Analysis of Issues and Proposed Solutions for Coles Supermarket

This report provides a detailed analysis of the issues facing Coles Supermarket, an Australian retail chain. It begins with an introduction and description of the organization, highlighting its size and financial standing. The report identifies key problems, including issues with the Coles Online platform, such as slow speeds, crashes, and staffing shortages, particularly during weekends. It notes the impact of underinvestment in weekend staff compared to competitors. The methodology section outlines a structured approach to address these problems, including identifying issues, selecting a business consultant, analyzing major issues, meeting with stakeholders, formulating a plan, implementing an action plan, and monitoring results. The report emphasizes the importance of a systematic approach to problem-solving and the need for stakeholder involvement. The conclusion summarizes the analysis and recommendations, focusing on the importance of addressing online platform issues and implementing effective management strategies to ensure the continued success of Coles Supermarket.

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Table of Contents
Introduction and Description of the organization......................................................................3
Issues within the organization that needs to be sorted...............................................................4
Methodology needed and steps..................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction and Description of the organization
The following report is based on the identification of different kinds of issues in a
large organization and then providing the solutions to mitigate the problems. The report has
selected Coles Supermarket of Australia for the study of the issues that generally occurs in
the different kinds of the industries (coles.com.au 2019). Coles Supermarket Australia is an
Australian retail supermarket chain that is headquartered in Melbourne. The company which
was founded way back in the year 1914, has been one of the largest supermarket chains of
Australia. With the presence of more than 800 different store locations, the company has been
able to make a strong statement of its name in the Australian supermarket industry. The
company has an annual revenue of around Australian dollar 40 billion and a total amount of
more than Australian dollar 1.5 billion as assets. The huge revenue and the assets makes
Coles one of the biggest and financially strong company of the island continent.
The management of the company has recently launched the online shopping portal of
the organization which is termed as Coles Online. The launch of Coles Online has helped the
organization to match the business capabilities of its different competitors in the Australian
supermarket industry (news.com.au/finance 2019). Coles Online has been a success as the
retail website of the brand has already turned out to be one of the largest online platforms of
the country (coles.com.au 2019). The online service of the company provides a large number
of different services that ranges from the likes of offering groceries online and also offering
other different business products online. The online store of the organization basically offers
almost all kinds of goods and services that are provided by the company in the stores
(coles.com.au 2019). The providence of the huge services have been extremely helpful for the
company in the recent times.

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Issues within the organization that needs to be sorted
Though Coles has been enjoying success for a long time since its launch in Australia.
There have been some issues in the company which have disturbed its operations in the
recent times. As said earlier, the organization has launch the Coles Online in order to match
the business prowess of the other competitors like Woolworths and Aldi. The management of
the business organization has been facing some recent problems in the management of their
online stores. It has been observed that the management of the company has started under
investing in the weekend staff levels as compared to the like of the other competitors
(Beratan 2019). According to the supermarket business analysts this sudden change in the
activity of the management will lead to the dragging of the profit chain of the supermarket by
the other companies like Woolworths. This is certainly a warning sign for the company as
slow and reduced investment will lead to the loss of markets.
It has been observed that the weekend staffing levels of the other supermarkets were
strikingly high than that of Coles. Apart from this there have been constant problems with the
proper running of the online site as the site often slows down and crashes due to high
pressure. There has been regular complaints on the closure of the online stores which is
surely one of the most important complaints among the others in the list. According to, Knox
(2015) the absence of a proper website maintenance team and the semi-professional attitude
of the employees has been the major reason behind such sudden problems in the organization.
Apart from the problems in the online stores, the management of Coles has already been
facing different issues related to different kinds of problems due to the issues related to the
non-availability of different important items in the stores (Beratan 2019). The absence of
such items from the stores has limited the business capability of the organization in the
Australian market.

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Methodology needed and steps
The management of Cole’s supermarket has to decide on a proper method in order to
address the different problems that they have been facing off late. The management of the
enterprise have to formulate and implement the action plan in a fast manner in order to ensure
the success of the business. According to, Knox (2015) the management of the company
needs to ensure the different methodologies in a proper manner in order to ensure the absence
of any issues. The management needs to appoint a business consultant at the very beginning
who will identify and study the issues and then try to provide the recommendations to fill in
the gap of the organization. The organization will then have to identify the issues and
accordingly implement the recommendations of the action plan prepared by the business
consultant.
The steps that will be involved in the restructuring process of the organization will
include;
a. Identification of the issues- The issues or the problems must be identified at the
beginning. The problems can be identified by appointing a team of executives to study
about the present issues or can also be identified by collecting the feedback of the
customers.
b. Selection of the business consultant- As mentioned earlier, the selection of the
business consultant is utmost essential for the organization as because the business
consultant will be capable of identifying the different issues, judge their nature and
source and accordingly study them to provide the recommendations in order to
mitigate the issues (Kerzner 2017). The business consultant thus plays an important
role in the success of the business in the future.
c. Selection of the major issues- According to, Knox (2015) the analysis of the issues
will be done jointly by the management and the business consultant where the issues

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will further be shortlisted into just a handful of major issues to address the major
issues. The major issues will then be selected in a proper manner to ensure success.
d. Meeting with stakeholders- The consent of the stakeholders is essential for the
success of the business in order to take the right decisions and implement the perfect
solution (Marier-Bienvenue Pellerin and Cassivi, 2017). The meeting with the
stakeholders is an important part of the business strategy to ensure success.
e. Formulation of the plan- The plan of the organization needs to be determined by
both the stakeholders as well as the business consultant in order to make the best
plans that are suited for the following company.
f. Implementation of the action plan- The implementation of the action plan is
important for the business as because the implementation of the action plan at the
right time can ensure success for the organization.
g. Monitoring the results and making amendments- The post implementation process is
also important for the management of Coles Supermarket (Singh-Peterson et al.
2016). It is important for the organization to monitor the results thoroughly to ensure
whether the plan was successful or not. Secondly the assessment of the plan could
lead to finding new gaps which can be amended accordingly.
Conclusion
The following report has presented a proper and well-structured analysis of the
organization and the issues related to it. The report starts with the description of the business
organization and the different types of the organizational issues related to it. The issue
identified here is the problems with the online website of Coles which has been established as
the major online shopping medium for the customers by the management of Coles. The report
has also presented a proper recommendation part which can be used by the management of
the organization to ensure success.

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References
Knox, M., 2015. Supermarket monsters: The price of Coles and Woolworths'
dominance (Vol. 6). Black Inc..
Singh-Peterson, L., Lieske, S., Underhill, S. J., & Keys, N. (2016). Food security, remoteness
and consolidation of supermarket distribution centres: Factors contributing to food pricing
inequalities across Queensland, Australia. Australian Geographer, 47(1), 89-102.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Beratan, K., 2019. Improving problem definition and project planning in complex natural
resource management problem situations using knowledge brokers and visual design
principles. Ecology and Society, 24(2).
Marier-Bienvenue, T., Pellerin, R. and Cassivi, L., 2017. Project planning and control in
social and solidarity economy organizations: a literature review. Procedia computer
science, 121, pp.692-698.
Coles. (2019). Retrieved 25 July 2019, from
https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/everything/browse
Coles’ costly weekend problem. (2019). Retrieved 25 July 2019, from
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/coles-underinvesting-in-weekend-staff-
levels/news-story/36a4f4fcf6a1143922a8475103f7eec9
Coles Supermarkets. (2019). Retrieved 25 July 2019, from https://www.coles.com.au/