Digital Transformation Assignment: How Disruption Changed Uber Eats?

Question

Task: Digital Transformation Assignment Task:
Select an organization and identify a business case where digital disruption is an opportunity for transformation, and use it to develop a strategic plan with the objective of managing the transformation. The strategic plan includes,

1. The specification of goals that the organization would like to achieve
2. The development of the actions needed to achieve those goals and
3. Other critical elements.

There are three pieces of the puzzle for a strategic plan, including:
1. Where are we now?
2. Where are we going?
3. How will we get there?

Choose the suitable business strategy model(s) for the chosen case and apply it to this organization – also justify why the chosen model(s) is the most applicable for developing the strategic plan.

In order to develop a strategic plan, you should 1. Identify the core mission (e.g., identification of the strategic position through the use of a SWOT analysis);

2. Identify a sustainable competitive advantage and
3. Future-based vision
4. Implement a gap analysis
5. Identify the strategic objectives and priorities through the SMART goals
6. Set specific action items to implement the goals
7. Build a communication plan and identify the accountable resources; and review the progress.

The word length for this assignment is 2000 to 3000 words,excluding words used in contents, any charts, templates, references, forms or diagrams that you have used to apply the knowledge areas.

Answer

Introduction
The concept of digital disruption undertaken in this digital transformation assignment refers to the occurring change based on new business models and digital technologies that affects the value proposition of existing services and goods. With the rapidly increasing use of technology for personal use and work, there has been digital disruption across many industries. Innovations such as machine learning (ML), big data, internet of things (IoT), etc has successfully laid the foundation of digital disruption and the shift associated with it can occur on societal, industry, organizational or individual level. Overall, it has become essential for organizations to embrace digital disruption so that competitive advantage can be maintained or achieved because an industry facing digital disruption indicates the shifting of consumer needs. The following report will be based on Uber Eats, where digital disruption is an opportunity for transformation. In addition to that, the report will also establish a communication plan by identifying the accountable resources through proper analysis of Uber Eats’ strategic position.

Table 1

About the company
Uber Eats is an online platform of food ordering and delivery that enables its users to place orders with local restaurants so that the food is directly delivered at the doorstep (Johnson, 2020). The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California with annual revenue of 1.9 billion USD as of 2019 (Curry, 2020). The company provides the customers with an option of placing their orders using Uber Eats Website, Uber Eats iOS app and Uber Eats Android app. Overall, Uber Eats help users to connect with a wide range of local restaurants whenever they want.

Strategic position of the company based on SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis of Uber Eats
Strengths: Uber Eats emphasizes on fast delivery so that the customers get their food delivered within 10 minutes (Szallasi et al., 2016). There is flexibility in their food delivery service from instant dinner or lunch deliveries based on full menu options or selected dishes from restaurants. In addition to that, there is a separate base of drivers that handles the company’s deliveries so that overlapping with Uber drivers can be avoided. Lastly, the company ensures transparency and consistency in pricing with no hidden charges. Weaknesses: Uber Eats has a limited restaurant selection and the customers need to switch to yelp for reading the reviews of the restaurants (Weiner, 2017). The instant delivery menu items are stored in the drivers’ vehicles, so there are certain situations where the company’s drivers throw away food at the end of the day.

Opportunities: There is an immense opportunity associated with operating in 19 cities across the world (Mcvicar, 2016). The company can also learn from the mistakes of other players in the market so that it can innovate better ways. Another opportunity is to enable customers place their orders few days in advance so that the demand pattern of each restaurant can be properly assessed. Lastly, providing the customers with flexibility in terms of getting their food delivered at a convenient time will be icing on the cake.

Threats: The industry of food delivery is extremely competitive and the company is a new entrant so it will be a major challenge to make users download their food delivery app (Mcvicar, 2016). Its competitors are operating aggressively by establishing partnerships with various food chains.

From the SWOT analysis, it has been observed that Uber Eats strategic position is to gain competitive advantage and earn significant market share in the food delivery industry. However, the company is lacking dominance in every market of their operation that is resulting in the company leaving certain markets because it could not earn the desired spot in those markets..

Table 2

Identification of sustainable competitive advantage and future based vision
Sustainable competitive advantage allows business enterprises to become more successful than its competitors based on longer time period. Uber Eats has a sustainable competitive advantage in terms of their brand reputation in the taxi service. The company can afford to explore those markets where

Uber cab services are on high demand and generating significant profits. The cab or taxi service for a long time was based on traditional means but Uber brought the digital disruption that transformed the way people booked cab services. Uber Eats, thus a sustainable competitive advantage in terms of bringing innovation to people based on their previous records (Didier, 2017). People will tend to have a trust on Uber Eats and this will be their biggest sustainable competitive advantage and since the company’s business is based on delivery service, so digital disruption will be the ultimate deciding factor.

The Future based vision of Uber Eats is to operate with data driven approach and partner with commercial kitchens or restaurants so that the company’s business can be more productive. The company wants to lead the food delivery system by introducing concepts like dine in and pick up as there are a lot of restaurants that can help in driving the customer’s demand (Lewin, 2020). The main vision of the company is to ensure that food delivery is as big in smaller areas like it is in metro areas. Since, the smaller areas are rapidly changing with advancement in technologies and digitalization,

Table 3

Gap analysis
A gap analysis is the process of comparing the actual results or performance to that of the expected or desired. This process is effective in terms of identifying the missing strategies, capabilities, structures, etc that can potentially help a company to achieve its goals. The gap analysis of Uber Eats is as follows:

Sales Performance: The sales performance of Uber eats in several areas has been below their expectation and as a result the company is withdrawing its business operation from those areas (Business Strategy Hub, 2019). Since, Uber Eats is relatively new so there exists tremendous opportunity in terms of digital disruption to enhance its sales performance.

Usage Gaps: The current market size of Uber Eats is significantly less as to what the company expected in the initial stages of their launch. The company has not been able to reach its full potential as they are not innovating ways that can change the concept of food delivery system.

Performance indicators: Key performance indicator for Uber Eats is average daily orders through its website or app. The performance indicator suggests that lacking innovation in digital disruption is driving fewer customers to their websites and download of Uber Eats application (Sharma, 2020). The reputation of the company that it earned through the cab service is hurting as well due to repeated failure in innovation in Uber Eats.

Identification of priorities and strategic objectives through the SMART goals
Specific: The specific goal of Uber Eats is to raise brand awareness among people by using audience intelligence by targeting customers of all age groups. The company aims at implementing digital disruption that can potentially help them in attaining a greater market share like the Uber cab service gained.

Measurable: The measurable goal of Uber Eats is to track the progress of its average customer orders based on areas of their operation (Wang, 2018). The company plans to meet its goal within a short span of time and this can be achieved by measuring its performance on a regular basis so that the required changes can be implemented. Attainable: The attainable goal of Uber Eats is to provide their customers with superior restaurant quality and efficient food delivery system as compared to its competitors through a consumer-centric approach. The attainable goals will help the company to optimize their strategic objectives so that the sales performance can be improved.

Relevant: The relevant goal of Uber Eats is innovating digital disruption in the food delivery industry so that the company immensely benefit with its unique strategy and concept (Hawley, 2018). In addition to that, the company aims to conduct extensive data analysis so that it can identify the key hours and days of the week. Time-bound: The time-bound goal of Uber Eats is to begin targeting specific locations that are attractive for Uber Eats. Therefore, the company plans to win over customers through geo-targeted campaigns usage that will emphasize on the company’s unique selling points.

Action items for goal implementation along with communication plan and resource identification
The action item needs to be executed as early as possible by Uber Eats so that it can implement the strategic goals.

Action Item (What): The strategic goal of Uber Eats is to become a leader in the food delivery industry and grow the market share by 10% annually over the next 3 years (Wang, 2018). The company needs to increase the sales of each operating region through digital disruption that can help in attaining the competitive advantage.

The responsibility (Who): The CEO along with the management of Uber Eats must emphasize on bringing in digital disruptions so that the trends in customer need changes effectively in their favor. This will help the company to identify the outside resources that can help in reducing its budget.

How: Uber Eats can effectively grow their market by taking away someone else’s share and this can be only made possible by digital disruption because of the intense competition in the food delivery industry. For taking away the competitor’s share, the company will have to provide customer service and unique approach can add value in business approach.

When: Within the span of next 3 years, Uber Eats must focus on increasing its market share by addressing the lacking aspects of the company. The company must in facilities like food delivery time slot booking during busy seasons so that the brand awareness and satisfaction increases.

Figure 1: Marketing strategy action plan of Uber Eats
Source: (Slideshare, 2020)

Communication Plan is crucial for good business as it outlines the relevant communication procedure that should be followed. The six steps of communication plan for Uber Eats are:

Analysis of the stand out perspective: Uber eats must analyze its strength and what it can do better so that the customers value their food delivery system. To achieve this, it will be essential to collect feedback from suppliers, partners, clients, employees, etc(Prasai et al., 2019).

Developing a tagline: Uber Eats must develop a tagline that sounds or reads unique. The company must deliver a key message possibly based on digital disruption that their competitors are not using in their business operation.

Choosing the target audience: It is crucial to decide on the target base for communications so that the segments that must be targeted can be identified. Uber Eats can utilize an expert on market research that can help with reaching the targeted customer base and implement accordingly.

Selection of communication channels: Choosing the best communication channel to communicate with the targeted audience will be vital in terms of achieving the desired goal. Digital marketing channels and digital disruption will be the best modes of communication with the targeted audience (Prasai et al., 2019). Defining of objectives: Uber Eats needs to identify the available resources and clients in the market so that the goals can be effectively forecasted along with proper evaluation of the results.

Execution of the plan: Lastly, Uber Eats will have to execute the communication plan by deciding on the best person who is an expert in terms of professional communication.

The communication plan needs to be built by choosing the right platform of communication and selecting the desired audience. The accountable resources can be identified by evaluating the market standing and customer’s response. Lastly, the overall progress of the company can be reviewed through timely analysis of individual markets and each market’s profit generation.

Table 4

The implementation of digital disruption
For Uber Eats, digital disruption must include the process of changing the concept of food delivery system by offering unique features in their order and delivery process. The company can link the social media platforms to their delivery system so that their customers get the option of ordering food through social media. In addition to that, Uber Eats can target the audiences who are less tech savvy like the older generation and educate them about the facility of food delivery. The digital disruption can also be implemented by emphasizing on delivering the latest trends of food to the customers rapidly through projection of the food demand in specific days. However, along with technological innovation, Uber Eats can develop a new business model that will place customer’s orders through voice command and this digital disruption can be a major game changer in terms of attaining competitive and sustainable advantage.

Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that digital disruption will be the key for Uber Eats in terms of replicating the success of Uber cab services. The above reported have highlighted all the existing strategies along with suggesting recommendations on various aspects that can help Uber Eats manage the transformation associated with digital disruption.

References
Business Strategy Hub. (2019, December 15). How does Uber Eats work? Business Strategy Hub. https://bstrategyhub.com/how-does-uber-eats-work/ Curry, D. (2020, August 25). Uber Eats Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020).Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/uber-eats-statistics/ Didier, L. (2017). Does UberEATS have a competitive advantage? Medium; Medium. https://medium.com/@lucdid/3-ways-ubereats-is-outsmarting-its-competitors-with-product-features-f35d15d3decf

Hawley, K. (2018). Uber Eats’ Growth Strategy: Speed, Suburbs, and Self-Service. Skift Table; Skift Table. https://table.skift.com/2018/10/23/uber-eats-growth-strategy-speed-suburbs-and-self-service/ Johnson, D. (2020). What is Uber Eats? Here’s what you need to know about the ride-hailing service’s food delivery app. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/how-to/what-is-uber-eats-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ride-hailing-services-food-delivery-app/articleshow/77616986.cms#:~:text=Uber%20Eats%20is%20a%20food

Lewin, A. (2020). What Uber Eats thinks the future of food delivery looks like.Sifted. https://sifted.eu/articles/uber-eats-future-of-food-delivery/ Mcvicar, S. (2016). UberEATS Strategic Marketing Audit. https://samanthamcvicar.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/amb359-uber-eats-audit.pdf

Prasai, J., Robinson, A., Rosales, A., & Radcliffe, C. (2019). Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for Uber Technologies Inc. Mhttps://jacquelineprasai.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/prasai_imc.pdf

Sharma, K. (2020). What went wrong with Uber Eats? Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/brands/article/what-went-wrong-with-uber-eats/articleshow/73511465.cms#:~:text=Experts%20opine%20that%20one%20of

Szallasi, A., Johnson, E., Rea, K., Roche, V., & Miller, Z. (2016). AMB359 Strategic Marketing STRATEGIC MARKETING REPORT. https://zachariahmillerblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/ubereats-strategic-marketing-report.pdf

Wang, Y. (2018). Food Discovery with Uber Eats: Recommending for the Marketplace. Uber Engineering Blog. https://eng.uber.com/uber-eats-recommending-marketplace/#:~:text=The%20mission%20of%20Uber%20Eats

Weiner, A. (2017, February 15). Analysis: How UberEATS Continues To Compete in a Crowded Food Delivery Market. The Spoon. https://thespoon.tech/analysis-how-ubereats-aims-to-compete-in-a-crowded-food-delivery-market/