Leadership in the Age of Digital Disruption

Leadership in the Age of Digital Disruption is an online retail management course for anyone who wants to apply lessons from the digital disruption in the retail industry to the rapidly changing business world. Established retailers looking to make radical changes, entrepreneurs who want to start their own business, or anyone interested in understanding the environment in which they are shopping will benefit from this four-week course.

The main objective of Leadership in the Age of Digital Disruption is to provide learners with a framework that they can use to create a competitive strategy to survive and thrive in today’s — and tomorrow’s — marketplace. The lessons taught in this four-week course can be applied to a myriad of industries and shifting markets. Taught by internationally recognized retail expert and scholar Barbara Kahn, this management course is designed to help you achieve your business goals.

Discover the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix and the secrets behind the success of retailers like Amazon and Walmart. Learn how successful brands have differentiated themselves by creating an exceptional customer experience. Most importantly, learn how you can leverage your leadership advantage to gain a competitive edge in the business world in response to digital disruption in the retail industry.

Module 1: In this module, you’ll analyze disruptive changes within the retail industry. You’ll examine both brands that have collapsed and brands that have flourished and discover the new ways Generation Z shops. You’ll learn about the principle of customer value and the principle of differential advantage and apply this foundational knowledge to the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix. Through the application of the matrix to different retail brands, you’ll be able to better understand why some brands struggle and some succeed in today’s new shopping environment. Finally, by studying the history of the growth of Amazon, you’ll gain a better understanding of Amazon’s strategy and apply it to your business. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to utilize the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix to better devise a successful strategy for your brand, and you'll have a better understanding of how to navigate a retail industry that has been defined by Amazon’s success.

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Module 2: In this module, you’ll examine retail strategies beyond Amazon’s and discover how to apply these strategies to accomplish your company’s goals. First, you’ll explore Walmart’s Every Day Low Price strategy and analyze how Walmart is expanding their business into different quadrants of the Retailing Success Matrix. You’ll also learn successful strategies in the omni-channel customer experience and how to eliminate common pain points for your customers. Through case studies of brands that have differentiated themselves on creating an exceptional customer experience, you’ll learn methods to cultivate the in-store experience that online shopping can’t offer. By the end of this module, you’ll have gained valuable insight into the strategies of successful brands outside of Amazon and will be able to create effective strategies to expand your business.

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Module 3: This module was designed to help you gain a more thorough understanding of customer decision making. Through an examination of the research on perceived variety and actual variety, you’ll learn the psychological processing behind customer choice and how to apply this knowledge to increase sales. You’ll also explore the retail strategies of brands such as Rebecca Minkoff and Sephora to examine the effectiveness of utilizing technology to enhance the in-store shopping experience. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to employ an empirical approach to increasing the variety of your products and provide a more connected and immersive shopping experience for your customers.

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Module 4: In this module, you’ll examine the strategies behind both luxury and vertical brands and the underlying philosophy behind what makes a brand truly great. Using real-world examples, you’ll gain a better understanding of the paradox behind luxury brands and how luxury brands leverage their brand equity to expand their business. You’ll also explore the strategies of digitally native vertical brands (DNVB) such as Warby Parker to determine the right balance between physical and online retail presences while still maintaining the core values of your brand. By the end of this module, you’ll have a deeper understanding of retail brand strategies and be able to apply successful retail strategies to your brands.

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This course is designed for business leaders, managers, and professionals looking to navigate digital disruption and drive transformation within their organizations. It equips participants with the skills to leverage emerging technologies, foster innovation, and make data-driven decisions while addressing regulatory and ethical challenges in the digital age. Those who may benefit include:

To further leverage the value and impact of this program, we encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to Wharton. We offer group-enrollment benefits to companies sending four or more participants.