Question 1

Successful merge will require relevant interventions and as a leader one should always find and create discussion around a common organizational vision and around common identities. There are five critical issues to merging; duality, time, communication, identity and top down-bottom up focus (Hill, & Weiner, 2008). A significant lesson to learn in merging is all these pieces in merging process most a times are not handled concisely and collaboratively as they need to be and thus excellence is not reached. To make these elements successful in the new management unit, I will put more emphasis on the culture of management, culture of a shared vision and acceptance of new identity within the organization as major organizational dynamics.

Challenges, opportunities and issues

Building new units, especially from mergers requires a new approach in order to manage the deal and make it successful. This is because most mergers at the beginning are doomed and survey has proven that about 70% of mergers fail. However, this statistic has created a whole different view of integration thereby ensuring that new units maximize opportunities Deutsch, & West, 2010). A major opportunity in merging is born out of diligence where leaders how to create value and capture synergies. However, issues arise from diligence because of flawed systems making it hard for leaders to capture a clear road map to success.

A major reason why Amazon moved online is due to high level of market strategies; as a new of way of meeting new customers as well as expanding their business (Well, 2013). Online delivery comes as a mega competitive advantage that sets a business ahead of other business because in the present world, customers move from place to place and might need goods dropped to them at their own convenience. Thus most customers prefer goods delivered to them at their own convenience since they might not have time to get to the store physically. Trader Joe’s is among the favorites of my grocery stores and this is because they stock all varieties of groceries and because of their consumer satisfaction and staying long in the market, I might prefer Trader Joe’s to other online stores. Trader’s Joe has always gained and managed to retain customer loyalty, for future retention I might drive volumes and drive most of the market share in order to make customers happy.