Kaplan MBA600: Woolworths Company Strategy and Business Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Woolworths, a major retail company, examining its business strategies, strategic operations, marketing, product development, innovation, growth, change management, and strategic implementation. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction outlining the report's purpose, followed by an overview of Woolworths' strategy, including brand value increase, intense availability, brand labeling, customer relationship enhancement, sustainable farming, and a low-cost strategy. The report then delves into Woolworths' undertakings, including strategic operations (demand management, supply chain management, job design, and forecasting), marketing environment, product development, innovation, and growth. It also examines the changes the company has incorporated and its strategic implementation. The analysis highlights Woolworths' focus on customer satisfaction, sustainable practices, and innovative approaches, particularly in AI and cloud-based services. The report concludes with recommendations for further strategic steps, such as incorporating more payment methods and promoting organic eating, to enhance the company's performance. The report is contributed by a student and is available on Desklib, a platform providing AI-based study tools.

Running Head: WOOLWORTHS COMPANY
Strategy and business of Woolworths
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Woolworth is huge company in the retails business. They aim to provide food to its customers as
per their needs and demands. The sustainability of the food product is nurtured by the company
too, the incorporation of organic farming, availability of the store at large number, investing in
the enhancement of customer relationship, all these aspects have helps in growing the business
more. The varied range of undertaking that the company has taken have supported it to prosper
more in its own industry.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Organisation’s Strategy...................................................................................................................3
Outline of the Undertaking..............................................................................................................5
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Woolworths is the famous chain of supermarket in Australia. It is the largest retail in
New Zealand, the company has prospered greatly in the recent years with best in the customers
relations and employee friendly company. It consists of 52% shares, around 637 stores across the
globe and 24649 employees.
The report consists of the brief discussion of the business strategies of Woolworths and
the undertaking of the company in terms of strategic operations, marketing, growth, innovation,
development of product, changes and strategic implementation. The last part of the repost consist
of the recommendation that the company can obtain to enhance is business more at greater
levels.
Organisation’s Strategy
Woolworths is well known for its large chain of grocery stores and supermarkets across
Australia. It was founded in the year 1924. They are famous for selling food stuffs like fruits,
vegetables, packed foods, meats, etc. Apart from food items it also sells beauty products, baby
supplies, health related products and many. Till 2019 it was recorded that Woolworths has 981
supermarkets and the metro convenience stores are 43 in numbers. The service of home delivery
was also started by Woolworths. Their revenue annually is around $42158 billion.
The strategies that Woolworths took are:
 Brand value increase- The growth of 24% has increased the brand value for the
company by $10bn mark. As on 2013, its position have moved to 109th from 113rd
globally. Its competing companies being the Coles, Telstra, ANZ and many. As a brand it
has experienced both losses and gains over a period. For several time they have arranged

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campaigns related to marketing for securing the loyalty of the shoppers and providing
them with toys.
 Intense Availability- The company has it’s headquarter at New South Wales and it is
available in 1024 locations. This availability of the store in several location makes it
easier for the customers to access them in large number and amount.
 Brand Labelling- The phantom brands of Woolworths aim to retain customer on the
basis of the quality products (Pollard et al. 2014). The focus will be mostly on the hair
care categories with private label, the famous brand “select” will cover the food section
as well as the non-food sections. Woolworths is expected to develop a brand that
eventually adds value for the customers and provide a quality product.
 Enhance Customer Relationship- The Managing Director of Woolworths stated that
strategies are taken under consideration that puts customers first. The establishment of
FoodCo which is a new division of the store that keeps track of providing fresh meat to
the customers, facilities related to the processing of the food items and several other
facilities too are provided in the form of in-store facility (Bailey 2017). By gaining the
customer trust interacting them in-store as well as on the online platform will surely
enhance the customer relationship.
 Sustainable farming- The program of sustainable farming was implemented by the
South African Woolworth’s store and planned to replace the method of conventional
farming (Wu et al. 2015). This will eventually improve the quality of soil, preserve soil,
improve the health of plants and protection of biodiversity.
 Low-cost strategy- The prices of the food stuffs and other products at Woolworths was
reduced for making the products available to the customers at very reasonable rate

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(Greenland, Johnson and Seifi 2016). By this strategy they aimed to attract more
customer towards their store. This was also implemented to restore the trust of the
customers.
 Customer oriented business- The services and products that Woolworths aimed to
provide were totally oriented to the customers. They aimed to fulfil the needs of the
customer. The shopping habits of the customers are analysed well so that the products
can be categorised into segments so that the customers can access the products easily
(Sullivan and Gouldson 2017). This will eventually enhance the shopping experience of
the customers and this will allow them to go back to the store for their every need. The
satisfaction of the customer is most crucial to any business hence, Woolworths has also
focused on that.
Outline of the Undertaking
Strategic Operations- Woolworth is famous for its strategic operations, marketing strategies,
developments in the area of products, the various innovations, huge growth, changes and
successful implementation.
The operations of Woolworths have been setting standards in its own market, this has resulted in
setting goals for the supply chain management, its customers along with the shareholders. The
operations are well performed and executed by the employees (Bailey et al. 2015). The
operations are famous for the services it provides to the customer and the quality they offer is
remarkable in their several locations. The operations around the stores are as follows:
 Demand management- The requirement of the resources at the stores are necessary to
fulfil so that the demands of the customers can be fulfilled with maximizing the
utilization of all the resources (Riemer et al. 2014). The capacity of the store can be

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analysed on that basis and store’s status can be observed in terms of products sold and
required.
 supply chain management- The integration of the process, information and the materials
that passes in a chain formation through supplier, manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and
finally to the customer. This ensures the effective operations of the vendors, supplier,
cash transfer and warehousing.
 designing of job- The assigning of job in terms of individual’s ability to perform is
efficiently is an aspect of operation management. This eventually helps is the effective
running of the operations around the working area.
 forecasting issues- For retail industry, it is very much important to predict the future of
the functions that the store is willing to perform (Akbar and Ahsan 2014). Forecasting
has direct impact on the scheduling, production and capacity of the store. It helps in
maximizing the planning structure of the stores and utilization of the resources better.
Marketing Environment- The market of Woolworths targets the high earners and planning for
the lower LSM group too. A nearly of 637 stores are planned to open in South Africa. Most of
the products which are food items are grown in the own farm of Woolworths. Hence, they
provide the best quality products to their customers ensuring the satisfaction of the customers. It
has been seen that the market value of the company has enhanced with the increase in the annual
turnover in all past consecutive years. Woolworths have set its short- and long-term goal for the
exercising best marketing in the industry (Bariacto and Di Nunzio 2014). The short-term goal
was designed as per the products of the company are concerned that is to enhance the quality of
the product and keeping the delicious food at most reasonable prices for the customers. The
incorporation of innovation on the existing products and introducing new food items for

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attracting more customers. The long terms goals are related to the environment, social
development, creating social awareness, introduction of organic products, etc.
Product development- An online system was created by the company for the product
development. It facilitates several processes related to the development of a product for the end
users (Bailey 2016). The platform of MLM incorporates the supplier management, finance,
product life cycle, logistics, sourcing and sales management.
Innovation- The innovative activities of Woolworths has effective approaches for the
development of the company. The innovation is seen in the area of Artificial Intelligence that has
enhanced the operation of the company in the recent years (Corones 2015). The innovation that
are observed in the company are reconfiguration of the metrices that are base on the online
platform must connect with the resources of Artificial Intelligence. Investment scaling is another
aspect that have associated with the new innovative ways of Artificial Intelligence. This
enhances the operation of the company. Woolworth also provides services that are based on the
cloud utilization and these are in effect at a larger scale (Morioka, Evans and de Carvalho 2016).
The framework for the Information Technology of the company is developed periodically for
supporting all the innovations taking place in the company. The benefits that Artificial
Intelligence provide is the flexible access of the products of the company in the online websites.
The profiles of the customers will show them the customised items as preferred by them earlier
through the effectiveness of the features that AI provides. The customer satisfaction will
eventually increase with the easy shopping experience.
Growth- The sales growth of Woolworth has been significant in the recent years within its
market. The net profit of Woolworth has been $1.724 billion after paying all the taxes. On the
global basis the Australian food product is always high. In the chains of supermarkets

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Woolworths has stand out to have the profit of nearly 12.5%. The rivalry company of
Woolworths which is Coles have the sales growth around 2.1% annually (Bailey 2020). The food
sector industry is very competitive as they provide huge discounts and sales, which can result is
profiting a company at great length. The growth also got effected with their strategy to put the
customers first for their business.
Change- The changes that the company have incorporated over a period of time are the
requirement of the organisation only so that the situations of the company can be developed for
the betterment. The changes are related to the system, staffs, structure and most importantly in
terms of incorporating the innovations in the company. The understanding of the changes by the
members of the company as well as accepting them and implementing them effectives will only
be the success of the changes made in the company (Mascitelli and Phan 2018). The leaders of
the company are well aware of the strategies and including them in the daily activities and
assigning new tasks to the employees are doe to gain the most advantages out of them. The
changes that are made in the company are divide in steps for better understanding of the
employees ands other leaders.
Strategic Implementation- The most important consideration the Woolworth has taken is the
strategic implementation of the changes, innovations, growth and marketing strategies. The most
important aspect through which Woolworths have gains its huge profits are the strategic
implementation of the innovation of incorporating AI, cloud for the operation in the store both
online and offline, proper implementation of the change management and marketing techniques
(Pulker et al 2018). After the implementation only the growth and net profit will reflect the
effectiveness of all the undertakings.

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Recommendation
It can be recommended that some more strategic steps can be taken up by the company and
those are as follow:
 Financial services- The incorporation of more payment methods to both online and
offline stores so that no customers are turned around when short of cash. The availability
of variable transaction type will attract more customers towards the stores and eventually
increase the business.
 Promotion of Organic eating- The prices of organic products are high in the market,
however, as Woolworths is growing products in their own farm they can increase the
quantity of growth also partner up with the locals and the government to implement this
at larger scale and hence making the availability of organic food at the reasonable rates to
the customers. This will retain the existing customers, attract new customers as well as
provide long term health benefits.
 Enhancing marketing strategy- In this era of social media, the social media marketing
is the best way to promote business and eating healthy. They can incorporate social
media marketing in their upcoming strategy as it reaches a huge number of populations at
one and through e-commerce and online payments the business can expand at grater
levels.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that Woolworths is a huge company
of Australia and New Zealand. It has chains of retails stores spread all across the globe. They
have been taking up strategies cantered to customers, and fulfilling the demands of the
customers. The undertakings of the company clearly state that they are opting for huge changes

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in terms of strategies of innovation, growth, operations and many. The profit of the company
represents its correct path towards success. Also, the program for sustainability is required so
improving the health and food availability for the future generation.

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Reference
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retail firms. International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 6(4), pp.375-396.
Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A. and Parker, J., 2015. Union power in retail: Contrasting cases in
Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 40(1), p.1.
Bailey, M., 2016. Marketing to the Big Middle: establishing Australian discount department
stores. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 8(3), pp.416-433.
Bailey, M., 2017. Absorptive capacity, international business knowledge transfer, and local
adaptation: establishing discount department stores in Australia. Australian Economic History
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Bailey, M., 2020. Urban disruption, suburbanization and retail innovation: establishing shopping
centres in Australia. Urban History, 47(1), pp.152-169.
Bariacto, N. and Di Nunzio, J., 2014. Market power in the Australian food system.
Corones, S., 2015. Regulating unilateral supermarket misconduct as customer/acquirer of goods
and services. Australian Business Law Review, 43(5), pp.400-419.
Greenland, S.J., Johnson, L. and Seifi, S., 2016. Tobacco manufacturer brand strategy following
plain packaging in Australia: implications for social responsibility and policy. Social
Responsibility Journal, 12(2), pp.321-334.
Knox, M., 2015. Supermarket monsters: The price of Coles and Woolworths' dominance (Vol.
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Mascitelli, B. and Phan, D., 2018. Drivers of growth and sustainability for organic products: The
case of Australia. Journal of Organics, 5, p.13.

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Morioka, S.N., Evans, S. and de Carvalho, M.M., 2016. Sustainable business model innovation:
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Pollard, C.M., Landrigan, T.J., Ellies, P.L., Kerr, D.A., Underwood Lester, M.L. and Goodchild,
S.E., 2014. Geographic factors as determinants of food security: a Western Australian food
pricing and quality study. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 23(4), p.703.
Pulker, C., Trapp, G., Scott, J. and Pollard, C., 2018. Alignment of supermarket own brand
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Riemer, K., Gal, U., Brunk, J., Gilchriest, B., Ord, R. and Tong, J.A., 2014. Australian Digital
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Wu, J.H., Neal, B., Trevena, H., Crino, M., Stuart-Smith, W., Faulkner-Hogg, K., Louie, J.C.Y.
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