Governance and Risk Management Audit of Woolworths Group Ltd

GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT
AUDIT
Woolworths Group Ltd

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 3
Overview of the organisation.............................................................................................. 3
Advertised Values of the organisation................................................................................... 6
Promotion, Monitoring and Review of actions to fulfill commitments............................................7
CSR and financial accountability of Woolworths......................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 11
References................................................................................................................... 12
Appendices.................................................................................................................. 14

Introduction
Woolworths Ltd is the leading retail organisation in Australia. The organisation has also stake in
countries like New Zealand which makes it one of the most important retail company across
Australia and New Zealand. With the rise in awareness among consumers organisations need to
develop a strong reporting structure in order to have a strong social bond which would not only
help the organisation to have better relationship with the consumers and develop a strong hold
over the market (Bernardi, C.R.I.S.T.I.A.N.A and Stark, 2015). The present study is a mini audit
which would involve reporting of different aspects of Woolworths like Governance, risk
management, financial management and accountability, CSR and social objectives et cetera.

Overview of the organisation
Woolworths Group Limited is one of the leading organisations in Australia operating in New
Zealand as well with major retail interest. This is the second largest retail company in Australia
after Wesfarmers and has a major market share in New Zealand. Woolworths has number of
retail stores all across Australia and the Countdown supermarket in New Zealand. The
organisation also is the largest liquor takeaway organisation. The company is already listed in the
Australian Stock Exchange and holds significant market share in the country which has helped it
to grow and create awareness in the market. With consistent growth and development in the
Australian and New Zealand market the organisation focused on developing its social bonding
through effective corporate social responsibility, risk management reporting and governance
(Varsei, 2016). Woolworths is a big name in the Australian and New Zealand which has forced
the organisation to have a strong setup to communicate and promote the organisation among its
stakeholders. Woolworths opened its first store in Sydney in the year 1924 and since then the
organisation has grown consistently with time. Presently it stands with strength of 205,000
employees and total revenue of AUD 56 billion (Crane, Matten and Spence, 2019).
The organisation has several tools which help to reach the stakeholders and shareholders of the
organisation. Tools like mission, vision, objectives, financial results and reporting strategies help
to commit to the overall good of the society and communicate with the stakeholders attached in
the best possible manner. Corporate Governance is central to the idea of stakeholder bonding for
the organisation and has been practiced pretty well by the board of directors and different levels
of the employees at Woolworths (Venkatraman and Nayak, 2015).
The main idea for Woolworths is to develop a strong platform for every stakeholder to get the
best possible outcome from the organisation. Its mission is to “build a business on integrity”
which clearly shows that the organisation is extremely focused on transparency and
communication with the stakeholders.
The vision of the organisation is to “deliver convenient services, value and quality to the
consumers.