BIZ202 Module 2: Coles Business Environment Internal Analysis Report

This report provides an analysis of the business environment of Coles, focusing on internal factors. The report utilizes SWOT analysis and an examination of resources and capabilities to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It delves into the micro-environment, evaluating the impact of human resources, financial positions, and brand reputation. The analysis identifies key challenges such as fluctuations in consumer demand and the impact of financial performance. Recommendations are provided to enhance the company's strategic approach, including maintaining financial balance and implementing an effective organizational structure. The report concludes with a summary of findings and references supporting the analysis.

Business Environment

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Executive Summary
The main purpose of this report is to learn the concept of analyzing the business environment.
Coles has been taken into consideration to examine the business environment. Internal factors
have been analyzed with the use of SWOT Analysis and Resources and Capabilities. According
to analysis, it has been found that these internal factors affect the business of the company.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Micro-environment Factors.............................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................3
Resources and Capabilities..........................................................................................................4
Factors affecting the business..........................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................7
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Strategic Management is the process of analyzing and summarizing the environment of
business. The company has to develop the strategies in order to grasp the market share or to
improve the operation. It is essential to analyze the business environment of the company before
implementing the strategies (Rothaermel, 2015). Internal and external factors affect the business
that is why; it is necessary for the company to evaluate those factors. In this report, the
discussion is made on the topic of business environment. In this report, the internal factors of the
company have been evaluated. Coles has been taken into consideration to analyze the internal
factors in order to evaluate the challenges that the company will face in the future. Coles is an
Australian supermarket, retail and customer service chain. The company has headquarters in
Melbourne (Coles Group, 2018a).
Micro-environment Factors
Internal factors have been analyzed by using the resources and capabilities. SWOT
Analysis and Resources and Capabilities have been used to analyze the internal factors that affect
the business.
SWOT Analysis
Strength
Brand Image in the market
Attractive pricing strategies
Online Presence
Human resources as the assets
Weaknesses
Fluctuation in demand of consumers
Changing strategies due to large competition

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Opportunities
Sponsorship and the other marketing exercises
helps to boost the business
Geographic expansion
Threat
High threat of competitors
Confusion between the different generic brands
Resources and Capabilities
Resources
Resources have been divided into two categories and these are:
Tangible
Human Resources- Human resource is the main asset of the company as it helps to
compete with the competitors. It also helps to grasp the market share of the industry. Coles has
100000 employees that helps it to operate the business smoothly and also helps to enhance the
brand image (Coles Group, 2018a). The human resource of the company provides the quality of
product or services to consumers that help to enhance the image of brand. The company provides
the healthy environment to employees to enjoy the success. It also provides job specific training
and career opportunity with the motive to develop their personality.
Financial Resources: The financial position of the company is strong. It has been
evaluated that the net profit of the company is $3850 in million. Although, the net profit of the
company has been decreases from the previous year 2017 such as $3929m (Coles Group, 2018d).
But still, the financial position of the company is strong that helps to compete with the
competitors.

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Physical Assets: It has been found that the company has two predominant and perceived
coal mines and supermarket products are the main resources of the Coles Group Ltd (Coles
Group, 2018c).
Intangible
Skills- Talented people, efficient machines and the others are the skills those helps the
organization to operate effectively.
Reputation- The brand reputation of the company is strong in the market as it is a leading
company in the grocery market of Australia.
Brand Names- The brand image of the company is strong as it is one of the leading
supermarkets in Australia (Coles Group, 2018b).
Capabilities
It has been analyzed that the company has the capability to meet the demand of
consumers. It operates effectively and efficiently in the market due to which it achieves success
to grasp the market share. The company provides the facilities to employees in terms of safety,
environmental, wellbeing and the others (Lasserre, 2017).It is observed that the company works
smarter in the market. It has been found that the company provides the high quality of services to
consumers for the higher level of satisfaction. The main capability of the company is to gain the
advantage of competition by using the experience.

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Factors affecting the business
The internal factors affect the business as it helps to achieve the success. It not only helps
to operate the business but also affects the business due to which it is difficult for the company to
operate in the market efficiently. The challenges that the organization faces are discussed below:
It is observed that the human resource is the main assets of the company and it also
provides the facilities to human resources in terms of safety, wellbeing and the others. Talented
human resources and effective skills of the company help to works efficiently. But the net profit
of the company is affected due to investing large amount on human resources. The chances of
misusing the facilities of human resources are high due to which it directly affects the quality of
product or services (Coles Group, 2018b).
Financial position of the company is strong but it is observed that the net profit of the
organization has been decreases from the last year 2017. In 2018, the net profit of the company is
decreasing which is a negative factor. The decreasing net profit of the company depicts the
increasing amount of expenses and reducing the incomes. In the coming future, the chances of
suffering loss are high as the net profit has been decreases with the passage of time.
High experience in the market enhances the expectation of consumers towards the brand.
It is observed that the company has to take each and every step in the market very carefully as
the consumers of the company expected the higher quality of products or services in the market.
It is a biggest challenge for the company to meet all expectations of consumers.
Recommendations
From the above discussion, it is recommended that the company has to maintain the
balance among the expenses and incomes. It is required for the company to maintain the balance

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between the expenses and incomes so that the financial position of the organization will be
improved. The improving financial position of the company enhances the productivity and the
brand image (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2015).
It is suggesting that the company has to implement the effective organization structure to
enhance the quality of services or productivity. Decentralized organization structure improves
the communication among the companies due to which the supervisors has to take care about
their juniors and their work. This structure improves the productivity and meets all the
customers’ expectations (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2017).
Conclusion
At the end of the report, it is concluded that the company has strong internal factors that
helps to achieve the success but it also affects the business in the market. It is suggesting that the
company has to focuses on its expenses in order to reduce them to improve the financial position
in the coming years. In this paper, recommendations have been discussed that helps to attain the
success in the business.
References
Coles Group. (2018a). About us. Retrieved From: https://www.colesgroup.com.au/about-us/?
page=about-us
Coles Group. (2018b). Our performance. Retrieved From:
https://www.colesgroup.com.au/investors/?page=our-performance
Coles Group. (2018c). Coles Group Limited (ASX:COL). Retrieved From:
https://www.listcorp.com/asx/col/coles-group-limited

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Coles Group. (2018d). Annual Report 2018. Retrieved From:
https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/reports/wes18-044-2018-annual-
report.pdf?sfvrsn=4
Lasserre, P. (2017). Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Rothaermel, F.T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. (2015). Crafting and executing strategy: Concepts
and readings. McGraw-Hill Education.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. & Bamford, C.E. (2017). Strategic management
and business policy (p. 55). Boston: pearson.

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Appendix