Leadership and Knowledge Management

Introduction

There is no question that technology is alarmingly disrupting old-fashioned business
models, meaning that those that fail to innovate and adapt to new trends risk insolvency
(Mookerjee & Rao, 2021). Saratoga’s case is a classic example of how e-commerce and other
technologies can quickly change a company’s fortunes and CEO Wes, head of Sales Gary, and
CFO Darlene know very well they will soon be out of business if they do not come up with a
plan to counter Saratoga’s dwindling sales. Luckily, for firms like Saratoga, strategic leadership
and knowledge management can offer a reprieve and a way to circumvent e-commerce and other
technologies within the supply chain. This paper examines the role of knowledge management at
Saratoga, the company’s effectiveness of knowledge management considering its 60-year
history, the value the CEO could generate by fostering and driving a learning organization, and
the need for a leadership development program to steer this learning organization toward
sustainability.

The Role of Knowledge Management at the Saratoga Supply Company
For Saratoga, knowledge management is a must-have to improve efficiency in accessing,
collecting, analyzing, processing, organizing, and sharing information, knowledge, and data
generated across the supply chain, from customers to manufacturers to employees. Knowledge
can range from employee behavior to frequently asked questions to financial information
gathered from the sales team to customer reviews. Knowledge management can assist Saratoga’s
efforts to address the recent sales decline and build a successful business strategy. It can help the
firm gain insights into its customer’s buying habits, preferences, and needs, which can, in the
process, inform its marketing and sales strategies. Knowledge management can also assist

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Saratoga in identifying gaps in technology and internal processes, areas of growth and business
opportunities, and understanding competition and broader market trends, including e-commerce.

The Company’s Effectiveness of Knowledge Management
Given the company’s sixty-year history, the probability that it has been managing and
leveraging its knowledge effectively using traditional approaches like institutional memory and
strategic leadership is high. As noted by DuBrin (2019), Saratoga has likely been effectively
creating, organizing, disseminating or sharing, and applying its “tribal knowledge” appropriately.
Sharing “tribal knowledge” is the process by which older folks pass down their knowledge to the
younger employees before retiring or departing the company. It is also likely that the firm has
been applying traditional leadership methods like “servant leadership” and “democratic
leadership” to foster knowledge creation, dissemination, application, employee collaboration,
and shared decision-making. This is evidenced by the culture of open communication,
consultation, and collaboration demonstrated by the company’s top leadership (CEO, CFO, and
head of sales). Additionally, Saratoga’s success can be attributed to a shift to state-of-the-art
technologies for purchasing, selling, and delivering products.
The Value CEO Wes Could Create by Fostering and Driving a Learning Organization to

Develop a Strategy Toward Effectively Competing with eCommerce
Given the marketplace tide is tilting toward e-commerce, developing and fostering a
learning organization is the best way CEO Wes can build value for the company to compete with
the tech-powered business model dominating the market. By creating a learning organization,
CEO Wes could help Saratoga build a supportive learning environment and concrete learning
practices and processes that could help Saratoga innovate and transition to a superior e-
commerce version or any other business model to outsmart competitors. Building a learning

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institution would create a strategic intent to learn, share, openly and accurately share
information, and collaborate. It will also encourage systems thinking, creative thinking, action
learning, continuous experimentation of the new e-commerce model or business strategy, and
learning from their failures. A learning organization would also improve the company’s
flexibility and adaptability, assisting in responding promptly to shifting customer needs and
market conditions. For CEO Wes and the company, this means leveraging methods like data
analytics to monitor market trends, implementing an agile organizational structure like “servant
leadership” to engage and empower employees, and continuously improving processes to
speedily test and roll out new e-commerce and other business ideas (DuBrin, 2019).
The Need for a Leadership Development Program to Guide this Learning Organization

Toward Sustainability

Saratoga unquestionably needs to implement a leadership development program to
develop skilled leaders that can steer the company toward sustainability. The leadership
development program will equip CEO Wes and other leaders with the necessary skills to create a
culture of continuous learning and sustainability. These skills include vision and strategy
development, change management, empowerment & delegation, continuous learning &
improvement, innovation & creativity, effective communication & collaboration, emotional
intelligence, resilience and agility, and adaptability and flexibility (Byrne & Rees, 2019). For
instance, effective communication and teamwork among leaders are paramount in building and
maintaining solid relationships with staff members, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders.
Adaptability and flexibility can also help Saratoga’s leadership to anticipate and respond to the
current market changes by innovating and improving its structures, systems, and processes.

Conclusion

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New technologies, plus the changing regulations and laws, are affecting businesses
profoundly. Therefore, companies like Saratoga must understand that technology, which is
inevitably growing at an alarming rate, will transform business operations in the supply chain
industry. The only way to survive is to be flexible and adapt to the change by creating solutions
equal to or better than the e-commerce solutions the market currently offers. Knowledge
management (creating, sharing, and applying knowledge) and strategic leadership (building a
learning organization) are two strategies the organizations can leverage to outsmart the
competition and remain afloat.

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References

Byrne, J. C., & Rees, R. T. (2016). The successful leadership development program: How to
build it and how to keep it going. John Wiley & Sons.
DuBrin, A. J. (2019). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Cengage Learning,
Inc.
Mookerjee, J., & Rao, O. (2021). A review of the impact of disruptive innovations on markets
and business performance of players. International Journal of Grid and Distributed
Computing, 14(1), 605-630.