BUS200: Business Analytics Case Study - Woolworths Group Analysis

This case study analyzes Woolworths Group, a major Australian retail company, focusing on the application of business analytics to identify and address challenges, particularly those exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study begins with an introduction to business analytics and an overview of Woolworths, including its market position and competitors. It then identifies key problems faced by the company, such as the impact of the pandemic on operations, supply chain issues, and changing consumer behavior. A literature review supports the analysis, examining the effects of COVID-19 on the retail sector in Australia and New Zealand. The methodology involves data collection through primary and secondary sources, including a questionnaire administered to 20 respondents to gather insights into consumer perspectives. The collected data is analyzed to understand the impact of the pandemic and evaluate the effectiveness of Woolworths' strategies. Based on the analysis, the study provides recommendations for Woolworths to improve its performance, including strategies for adapting to changing consumer needs, managing supply chain disruptions, and enhancing customer service during and after the pandemic. The conclusion summarizes the findings and emphasizes the importance of business analytics in navigating challenges and optimizing business operations in a dynamic environment.

Assessment Task 2 Business Analytics Case
Study

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
1. Company’s information...........................................................................................................1
2. Problem identification.............................................................................................................1
3. Literature review......................................................................................................................3
4. Data collection.........................................................................................................................3
5. Analysis and discussion...........................................................................................................6
6. Recommendation.....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business analytics is a technique, processes, technologies that managers use to evaluate and
examine past company success to obtain insight and improve strategic planning data analyzed
(Aydiner And et.al., 2019). It essentially focuses on gaining a deeper perspective and new
knowledge to enhance its market efficiency based on specific statistical and analytical methods.
Woolworths Group is a large Australian business which has vast retail investments in Australia
and New Zealand. It is second-largest retail company in New Zealand and it is the 2nd largest
corporation in Australia by sales. This assessment covers several topics regarding selected
company and also identifies the problems which they face. Also done the literature review which
is based on the company’s problems, data collection and analysis and recommend something to
improve overall performance or resolve the issues which they face.
MAIN BODY
1. Company’s information
Woolworths Group is Australian based retail company which founded in 22nd September
1924 by Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton and three more people. This company traded as
public sector organization, currently they are the second largest company of Australia in terms of
revenue. Company only operated in two areas such as New Zeeland and Australia, in addition
total market share of Woolworths Company is 32.9% of grocery market. This organization is one
of the largest supermarket chains of Australia which operated 995 stores in their home country.
To provide our consumers with superior quality, variety, reliability and comfort, Woolworths
depends on the 115,000 team members in shops, fulfilment centres and support the services.
In context of Woolworths Company, there are some top competitors who provide
competitive edge to this organization. Such as Coles Supermarket, Pick n Pay, Marks & Spencer,
ALDI, Wal-Mart etc. As per the latest report of Woolworths Group, around 205000 people are
employed in this organization.
2. Problem identification
There are several issues which Woolworths Group currently faces and it affects their
overall production capacity and profit margin (Krishnamoorthi and Mathew, 2018). In addition,
there are ways which help the organization to identify the problems such as customer review,
financial performance in terms of profitability or overall company’s return. By analysing such
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sources, managers of Woolworths Group able to identify the problems which affect the business
and further needs to prepare problem statement for effective solutions. Some of the identified
issues are as follow:
Spread of Corona virus: Brad Banducci, CEO of the Woolworths Group said
that the health of our clients, employees and the neighbourhoods they work is our main concern.
In accordance with the order of the Federal Government, the Hotels Company of the Woolworths
Group was suspended till further notification. Teams are trying to reallocate as many affected
team members to certain other Company organizations as possible. Currently the other firms in
the Woolworths Company remain available for sale. Unless there is any more compulsory
closing of enterprises in Australia or New Zealand, many, though not any, of our companies are
likely to persist to act as necessary community facilities. Market growth around the retail
companies of Group seems to have been prominent in recent months (exception of hotels
business), showing increasing demand for a variety of goods as consumers have eaten even more
home and deposited their freezers. This has already been clearly reflected in Australian and New
Zealand Products, contributing to demand-conscious problems around the supply chain, which
sadly culminated in shortage on supermarket shelves.
Retail sector market gets the growth because Australian people required necessary items to
survive through lockdown period due to COVID-19. It is also found that, online shopping trend
increases which provide benefits to the Woolworths Group and from there, they recover their
existing losses or sustain their staff for those sector that properly stopped until next notice such
as Hotel business of Woolworths Group (Gunasekaran and et.al., 2018). Both Woolworths
Supermarkets and Metro Food Stores in Melbourne will be accessible to shoppers arriving at
7.30pm every day, with consumers expected to have completed their shopping by 7.45pm, in
accordance with the revised requirements. Trading hours north of Sydney for Woolworth’s shops
was unchanged. The same refers to Victoria's BWS shops and Dan Murphy shops. Limited time
period shopping will cause the human congestion which leads to increase the spread of virus
which is very dangerous. Woolworths promoted that, consumers should buy products online and
they deliver goods with zero contact facilities which can minimise the spread of corona virus.
Along with it, as per the WHO safety guidelines, organization has to follow the safety
measurements but it will leads to generate high cost for the every sector organizations.
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3. Literature review
According to Altena and et.al., (2020), Australia and New Zealand get a case-fatality
average slightly over 1 percent, compared to 6 percent in the US 13.5 percent in Italy as well as
the UK respectively. No country at the moment has some transmission to the world. Both island
nations are yet to secure their doors. Countries that lighten lockdowns face the fresh task of
eliminating new cases. New Zealand and Australia have operated hard to control COVID-19
with effectiveness. The two nations are the newest to simplify constraints and forge a new
normal while placing systems in place to help reduce transfer.
As per the Sanders and et.al., (2020), There is compelling evidence in New Zealand that,
for now, mass transfer has been stopped and the highest standards should follow for social
controls removed. While social distancing initiatives in Australia stay in effect, some barriers
have relaxed. Consequently, people are going to download the govt’s voluntary corona virus
tracking mobile application that informs them when someone they know does have the virus. As
per figures provided by Johns Hopkins University, both nations have a case-fatality rate of just
over 1 percent compared to 5.7 percent in the US and about 13.5 percent respectively for Italy
and the UK. New Zealand reports 0.4 deaths per 100,000 people and Australia has 0.3 deaths,
compared to 17 in the US and 31 in the UK.
4. Data collection
Data collection is characterized as the process by which reliable perspectives are obtained,
measured and analyzed for analysis using descriptive method. Results derived an investigator
will test their assumption. Data collection is, in certain cases, the primary and perhaps most
essential thing for study, independent of the area of research. The data collection theory is
derived for various fields of study, focusing on the necessary information. Data collection's other
important goal is to ensure that information-rich and accurate data are obtained for data analysis,
because then data-driven choices can be taken for science. There are collecting data of the
Woolworth and select method f primary as well as secondary. For primary collect select form of
questionnaire and take 20 respondents and ask questions about the problem that face from the
Woolworth such as:
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Questionnaire
Q1. Do you have awareness about impact of Covid-19 on retail sector?
(a) Yes
(b) No
Q2. What are the challenges that are occurred in the store due to pandemic problem?
(a) Fear of spread virus
(b) Unequal pay
(c) Lack of flexibility
Q3. What are the strategies that can be implemented by Woolworth to face this problem?
(a) Maintain Distance
(b) Use sanitizer & mask
(c) Provide training to staff members
Q4. What the advantages that can be gain by Woolworth after apply strategies?
(a) Fairer growth options
(b) Raise staff morale
(c) Increase sales
Q5. What are the difficulties that Woolworth suffers while lockdown in Australia?
(a) Lack of employee engagement
(b) Unfavourable employee attitude
(c) Employee turnover
Q6. Provide the suggestions so that issues of Corona Virus minimise in the workplace.
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5. Analysis and discussion
There is analysis the all the questions that asking from the respondents in regard of
Woolworth such as:
Q1. Do you have awareness about impact of Covid-19 on retail
sector?
Frequency
(a) Yes 16
(b) No 14
Interpretation: In present time most of the people aware about the Corona virus that impact on
the all retail store so it requires to stay safe from the dangerous activities.
Q2. What are the challenges that are occurred in the store due
to pandemic problem?
Frequency
(a) Fear of spread virus 12
(b) Unequal pay 9
(c) Lack of flexibility 9
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Interpretation: In this pandemic problem the Woolworth face the various problems that impact
on the business in direct manner. Mainly fear of spread virus impact on the people directly
because people continuous died from the virus.
Q3. What are the strategies that can be implemented by
Woolworth to face this problem?
Frequency
(a) Maintain Distance 15
(b) Use sanitizer & mask 7
(c) Provide training to staff members 8
Interpretation: To face the virus problem so for this they are applying the different strategies in
order to get rid of from the pandemic situation. But mainly they are focusing on the maintain
distance in proper manner.
Q4. What the advantages that can be gain by Woolworth after
apply strategies?
Frequency
(a) Fairer growth options 11
(b) Raise staff morale 9
(c) Increase sales 10
Interpretation: Due to face various problem because of corona virus after that they are applying
the various strategies after that they are getting various advantages but mainly they are getting
benefit of fair growth options.
Q5. What are the difficulties that Woolworth suffers while
lockdown in Australia?
Frequency
(a) Lack of employee engagement 11
(b) Unfavourable employee attitude 9
(c) Employee turnover 10
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Interpretation: As per the above question the staff member of Woolworth says that they are
suffering many problems and mostly face the problem of the employee engagement.
Financial statement interpretation: After the lockdown it is analysing that company income
decrease regularly but other sector like retail store generate more income. So as per the cash flow
statement it is analysing that cash outflow increase as compare of the cash inflow. The company
invest the amount in their other branches like hotel industry due to face problem of covid-19.
6. Recommendation
Woolworths has tried to introduce region specific hours of purchasing for the older and
other customers that need to be given priority. The company has also shortened hours of
operation at a few of its big chains to enable more emphasis on shipments. There are provided
various suggestions to Woolworth to face the Covid-19 problem.
Faced with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Woolworths, an Australian retailer, has announced
several initiatives. Due to a higher susceptibility to COVID-19, distributors put down special
times for mainstream generations. Market buying frenzy has expert supervision pressure on
store's current employees, forcing them to recruit further workers. Mostly during recession, the
retail sector will redesign its required to operate systems to facilitate clients, employees and other
stakeholders. Opening up the recovery is one simple way to boost your company. Retailers
should develop customer-friendly strategies, train staff that can provide great customer service
and begin to build customer trust. While introducing additional items or extending product
categories, bear in mind that there should indeed be interest for the products, but it should also
also be successful and something trusting relationship shopping.
CONCLUSION
As per the above discussing it has been concluded that every business have different
guidelines and accordingly they are operating their business. In present time business face the
problem of Covid-19 that impact on the business in direct manner. It is require preparing
different strategies to face this problem. There are collecting data of Woolworths to analysis the
actual position of business and provide appropriate recommendations for the improvements.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Altena, E. And et.al., 2020. Dealing with sleep problems during home confinement due to the
COVID‐19 outbreak: Practical recommendations from a task force of the European CBT‐
I Academy. Journal of Sleep Research, p.e13052.
Aydiner, A. S. And et.al., 2019. Business analytics and firm performance: The mediating role of
business process performance. Journal of business research. 96. pp.228-237.
Gunasekaran, A, and et.al., 2018. Agile manufacturing practices: the role of big data and
business analytics with multiple case studies. International Journal of Production
Research. 56(1-2). pp.385-397.
Krishnamoorthi, S. and Mathew, S. K., 2018. Business analytics and business value: A
comparative case study. Information & Management. 55(5). pp.643-666.
Sanders, K. And et.al., 2020. Unraveling the What and How of Organizational Communication
to Employees During COVID-19 Pandemic: Adopting an Attributional Lens. The Journal
of Applied Behavioral Science, p.0021886320937026.
Calvo, N. and Villarreal, Ó., 2018. Analysis of the growth of the e-learning industry through
sustainable business model archetypes: A case study. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 191. pp.26-39.
Polydoropoulou, A., Pagoni, I., Tsirimpa, A., Roumboutsos, A., Kamargianni, M. and Tsouros,
I., 2020. Prototype business models for Mobility-as-a-Service. Transportation Research
Part A: Policy and Practice. 131. pp.149-162.
Kraus, S., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Schüssler, M., 2018. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative
analysis (fsQCA) in entrepreneurship and innovation research–the rise of a
method. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 14(1). pp.15-33.
Müller, O., Fay, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2018. The effect of big data and analytics on firm
performance: An econometric analysis considering industry characteristics. Journal of
Management Information Systems. 35(2). pp.488-509.
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