Impacts on Sociotechnical Plans
Sociotechnical plans involve interactions between social systems and technical systems. Many factors could affect these plans with supporting or disastrous effects. The rise and fall of Toys "R" Us is an excellent topic for understanding possible forces that have differing results (Utulo, 2017).
Toys "R" Us
Toys "R" Us, once known as the world's most fabulous toy store, started as a family store intent on putting smiles on children's faces. Although not titled a sociotechnical plan, the scenario planning included a blend of social systems and technical systems. The growth of online shopping, a technological innovation, caused leadership to focus on a plan to establish a digital presence. Rather than building its own, the decision was to leverage Amazon's technology while the company concentrated on socially drawing children into physical stores. The idea is that by allowing the children to come in and play with the toys, the parents would go home and make purchases to be delivered or picked up from the store-loading docks.
There were many forces with the potential to impact this sociotechnical plan.
· What if Amazon signed with multiple toy companies? A legal agreement only works if a company has the means to win in court (Axson, 2011).
· Economically the plan makes lots of sense. Leveraging Amazon's capital investment and customer base had the potential to reach more customers.
· The plan is also ethically and societally sound.
· Amazon's plans are global, and the company did not have the financial capability to put physical stores globally or in all states within the US.
· The company raised capital but could not meet the investor's return on investment, which resulted in a loss of control of the company (Oberoi, 2020).
The sociotechnical plan had two major flaws. Simply showing toy availability on an Internet storefront did not approach the social impact when the children were in the store and could touch the toys. Choosing Amazon, a much larger company focused on sales volume, had unintended consequences. The company created a draw to the Amazon website where other stores with the same toys at lower prices resulted in Amazon opening its platform to competitors.
A more innovative idea with two parts would have been to invest in simulations controlled by the company as an added value in digitalization transformation. The second part is to split up its store with the toys from its playgrounds for children's toy tryouts. Adding a direct ship warehouse would keep overhead low and allow parents to buy more without worrying about how to pack their vehicles. The added Toyland would enhance the social appeal of directing children to toys with more significant profit margins.
References
Axson, D. A. (2011). Scenario Planning: Navigating Through Today's Uncertain World. Journal of Accountancy, 211(3), 22.
Oberoi, S. (2020). 6 Examples of Merger Failures Owing to Cultural Incompatability. https://www.spiceworks.com/hr/hr-strategy/articles/examples-merger-failure-cultural-incompatibility/
Utulo, S. M. (2017). Case Study Toys "R" Us [College Paper]. https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/jose-rizal-memorial-state-university/fundamentals-of-accountancy-business-and-management-2/a-case-study-about-toy-r-us/23045377
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