Developing a convincing presentation that delivers the key points of an argument cohesively and concisely is an important skill that plays a vital role in promoting innovation in organizations. The specified task plays a particularly vital role in large organizations that require a perfectly thought-out and well-designed pitch that will allow a firm to assess the key risks and make a timely decision (Guffey & Loewy, 2019). Therefore, the presentation produced recently at Walmart to boost the company’s online presence and help it develop a vast marketplace contained quite interesting ideas, yet ultimately fell flat due to poor execution and the lack of convincing evidence, particularly, statistics that did not allow for a clear picture of the opportunities that Walmart could use to advance in the digital marketplace.
Comparing the presentation performed by the manager to that one offered by the front line workers indicates the importance of having the experience of operating in the company and performing the key tasks, thus, understanding what factors affect it most. Although managers had the opportunity to conduct a detailed and thorough assessment of the target market, including the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors, it the presentation ignored the assessment of how these factors will affect the performative aspect of the organization’s functions (Guffey & Loewy, 2019). Namely, the challenges of communicating with customers and offering them essential pieces of advice concerning the choice of a particular product have been omitted since the possible concerns regarding the lack of proper digital skills among staff members and misunderstandings occurring as a result of it were left out of the picture.
In turn, these employees were the first to address the problem of offering customer consultations online, which has been the trademark element of Walmart’s performance. Indeed, in the online setting, the process of receiving a consultation from an online support agent will most likely involve a substantial waiting time, which is why maintaining its reputation of a responsive service is likely to be quite complicated online. In turn, hiring more support agents, who could assist in addressing the needs of customers would imply taking significant costs. Similarly, providing staff members with the training that will give them crucial digital knowledge, as well as the technology that they will use to work remotely, is likely to require substantial expenses that Walmart may not be ready to take.
However, one should mention that the managers also had several valid points concerning the positive effect of capturing the digital market. Namely, they outlined the opportunity for customers to shop faster and purchase product easier since the digital environment will only require several clicks as opposed to the offline setting. Additionally, the proposed framework would help Walmart to capture other markets, including Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the presentation delivered by the staff embers turned out to be much more impressive and cohesive (Guffey & Loewy, 2019). Due to a better perspective on the internal processes and the challenges that they require addressing, workers provided the presentation that convinced the leaders that the organization might not yet be ready to enter the digital realm.
Although the presentation shown to Walmart leaders offered several peculiar ideas that had a potential and could be used for the company to gain leverage in the digital market rather quickly and examine the opportunities for entering some of the countries where the company is underrepresented, the lack of substantial statistical data and evidence made the presentation fail.
Reference
Guffey, M. E., & Loewy, D. (2019). Essentials of business communication (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.