Strategic Leadership: Analysis of Sainsbury's Strategic Position

This report analyzes the strategic position of Sainsbury's, the second largest supermarket chain in the UK, focusing on leadership and communication strategies. It also provides recommendations for the organization's improvement.

Running Head: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Strategic Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The strategic leadership is the potential of a manager to express a strategic vision for
the organization. It is a specific part of the organization and at the same time persuades and
motivates other people for acquiring that particular vision. The strategic leadership is also
referred to as the utilized strategy for the employee management. It helps to influence the
organizational members and executes necessary changes in the organization. The strategic
leaders establish organizational structure and allocate the resources for expressing a strategic
vision. The strategic leaders also work in a different environment where they are supposed to
show their expertise and handle the situation properly. The primary aims of the strategic
leaders are to have strategic productivity, forecast the organizational needs and improvise the
working environment.
They inspire the members of the organization to follow their ideas. The strategic
leaders make good use of the incentive system to encourage better performance. Moreover, it
needs the potential to foresee the work environment and the ability to look at the broader
picture. This report will focus on demonstrating and understanding of different tools to
evaluate the strategic position of the selected organization. It will evaluate the relationship
between leadership and strategic management which support an organization’s ethical and
value based approaches. The report will further evaluate the application of leadership
strategies and its impact on the organizational direction. The selected company is Sainsbury’s
in the United States.

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Discussion
Section 1- An analysis of the company’s strategic position
Overview of the company
Sainsbury’s is considered to be the second largest supermarket chain in the United
Kingdom as far as the number of stores is concerned. The key people are Martin Scicluna
who is the chairman and Mike Coupe is the CEO of the company. The supermarket serves as
the superstore, convenience shop, forecourt shop and the hypermarket too. The company
holds the vision to become a trusted retailer where people would love to work and shop too.
They aim at doing this by putting the customers at their heart and investing in the stores.
They also invest in their channels and the colleagues in order to offer the best possible
experience of shopping. The organization considers the customers to stay at the heart of their
business and their success is based on anticipating and delivering whatever is needed. They
keep the value of helping the customers to eat healthily having improved the food quality in
the baskets for making the big impact (Sainsburys.co.uk. 2019). The sustainability plan is
structured around the values of the company and made up of the stretching targets for
tracking their progress. This is for the customers, the other stakeholders, colleagues and the
business. It helps the company to address the various opportunities and challenges which are
relevant to their business.
The internal and external environment analysis
In order to analyse the external and internal environment of Sainsbury, the SWOT and
PESTEL have been identified as appropriate tools. The internal and external administration
has to be taken into consideration while analyse the company’s strategic position. The
analysis is as follows:
Strengths

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Sainsbury is considered to be the largest retail merchants in the United Kingdom. It
has a market share of more than 16 % and it serves 96 million customers with a broad scope
of merchandises. It has a great fiscal strength which provides the company a cash generative
concern. It has also delivered an operating currency flow of 1.2 billion in a year. The
organization has sensitivity towards the environmental issues. It has gained reputation for
being concerned about the green environment and has reduced their emission focusing on the
waste management systems. It sells only nutrient scope food and tailored to the needs of the
customers and most of the products are free from chemical substances. It has popularity and
reputation by achieving many choice food awards for retailing nutrient.
Weaknesses
One of the biggest weaknesses of Sainsbury is that there is o such extension programs
and it is based in the market of United Kingdom. A new nutrient retailing company emerging
in the United Kingdom might be a concern for Sainsbury. In the year 2008, the online
shopping service of Sainsbury got suspended for two consecutive years because of proficient
jobs. It affected almost 10,000 online shoppers. The compensation is that it had to offer
money to the online clients.
Opportunities
People are growing demands for lower fats and nutrient rich products and this type of
merchandises are being more preferred. Sainsbury has launched health rich products and
become popular to the buyers. It has a broad scope of merchandises that are healthier and
low fat. Sainsbury launched 2 % fat milk which gained huge popularity. It has reduced the
sugar by 10 % which has made the company in a good place to profit from the healthy
nutrients. Another scope for Sainsbury would be expanding the online shopping options
(Johnson and Hackman 2018). It will make the shopping experience easy for the customers.

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Threats
Sainsbury has a strong competitor base and the biggest competitor is Tesco.
Moreover, there are many retail merchants which are similar to Sainsbury and Morrison
provides cheaper priced products. Additionally, Lidl and Aldi have multiple shops in the
United Kingdom. The buying power of the customers is more since there are many options
available. The competition in the market might leave huge impact on the market share of
Sainsbury.
Political
The political environment of UK has great impact on Sainsbury’s performance. In
UK, the government and the consumer debts are extremely high which impacts the attitudes
of the customers and the business conditions. It can have great pressure on the company.
Sainsbury has to operate in such market conditions and run the business continually.
Sainsbury has to keep a very steady growth and offer products at competitive prices.
Economic
The economic factors affect the costs, prices, demand and profitability. The
economic downturn, the inflation in the food prices and the increase in the unemployment
will affect the organization significantly. Due to high prices of the food products, the demand
of the products of Sainsbury is likely to decrease which will lead to decrease in food
products.
Social
The e customers in the society prefer the one-stop shopping or want to have all
products in a single shop. The non-food products available in the Sainsbury shops have
benefitted the customer upto greater extent. There are other social factors such as

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enhancement in the female workforce has resulted in the decrease of domestic meal. Hence,
there is growth in demand pattern which might leave the company under pressure.
Technological
The technological advancement can leave greater impact on the operations of
business. The growth potentials of the web or online operations become easy for the business.
The online operations help the organization to expand al their capacities in the growing
demand areas. The annual reports show that there are improvements in the online services
resulting in the sales increase of 25 % every year. This online service is available in the entire
households of the United Kingdom.
Environmental
The government rules regarding the environmental issues have put pressure on
Sainsbury a lot and the organization has become liable to follow the rules. It has taken an
initiative to reduce, reuse and recycle to manage the waste and reduce the carbon footprints.
Legal
The legislative aspects of the government along with the policies leave direct impact
on the organizational performance. The tax on the advertising of fatty foods has to be
followed by the retailing organizations. Sainsbury has accepted the tax systems having
modified the products to the legislative requirements.
Strategic position
Leadership and communication
It has been found that Sainsbury has become one of the most trusted retailers where
people like to work. In this organization, there is authentic leadership which emphasizes over

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ethical standards and positivity along with transparency of communication. The authentic
leaders are highly committed towards the ethical values of the organization and establish
powerful climate for the company. This leadership has strived towards the motivational and
ethical behaviour among the staffs through values, good behaviour. The reward systems have
helped the company to function ethically and enhance the reputation.
The communication strategy of Sainsbury consists of popular elements of
communication such as advertising, letters, oral communications, formal letters, new
conferences, new releases and others. Another strategy is the magazines featuring different
kitchen recipes and advices along with lottery games too. The annual report is another
powerful way of summarising the past performances formulating the future plans and many
aspects of the business.
The company culture
The corporate culture of an organization plays a significant role in determining the
performance of the firms. The corporate culture of Sainsbury is strong enough to have
prevented it from reacting on the changes in the home market in the 1990s. The corporate
culture was becoming inappropriate in the food retailing market of UK. This culture was
being employed successfully abroad by Sainsbury.
Position in the sector
Having almost 15.3 % share in the supermarket sector, Sainsbury’s has been
considered to be the biggest retailer in the UK. In the year 1869, John James Sainsbury had
founded a shop in Drury Lane. In the year 1922, the company transformed into the largest
retailer of groceries and was also a early adopter of the self-service retailing in the UK during
the year 1980s. It is a public limited company and headquarter is situated in 33 Holborn,
London, United Kingdom. As per the reports of 2018, there are more than 16, 15 shops and
there are few key people of the company. There are almost 600 supermarkets along with 800

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convenience stores and receive more than 240,000 orders each week. The competitive
advantage of the company is its range, quality and provenance which make the company
apart from the other supermarkets.
Strengths and limitations of the tools
The strengths of SWOT as a tool is that it has become possible to have an overall
understanding of the great picture. The fine details have been focused on properly through
this tool. The threats and opportunities of Sainsbury have been identified as well as the
strengths and weaknesses. The organization in turn will become benefitted by this analysis.
The limitation of SWOT is that it is not objective and it can often lead to oversimplification.
On the other hand, through the PESTEL analysis, a simple and easy-to-use framework has
been found for the analysis. It has helped to reduce the effects of threats to the organization
and encouraged the development of strategic thinking in the organization. The limitation of
the PESTEL analysis is that the process is required to be conducted on a regular basis. The
access to quality external environment sometimes becomes restricted due to the time and cost
required to collate it.
The main issues
After the evaluation of the strategic position, it has been found that Sainsbury needs
to work on the extensions plans and the communication strategies too. Since the customer
demands are ever changing, the company has to hire personnel with the right skill and
attitudes. There is little lack of efficient staffs to deliver what is wanted by the customers.
The company is also in need of appropriate leadership which will guide the online operation
and enhance the working agility of the colleagues.

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Section 2- Recommendation to the organization
 Communication is the key to achieve the interpersonal and the organizational goals.
An effective communication needs the capability of the leaders to listen to the needs
of the customers and the employees and reciprocate afterwards. Sainsbury should
encourage participation leadership internally so that the issues come forward easily
and resolved.
 The organization must follow the Weberian theory of communication which clearly
defines the responsibilities and roles making communication a hierarchical process
which is clear and structured too. It will leave no message misunderstood and the
flow will be equally easy and smooth.
 The organization should have a small goal that is based on the productivity, sales and
cost reductions. The company should have new and improved stocks to maximize the
sales percentages.
 They can also follow the theory of diversification and extend the number of activities
which are undertaken by the business. It can further help in spreading the risk. When
one part of the business will struggle, the other areas can stay profitable.
 The company is focused on expanding the business every now and then for staying in
level with the competition. Hence, the company should invest in new type of services
and the products too to meet the customer demands. A customer of Sainsbury would
be one of the biggest imperative stakeholders of the company. This is due to the fact
that customers have an interest in the business and the operations of the organization.
Section 3- Implementation of recommendations
Based on the given recommendations, the company should focus on implementing
them within the organization. Since the ground and case for change has been determined, the
company should have good communication about the change among the members of the

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organizations. A timeline will be made for the implementation and the change has to be made
in a proper order. There are few aspects which must be considered during implementing the
change. The aspects are speed, commitment and conformance. The support from the
management is extremely required as well as the support from the employees. Before
implementing the change, the organizational risk factors also need to be addressed and
considered. This is highly required for supporting the change in all its strategic direction.
The leadership style
There are various types of leadership and among those five types of leadership are the
most common ones.
Authoritarian- The authoritarian leaders are those who make the employees aware of the
company goals in detail and guide them in reaching the goal. The division between the
employee and the employer is clear enough. It is useful when there is less time for the
decision making.
The laissez –faire leadership style involves those leaders who are delegating tasks and
decision –making. It works when the employees are under right circumstances and self-
motivated leading to proper job-satisfaction. It is a best option for those employees working
remotely.
Transformational leadership style concentrates on the leader who communicates with the
employees and other members of the organization actively and motivates them to enhance the
levels of productivity efficiently. This type of leadership focuses on the big picture of the
organization and corporate goals. These type of leaders are quite inspiring since they expect
the best outcome from their employees.
Servant leadership- This type of leaders stays out of the limelight and allows the focus be on
the employees. This leadership provides top priority to the service and values generosity and

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integrity. It prefers the group efforts while making any decision. The mission of the
organization becomes the centre of attraction and it works for the tight deadline businesses.
The participative – The participative leadership is also known as the democratic leadership
focusing on the culling opinions. It further reflects the opinions of majority and the desires
too. These types of leaders provide proper guidelines to the employees, involve everyone and
make final decisions founded on the votes of majority. This style functions the best when the
leader tries to encourage the agreement and participation among the employees. This
leadership style has been recommended for Sainsbury as there are various advantages of this
style. It makes the acceptance of decisions more likely and improves the morale of the
employees. It further encourages the creative solutions and increases the employee retention.
Additionally, it decreases the competition enhancing collaboration. It will help an
organization like Sainsbury to overcome all barriers and proceed further.
The communication of the organization’s vision is an important step in the entire
implementation plan. It has been suggested that the task of leadership is to communicate the
vision of the organization clearly repeatedly and help the individuals in understanding what
needs to be done and how it should be done. Hence, the vision has to be communicated in
both a subtle and dramatic ways (Dolan et al. 2017). It can be communicated through
internal memos, posters, presentation. The vision will help the members of the organization
to understand the goals and it can be incorporated into the objective settings too. It can
further be incorporated in the interdepartmental projects and performance review standards.
The creation of a new vision will serve towards creating a stronger workforce, better team
and also entrepreneurial thinkers.
The leadership strategies paint a picture of the organization. After having a vision ,
the next task is to have a driving force to improve the organizational performance. As per the

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leadership strategies, the leader of Sainsbury will have to distribute the responsibility. The
power should be pushed downward, empowering people of all levels across the organization
in order to make the decisions (Zerfass et al. 2018). The responsibility distribution will
increase the adaptability, collective intelligence and resilience of the organization over a
period of time. It will be done through harnessing the wisdom of people who are outside of
the decision-making hierarchy. The leader has to be honest and open regarding the
information. The transparency of information will foster conversation regarding the meaning
of information and improvement of everyday practices (Thorpe, Connolly and Gainey 2019).
There should be multiple paths created for raising and testing the ideas. This is key to the
leadership strategies and the ability to connect the ideas help in creating values.
The actions are as follows:
 Firstly, the change has to be explained by the leaders. They need to talk with the
people regarding the business reasons for the change (Boies, Fiset and Gill 2015).
Regular conversations and conferences will help to clarify the values of change.
 The people of the organization should be supported in recognizing the loss of
traditional ways of working. This is an important step for building a long-term
commitment (Butchibabu et al., 2016). It further helps in minimizing the disruptions
to the business and reduces confusion during the change process.
 The leaders should have a clear direction towards the change, the way it will be
accomplished and the way success will be measured. The leader should define each
steps of the change to the employees.
 Lastly, when the change has been implemented, the leader has to ensure that there is
constant adjustment on the improvements (Charlier et al. 2016). This supports people
to overcome all the challenges and accept the change as parts of the organization.

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Section 4- Critical Reflection
Reflection can be considered as not only a personal process but a collaborative one. It
involves uncertainty with experience and involves the specific inquiries along with essential
components. The individuals involve themselves in evaluating the insights grown from the
process regarding the values, perspectives, beliefs and experiences. Reflection is the process
through which the new-found clarity to disposition is achieved. In the coursework, my
learning will be presented using the Gibb’s model of reflection.
It is a reflective cycle model which considers the feelings during reflecting on the
learning from experience. It begins with a description of a particular event and the feelings
related to the expressed events. In the sage of evaluation, here values judgements made for
the analysis of drawing personal understanding. In the concluding stage, there are insights on
the way behaviours leave impact on the outcomes. The action plan is used for encountering
similar event. The plan must constitute a learned intuition of what would be done different
next time. This is a model of reflection.
Description - In the coursework and the class modules, I have learnt about the leadership
strategies along with the communications. I have known that it is a practical skill which
encompasses the ability of an individual to guide or lead other individuals. A good leader has
the ability to lead, has a different personality, clear vision and courage along with ambition to
succeed. The good leader encourages the entire team to perform with superiority and drive
organizational success.
Feelings – After learning about the leadership styles and strategies I have understood the
importance of leading with appropriateness. Every organization need to employ strategic
leadership to run the business smoothly.

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Evaluation – The workshops and the learning journeys have helped me in knowing that it
influence the organizational members and executes necessary changes in the organization.
The strategic leaders establish organizational structure and allocate the resources for
expressing a strategic vision.
Analysis - I have further known that effective leaders keep the communication strong and the
flow of information transparent. It helps to enhance the employee morale and enhances their
working agility in the organization.
Conclusions- It can be concluded that my learning will help me to incorporate the strategies
and the theories in my future endeavours.
Action plans – I will improve my leadership skills through watching videos of great leaders
of all times, by watching the journals and taking the guidance of my class teacher. I will
strengthen my interpersonal skills, communication skills, leading skills and try my best to
become a good leader in the organization where I will be hired.

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