Strategic Management and Leadership for Woolworths

Strategic Management and Leadership
Woolworths

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Q1. Explain and examine the external factors affecting your chosen organisation? How important are
they for a company’s sustainability and survivability? Analyse the major changes taking place in the
external environment that will affect strategy of your chosen organization...............................................4
Q2. Give out the important stakeholders of your chosen organisation, analyse the needs and
expectations of these stakeholders, including how they can influence strategic decision making in the
organisation.................................................................................................................................................7
Q3. Use appropriate tools, for e.g. value chain analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, Boston growth-share (BCG)
matrix, SWOT analysis, etc. to analyse and review where your own organisation is positioned in the
marketplace with respect to its current business plans? Thereafter, evaluate the competitive strengths
and weaknesses of your chosen organisation’s current business strategies...............................................9
Q4. Use any two modelling tools to develop strategic options for your chosen organisation, for e.g. you
can choose Ansoff matrix strategies; vertical, backwards and forwards integration; horizontal integration;
differentiation; cost leadership; Mintzberg’s strategies (deliberate, emergent); leadership and
differentiation; etc.....................................................................................................................................13
Q5. Develop comparative activities between your chosen organisations with another competitor in the
market. Thereafter, create options to form the basis of future organisational strategy of your chosen
organisation...............................................................................................................................................15
Q6. What are the key factors you would consider while constructing a strategy plan for your chosen
organisation. Based on the key factors identified, propose a suitable structure for a strategy plan that
ensures appropriate participation from all the stakeholders of the organisation. Based on the proposed
structure of strategy plan of the organisation, develop criteria by reviewing potential options available
for developing a robust strategy plan. Thereafter, construct an agreed strategy plan that includes all
resource implications................................................................................................................................18
Q7. Explain the core values (ethical, cultural, environmental, social and business) of the chosen
organisation and compare these with the current business objectives of the organisation?....................20
Q8. Develop appropriate vision and mission statements of the chosen organisation. In further alignment
with the vision and mission statements of the organisation, produce agreed future management

objectives of the organisation. Finally, develop measures to evaluate the strategy plan of the
organisation?.............................................................................................................................................22
Q9. Based on the constructed agreed strategy plan designed by you in Q.6 for your chosen organisation,
develop a schedule for implementing this strategy plan; and also design monitoring and evaluation
systems for implementing the strategic plan of the organisation. As stakeholders play a vital role in
influencing business strategies, create an appropriate dissemination process to gain their commitment
and approval of the strategic plan.............................................................................................................24
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................25
References-................................................................................................................................................26

Introduction
Woolworths is one of the giant retailers across the globe. It is present in several countries across
the globe and with its wide network of functionalities; organization has acquired its effective
image in the global market. Woolworths Limited is an Australian company and it is one of the
leading retailers in the Australian retailing industry. Its primary competitor is Coles a subsidiary
of Wesfarmers. Both these companies have acquired approximately 80% market share of the
Australian market through which duopoly market conditions have been made in the Australian
retailing market. With regards to enhancing organizational performance as well as for gaining
competitive advantage, organization requires adopting appropriate strategies for sustained
growth and overall development in the dynamic and competitive business environment
(Woolworths, 2018).

Q1. Explain and examine the external factors affecting your chosen
organisation? How important are they for a company’s sustainability
and survivability? Analyse the major changes taking place in the
external environment that will affect strategy of your chosen
organization.
External factors play a very important role in the organization’s success. For strategic
management, it is necessary to analyse all the external factors and plan strategies accordingly.
PESTLE analysis is a framework used for analysing external environmental factors so that
effectiveness of organizational strategies could be analysed. Organization is planning for
enhancing its performance in the target market along with attaining sustainable growth and
overall development. External factors directly impact the sustainability and survival of an
organization as these factors have that capability to affect the operations in several ways.
Following is the detailed analysis of PESTLE framework in relevance with the Woolworths
functionalities:
Political
Political factors are the most effective factors which affects organizational performance. As
Woolworths operates in different parts of the globe, thus, they are required to adopt appropriate
strategies with relevance to the political factors of different parts of the globe. Political factors
directly or indirectly could easily affect organizational long term profitability and as Woolworths
sells number of items in their supermarket, thus, it is necessary to determine the political
stability, corruption level, legal and political frameworks, and regulations in relevance to the
operations of retail stores through which appropriate strategies could be framed for overall
development and sustained growth of the organization (Amatulli, Caputo & Guido, 2011).

Economic
Every country has different economic factors and major components of this factor are interest
rate, inflation rate, exchange rates, etc. While designing the strategies, Woolworths should
consider these factors in relevance to the different marketing conditions for attainment of their
desired goals and objectives. In terms of expanding the business in international market,
organization should consider the growth rate, economic conditions and the consumer behaviour
of the particular market through which relevant decision could be taken for selecting an
appropriate destination for expanding organizational operations (Darnall, Henriques & Sadorsky,
2010).
Social
Social factors are the most effective factors as per the functionalities of Woolworths Limited
because their primary operational area is retail sector. Under this sector, consumer behaviour,
their demands and wants, marketing trends and other relevant factors needs to be considered
before introducing a new product in the market or before introducing its business in the other
markets. Woolworths deals in millions of products and every product has different consumer
segment so, in order to enhance the customer satisfaction and for developing reliable image
amongst the customers’ mind-sets’, it is required for the organization to consider their demands
through which relevant products could be offered to them for fulfilling their demands (Dixon,
Scura, Carpenter & Sherman, 2013).
Technological
With the effect of trending technologies, business entities’ functionalities have been changed and
with regards to this, organization needs to perform their actions in order to enhance customers’
experience. With the adaptation of appropriate technology, organization could easily move

towards automation which is ultimately an effective and appropriate medium for enhancing
organizational performance. Impact of technology is one of the great measures for executing
tasks with the objective of making effective strategies for gaining desired goals. Introduction of
modern technology in the business operations will help the organization to create positive impact
over its product offering, controlling waste management and managing safety stock level for the
objective of fulfilling consumers’ demands and wants. Apart from this, technological factors also
play pivotal role in terms of enhancing organizational performance along with gaining
competitive advantage (Dobbs, 2014).
Legal
Legal factors of every country are also different and legal factors have strong impact on the
intellectual property rights of an organization. Before entering into a new market, organization
should consider their legal factors and as Woolworths Limited is engaged in the retail operations
and every country has different laws and regulations regarding the products sold in the retail
stores, thus, it needs to be considered for the objective of attaining organizational desired goals
and objectives.
Environment
As such Woolworths does not perform any activity which could affect the environment, still, it is
required for the organization to invest in making effective CSR and environmental policies in
order to remove the environmental barriers. As Woolworths Limited is designing its strategies
for the objective of enhancing its performance and to gain sustainable growth, thus, it is required
for the organization to consider each and every aspect in relevance with developing effective
strategies (Dulat, et. al., 2016)

Q2. Give out the important stakeholders of your chosen organisation,
analyse the needs and expectations of these stakeholders, including how
they can influence strategic decision making in the organisation.
Needs and expectations of Shareholders
The stakeholders are the vital component for any organisation and critical understanding is
necessary of their thought process and leveraging the stakeholder base. The basic journey of the
company not only includes the business risks but also meets the expectations of these key
stakeholders which are outlined below. The stakeholders include the customers, suppliers, the
government and the customers and the employees as well (Eberl, 2010).
Customers: Across the 1500 stores the efforts are aligned by the company to make the customer
happy and satisfied in terms of the quality of the product, value and the sustainability. In addition
to this the company will grow in terms of the customers if they are satisfied and the company is
highly engaged in the customer satisfaction methodology. Therefore the need of the customer is
the qualified product.
Employees: Woolworths has employed over the 46000 people across the globe and the
operations do recognise the role of a leader as well as the pioneer to inculcate the wellbeing of
the employees. Moreover the investment of the employees in the skill building activities and the
constant working environment highly affects the organisation in general (Ferrell, Gonzalez-
Padron & Ferrell, 2010). Hence the need of the employees is the comfortable environment to
work in the organisation.