Strategic Management of Woolworths in Australian Retail Industry

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Post 1..............................................................................................................................2
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
PESTEL analysis of external environment....................................................................2
Key factors and their implications on opportunities and threats....................................2
Overall impact of industry growth in future..................................................................3
Conclusions related to macro-environmental analysis...................................................3
Post 2..............................................................................................................................3
Industry analysis.........................................................................................................3
Porter’s five forces analysis of Woolworths..............................................................4
Conclusion based on industry analysis......................................................................5
Post 3..............................................................................................................................5
Internal analysis.............................................................................................................5
Key resources, core competencies and capabilities of Woolworths..............................5
Strengths and weaknesses of Woolworths.....................................................................6
Conclusions based on the analysis.................................................................................6
Post 4..............................................................................................................................7
Introduction to business level strategy...........................................................................7
Evaluating the business level strategies applied by Woolworths...................................7
Value chain analysis of Woolworths..............................................................................8
Primary Activities..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................10

2
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Post 1
Introduction
Woolworths is a major Australian retail organization which has its origin in Sydney.
The company has its operations in a huge number of locations in Australia and New Zealand.
The organization has developed the second place in the Australian retail industry after
Wesfarmers. Woolworths was established in the year 1924 and has been successful in its
operations in different areas of Australia. Woolworths is an important part of the Australian
retail sector since its inception (Woolworthsgroup 2018).
PESTEL analysis of external environment
Political factors
 The political stability in Australia
plays a significant part in the
operations and profitability of
Woolworths.
 The levels of corruption in the
government is an important factor
that affects the company.
Economic factors
 The different macro environmental
factors which include, savings rate,
inflation rate and interest rate can
affect the operations of Woolworths.
 The financial markets are able to
affect the revenues of Woolworths.
Social factors
 The culture that is followed by the
people in Australia affects the
product offerings of Woolworths.
 Changes in demands of people
affects the revenues of the company
(Aghazadeh, 2015).
Technological factors
 The fast disrupting technologies are
an important part of the competitive
retail industry of Australia.
 The products of Woolworths are
affected by the changes in
technology (Baporikar, 2015).
Legal factors
 Anti-trust law in the retail industry
is an important part of the ways by
which Woolworths operates.
 The different laws which have been
formulated by the government are
able to affect the operations.
Environmental factors
 The changes that have taken place in
external environment play an
important part in the production
based operations of Woolworths.

3
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Key factors and their implications on opportunities and threats
The growth that has been seen in the retail industry is an opportunity for the increase
of revenues of Woolworths. This is however affected by the changing demands of the
customers. The major threats that are faced by Woolworths in the Australian retail industry
are from its biggest competitor Coles (Bailey, Mankin, Kelliher & Garavan, 2018).
Overall impact of industry growth in future
The retail industry of Australia is highly growing in nature and has been able to attract
huge number of organizations in an effective manner. The increase in number of
organizations has further increased the competition levels in the market as well. Woolworths
thereby needs to provide unique services to the consumers in order to generate a profitable
position in the market. The retail industry will be able to deliver enormous prospects for
future growth to the company (Bettis, Gambardella, Helfat & Mitchell, 2015).
Conclusions related to macro-environmental analysis
The macro environmental analysis has thereby been able to portray that the
organization has been able to function in a cost-effective way in spite of the external forces.
The changes that take place in different external factors are able to cause huge changes in the
ways by which Woolworths operates in the retail market of Australia. The external factors
thereby play an vital part in the successful operations of the modern organizations.
Post 2
Industry analysis
Industry analysis is considered to be a business based function which is completed by
the owners of the business and the other individuals. The analysis is helpful for the business
organizations to understand the different economic pieces which are present in the