Comprehensive Business Strategy Analysis of Boots UK Report

This report provides a comprehensive business strategy analysis of Boots UK, a major UK-based health and beauty retailer. It begins with an introduction and company overview, followed by an examination of the macro environment using PESTLE analysis to assess political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing the company. The report also includes a stakeholder analysis and applies SWOT analysis to identify Boots UK's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The internal environment is analyzed and Porter's Five Forces model is applied to evaluate the competitive forces in the market sector. Finally, the report interprets and devises strategic planning, culminating in a strategic management plan with tangible and tactical strategic priorities and objectives. The report concludes with a set of valid strategic directions, objectives and tactical actions for Boots UK.

Unit 32
Business Strategy

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Company overview..........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 Applying appropriate frameworks analyse the impact and influence of the macro
environment on an organization and its strategies.......................................................................4
M1 Critically analysing the macro environment to determine and inform strategic management
decisions......................................................................................................................................8
LO2................................................................................................................................................10
P2 Analysing the internal environment and capabilities of a given organisation using
appropriate frameworks.............................................................................................................10
M2 Critically evaluating the internal environment to assess strengths and weaknesses of an
organisation’s internal capabilities, structure and skill set........................................................13
LO3................................................................................................................................................15
P3 Applying Porter’s Five Forces model evaluate the competitive forces of a given market
sector for an organization..........................................................................................................15
M3 Devising appropriate strategies to improve competitive edge and market position...........17
LO4................................................................................................................................................18
P4 Applying a range of theories, concepts and models, interpret and devise strategic planning
...................................................................................................................................................18
M4 Produce a strategic management plan that has tangible and tactical strategic priorities and
objectives...................................................................................................................................20
D1 Producing a set of valid strategic directions, objectives and tactical actions......................21
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................23
References......................................................................................................................................24

Introduction
For the expansion of business, the organization takes different techniques to be in a competitive
advantage. Hence different projects get introduced like being international, developing a new
product, marching on new market and so on. These projects are well managed by the proper
executing of business activities. This report will be based on the activities of Boots UK, which is
a UK-based company. Various business activities of Boots UK are giving birth to different
challenges which can bring the positive result into the system if they are well managed. Hence
these challenges should be considered as the business objectives to get them attained within a
specific time. The business activities can get the increase by the proper management of the
specific issues. However, different strategies are also implemented for the management of it.
Company overview
Boots UK is a British health and beauty retailer which has almost more than 200 stores around
the UK. On the other hand, the Pharmacy chain of Boots UK is also available in the context. It
has such a big chain of management which assures that £10B revenue in an annual basis. It has
more than 60,000 employees working under the organization. It mostly serves in the areas of UK
and Ireland. Hence, the organization is working on the skin care and beauty treatments along
with the Pharmacy business.

LO1
P1 Applying appropriate frameworks analyse the impact and influence of the
macro environment on an organization and its strategies
The external environment plays an essential role in the development as well as misleading
decisions in the business organization. That is why it is very important to analyze the external
environment properly. In this case, some strategies need to be applied in the phase and for that
the mission, vision and objectives are needed to be very clear (Bryson, 2011). The mission,
vision and objectives of Boots UK are stated in the following table.
Missions The mission of Boots UK is to create a strong base of customers and grab the
leading position in the market. That is why;another mission is to provide better
customer service to the customers.
Visions The vision is to become one of the leading companies in the world and a
responsible citizen which is admired by the customers. Hence maintaining
corporate social responsibility is very essential for the company.
Objectives The prime objective of Boots UK is to become one of leading business
organizations in the world. Hence, the biggest objective is to make space for
attaining business goals through providing better service to customers.
Figure: Significance of implementing strategy (Bult-Spiering and Dewulf, 2018)
Strategy and role of strategy

Business organizations have different objectives to attain and without the proper implementation
of business strategies it will not work in the long term achievements. Hence, strategy is a plan
that is used for the management of long term goals in order to attain the business objectives.
Boots UK have different business goals which are needed to be managed using different business
strategies (Cihlar, 2014). The business strategies will be suggesting different ways of sorting out
the issues which will be helpful for running a business. The strategies are effective in terms of
organizing the operations of the business and implementing in the performance.
The marketing plans are also managed with the help of strategies. It will also increase the growth
of the organization. The strategies will assist to get the control over the organization and it will
assist to get the strategic alliance for efficient improvement. The external environment will bring
different organizational changes which can also be tackled with the help of implementation of
strategies (Davies and Crane, 2013). Hence, it can be said that, strategies can be very effective
for the Boots UK Company.
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholders are the customers, employees, investors, suppliers and so on. The stakeholder play
imperative role in the management of the business. Through the stakeholder’s analysis Boots UK
will be able to drag a conclusion. Hence, Boots UK have to place a stakeholder’s mapping which
is also considered as the stakeholder’s Matrix. In the stakeholder’s mapping there are basically
four concepts on which the entire thing relies on (Deresky, 2010). The factor of satisfaction
relies on the government and law enforcing parties which have the highest power.
Figure: Stakeholders’ mapping (Ghemawat, 2013)
The employees have the minimal power so in order to control the employees the organization has
to put minimal effort. The factor of managing closely is maintained proper in terms of managing

the users, customers, raw materials. On the other hand, the investors have to manage by the last
factor of mapping which is keeping the informed. Hence the investors need to be managed by the
preference of the keeping them informed about the strategic activities because they have the high
power (Kaplan and Norton, 2011). Hence, stakeholders mapping is very essential for Boots UK
in order to bring out better outcome.
PESTLE analysis
Political:Brexit is a very strong issue for Boots UK and it will be shaping the expansion
procedure of the organization beyond national boundary. In UK, political stability has been
present and this kind of stability is supporting the organization to bring effective performance on
the organizational performance. As the result of it, organization is being influenced in several
simultaneous manner. On the other side, no significant change on the government of UK has
been seen. As the result of it, a very strong condition on the politicalaspect will be assured. It
shows that Boots UK will be having positive impact from the political condition.
Economic: In several cases, Boots UK is also being influenced by the economic condition. Here,
because of having unstable exchange rate, Boots UK is facing a lot of obstacles. These obstacles
will be hindering the process of international expansion of Boots UK. Following all these, the
interest rate of UK is getting changed on several manner (Davis and Kruse, 2017). In the similar
way, because of unstable interest rate, organization ability of making better investment has got
reduced.Boots UK is alsoworking for dealing with the capital investment issues. It can be said
that Boots UK is facing dangerous impact from the side of economic condition.
Social: In the same way, Boots UK will also have to focus on the social condition. Here, the
product of Boots UK are supporting for customersto get their actual requirements. As the result
of it, the social application is actually making positive impact on the performance and activities.
Customers of Boots UK are recently happy with all the products that are being provided.
However, there have been several changes on the taste of the customers over time. This is why,
an organization like Boots UK is getting highly influenced by the daily operations and activities
of the society.
Technology: Technology is a very key matter for an organization because it is used to make the
process even better. With the help of technology, Boots UK is being able to ease their

operational performance. It is also supportive for bringing effectiveness and efficiency. With the
digital transition, Boots UK is being able to sell their products through the digital platform (Artte
and Wikström, 2015). In this process, it will be used to improve the technology related condition
of Boots UK. Following this, there are a lot of new disruptive technology appearing on the
market. As the result of it, Boots UK will need to make some significant changes on their daily
operations and activities.
Legal:In UK, a lot of operations are needed to be improvised based on the legal regulations.
There have been some significant but visible changes on the aspect such as customer rights,
employment, and so on. All of these factors are making direct and influential impact on the
regular operations of the organization. It will be able to map the whole organizational process by
bringing some several regulations. Thus, Boots UK has been facing a lot of legal changes and
these changes are causing problems on the operational conditions.
Environment: In Boots UK, it has been found that environment related issues are very much
manipulative. In an environment, there are various NGO’s and all of these NGO’s will be
successful at controlling and managing various activities regarding ecological condition. Boots
UK is doing a lot of activities that are related with CSR (Gibb, 2013). All of these CSR related
activities will be able to make impact on the performance of Boots UK. This is how, Boots UK is
being influenced by the factors of macro environment.
SWOT analysis
Strengths:Boots UK is having a very strong supply chain and production line. Because of
having the simultaneous and effective supply chain condition, Boots UK will be capable of
bringing various effective way of producing new products. In the similar way, the skill of the
employees of Boots UK are also very simultaneous. Because of having the employeeswith
proper skill, Boots UK is being able to make positive impact on the performance (Dwyer and
Boyd, 2013). Customer base of Boots UK is also very much supportive and it will be making
positive impact as a form of strength.
Weaknesses:The marketing and distribution channel of Boots UK is very much complex.
Because of having this complex line of distribution, Boots UK is getting influenced negatively.
In the similar process, Boots UK is also not being able to handle and manage the

employees’skills effectively. They are not being able to train their employees and because of
poor workforce planning, the while is getting on the negative side of Boots UK. So, these are
themain weaknesses that are aligned and associated with the purpose of the organization. In this
way, the total operation is being supported and managed.
Opportunities:On the other side, Boots UK can also face a lot of chances and opportunities. In
the future days, Boots UK can be able to expand their operations in the international condition.
Boots UK will also be able to expand their product line by dealing with the production related
aspects. So, these are the main issues that will be bringing opportunities for the activities of
Boots UK (Frame, 2012). Boots UK will also be able to invest wider amount on money on
various other ventures. This is how, these are the main opportunities that are associated with the
processes of Boots UK effectively.
Threats:On the other side, Boots UK can also face a lot of threats that are related with the
condition. InBoots UK, the external business environment might bring a handful of threats on the
organizational condition. In order to do that, Boots UK will be facing threats from the side of
competitors. There are a lot of competitors associated with theprocess and these competitors will
be holding the process of activities on several manner. However, the changes on external
environment can also cause a lot of threats on the performance of Boots UK. In this way, it can
make various bad impact.
M1 Critically analysing the macro environment to determine and inform
strategic management decisions
Strategy is a plan that is used for the management of long term goals in order to attain the
business objectives. The business strategies will be suggesting different ways of sorting out the
issues which will be helpful for running a business. The strategies will assist to get the control
over the organization and it will assist to get the strategic alliance for efficient improvement.
Through the stakeholder’s analysis Boots UK will be able to drag a conclusion. The factor of
managing closely is maintained proper in terms of managing the users, customers, raw materials.
Hence the investors need to be managed by the preference of the keeping them informed about
the strategic activities because they have the high power (Goldratt, 2017).

As the result of it, organization is being influenced in several simultaneous manner. Following
all these, the interest rate of UK is getting changed on several manner. As the result of it, the
social application is actually making positive impact on the performance and activities. In this
process, it will be used to improve the technology related condition of Boots UK. It will be able
to map the whole organizational process by bringing some several regulations. In the similar
way, the skill of the employees of Boots UK are also very simultaneous.

LO2
P2 Analysing the internal environment and capabilities of a given
organisation using appropriate frameworks
Strategic capabilities
In Boots UK, there are various strategic abilities and all of these strategic abilities are used for
strategic performance. In different condition, an organization like Boots UK will be able to
understand various strategic position and situation of the organization. There are various
strategic capabilities of Boots UK available such as employees’ skills, organizational strategies,
and so on. All of these strategies are needed to be covered carefully by the strategies of
organization in different conditions (Quinlan et al., 2019). By the support of these strategic
capabilities, Boots UK will be able to identify various appropriate situation. This is how, the
strategic capabilities can cause changes on the general operations of Boots UK.
McKinsey’s 7S model
7s model is very important tool for an organization to formulate the effective kind of strategies.
In Boots UK, there are a lot of factors that are connected with each other and it makes the
process even more competitive and influential. After this, Boots UK will need to focus on the
strategy at first. They have various strategies and all of these strategies are usually designed on
facing the flexible condition. Following this, Boots UK is also using the top skills to support
their strategies (Gordijn and Akkermans, 2011). There are different important skills that are
possessed by employees of Boots UK and these skills are also very important to cover the
organizational activities.

Figure: 7s’ model (Gordijn and Akkermans, 2011)
In this phase, Boots UK has been creating the styles and staffs according to that role. By the help
of that, they have ben been able to consider a lot of new things to formulate a proper system that
will accelerate the whole condition. While bringing all of these aspects, Boots UK is also
training all of their staffs in a better manner. By the support of dealing with the staff, Boots UK
will be able to control the skills in effective ways (Jankowicz, 2015). As the result of it, Boots
UK will be capable of considering the wider aspects of the new business environment. Boots UK
is connecting all of these factors with shared values. This is how,Boots UK can be able to
arrange different strategic arrangement.
VRIO/VRIN framework
An organization like Boots UK has a lot of capabilities and all of these capabilities can be
classified under various sides and considerations. So, the VRIO/VRIN framework is given on the
following section:
Valuable: Boots UK has several valuable resources and they have a lot of strong financial
abilities. As Boots UK has a lot of opportunities for expansion, they are being able to use the
financial abilities on significant manner. After that, Boots UK is also possessing a very
simultaneous and perfect production system. With the support of required production ability,
Boots UK is being able to achieve competitive advantage. Technology is a very key ability for
Boots UK because it is being used to ease the entire operationalability. So, it is another valuable
resource and capability for Boots UK (Malhotra and Temponi, 2010).
Rare:There are some effective abilities of Boots UK which can be considered as rare abilities. It
has been found that Boots UK has effective financial and investment planning. Because of
having the best operational condition, Boots UK can actually reduce their cost and make the
investment planning on different manner. On the other side, they are also being able to handle
and manage all of their information in a better manner. It is also making positive impact on their
marketing related abilities as well. Boots UK has a lot of strong market plans and these
marketing plans are supportive for arranging rare resources.
Imitable: There are various imitable resources but Boots UK also has several resources which
actually can not be imitated. In this phase, Boots UK is required to have different budgetary