Introduction
Companies are facing increased corporate challenges that threaten their existence in the modern competitive markets (Weiner, 2009). The ability to remain resilient and adaptive to changes within the organization and its external environment makes organizations strive in transforming their operations. According to Weiner (2009), corporate change is an effective way of solving organizational problems and making appropriate transformations that are necessary in the construction of healthy organizations. In the United Arab Emirates, Emaar acts as a public joint stock company (PJSC) that deals with the construction of residential estates and commercial buildings. The paper presents a case study of Emaar Properties to demonstrate organizational development and corporate change in the aspect of e-commerce.
Overview of the Emaar Company
Emaar is a public joint stock company located in Dubai and deals with the construction of residential homes and master-planned commercial buildings around Dubai and other major cities of the UAE (Emaar, 2014). The Company has a noble reputation because it has built historical buildings such as the Armani Hotel Dubai and the Dubai Mall, which are known for entertainment activities and shopping centers. The company endeavors to venture in lifestyle needs and create state-of-art commercial buildings that provide value-added services including the hospitality sector (Emaar, 2014). The company has made significant success in setting core business infrastructure, enhancing innovation, advancing technologies, and promoting real estate development within the UAE and across the Middle East.
The Main Problem Unraveled
After investigating the advertising, marketing, and service promotion techniques through the balanced scorecard, the company noticed that customers had difficulties in understanding their business portfolio, the operations of the company, and the services offered (Emaar, 2014). Although Emaar is an outstanding company with a substantial reputation in creating master-planned communities within the hospitality sector, current potential consumers are unaware of the business portfolio of the company (Emaar, 2014). The process of locating the company and finding its services occurred physically as the customers had to visit the offices of the company. Owing to lack of the e-commerce system, the company lacked proper information, which made it experience low sales volume and incur huge financial losses.
The Conduit of Discovering E-commerce
Through the development of the state-of-the art construction in the real estate industry and commercial housing, Emaar (2014) needed an advanced customer and a business network system that would spur business growth. By conducting an investigative research about its business and marketing techniques in the real estate industry using the balanced scorecard, the company discovered low customer turnover, especially when compared to similar firms within the UAE economy (Emaar, 2014). Consumers constantly lamented about the rigorous and tiresome process the company subjected them to when they sought services using the conventional procedures. After a series of consultations, Emaar emerged with the idea of e-commerce.
The Expected Solutions of the E-commerce
Through the idea of integrating e-commerce in the business operations, Emaar discovered and anticipated that the e-commerce system would solve major marketing and business communication problems (Emaar, 2014). In terms of marketing, Emaar thought that the e-commerce system would assist the company in advertising its corporate activities to reach the prospective investors and consumers interested in their activities and investing in the company. Emaar presumed that e-commerce would help in generating new business ideas and sharing marketing experiences with other firms, which would spur sales outcomes and enhance firm’s productivity (Emaar, 2014). Emaar envisaged that e-commerce would ease communication between the prospective consumers in the market, develop effective relationship between departments, and leverage marketing techniques.
Deciding to Adopt the E-commerce System
The move towards corporate change is challenging for decision makers remain in quandary whether the strategy would actually work or would unfortunately have a detrimental impact on the organizational performance (Weiner, 2009). Using the balanced scorecard as a business system tool for analyzing organizational problems and finding solutions, the company carried out a critical investigation of e-commerce. Balanced scorecard relies on an assessment system that weigh out financial objectives of a company, interior business operations, employee growth, and customer satisfaction (Bose & Thomas, 2007). After a scorecard analysis, the company discovered that customer satisfaction was low and business processes were becoming ineffective. Hence, the company adopted e-commerce due to its cost effectiveness and transformative abilities.
Concerns in the Implementation Process
As e-commerce was a new business strategy in Emaar, the company was reluctant to undertake structural re-organization of human resource and integrate e-commerce business system effectively (Emaar, 2014). The company was unsure if the present structural system would require restructuring and sustain the installation costs or the older systems would play any vital role. According to Emaar (2014), the prevailing organizational culture was questionable as the company thought that e-commerce would require restructuring of human resource structure. As Weiner (2009) argues, it is doubtless that the e-commerce approach requires expertise. The company management experienced challenges and it contemplated on how it could dismantle the organizational structure of the incumbent human resource and replace it with suave personnel.
Major Issues in the Implementation of the E-commerce System
Although e-commerce would result in enhanced business performance in terms of marketing and general corporate operations, integration and implementation of the e-commerce system was not smooth (Emaar, 2014). Emaar encountered numerous implementation challenges, including inefficient human resource management, procurement problems, and integrating policies of using the e-commerce was a challenge. According to Emaar (2014), human resource skills being a requisite factor in the e-commerce integration process, lack of technological experts made the implementation process slow and tedious. Whether to retain the serving workforce or to employ fresh experts was a challenge. Consequently, lack of technical experts in Emaar further made the equipment procurement uneasy and the process of devising e-commerce policies was even demanding.
The Impact of the E-commerce System
The initial Emaar marketing problems included uncoordinated communication and inefficient marketing approaches (Emaar, 2014). With the effectively integrated e-commerce system, the company received significant transformations such as instant customer feedback through web-based technologies such as websites, social platforms, and other systems on the Internet (Emaar, 2014). The e-commerce system reduced congestion in offices and enhanced organizational structure of Emaar. The sales and marketing team concerned with the marketing of Emaar services in the Dubai Financial Markets became highly effective in accessing market changes and making effective decisions (Emaar, 2014). The integrated e-commerce system met the original expectations of enhancing corporate performance and improved the systems of marketing in the UAE business and financial markets.
The Prospected Growth and Major Transformations
Enhanced market performances and business communication systems in Emaar resulted in significant transformations in the sales outcomes, business productivity, customer services, and competitiveness as anticipated in the balanced scorecard (Emaar, 2014). In terms of customer service and care, Emaar enhanced interaction and communication with its prevailing and prospective consumers. According to Emaar (2014), this resulted in an improved market reputation that caused a positive rift in consumer numbers, estimated at 55% in growth, thus, influenced growth in service sales to a maximum of 38% per annum. Emaar (2014) claims that their fame and reputation in the real estate industry grew to over 63% and its internal operations become effective as working efficiency increased by 41%.
Independent Approaches to Enhance the E-commerce
Although very practical and effective in its operations through advanced technologies, some instances required the company and the human resource to work an extra mile to ensure smooth progress of operations (Emaar, 2014). Occasionally, the e-commerce systems would experience small problem or develop complicated technical hitches that required specialized interventions from the hired external experts and technicians or necessitated direct consultations with the manufactures of the software applications (Emaar, 2014). Managers at Emaar had to request additional technical support to supplement the newly hired technology personnel and aid in the incorporation of advanced techniques that deemed necessary in handling e-commerce systems (Emaar, 2014). The additional technical support required extra financial support and human efforts, which was not in the budget of the company.
Conclusion and Recommendations of Emaar about E-commerce
In conclusion, it is evident that integration of the e-commerce system has significantly improved corporate marketing strategies of Emaar. Emaar recommends the adoption of e-commerce business techniques. Emaar believes that modern technologies shape the approaches of companies in terms of their production processes and their market approaches. Emaar believes that effective integration and implementation of the e-commerce can transform the manner in which a company communicates with its prospective consumers, investors, and financiers, who are important players in the real estate business. The approaches of marketing and other business operations change when individuals utilize efficient technologies in their production line and marketing approaches.
References
Bose, S., & Thomas, K. (2007). Applying the balanced scorecard for better performance of intellectual capital. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 8(4), 653-665. Web.
Emaar (2014). About Emaar Properties: Emaar UAE. Web.
Weiner, B. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Journal of Implementation Science, 4(67), 1-9. Web.