HI6006 - Australia Post: Sustainability Report and Strategic Analysis

This report examines the sustainability strategy of Australia Post, a government-owned entity, focusing on its product development approach within the context of a changing market. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction that defines sustainability and its three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. It then delves into Australia Post's adoption of a product development strategy, driven by the need to adapt to evolving customer demands and maintain profitability. The Ansoff Matrix is employed to analyze strategic choices, highlighting the application of product development alongside potential strategies like market penetration and diversification. Furthermore, the report explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and various business strategies that could be applied to enhance Australia Post's performance. The analysis includes an examination of sustainability challenges, such as strong, weak, and nil sustainability. The report concludes with a discussion of cost leadership and differentiation strategies, emphasizing their potential impact on Australia Post's market position and profitability.

Sustainability-Australia Post

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sustainability is the process in which current need and demand are fulfilled without
compromising it in future. It has three main pillars like economic, social and environment. The
given report is about Australia Post which is government owned entity. Here, it has adopted
product development strategy in order to survive in market. It is providing various products to
customer along with postal service to increase profit and sustainability. The main reason behind
this strategy is to fulfils need and demand of customer so that they get attached to entity. As it
deals in paper mail delivery using traditional methods.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
1) Sustainability Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Three pillars of Sustainability5
2) Explaining other strategy which would be applied to organisation...................................7
3) Other strategy would have helped the organisation.........................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The process of study for maintaining change in balanced environment where current as
well as future need and requirement of human beings are fulfilled is called sustainability. It has
three connected pillars such as social, environment and economic. It means to meet present need
without compromising ability of future (Farmar-Bowers, Higgins and Millar, 2012). The given
report is based on Australia Post which was founded in 25 April, 1809 at Australia. It is owned
by government which provides postal services. It deals in various product like retail, express
post, logistics, postal, digital and printing service. In this assignment will discuss about
application of product development strategy along with other strategy which can be applied to
organisation. There are other strategy which can help entity for better running of business to
enhance profit can be: Corporate that is highest strategic plan of business for achieving goal and
objectives. Similarly, business strategy is plan for reaching particular business objectives.

1) Sustainability Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Three pillars of Sustainability
Sustainability Strategy
It is corporation strategy which creates profits for their shareholders by protecting
environment and improving lives to whom they have interacted. The main purpose of this
strategy are creating better environment, sustainable solution for marketplace, supporting to local
communities and co-staining great place for work.
Corporate Social Responsibility
It is also known as Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Conscience, Conscious
Capitalism, Sustainable Business. CSR. It is self regulating business model which assist
organisation to be socially accountable to public, itself and stakeholder. By practising CSR, it
can include all aspects of society like social, economic and environmental (Marley, 2012). In
context of Australia Post, it can contribute in CSR for betterment of society as it is government
body which helps in development of community. Thus, it can work for people and their
development in order to earn goodwill in market.
Three pillars of Sustainability
The three pillars of sustainability are as follows:
Economic- Economic pillar focus on increasing productivity and efficiency. It also
provide employment opportunities and generating revenue. This pillar develop infrastructure
with increasing trade competitiveness.
Social- Social pillar provide equity, fairness, health, safety, improving labour conditions,
involving community and increasing values. It mainly work for employee and organisation.
Environmental- Environmental pillar mainly focus on surrounding where business has
been operating. It focus on decreasing pollution such as marine, soil, air.
Australia Post is owned and operated by government which provides postal services in
Australia. It has number of locations where 4429 are retail outlets and 2561 outlet in rural &
remote areas. The scenario given in case study is that Australia Post is providing various goods
in existing market for fulfilling need and want of customers along with postal service. In order to
run its business successfully, it need to adopt various strategy for development of goods and
services which is explained with help of Ansoff Model described below: Ansoff Matrix Theory
is planning tool which provides framework to assist managers, executives, marketers for growth
and sustainability. This model was introduced by Igor Ansoff in 1950s in order to help business

to choose best product and market strategy (Hatfield-Dodds and et. al., 2015). The marketer
having objectives for growth, use such type of tool for better outcome. This theory is divided into
four category which is described below
Market Penetration Strategy (existing products, existing markets)
It means achieving growth with help of existing products in current market with the aim
to increase market share. In context of Australia Post, if the strategy will implement than they
needs to be stuck on postal service for customers. The mails can be delivered through paper
work to their consumers. Here, with assistance of existing market and product, it can run its
business and enhance profit and growth.
Market Development Strategy (existing products, new markets)
It means growth of firm by targeting existing goods to new markets. Under the context of
Australia Post, they can implement this strategy and provide products such as printing, express
and mails in various part of world. It can enhance business through shop as well as delivery of
mail (Haydon and Kuang, 2013). Also this delivery industry can be classified into package and
mail for providing service to people.
Product Development Strategy (new products, existing markets)
In this entity introduces new products to existing market. It can introduce products in
market in order to enhance business and earn sustainability. If Australia Post implement such
strategy it can dealing in other product in existing market. As it is run under government so it has
to follow rules and regulation of it. Due to modern technology people don't prefer to use paper
mail which leads to declination of profit of business. Also, there is rise in prices of paper mail
letters and time taken for deliver increases. Through launching a new product can provide a big
opportunity to business to grab market and earn profit.
Diversification Strategy (new products, new markets)
It means enterprise grow by diversifying business with new product and market ((Iyer-
Raniga, Moore and Wasiluk, 2014). Australia Post can introduce new product in new market.
Here, it need to first analyse market scenario and government rules and regulation for new
manufacturing.
After analysing all above strategies it can be concluded that Australia Post has
implement product development strategy for their business. This strategy means developing new
product in existing market. As it is government body which has various rules and regulation

where profit directly goes to authority. Thus, to earn maximum profit, it has started it new
fashion product in existing market to fulfils customer need and demand. It provides various
benefits to organisation for creating brand value in market and fulfils their target customer need.
2) Explaining other strategy which would be applied to organisation
There are many strategies which helps organisation to work smoothly and effectively.
These strategies are adopted as per structure of business and availability of goods and services.
Australia Post can use various strategy for organisation which are described below:
Sustainability
Sustainability it the process of focusing on meeting current need without compromising
future generations. It is composed of three pillars such as social, economic and environmental
which is also known as people, profits and planet. It is corporate ethics to sustain resources for
long period of times. This strategy need to be adopted by every enterprise for meeting
requirement of current needs without damaging or harming future. Business can be categorised
in terms of responses to challenges of sustainability which are described below: Strong Sustainability- In this challenges, business need to consider environment on first
priority, people on second and economy on third. Australia Post can apply such strategy
in order to produce goods and services by keeping in mind about environment on first
priority where products should be eco- friendly and should not create any harm. It should
be as per need and requirement of people after satisfying them profit need to be earn. Weak Sustainability- In this sustainability challenges, people should be kept first,
economy on second and environment third. Here, Australia Post can apply such strategy
which by fulfilling requirement of people first and profit should be earned. The
environment is considered at last as people and profit is more important than others.
 Nil Sustainability- Here, economic is kept on first priority, people on second and
environment on third. In this strategy challenges, Australia Post can focus on earning
profit first for economy development practices and then consider people and
environment. The economic is more important than any other things.
After analysing above, it can be concluded that organisation needs to maintain strong
sustainability for their business. As environment is very important for survival which should be
clean and healthy. It can apply corporate social responsibility activities for keeping society and
surrounding healthy. After considering it should focus on people and economy. It can be

implemented by fulfilling need and demand of customer and earning maximum profits. It can be
ensure that:
 Product Development- Australia Post has developed new product along with service in
existing market. As it is government body where all decisions are to be taken by it. Due
to modernisation people don't prefer to use paper mail in their business which declines
profit of organisation. In order to cope up with this situation, it has started new product of
fashion and clothing to fulfils customer need and increase profitability. This strategy has
adopted by firm for sustainability as it cannot quit its paper mail delivery business
because of government intervention.
Business Strategy
It is defined as high level plan in order to reach specific business objectives. When
organisation can earn growth, financial performance and competitive position then it can reach
successfully strategic plan (Morrison-Saunders and Pope, 2013). This strategy can be explained
with help of five generic model described below:
This model was given by Michael Porter for determining direction of organisation. It has
used three strategies which are given below: Cost Leadership- In this strategy, firm need to become low producer in market by
providing goods and services at low cost to consumer relative to that of competitors. The
products should be standardised, offer lowest competitive price (Moriarty and et. al.,
2014) and features acceptable by customers. In context of Australia Post, it can apply
such strategy to provide services to their customers at low cost. Also this strategy can
lead to low profit with their competitors by providing goods at low cost. The products
provided by Australia Post are standardised, features accepted to many customers and
offering competitive price. Differentiation- In this strategy, industry produce goods or services that customers
perceive as being different and affordable by them (Shah and Sid Nair, 2013). The focus
is on innovative or customised products which is as per need and demand of people. In
this type of strategy, consumer value different feature in product more than they value
low cost. Business need to be different from competitors in terms of product features and
price. Australia Post can apply this strategy by delivering paper mail with unique features

to services. the disadvantage of this strategy is that cost incurred for goods and service is
high.
 Focus- In this strategy, organisation need to select particular segment or group and serve
them. It has two type of strategy such as cost and differentiation (Moriarty, S., and et. al.,
2014). Cost focus means firm seek advantage of cost for its target segment while
differentiation focus means differentiating in product for its consumer and other people of
society. According to target customer, product is charged and differentiated. It is
customised product because people provide description for requirement and accordingly
entity produce it. The advantage is that it fulfils need of people whereas it only focus on
particular group of people which is disadvantage for it which decline profit.
After analysing above, it can be concluded that Australia Post can apply cost leadership
business strategy for providing their new goods and service to customer. This leads to high
profits and growing of market share. In this strategy, customers are more attracted to avail goods
and service at low price. This enhance profitability of entity.
Corporate Strategy
It is highest strategy plan of any organisation that identifies corporate goals and ways for
achieve strategic management (Warren-Myers, 2016). It clearly defined vision of organisation
set, motivate workers and create corporate value for implementing actions to achieve customer
satisfaction. Corporate strategy can be explained with BCG matrix which can be applied by
Australia Post described below:
BCG Matrix
It is created by Boston Consulting Group for analysing product as per market share and
growth of business. It is divided into four groups such as:
Dogs- It has low market share as well as growth rate and does not consume large amount
of cash. Australia Post can apply such strategy when it does not want to increase growth rate and
market share.
Question Marks- It consume large amount of cash but does not generate much cash
because of low share. It has capacity to become star by gaining market share. It need to analysed
very carefully for growing market share. Australia Post should not implement such strategy
because it require more than amount than generating cash.

Stars- It generate huge amount of cash due to strong market share and also consume
more cash because of high growth rate. Australia Post should not implement stars as it requires
more cash which is not possible for it.
Cash Cows- It exhibit return which is more than market growth rate and generating more
cash than consuming. It provide cash required for turning questions marks to market leaders and
covering administrative cost. It is beneficial for Australia Post because it generates more cash
than requires.
After analysing above it can be concluded that Australia Post should adopt cash cows star
strategy. This leads to profit earning of business and sustainability in competitive market. It can
help in creating brand value and goodwill in market. As it has strong market share and consume
less cash than it generates.
3) Other strategy would have helped the organisation
It is era of competition where most of the organisation as well as people prefer to have
modern and latest technology to be used. In context of Australia Post, digital technology would
have helped a lot for survival. Digital technology consists of various types of application and
electronic equipment which use information and data in form of code. It includes personal
computers, traffic lights controller, auto mobiles and calculators. There are various benefits of
this technology in order to run business smoothly. The advantages can be social connectivity,
learning opportunities, automation, editing, low cost, high speed, quick service. Every where
modern tools and techniques are used for performing work (Whitehouse, 2015).
Australia Post deals in paper mail delivery where it use paper in order to mail any
document which is costly, time consuming. It also need to follow rules of government for
providing postal services to customers. Due to modernisation, people prefer quick and fast
service which is not possible through paper. Thus, it need to adopt modern technology along
with their traditional method to provide fast service and save time, cost of customers. It can
create efficiency in work performance of organisation. This helps in saving cost for employment
as less people are required to do mailing through internet.

CONCLUSION
Australia Post has adopted product development strategy for increasing their profit as
well as productivity. In order to survive in market, it has used sustainability, business and
corporate strategy to perform in better and effective manner. This strategy helps in achieving set
goal and objectives for entity. It is government body where control is in hand of authorised
authority. Business strategy helps in achieving business goal and objective in effective manner.
Similarly, corporate strategy is highest level plan and adopted by every business to run their
organisation smoothly in effective and efficient manner.

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