Leadership Of Bradford Banducci

Question

Task: Discuss about the Leadership Of Bradford Banducci.

Answer

Introduction
Woolworths is one of the leading supermarkets in the world and has been serving its customers since 1924. It is owned by the Woolworths Group. It specializes in selling of groceries and other related items. The Woolworths CEO, Bradford Banducci was instrumental in bringing back the company in the retail industry. The present paper will analyze the leadership qualities of Bradford Banducci and his techniques which led Woolworths to gain back the lost position in the market. The paper also discusses the challenges faced by Chief executive officer and what steps did he take to resolve those challenges.

Background and experience
Bradford Banducci got appointed as the MD of Woolworths in 2015. He was appointed as MD and CEO in the year 2016. Before being appointed as the MD and CEO, he served as a director in the liquor business from 2012 to 2015. Bradford Banducci joined the company after it acquired the Cellarmasters Group in 2011 and at the time of acquisition he served as a CEO. He also held the position of CFO, Director and Non-Executive Director at Tyro Payments and VP and Director at The Boston Consulting Group (Woolworthsgroup.com, 2020).

Source: (Richards, 2016)

Woolworths has been performing well since the joining of Bradford Banducci but few cases of loss was reported. Bradford Banducci belongs to South Africa and he is known for his sales and marketing skills. Brad got his commerce degree from KwaZulu-Natal and did his masters from Australian Graduate School of Management. His development skills helped him during leadership.

Transformational Leadership approach
Bradford Banducci has a Transformational leadership approach and has applied the theory while working as a CEO of the company, Woolworths. The leadership is based upon the relationship of a leader with his follower or with a particular target market. It helps in explaining a working relationship wherein it is the leader, who gives the order, he is one who evaluates the order and decides whether the follower has done a job as per his expectation or not. Both reward and punishment is decided by the leader. When the work is done as per the expectations of the leader then there is no chance of collision. Any change in the micro or macro environment within an organization should be positive and they should align with the aims and objectives of the company (Grimmer and Mortimer, 2018). Leaders help and instruct their followers to walk on a path which can help them to achieve the aims and objectives.

The theory of transformational leadership helps in creating an opportunity for the people to showcase their ideas at the time of implementation. It has a positive affect and people understand their responsibility. A leader having a transformational character can convince a person to follow his beliefs and ideas which can help him to gain development. They have a great influencing capacity basis which a person can change his personal belief and idea. Such leaders are not into completing an activity rather they look into achieving the vision behind doing the activity. Being loyal is one of the key factors to achieve the aims and objectives of the company. The leader looks into a positive improvement in the lives of the followers who are following his instructions. This leadership style may also be adopted in a company where things change at a faster pace and the employees are well groomed about their roles and responsibilities related to the job for which they have been hired.

How did Bradford Banducci approach leadership?
Bradford Banducci applies his previous experiences that he acquired from the companies he worked with to make positive changes in Woolworths. Although he is a member of the board but he plays a role in controlling the business activities of the company. He looks after the activities related to supplying of products and the suppliers, people receiving the services and the end consumers who form the target group of the company. Activities related to operation management come under the direct control of Bradford Banducci who brought positive changes within and across the department. When he first joined the company in Feb 2016, he was reported about the problems that the company has been facing due to lack of coordination among the departments and poor management. Bradford Banducci was made to believe about the problems and he was convinced once he himself looked into the management. There is no big change in the activities of the company which is making the shareholders to believe that the company has not been doing good and selling their shares but be a bad option (Bartholomeusz, 2019). The shareholders fear that if they sell their shares then they would incur huge losses. But as per the market, they are convinced that Bradford Banducci is taking correct decisions and the steps taken would restore the faith of the people connected with the company. The company would definitely develop under his leadership. The chief executive officer has been taking some measures to control, improve and maintain the well-being of the company. He has been following and implementing strategies to develop Woolworths. Bradford Banducci has saved the company from tempestuous times by using his transformational leadership skills.

Source: (Couriermail.com. (n.d.)

Some of the important and renowned approaches are being discussed below:

• Paying importance to culture: Culture plays an important part in every organization. It is necessary to maintain and develop a peaceful culture. When the culture is right it is easy to implement a strategy. Keeping the right culture at the time of recruitment helps to attract and retain employees. Culture is one of the important reasons for employees to join, stay back or leave a company (Bartholomeusz, 2019). Bradford Banducci believes in the importance of culture and how critical it is for the growth of any company. Since the time he joined Woolworths, he laid stress on the culture. He believed in implementing a positive culture to bring change in the company. Positive culture helps to maintain the dignity of the employees and the staff members and it helps the company to meet the needs of its consumers.
• Being on the floor: It is a good a practice where the leader monitors the work from the floor and not from his or her cabin. A face to face engagement with the employees is significant to maintain the required culture on the floor. Bradford Banducci believes in listening to his employees first. Walking across the floor and the teams, watching them work and sometimes doing the work helps in getting to know about the issues in real time faced by the employees. It also helps out in getting a perfect solution of such issues. Many businesses may lead to failure if they are unable to follow this approach. Bradford Banducci has adopted the approach in the induction programs of Woolworths. Through this approach the staff of the support center spends some time on the floor with the employees covering all the stores. The process helps the people sitting in the headquarters of Woolworths to note down the actual issues being experienced by its staff and its customers. This approach also gives a reflection about the career of Bradford Banducci who was once a staff on the floor and now is a leader of one such company. The approach is being acknowledged by other leaders to only in the retail industry but in other industries as well.
• Empowering the employees: Leadership is not only about ordering but it is all about putting the employees first. A born leader ensures that his employees are empowered enough in order to provide the best services to its consumers and maintain a healthy relationship. Bradford Banducci believes in staff empowerment in order resolve or issues instantly. He likes to give back the employees from the company’s turnaround. Employees should be in a position to speak out their heart whenever they feel something is wrong. This kind of work environment will help and attract talented people looking for a job in Woolworths. Bradford Banducci has always promoted empowerment of his employees for a better future of the organization. When the staff is able to take decisions then it helps to resolve issues faced by them at an instant pace. They do not feel that they are mere employees rather they become a part of the organization.
• Positive relationship with Suppliers: Maintaining a positive relationship with the suppliers and the management helps in eliminating the gap. Bradford Banducci has been doing this by implementing communication programs. He has led the suppliers to have a look at the store and the operations department to assure the quality which they can get by using the services and products made by the company. The approach also helps the suppliers to supply quality products in order to satisfy the end consumers bring a positive change in the supply chain.
• Paying importance to Consumers: Bradford Banducci has always stressed on satisfying the consumers which has led him to hire more employees in the store to deliver services at an expected time and rate. A real time service helps to satisfy the consumer and brings loyalty which is an important factor for the organizational growth. Regular interaction with the consumers will help in maintaining the right quality and prices (Bartholomeusz, 2019).

Challenges faced by Bradford Banducci accompanied with solutions
In order to bring a set of changes in the company, Bradford Banducci had to face a number of challenges related to its operations. The first challenge of the leader is to bring back the company and resolve the issues being faced by the operation and production department due to poor marketing tactics. He came up and implemented certain strategies to resolve the issues and restore back the position of the company in the market. One of the strategies was improving the customer culture; new employees were hired in order to serve all the customers, taking feedback and improving the quality of the products and services and revising the prices without hampering the profit (Smith and Lawrence, 2017). But this strategy created a rift between Brad and the other board members as they were not called for to discuss about the new strategies. In order to be in line, Brad should consult all the board members.

The next challenge before Brad was the increasing competition between Woolworths and other retail stores like Wesfarmers and Kmart (Merrett, 2019). When other stores were available, consumers started to approach them in order to avail the same products at reasonable rates. To meet this challenge, Brad has ensured to update his suppliers about the changing customer needs, revising the prices and a healthy conversation with its consumers. To solve this problem, Brad should look into improving marketing mix which will help the company to reach out to their customers across all parts of the world. When the consumers are informed about the changed products and prices then they will definitely come back at the store. The approach also helps to generate positive information about the company among the consumers and providing rest to biased information’s (Feigin, 2016).

Lessons to learn from Bradford Banducci’s leadership style

• Being skilled in the industry is a pre requisite to Brad’s leadership style
• Employees involved in the organization must be responsible
• In order to meet the challenges, better understanding of the follower needs is required
• Bring positive culture within the organization
• Flexible working culture
• Open communications

Conclusion
Bradford Banducci always counted on his experiences gained from his previous works. He applied those experiences and knowledge within Woolworths to establish the right control and take the organization in the right direction. With the correct allocation of workforce, he has ensured a proper and effective coordination among the staff as well as his employees. Motivation and listening to its employees or followers is a must while adhering to this type of leadership style. Adopting Bradford Banducci’s leadership traits will help the other leaders to run an organization smoothly and address all the challenges with a positive approach.

Reference List
Woolworthsgroup.com. (2020) Brad Banducci- Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Retrieved from: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-leadership-team/management-board/Brad_Banducci_Director_Woolworths_Liquor_Group

Richards, R. (2016) Five things you need to know about Woolworths’ new chief executive Brad Banducci. Retrieved from: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-woolworths-new-ceo-brad-banducci/

Couriermail.com. (n.d.) Shoppers top list at Woolworths. Retrieved from: https://www.couriermail.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=CMWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.couriermail.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fshoppers-top-the-list-for-woolworths-chief-brad-banducci%2Fnews-story%2F11eb4ba51d5d52b8830bb933bceed0eb&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21suffix=61-b

Merrett, D. (2019) The Making of Australia's Supermarket Duopoly, 1958–2000. Wiley online library. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/aehr.12172

Feigin, L.M. (2016) The effects of protests and boycotts on a brand and its reputation: a case study on Woolworths and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Retrieved from: http://iiespace.iie.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11622/89/Lior%20Feign%20%282%29%20%281%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Grimmer, L and Mortimer, G. (2018) Retail giants like Coles and Woolworths are shrinking supermarkets to maximize profits. ABC news. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-18/coles-woolworths-woolies-australian-supermarkets-getting-smaller/9879300?section=analysis

Smith, K and Lawrence, G. (2017) From disaster management to adaptive governance? Governance challenges to achieving resilient food systems in Australia. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 20(3), pp. 387-401.

Bartholomeusz, S. (2019) We’re starting to get an insight into the new Woolies ‘ecosystem’. The Sydney morning Herald. Retrieved from: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/we-re-starting-to-get-an-insight-into-the-new-woolies-ecosystem-20190829-p52lyt.html

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