Corporate Strategy of Royal Mail Group Plc

Running head: CORPORATE STRATEGY
Corporate Strategy
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The report gives an overview of the corporate strategy of Royal Mail Group Plc. The company is
known for the delivery of postal service across the United Kingdom. The report commences with
an introduction about the company. There is identification of the three key strategic issues and
the strategic capabilities of the organization. There is also discussion about the firm resources
along with the identification of key factors that results in competitive advantage. In the report,
one can also find suggestions for improvement with respect to environment, stakeholders and
feasibility.

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Table of Contents
1. Three Key Strategic Issues..........................................................................................................3
1.1 Macro Analysis:.....................................................................................................................6
1.2 Micro Analysis:......................................................................................................................8
1.3 Industry Analysis:..................................................................................................................8
1.4 Competitive Analysis.............................................................................................................9
2. A. Resources and Key Capabilities of the Organization..........................................................10
2. A. 1. Unique Resources..........................................................................................................10
2. A. 2. Unique Capabilities......................................................................................................10
2.A. 3. Grocery Industry and CSI..............................................................................................11
2. A. 4. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)........................................................................12
2. B. Factors that Give Company Competitive Advantage...........................................................12
3. A. Evaluation of Competitive Strategies Addressing Strategic Issues......................................13
3.A.1 Environmental..................................................................................................................13
3. A. 2 Stakeholders...................................................................................................................14
3.A.3 Feasibility.........................................................................................................................14
Figure 3: Value Chain Analysis of Royal Mail Group..................................................................15
B. Suggested Improvements..........................................................................................................15
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16

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References:....................................................................................................................................17
Appendix:......................................................................................................................................20
6.1 PESTEL...................................................................................................................................20
6.2 Porter’s Five Forces.................................................................................................................20
6.4 Links between Resource, Capability and Advantage..............................................................21
6.5 Value Chain.............................................................................................................................21

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into the corporate strategy of Royal Mail Group
Plc. It is a subsidiary of Royal Mail Plc and is responsible for operating courier and postal
service in United Kingdom. The company had its establishment in the year 1516. The company
is responsible for mail collection and the delivery of services across United Kingdom. The letters
deposited are in either a wall or pillar-box taken to the post office or collected in bulk from
various businesses. Royal Mail Group Plc makes sure that the letters are delivered every day
except the bank holidays and the Sundays at the uniform charges across all the destinations of
UK.. The company puts forward public service and operates as either a public corporation or a
government department. According to the Postal Service Act of 2011, major portions of shares of
Royal Mail plc were floated in the London Stock Exchange in the year 2013. The government of
UN initially tried to retain close to thirty percent of the stake of Royal Mail but sold the
remaining shares in the year 2015. The report here helps in identifying three key strategic issues
faced by the organization supported by the fact why they seem to be strategic. The report also
discusses the key capabilities and the resources of the firm along with identification of the key
factors that results in the competitive advantage of the company. The report also identifies how
the competitive advantage helps in addressing the strategic issues along with putting forward
necessary suggestions for improvement.
1. Three Key Strategic Issues
First Key Issue: The Royal Mail Group Plc faces a tough competition in the postal
market after the act of complete liberalization in business of express packaging (Pooler 2017).
The primary competitors in parcel delivery were Deutsche Post, Track and Trace (TNT), and

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certain airlines provided the express packaging service. The issue is a strategic one since the
growing competition badly hit the revenue expectations of the company thereby sending the
share prices down to the lowest level. The shares of the postal delivery service fell by 4.5 percent
and closed down by 3.43 percent at close to 450 P. In other words, the company had a weaker
performance in the delivery of the parcels that led tighter cost control and higher focus on the
letter business so that it achieves a profit forecast of a full year. In fact, the intense competition
led the parcel revenue to come down by one percent and volume to go up by one percent.
Figure 1: Market Data of Royal Mail since Floatation
Source: (Groom 2013)
Second Key Issue: The declining mail market led to the commissioning of a review. The
total mail volume for Royal Mail decreased by close to two percent compared to the preceding
year. The reason for this has been the e-substitution that involved the businesses in offering the
customer with alternatives of traditional forms of mail that included texting through mobile
phones and e- bills (Rodriguez, Soteri and Tobias 2018). The government therefore made an
announcement on the review of the postal service market of UN in the year 2007 that led to an
underlying uncertainty inside the mailing market. Some service were removed with a publication