Woolworths Group Strategic Analysis

This assignment requires a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths Group's strategic management. Students must examine the company's current situation, including its top five revival priorities as outlined by the company. The analysis should delve into the challenges faced by Woolworths in the competitive Australian retail market and evaluate their strategies for addressing these issues. Relevant theories and frameworks from strategic management literature should be applied to provide a thorough understanding of Woolworths' approach to achieving sustainable success.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Company and Industry Background................................................................................................2
Appropriateness of Strategic Objectives.........................................................................................3
Evaluation and Determination of Strategies....................................................................................5
Components of Strategy Execution.................................................................................................7
Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Twenty-first centuries is considered as the era of business as massive development in
businesses all over the world can be noticed. Businesses all over the world are growing in a large
pace. In this situation, Strategic Management is considered as one of the major factors for the
companies all over the world. In order to ensure that the organizations are developing in a steady
pace, the organizational managers are required to develop effective strategies (Hitt, Ireland and
Hoskisson 2012). Thus, strategic management refers to the process of developing and managing
strategies in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. In addition, with the
employment of effective strategic management in the organizations, the businesses can get the
necessary competitive advantages. Hence, it can be seen that strategic management has an
important role to play in the overall development of the companies (Hill, Jones and Schilling
2014). In this context, it is required to mention that there needs to be an effective alignment
between the organizational objectives and strategies as strategic objectives provide the
organizational managers with the necessary direction to achieve organizational goals and
objectives (Eden and Ackermann 2013). This study takes an honest attempt to analyze and
evaluate various aspects of strategic management and strategic planning for a business
organization. Thus, for this study, Woolworths Limited is taken into consideration. Various
stages of this report attempts to analyze and evaluate different aspects of strategic management
and strategic planning for Woolworths. Lastly, based on the whole discussion, a conclusion and
recommendations are provided.

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Company and Industry Background
Woolworths Limited is one of the major Australian companies operating in the retail
market of Australia and New Zealand. This company is considered as the second largest
company in Australia in terms of revenue. Woolworths was established in the year of 1924 and
the company is headquartered at New South Wales, Australia. It can be seen that Woolworths
operates in different business segments; they are supermarkets, petrol, food, liquor, general
merchandise, home improvements, hotels and others. Woolworths has an employee base of
202,000. In 2016, the company registered revenue and operating income of AUS$59 billion and
AUS$1.6 billion (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).
The Australian retail industry is considered as one of the major industries as it contributes
towards the economic development of the country. At present, the retail industry of Australia is
growing in a fast pace with the help of social as well as economical development. The key
factors contribute towards the development of Australian retail sector are string economic growth
of Australia, rising population of the country and the increase in purchasing power of the
Australians. It is expected that the Australian retail industry will expand at a rate of 2% during
the year 2013 to 2018 (deloitte.com 2017).
Appropriateness of Strategic Objectives
As per the above discussion, it can be seen that strategic management is one of the major
factor for the success of the business organizations (Slack 2015). There is not any exception of
this fact in case of Woolworths. The major organizational goal of Woolworths is to make the
company in such a way that they become the first preference of their customers across all brands.

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In order to achieve this goal Woolworths has developed five major strategic objectives. Out of
these five objectives, two are discussed below:
The first objective is to develop a customer and store-led culture and team. It is
considered as a crucial strategic objective of Woolworths. As per this objective, Woolworths has
implemented various revised long-term as well as short-term performance measures that are
aligned with the major goal of the company (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). After that,
Woolworths has also implemented new Operating Model with various shared services so that
they can be great help for the companies. As a part of this objective, Woolworths has
implemented ‘Woolies Welcome’ scheme under which the support office team has to spend a
week in various Woolworth stores. In addition, Woolworths has also developed some major tools
for the customers so that the customers can provide their feedbacks to the Support Office. There
are various other steps taken by Woolworths for the achievements of this objective. Thus, based
on the above discussion, it can be seen that Woolworths has implemented all of these strategies
so that they can build a customer and store-led culture and team in the organization. Thus, all
these strategies are well aligned with the goal of the company.
The second objective is the generation of sustainable sales momentum in Food. Under
this strategy, the main aim of Woolworths is to deliver the products to the right people and to
obtain sustainable sales and profitability. Woolworths has introduced the program called ‘Strong
Voice of the Customers’ that helps Woolworths to describe the customer’s feedback based on
their experience. In June, Woolworths received record overall customer satisfaction as a result of
this initiative. In addition, as a result of this objective, customers’ transactions for Woolworths
has grown by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Apart from this, the amount of investments
increased by AUS$500 million in 2016 as compared to 2015. It has been seen that Woolworths

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has taken some of the major steps to engage more suppliers. Thus, from the above discussion, it
can be observed that Woolworths has taken all these steps so that they can achieve the objective
of the generation of sustainable sales momentum in food business. In addition, this particular
objective is aligned with the major goal of the company (ausfoodnews.com.au 2017).
From the above discussion, it can that Woolworths has taken various strategic steps for
the achievements of the above-discussed objectives. However, there are still some areas of
improvements. Thus, it is recommended that Woolworths needs to develop more customer-
oriented objectives so that the customers can be highly motivated to buy their products. For
example, the objective of Woolworths should be to attract more customers towards the company
with the help of various customer loyalty programs. In addition, it is also recommended that
Woolworths should develop objectives that will be concerned about the overall welfare of the
customers. These are the major recommendation.
Evaluation and Determination of Strategies
The above analysis shows that Woolworths has some clear strategic objectives for the
achievement of their ultimate organizational goal. It needs to be mentioned that Woolworths has
developed organizational strategies in such a way so that they can help in the achievement of set
objectives. in order to determine the alignment between the objectives and strategies, it is
required to discuss about the strategies of the company.
Woolworths is always committed towards delivering quality products and services based
on the mission and vision statement. It needs to be mentioned that Woolworths has adopted the
strategy of building a multi-optional retain company in terms of quality products, quality
services, low price and in store experience to meet the requirements of the customers. In this

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regard, the goal of Woolworths is to reach to AUS$1 billion sales with the help of online
channels by the year 2020. Thus, the major strategies of Woolworths are as follows:
Extend Leadership: In the recent years, Woolworths has re-established their marketing
campaigns so that they can add value to the stakeholders of the company and boost growth in
every aspect of business. In addition, it is also the strategy of Woolworths to accelerate
leadership in the food and liquor business (ausfoodnews.com.au 2017).
To Maintain Track Records to Build New Growth: Another major strategy of Woolworths is to
maintain the record of accomplishment of their business performance so that they can be helpful
in the near future as a benchmark. It will help Woolworths to grab the future business
opportunities (woolworthsholdings.co.za 2017).
Maximization of Shareholder’s Value: The effectiveness of this strategy can be seen by the
entering the electronic business by restructuring and divesting Dick Smith. In addition,
Woolworths has been able to improve various aspects of marketing with the help of this strategy.
Woolworths’ acceleration alignment with Big W offers the business with new customers and
competitive reality (wow2016ar.qreports.com.au 2017).
Effective Use of Enablers for Business Growth: Woolworths has been using the enablers of the
company in such a way so that they can improve long-term relationship with shareholders. In
addition, this strategy helps Woolworths in acquiring local and international talents for their
business. This enablers help Woolworths in gaining higher profitability along with effectiveness
in the supply chain (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017).
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be seen that Woolworths have employed some of
the major effective business strategies for the overall development of the organization. Earlier

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discussion shows two major strategic objectives of Woolworths. From the above, it can be seen
that all the strategies of Woolworths are customer centric as their major motive is to satisfy the
retain needs of the customers. On the other hand, all the strategies are developed in such a way
so that they can promote the sales and growth of the company. Hence, on the overall basis, it is
clear that Woolworths develops their business strategies by aligning them with their business
objectives. This aspect can be proved by observing the market position of Woolworths, as they
are the second largest company in the Australian retail market.
Components of Strategy Execution
After developing the strategies, it is crucial for the companies to effectively execute them
as the success of the strategies largely depends on this process. In case of Woolworths, the
company use to follow certain steps for strategy execution. The first step is the visualization of
the strategies. In this step, the managers of Woolworths use tools like strategic maps, activity
map and others to illustrate strategies. The next step is strategy measurement in which the key
elements are put in the strategy for performance measurement (Hrebiniak 2013). The next step
involves the decision making process in which the managers are required to take final decision
for the selection of final strategies. The next step in strategy execution is the alignment of
strategies with organizational strategic objectives. The strategies are developed in such a way so
that they can be helpful for the achievements of strategic objectives. The next steps are the
communication and management of the strategies. It is required for Woolworths to communicate
the strategies with the organizational people; at the same time, the managers of Woolworths
manage the strategies effectively. In the last stage, the roles are aligned to different individual for
the effective running of strategies (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2017). These are the main stages in
strategy execution in Woolworths.

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The above discussion shows that Woolworths has an effective strategy execution process.
However, it is a lengthy process that taken large amount of money and resources. Thus, it is
recommended that Woolworths should shorten the process of strategy execution so that both
time and money can be saved. It can also be seen that there is not strategy review process.
Hence, it is also recommended that Woolworths needs to employ effective process for
continuous review of organizational strategies.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The above discussion shows that Woolworths has five major strategic objectives. Two of
them are to develop a customer and store-led culture and to promote sustainable sales growth.
From the above-discussed strategy analysis, it can be observed that Woolworths has employed
some effective strategies to support the string growth of the company. It is also prominent from
the analysis that the major aim of all the strategies are to provide satisfaction to their customers’
need and to promote sales growth. Thus, it can be concluded that there are proper alignment
between the strategic objectives and business strategies of Woolworths. The above discussion
also shows that Woolworths follow a specific process for the execution of business strategies.
Based on the discussion, some recommendations are provided below:
 It is recommended that Woolworths needs to develop some major customer centric
strategies that will be helpful in attracting more customers towards the company. For
this, Woolworths should develop more customer loyalty programs for their customers.
 It is recommended that Woolworths should shorten the strategy execution process of
them as it taken large amount of money, time and resources. Woolworths will be able to
save time and other resources with the help of this strategy.

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References
Ausfoodnews.com.au. (2017). Woolworths announces new strategies to win over grocery
shoppers, AFN reveals full detail | Australian Food News. [online] Available at:
http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2015/05/06/woolworths-announces-new-strategies-to-win-
over-grocery-shoppers-afn-reveals-full-detail.html [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Ausfoodnews.com.au. (2017). Woolworths' top 5 revival priorities | Australian Food News.
[online] Available at: http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2016/08/29/woolworths-top-5-revival-
priorities.html [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Deloitte Australia. (2017). 2017 set to be ‘fascinating’ year for Australian retail | Deloitte
Australia | Global Powers of Retailing 2017. [online] Available at:
https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/media-releases/articles/2017-set-to-be-fascinating-year-
for-australian-retail-240117.html [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013. Making strategy: The journey of strategic management.
Sage.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
approach. Cengage Learning.
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2012. Strategic management cases:
competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.
Hrebiniak, L.G., 2013. Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. FT Press.
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Uittenhove, K. and Lemaire, P., 2012. Sequential difficulty effects during strategy
execution. Experimental Psychology.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). [online] Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/content/Document/Woolworths%20Group%202017_
%20Annual%20Report_final.pdf [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). About Us - Woolworths Group. [online] Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/ [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). Strategy and objectives - Woolworths Group. [online]
Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-approach/strategy-and-
objectives [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Woolworthsholdings.co.za. (2017). Integrated Report. [online] Available at:
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strategy.asp [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].
Wow2016ar.qreports.com.au. (2017). [online] Available at:
https://wow2016ar.qreports.com.au/xresources/pdf/wow16ar-full.pdf [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].

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