Recommendations for ASDA Store Limited's Strategies and Leadership

The assignment involves analyzing the business environment and strategies of ASDA store limited. It recommends implementing penetration pricing strategy and adding a communication approach to enhance profitability. The current leadership styles are deemed suitable. This document is published on Desklib, providing past papers and solved assignments for students.

CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
1. History and summary of selected organisation........................................................................1
2. Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of mentioned company.........2
3. Analysis of implementation of above mentioned strategies and styles of leadership.............4
4. Recommendation for improvement of strategies, management approaches and leadership
styles of the organisation.............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In this competitive business environment every business establish its own leadership
style, strategies and management practices(vom Brocke, Zelt and Schmiedel, 2016). These are
very important in the context of achieving the goals and objectives by the companies. Herein,
each of them has own importance like leadership style is helpful in providing the guidance to the
employees to put their efforts in right way and strategies are the future plans and policies to
manage the future uncertainty. Same as management practices are important for effective
management of the business. This project contains detailed information of ASDA store limited' s
future vision, their history, strategies and management practices. As well as provide
recommendation to this organisation for improvement. Basically, ASDA store limited is a
supermarket retailer which deals in groceries and clothing products. It's headquarter is at Leeds
UK.
TASK
1. History and summary of selected organisation.
The ASDA store limited is a British company that is a kind of supermarket which deals in
groceries and clothing products for all age group people. The history of this organisation is
divided in many segmented years which are as follows:
During 1920-1949- It was the initial stage where Asquith family started a butcher shop
in 1920. As time passed they opened seven other butcher shop and in 1949 with the help of some
dairy farmers they converted their butcher shop in dairy and farm store limited.
During 1963-1969- In this time period, Asquith family opened various supermarkets and
dairy shops. In 1965, merger of Asquith family's supermarkets and dairy shops created ASDA.
With the passing of time ASDA crossed the sales and revenue of GEM( Government exchange
mart). In 1969, they had about 30 stores which were going to increase in the future.
During 1970-1990- In this time period, company earned lot of revenue by opening new
branches in Plymouth, Hampshire and South Wales. In 1977, they introduced “Pocket tap” which
was a new product for that time generation. At the end of 1970, they had 80 stores and in 1986
they started to produce their own branded products. It was era of 20 years where lot of positive
things happened for ASDA like they opened their first head office in Leeds in 1988.
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During 1999-2015- In 1999, Walmart linked up with the ASDA to enter in the retail
market of the UK. Due to this, ASDA opened various kind of super centres which were based on
the Walmart standard. In 2000, they introduced new products at named as “ Super price” that
were of quite lower price. In 2002 and 2004 they achieved the award of “ Best company to
work” and “ Best value retailer”. In 2008, first time they introduced their business at the online
platform. During 2009-2015, company won various awards because of their quality service
provided at lower cost.
2016- In this year they opened new 95 stores which were large in space and have huge
portfolio of products that can satisfy the need and demand of the customers. In present, ASDA
has almost 630 stores which generate income of £ 1 billion per year(ASDA store limited, 2019).
As per above description it can be summarize that it is an old company which have good
market value all around the world. The reason behind their success is that they offers products at
lower price and they have large portfolio of products in different stores which satisfy the demand
of customers.
2. Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of mentioned company.
Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies, all these elements are very
important for internal and external development of the organisation. Every company has
different kind of strategies, vision and others but purpose is same to achieve good revenue on the
expenses. Herein, ASDA store limited' s vision, leadership style, management practices and
strategies are described below:
Vision- Vision means those future goals and objectives which an organisation wants to
achieve in the future(Sandkuhl, Koç and Stirna, 2014). In other words, it is just like a reflection
of company's futuristic objectives. Eventually, it is very necessary for all the organisations to
make a vision for future so that they can guide their activities towards right directions. As well as
it helps to the employees to informing about the goals and objectives of the company. On the
basis of above research, the vision of ASDA store limited is to earn more revenue by providing
products at lower price in consideration of maintaining the quality. As well as to focus on
extending their business at the online platform. So overall, the vision of above company is
common same as other companies to gain more profitability at lower cost.
Leadership style- Leadership is a kind of action which is related to guiding the
employees in right direction to achieve the pre-determined goals and objectives. While
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leadership style means the methods and approaches which are used by the leaders to guide the
followers. There are many kind of leadership styles which are used by the leaders as per the
requirement of the organisation and employees. ASDA store limited use following leadership
styles which are described below:
 Transformational leadership style- It is a kind of leadership style wherein, leaders
communicates with the employees openly to remove conflicts. In this style leader
motivates and influences their followers for better result. The leaders of ASDA
store limited use this leadership style for providing appropriate guidance to the
staff members.
 Democratic leadership style- This leadership style is also known by the
participative leadership style. In this style leader takes the opinions and ideas of
all members of organisation for better decision making. It ensures involvement of
employees in important tasks or activities. This leadership style is adopted by the
leaders of ASDA store limited to considering employees as an important part of
organisation. Their staff members take participation in important activities.
Management Practices- Management practices may be defined as the way of work
which managers use for better and effective result. Implementation of management practice
depends on the nature and size of the organisation. ASDA store limited use below management
practices:
 Reward to employees- If employees perform well, then they should be rewarded
for their performance. It will benefit to the company in motivating the employees.
The ASDA store limited use this management practice. If any staff member
contribute more then expectations then they give reward in monetary or non
monetary term.
 Flexibility- Managers are needed to be flexible as per the requirement of the
organisation and employees. This management approach helps in minimise the
stress of the workforce. The managers of ASDA store limited implements this
management approach for providing freedom to the employees in their work.
Strategies- Strategies are future plans and policies which are designed by the
organisation to achieve goals and objectives(,Cheng, Yip and Yeung, 2012). ASDA store
limited use following strategies:
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 Product differentiation strategy- This a type of strategy which is related to
offering the products to the customers differently from the competitors. It helps in
attracting the customers towards the company's products. ASDA store limited
company use this strategy for differentiate their products from other company's
products.
 Price skimming strategy- It is a kind of strategy which is related to assigning the
price of products high in the starting and after then decreasing the price. The
above mentioned store use this strategy for those products which are new in the
market. This helps them in achieving competitive advantage.
3. Analysis of implementation of above mentioned strategies and styles of leadership.
ASDA store limited implements various kind of strategies, leadership style, management
approaches. This helps to the company in achieving competitive advantage. In addition, these
elements impact the organisational performance. This is why because it interrelates with the
external and internal aspect of the business(Lankoski, 2016). For the effective implementation of
strategies following points are needed to be cover:
 Goal setting- It is the primary stage in which organisation establish the goals and
objectives which are going to be achieve in the future time period. Herein, it is
important to know that goals should be achievable and realistic.
 Analysis- This is the secondary stage that includes the analysis of various
alternatives of the strategies. This analysis important for evaluating the
advantages and disadvantages of different strategies.
 Implementation- This is a kind of step which is related to putting the plans into
the action. In this step organisation implements the selected strategy for
achievement of goals.
 Monitoring- In this point, managers monitor the performance of the implemented
strategies and styles. If result is below expectation, then it should be revised and
result is satisfying then it can be enhance for more better result.
The above mentioned steps are applicable for the implementation of all kind of strategies,
styles and for approaches. The ASDA store limited company applies their strategies by following
this pattern of the implementation.
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Apart from this, it is necessary for the organisations to maintain the interest of the
stakeholders because these play a crucial role in profit making. The ASDA store limited
company use different strategies, leadership style and approaches to attract the stakeholders to
invest in their company. For an example, they use strategy of price skimming that helps in
attracting more customers which generate good revenue to them. Additionally, if revenue is good
of the company then directly it will highlight the company's goodwill and external parties will
show their interest in the company. This example states that strategies are important for the
internal development of the organisation as well as for focusing the interest of stakeholders in the
company.
Except from stakeholders the managers of ASDA store limited company, try to establish
relationship with other externals like suppliers, customers etc. Due to effective implementation
of the plans and policies, they make relationship with the suppliers so that they can provide
products at lower price. In addition ASDA deals in grocery and clothing products which they buy
from the suppliers. So it is important for them to make effective relation with the suppliers. For
example, if company's sell is good then they will demand more from the suppliers and this will
impact the relation with the suppliers. On the other hand, if company is not demanding for the
products regularly then there can be lack of understanding and trust between suppliers and
company. So strategies, approaches and leadership styles are important for keeping the interest
of stakeholders and other parties towards the organisation.
4. Recommendation for improvement of strategies, management approaches and leadership
styles of the organisation.
On the basis of above mentioned description it has been recommend that ASDA store
limited is needed to do some changes in their strategies. They are adopting price skimming and
product differentiation strategy which are quite well for the company but they should try to
implement penetration pricing strategy. This is why because their existing strategy of pricing is
not suitable, sometime it can fail when market condition is low. On the other hand penetration
pricing strategy is applicable in all kind of market situation. Same as in the management
approaches, they are applying reward system and flexibility approach which is helpful for them
but apart from these two one more approach can be add. They can add “communication
approach” that is related to sharing ideas,opinions between the employees and managers. This
approach should be applied by the ASDA store limited for enhancing the profitability. While
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company's leadership styles are best for achieving the goals. In this section they do not need any
recommendation because both the leadership styles(transformational and democratic) are
suitable as per the context of the organisation.
CONCLUSION
From above project report it has been concluded that in the context of business,
leadership styles, management approaches and strategies are mandatory part. All these have their
significant impact on the organisational performance. Additionally, it is important to design the
pattern of the strategies in way that can help the companies in making strong relationship with
the external users of the company. As well as for development of the organisation. Apart from
this, it can be concluded that changes in leadership styles, management approaches and strategies
are necessary to cope with the changing business environment.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
vom Brocke, J., Zelt, S. and Schmiedel, T., 2016. On the role of context in business process
management.International Journal of Information Management. 36(3). pp.486-495.
Sandkuhl, K., Koç, H. and Stirna, J., 2014, May. Context-aware business services: technological
support for business and IT-alignment. In International Conference on Business
Information Systems(pp. 190-201). Springer, Cham.
Cheng, T. C. E., Yip, F .K. and Yeung, A. C. L., 2012. Supply risk management via guanxi in
the Chinese business context: The buyer's perspective. International Journal of
Production Economics. 139(1). pp.3-13.
Lankoski, L., 2016. Alternative conceptions of sustainability in a business context. Journal of
cleaner production. 139. pp.847-857.
Online:
ASDA store limited, 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://blog.s4rb.com/the-history-of-
ASDA-pocket-tapping-for-52-years>
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