Case Study Analysis on Change Leadership

                                                                  Student's name          

Institution

Course name/number

Instructor

Due date

Case Study Analysis on Change Leadership

Satisfaction of ever-changing customer needs is the primary source of competition in business operating in any industry. Firms build and rejuvenate their competitive age by continuously scanning markets to identify the changing customers' needs and incorporate the new customer specifications into their products. According to Dawson, & Andriopoulos (2014), continuous innovations and improving the ways of executing business operations keep the competitors at bay since the innovative organizations are always ahead of their market opponents. Sonos' CEO, John MacFarlane, overlooked the changing need of customers since, after producing high-quality wireless speakers, assumed all what the customer needed has been catered to. The profit occasioned the laxity of Sonos firms was trickling in courtesy of the wireless speaker's high sale until they could not notice Amazon's venturing into the electronic industry with their first voice assistance devices.  The instruction of Amazon and Apple into the industry with more advanced devices is a big blow to Sonos since that has attracted most of the customers to Apple and Amazon, leaving Sonos with very few, if any. However, having the former company CEO, John MacFarlane, reigned and transferred the instrument of power to Patrick Spence, the company can regain its markets share through innovation.

Steps that Patrick should take in the first nine months on the job to drive innovation and a shift in culture

First, identifying the customers' complaints and addressing them effectively is fundamental aspect toward innovation and culture shift. Customer is very critical source of information to the organization about what they require to be supplied with by the firm (Kumar, 2012). It is the role of Spence as the CEO of Sonos to provide channels through which customers can communicate their complaints and compliments about the products offered to them by Sonos Company. Once clients' complaints are received into the organization, they should not be assumed but thoroughly addressed, and where changes are needed should be dealt with effectively. Besides, the company should refrain from what displeases their clients while at the same time sticking to the comments aired by the customers. Sonos can positively attract and retain a large customer pool by adopting a pull production method to design their products according to the customers' specifications, hence remaining competitive in the market.

Second, Sonos can gain an innovative competitive edge by adopting a competitive pricing strategy. The primary factor considered by customers before purchasing a given commodity in the market is the value for their money spent (Nagy, Schuessler & Dubinsky, 2016). Spence, the CEO of Sonos company, can improve company’s pricing strategy to attract and retain more customers by assigning a team of his employees to research the value of the products offered by the company's competitors, Amazon and Apple companies. Once the opponents' products' values, then evaluate if Sonos could offer the same products but at a higher quality and charger higher prices than their competitors. Competitive pricing does not mean offering similar products at a lower price but is all about offering high-quality products at commensurate and affordable prices.  Besides, in competitive pricing, it worth it for Sonos to ignore the commodity cost and consumer demand but focus mainly on the targeted market segment.

Third, CEO Spence could earn Sonos an innovative competitive edge by grabbing business opportunities ahead of its opponents, Amazon and Apple. Customers are ever please and attracted by new and unique ideas in the markets. Sonos management's role is to make the company's products appear unique from its competitors. Uniqueness could be earned in many ways. Such might include the uniqueness of the product's appearance and operability, store interior and exterior design, and uniqueness in the customer's after-sale services. The customer's excellent services would always attract them to make backorders once and again and refer other new clients to enjoy the high-quality services they have experienced in the organization. To maintain uniqueness in the market isn't a walk in a park, and it requires dedicated employees who are ever on the market to identify new ideas to implements before their opponents do. Ultimately, flexibility is the core factor in ensuring that the newly identified changes are fast implemented before the competitors implement such tactics and thus become obsolete.

Forth, offering...