are informed about the revised rates and stocking of better goods at the stores, then the return of consumers will take place. This will also help in the spread of good words about the company and putting stop to the rumours. 

The following are some lessons to keep in kind from Bradford Banducci’s transformational leadership style: 

•    Being skilled in this type of industry is very important. 
•    The presence of skilled and responsible employees is important. 
•    A better understanding of consumer demand is important.
•    Instilling positive work culture in an organization is important. 
•    The presence of flexibility concerning work culture is important.
•    Open, crystal, clear and crisp communication is important. 

Conclusion 

Bradford Banducci is a hardworking leader who works for the betterment of the Woolworths Organization. The confounding factor for his successes is the accumulated experience from his past works.

He applied all the positive strategies from the past as well as knowledge for the growth of Woolworths. It helped him establishment of the right control within the organization and take it in the right direction.

He hired more workforce with a view of serving the customers to the best. With a sufficient workforce, he could ensure proper coordination, effective communication, and the establishment of transparency amongst his employees and staff.

His transformational style of leadership made everyone fall in line with motivation and engagement towards the company. Listening to the problems being faced by his employees made him aware of the actual scenario of the company and resolving it by being on the floor aided empowerment of the employees.

It can be said that the leadership qualities displayed by Bradford Banducci will take any company to great heights and his strategies are worth implementing. It would help in running an organization smoothly together with resolving all the issues with a positive approach. 

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