Business Strategy Report: Morrisons' Competitive Environment

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Morrisons' business strategy, examining both its internal resources and capabilities, as well as its external environment through SWOT and PESTLE analyses. It critically evaluates the competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces model, devising strategies and tactical objectives to achieve strategic goals. The report identifies and assesses Morrison's competitive advantages, explores different strategic directions available to the company using the Ansoff Matrix, and offers recommendations for future strategies. Furthermore, it evaluates methods for monitoring the chosen strategy's effectiveness, concluding with key insights into Morrison's strategic positioning and potential for growth.

Unit 32 Business strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Analysing the organization's resources and capabilities in the internal as well as external
environment of Morrisons...........................................................................................................3
Analysing and critical evaluating competitive environment of company Morrisons using
Porter’s Five Forces model..........................................................................................................6
Devising strategies and tactical objectives to attain strategic objectives.....................................7
Identifying and evaluating the competitive advantage that Morrison has...................................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
Critical evaluation of different types of strategic directions available to the Morrison’s...........9
Ansoff matrix.............................................................................................................................11
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................12
Evaluation of ways in which the chosen strategy can be monitored.........................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
A business strategy can be described as a set of plans and actions that helps an
organization in achieving the organizational goals and objectives and be able to compete among
the different organizations within the market. The present report is based on the study of
Morrison’s. The Morrison’s is an organization that operates within the retail sector in the market.
The company is headquartered in Bradford, United Kingdom and was founded by William
Morrison in the year 1899 (Ghahremani-Nahr, and Nozari, 2021). However, currently the owners
of the company Clayton, Dublier and Rice. Currently, the Morrison’s offers food and drink
related products within the market, florist, petrol, books, magazines and other items related to the
home décor within the market.
The present report will provide a SWOT and PESTLE analysis in context of the
Morrison’s and will also provide an evaluation of the key potential of the company within the
market. There will be a competitive analysis of the Morrison’s within the United Kingdom. The
present report will also emphasis on the competitive advantage of the company and critically
examine the different types of strategic decisions that area available to the Morrison’s within the
market. Moreover, the study will examine the ways through which the strategies used by
company will be monitored.
MAIN BODY
PART-1
Analysing the organization's resources and capabilities in the internal as well as external
environment of Morrisons
To determine the macro and micro environment is the first and foremost responsibility of a
business. It gives a business an understanding of factors that can affect the working of the
environment (Teoli, and et.al., 2019). Here are the following SWOT and PESTLE to analyse the
right environment. SWOT analysis is done to identify the company's inner environment by
determining its strength, weaknesses, threats and opportunities so that a company can take
measures to eliminate the threatening factors and weaknesses and also make a proper use of its
strength and opportunities (Benzaghta And et.al., 2021). PESTLE analysis is a tool that is used to
examine the macro environment of a firm as through this tool, every factor is taken into
consideration which can affect the near future of the business (Hans., 2018). It includes 6 factors
namely includes Political, Legal, Social, Environmental, Economic and Technological.

Political Factors
This factor is engaged with the political factors
of particular country. The political factors of
every country vary from each other (Alanzi,
2018). These factors include trade policies,
taxation laws, consumer protection laws and
other government policies. Morrisons
supermarkets are established in over 12
countries which itself is a major risk as the
company can get exposed to the political risks
of those countries anytime. The UK
government has recently came under the global
pressure to adopt WTO regulations on the
retail industry.
Legal Factors
Legal factors are somewhat related to the
political factors. These factors play a major
role in retail sector development. Morrisons
take into consideration some legal factors
before taking a step to expand its operations.
Some factors taken into consideration by the
company are the copyrights laws, bias home
players, discrimination laws, data protection
laws etc. Morrisons while making an entry into
the international market determine all the
factors that can affect the working of the
business.
Economic Factors
These factors are engaged with the country's
economic performance it includes the labour
markets, interest rate, inflation rate, exchange
rate, taxation rate and disposable income of the
consumer. The continuous fluctuating
exchange rate of UK can leave a bad impact on
the performance of the Morrisons in the future
for both long and short term. The economy of
UK is predicted to be stable for coming 5-10
years which can make the company grew even
stronger with time. Governmental expenditure,
level of investment in new industries,
disposable income leading to stable demand
are all the factors which are predicted to be
stable.
Social Factors
Social factors are linked with the culture and
tradition of a place. These factors include
gender roles, education level, leisure interests,
power structure, essential services etc. Every
country has a different tradition and
background taste (Shtal And et.al., 2018).
Morrisons operates in more than 12 countries
which makes it very difficult for the company
to keep in mind the different cultures of the
country and maintain its supply accordingly.
The population of UK is more towards leisure
goods and hold a good interests in such types
of goods, Morrisons can take a great advantage
of this knowledge and start to target the market
accordingly.

Technological Factors
Technology has evolved with time and as a
result the services and products are no longer
the same as they were before. These factors
include access to great information, mobile
phones empowerments, innovated product
offerings etc. everything in today world has
been developed and evolved with the mobile
technology. Morrisons is also making a
complete use of this technology and is meeting
the customers expectations in its service
sectors. R&D is getting a complete financial
support by the government to help the
companies come up with the new innovations
every day, of which, Morrisons is making a
good use.
Environmental Factors
These factors are concerned with taking care of
the environment while carrying on the
operations. The government has also started to
put pressure on different organizations to adopt
environmental practices in their operations.
These include factors such as safe disposal,
limiting the carbon footprints, climate change,
pollution laws, water treatments etc. here the
customers of every country in which Morrisons
operate are expecting the company to follow
environmental practices and adhere to it. UK is
providing subsidies to the businesses in order
to start investing in the renewable sector of
which, Morrisons can make the best use and
stand on its customers expectations.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
 Large products customizations and
portfolio
 Strong network of distribution
 Efficient supply chain
WEAKNESSES
 Slow adaptivity in the fast changing
environment
 Limited geographical presence
 Low reminiscence of private label

THREATS
 Move to non-food retail markets in UK
 Expand its partnership with amazon
 By coming up with online channels and
discount channels
OPPORTUNITIES
 Growing competition
 Growing technological risks
 Rejection of 5.5bn

Analysing and critical evaluating competitive environment of company Morrisons using Porter’s
Five Forces model.
Morrison's five forces analysis of porter covers the main source of competitions that exist
in the market as well as it also covers the factors that affects the sector at large level (Bruijl and
Gerard, 2018). The five forces of porter's five forces model includes the threat of new entrants,
threat of substitutes, bargaining power of the competitors, suppliers and the competitive rivalry.
These five forces are explained below-
Threat of new entrants-
Morrison is a British multinational consumer retail store that focuses on merchandise and
grocery and is one of the largest retail store in the world (Niño and et.al.,2020). For any new
entrant setting up such a large retail market is not that easy as it requires large amount of capital
and time. Besides, this the marketing efforts and promotions of the company products in not easy
to match with Morrison and if ever try it will cost much to company. Not only this It is also
difficult to find and set proper distribution channels to compete with Morrison.
Threat of substitutes-
The treat of substitute products is not that high because it offers various products with the
unique quality and the content that is not easily available In other retail stores, but still there are
some other retailers in the market that sales the similar product like that of Morrison. Besides,
these the price factor is also deciding factor that whether products similar to Morrison's product
at the same price are available in the market. Morrison provides products at lower prices and this
reason minimize the treats of substitutes.
Bargaining power of the consumer-
The Morrison has high bargaining power of the consumer because of the many retailers
present in the U.K. That provides similar products in the Market today, and because of this the
consumer find it easy to choose the best from choices they have and which offers them the best
product at reasonable prices (Cheng and et.al., 2021). The Morrison can survive in market by
providing the best products with good quality and by charging lower prices from the other
retailers. This can also be done by developing the loyalty and trustful relation with its
consumers.
Bargaining power of suppliers-

The Morrison suppliers have less bargaining power because there are lot of suppliers in
the market that are feeding their retail store with Morrison's product and selling their products.
Switching from one supplier to another is not big task for any big retail store like the Morrison.
The negotiation power is very less with the suppliers and company has good control in it. The
multiple suppliers for the same product is the problem that reduces the power of bargaining of
suppliers and has weak force.
Competitive Rivalry-
This sector in which Morrison is operating has lot of players like the Walmart, Tesco,
Sainsbury, ASDA etc. and that increases the competitive rivalry as all this retail stores giants are
operating same products in the market. Thus, the breakthrough can be gained by only that
company which is spending more in the advertising and marketing techniques. There is also
strong price was between these stores, to attract large consumer in order to gain large amount of
profits.
The summary of porter's five forces analysis in Morrison company is
Threat of new entrants low
Threat of substitutes high
Bargaining power of the consumer Not that high
Bargaining power of the suppliers low
Competitive rivalry high
Devising strategies and tactical objectives to attain strategic objectives
To attain the strategic objectives of Morrisons, the very step is to identify the right and
valid strategies for that. The strategies include setting up of a smart goal, noting down the goal,
make sure it is visible, break the goal into different parts so that it becomes easier by achieving
primary goals, identifying the potential obstacles and lastly, finding the best ways to eliminate
them and achieve the desired strategic objectives. When it comes to achieving the desired goals,
tactical objectives also play an important role as tactical objectives are the desired short term
results of a given mission or task. These are often entrusted to a low positioned management in a
big organization. But these are the most crucial objectives as without achieving them, the
eventual goal of the company can not be achieved. Tactical objectives keep the company's spirit
high and make the company function regularly and efficiently. Morrisons tactical objective is to

make 30% increase in its revenue in the coming next year and the company is planning of
strategies to attain this very tactical objective as soon as possible.
Identifying and evaluating the competitive advantage that Morrison has.
Morrison is the company that is trying the best in providing quality products to the
consumers worldwide. The following are the competitive advantage that the Morrison has over
the other firms existing in the market today.
Fresh consumer food items-
The first advantage to the Morrison company is that it is dedicated to provide fresh food
products by charging reasonable prices from its consumer. The core purpose of Morrison
company is to provide food that anybody can afford and enjoy eating. Company is preparing
food products with the help of professional and committed food makers that makes its products
unique from the other products. Morrison is increasing its brand value in the name of fresh
products which make it advantageous from the other competitors in the market.
Well-developed supply chain-
Morrison company has well-developed supply chain and different routes that helps
company in ensuring that all the products of Morrison are available in all the cities. Proper
supply chain ensures availability of the product that increases profitability of the company. The
supply chain alone in not enough but the control and management is also needed to reach success
and Morrison company is able to do that by setting proper supply chain departments and
coordinating with different retailers in different cities.
Trained personal-
Morrison company has another advantage that it has highly trained and dedicated
workforce that helps the company in providing excellent service to its clients. Morrison has
always emphasize on employing those individuals that are skilled and professional for example it
employees skilled balers, grocers, sales persons, fishmongers etc. besides this the firm is proud
that it offers career development opportunities in various field that ranges from logistics o the
marketing and the finance. (Junaydulloyevich, Furqatovna, and Baxtiyorovich, 2021).
Environment sustainability-
The Morrison company is focusing on providing products that are environment
sustainable as company is promoting its products with its focus on environment sustainability, it
has been able to gain the competitive advantage over the other companies. People are getting

more aware about the environment problems that world is facing today and Morrison is trying to
change its process and products according to that. This is another competitive advantage that the
company may have.(Verma, and et.al., 2018)
These were some competitive advantage that the Morrison company has over the other
firms in the market today, these advantages are the reasons for the growth of the company in the
international market and has helped company in achieving high profitability and the success.
PART 2
Critical evaluation of different types of strategic directions available to the Morrison’s
The strategic directions can be explained as a set of standard ideas, opinions, views that
helps the organization bringing efficiency a level of consistency in the strategies developed by a
company (Harvey, and Sotardi, 2018). The major aim behind providing a strategic direction to
the company is to integrate the strategies and tactics developed by a company in different
departments in order to enhance the organizational performance of the workforce within the
company. It has been identified that there are various types of strategic directions available to
the Morrison’s within the market. They are explained below:
Mission
A mission is a statement that is provided by the organization itself within the market that
states the major aim and the purpose of the company within the market. If an organization states
its mission as providing the customers with premium quality products within the market, then it
is the responsibility of the company to focus specifically on the quality of the products that are
being provided by the company in the market instead of focusing on its personal development
goals such as cost saving (Jetter, Eimecke, and Rese, 2018). However, if an organization such as
Morrison’s aims to effectively focus on its mission statement, there is a possibility that the
company might have to face difficulties and challenges in surviving within the market against its
competitors. This is so because, the mission statements of an organization are mostly seen as a
PR strategy that helps the organization in attracting a range of customers towards the brand.
However, if the company will only focus on providing premium quality products without
considering the pricing aspect, there is a possibility that the company might have to face losses in
the coming future.

Culture
Culture in terms of the culture of an organization can be referred to as a set of values,
behaviour, expectations and standards that exist within a company that guides their decision
making process. There are a number of organizations that sees their organizational culture as a
source of strategic direction within the company. This is so because when a company is well
versed with their employees and their behaviour within the organization, it gets easy for them to
form the different kinds of strategies that the employees can easily adapt in order to achieve the
goals and objectives of the company within the market (Reichstein, 2019). It has been identified
that those organizations that use their culture as a form of the strategic direction available to
them finds it easier to explain the plan the tactics among the workforce within the company. The
culture helps the employees in achieving the goals and targets set by the company by relating
them with the values, beliefs and the behaviour of the employees within the organization.
Therefore, it can be stated that the Morrison’s has the option to inculcate or choose the culture as
a form of effective strategic direction within the enterprise in order to achieve the organizational
goals.
Values
Values with respect to an organization can be defined as a set of principles or standards
that guides the organization in determining what is right and what is wrong with respect to a
company. For instance, if Morrison’s develops a principle that the company will reduce the use
of plastic within the company in order to become a more environment friendly company within
the market. This principle will guide the Morrison’s in formulating its strategies in order tom
enhance their profitability and sales of the company. This principle set by the company or the
values that have been inculcated among the workforce in the organization will help the company
in choosing a path that will help them choosing the right ways for the purpose of achieving the
goals and objectives of the company. Similarly, this is one such strategic direction that is
available with the Morrison’s within the organization that will help the company in easily
formulating the required strategies in order to increase the profitability and sales of the enterprise
in the market.

Ansoff matrix
The Ansoff matrix a tactical tool that is used by different companies in order to determine
the available growth platforms and strategies within the market. Similarly, the available growth
platforms and strategies with respect to the Morrison’s have been explained below:
Market Penetration
The market penetration is a strategy presented by the Ansoff matrix in which an
organization makes use of a business strategy in which they launch the existing products and
services in the existing and established markets across the world. By using this strategy, an
organization aims to enhance its market share and increase the sale of their existing market
offerings across the world. This is one of the least risky approach that helps an organization in its
growth and development within the market. It has been observed that in order to make effective
utilization of this strategy, the company provides its customers with discounts in order to
increase the sale, makes use of promotional activities such as conducting a campaign within the
market that helps in engaging the audience with the brand.
Product development
Another strategy that helps an organization including the Morrison’s in enhancing their
organizational growth and development within the market, the organizations provides their
customers with a new product or a service in the existing market of the company. It has been
identified that this strategy can only work if the organization has deep knowledge about the
target market in which it has been planning to introduce its product (Pope, and et.al , 2018). The
organizations that makes use of this strategy conducts a market research that helps them in
determining the needs and wants of the customers within the target market and then innovate a
particular product that helps the company in catering to the needs and wants of the customers
within the market.
Market development
The market development strategy refers to introducing the existing products and services
offered by an organization in the new markets. In order to make use of this strategy, it is
important for an enterprise to effectively study the market conditions or the new markets in
which the organization is planning to introduce its product. However, the organization has the
opportunity to choose the range of prices that they want to set for their existing products and
services within the new market. Most of the times, the organizations set attractive prices within

the new markets that helps the company in attracting a range of new customers from the markets
and thus enhance its customer base in the market.
Diversification
The diversification is also a kind of strategy that is adopted by number of organizations
across the world for the purpose of increasing the profitability and sales of the company. This is
the riskiest strategy that is used by the enterprises as it involves introduction of new products
within the new markets. When an enterprise opts for this strategy, there is a possibility that the
new product which has been launched within the new market might not work as expected by the
management of the company.
Recommendation
The most appropriate platform that will help the Morrison’s in enhancing its growth and
development has been mentioned below:
 The Morrison’s should opt for market development strategy. In this strategy the
Morrison’s will launch its existing products and services in the new market across the
globe. For the same the company will need to conduct a market research that will help the
company effectively determining the areas where there is a possibility for the company to
get huge amounts of profits and a noticeable increase in the customer base of the
company.
Evaluation of ways in which the chosen strategy can be monitored
There are certain measures that can help a company in monitoring and measuring the
strategies adopted by them (Morrison, and et.al 2019). Similarly, the Morrison’s will also use
certain methods for the purpose of monitoring their strategy, which has been explained below:
Customer lifetime Value
The Morrison’s will make effective utilization of the customer lifetime value as a method
of measuring and monitoring the success of the company. With the help of this strategy, the
organization will be able to determine the value associated with each customer of the
organization. This means that The Morrison’s will study its long term relationship with each and
every customer of the company and determine how much the organization is getting from each
and every individual. Is it really necessary to spend the amount that the company has been
incurring with respect to its customers within the market? This will help the company in
determining its success by way of its clients within the market.