Strategic Management Report: Strategic Analysis of Sainsbury's

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic management principles, using Sainsbury's as a case study. It begins with a definition of strategic management and its importance in achieving organizational goals, followed by an examination of the strategic planning process. The report critically assesses how organizations, specifically Sainsbury's, determine their strategies, including the use of SWOT analysis. It then delves into the impact of internal and external environmental variations on organizational strategy, highlighting factors such as human resources, operational efficiency, economic conditions, and technological advancements. The report further reviews Sainsbury's strategic plan, providing an action plan based on changes in either the internal or external environment. The analysis covers the stages of strategic management, from goal setting to evaluation and control, emphasizing how these elements contribute to Sainsbury's business growth. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and providing recommendations for strategic improvements, offering valuable insights for students studying business development and strategic management. The document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
An introduction including a definition of strategic management................................................1
A critical assessment of the process used by organisations to determine their strategy..............2
A critical evaluation of the impact of internal and external environmental variation on
organizational strategy.................................................................................................................4
A review of an organization’s strategic plan (Business Plan), providing an action plan for the
organization on the basis of a change in either the internal OR external environment...............5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management can be defined as the tactical planning, observing, evaluating and
measuring all the necessary actions taken by an organization for meeting the goals and
objectives. The business organizations have to change their strategic planning regularly based on
the changing nature of the internal and external factors. The strategic planning provides a good
direction to the plans and procedures which are developing and then allocate some innovative
resources for implementing those plans.it helps in gaining a competitive advantage in the target
market and increase the productivity of the company (Parnell, 2019). The report will describe
the internal and external factors which impact on strategy of the very popular company
“Sainsbury’s”. The critical review of the organization’s strategic plan will also be discussed in
the report as well.
MAIN BODY
An introduction including a definition of strategic management.
The strategic management is a process which involves monitoring, analysing and planning of
certain actions for fulfilling the needs of the organization required to gain growth and
profitability. The strategic management within the organization helps in having a clear
understanding of the vision and mission of the company and also the future aspects the
organization wants to acquire.it is the management of the resources within the organization for
successfully achieving the goals and objectives (Agwu, 2018). Basically it is an action plan that
is used for ensuring that the targets are achieving and the business is growing effectively.by the
help of good strategic planning the company will able to gain an competitive advantage in the
market place. Strategic management also boost the confidence of the employees and motivate
them for doing the work in a more effective manner and therefore improve the overall
performance of the employees as well.in the same way Sainsbury’s company also have a very
good strategic management and this helps the company in growing their business more
significantly. The Sainsbury’s company follows two types of strategy in their company which
are corporate strategy and competitive strategy (Antipov, and et.al, 2019). There are five stages
in the strategic management in any of the organization and which are goals setting, analysis,
strategy formation strategy implementation and strategy monitoring.
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Goal setting: the aim of setting the goal in the strategic management is to understand the vision
of the business and knowing the strategies and goals for business. This strategy involves three
basic features in which the first one is to define the long and short term objectives. The second
one is to identify the method by which the goals can be achieved and the third one is allocating
the work to the resources. In this strategy it should be checked that the objective is realistic and
described in a well manner for understanding the business vision.
Goal analysis: the goal analysis stage is the most important stage in the strategic management
because the relevant data is collected in this stage for achieving. The aim of analysis is to
understand the requirements of the business with proper tactical planning and initiative that will
support in growing the business more significantly.in this stage all the internal and external
problems get affected by the goals and objectives.
Strategy formulation: the first step in the formulation of strategy is to review the information
getting from the analysis stage. In this the resources recognize the process used for achieving the
goals and objectives. The problems faced by the organization should be prioritized based on the
importance and then the formulation should be done (Ayaganova, and Mamrayeva, 2020).
Strategy implementation: This is the most critical stage of the strategic management process .if
the strategy planning does not work well according to the current structure of the business then it
is installed at the starting point .each and every resource in the organization should be aware
about the responsibilities and duties. The resource which is funding must be feel secured.
Evaluate and control: this is the last stage of the strategic management process and the strategy
evaluation and control involve the performance measurements and regular reviews of all the
internal and external issues and making correct actions when required. The successful evaluation
starts with defining the parameters which are formed for measuring.
A critical assessment of the process used by organisations to determine their strategy
The strategic planning process is the way used by the organization for developing plan in order
to achieve the overall long term goals. The strategic planning process is a very wide concept
which helps the companies for generating a roadmap which analyse that which objective should
be analysed for the better performance and which imitative would be less beneficial for the
business. Sainsbury’s company also uses some steps for determine the strategies in order to meet
the goals and objectives (Asobee, 2021). All these strategic planning process helps in increasing
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the productivity and growth of the organization. The steps used for strategic planning process
have been described below:
Determine your strategic position: The first step taken by Sainsbury’s company is to
determine the strategic position which involves where the company is determined where the
company needs to go and how will the company get there. This involves talented and right
employees in the organization which consider both the internal as well as external sources.by the
help of this stage the company will able to find a clear image of the position and customer
insight as well. The Sainsbury’s company use SWOT analysis for determine the strength,
weakness, opportunities and threats of the company. After knowing this the unique strategic
position in the market will be clear and the company can start setting few key strategic goals
(Bochenek, 2019).
Prioritize your objectives: The next step is prioritizing the objectives of the organization for
achieving the goals. The Sainsbury’s company prioritize the objective by asking the questions to
the resources like which initiative will have a good impact on achieving the mission of the
company, what types of impact are most important, how will the competition react. All these
question will benefit the company in prioritize the objectives of the company. The objectives
should be unique and measurable for helping the company in reaching the long term goals.
Develop a plan: the third step in the strategic planning process is develop a tactical plan for
achieving the long term goals. This step involves the determination of strategies necessary for
attain the objectives and goals. For visualizing the strategic plan mapping is an effective tool
used by the Sainsbury’s company. The company should be prepared enough to use the values
and mission of the company and should able to say no to the initiatives to the priorities which
are not beneficial for the company’s output.
Execute and manage the plan: once the plan is ready then it is ready for implementing. the
Sainsbury company use a larger strategy into a tangible plan for making the plan and can also
use the key performance indicators (KPI) for communicating the team about the responsibilities
and duties. This approach used by the organization will help in describing the completion
procedure and possession for each of the step.
Review and revise the plan: The last step in strategic planning process is the revise and
reviewing the plan. This is one of the most important step because it helps in determine the
feedback about the strategized plan (Ali, 2020). This stage gives an opportunity to the company
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for re-evaluating the priorities and course correct the past success and failures. The company can
track the performance by using the balance scorecard for understanding the performance of the
business and executing the goals.
A critical evaluation of the impact of internal and external environmental variation on
organizational strategy
The internal and external environment plays a very important role in the development of any
organization. The internal environment of the company helps in the development and
operations.it can be a way of expanding the business or issues that disrupts the existence. The
external environment provides the organization with resources that re required for supporting the
internal capacities. The internal environment refers to all the operational activities happening
inside the organization and the external environment of the organization refers to all the
exogenous services that have the prospective to affect the performance, efficiency and
functionality of the organization (Hanelt, and et.al, 2021). The internal and external environment
have a great impact on the success, measure, visualisation and development of the organization.
The internal factors can be any activity or action happening inside the company and in the
control of the company. These factors can be further demonstrated as strength and weakness of
the company. The factor which is brining positive impact in the company is considered to be the
strength and the one which have negative effect is known as weakness. There are many factors
by which the Sainsbury’s company get highly impacted from the variation in the internal
environment. The first one is human resources and every company want innovative and talented
employees in their organization. But due to the variation in the human resource department and
the employees the strategy of the company gets directly affected.it becomes challenging for the
team to train the employees again and train them the strategies for achieving the goals. The next
is operational efficiency and this concept helps in improving all of the processes in the company
which is resulting in making the final products. The operational efficiency directly affect the
growth rate of the organization and for achieving this there are some suggestions which should
be adopted by the company like paying attention to the price of the goods, understanding the
situation of the business and using technologies for better operational productivity(Fu, 2022).
Some of the other internal environmental factors are innovation, infrastructure, and capital
funds.
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The external environmental factors are those which are outside the company and have no control
of the company on them. There are many factors of the external environment within the
organization like economic situation, laws, technological factors, customer demands, and
competition .the economic factors is the most important factor for the success of the
organization and none of the factor can affects the business more than the economic condition of
the company. There are many factors which impacts the economy within the company like tax
rates, exchange rates, inflation, labor , wages and many more. The next one is laws in which
rules and regulations formed by the native government plays an important role in the
development of the organization. There are many positive and negative effect of laws on the
company like if the government allows the company for investing in the local company’s outside
the country then this will provide a financial support to the domestic business(Naidoo, and
Gasparatos, 2018). Technological factor like artificial intelligence, smart internet searches have
also been the most important aspects in terms of business for example bank of America use an
automated check processing system.it helps in generating more revenue and provide result
according to the need of the customer.
A review of an organization’s strategic plan (Business Plan), providing an action plan for the
organization on the basis of a change in either the internal OR external environment.
A strategic plan of the organization is a type of document formed by the organization for
describing the goals, objectives for achieving the goals of the company. A strategic plan is an
important document whose aim is to focus on the internal and external factors of the
organization.it helps in describing the company’s core business activities and how the goals can
be achieved. A good strategic plan contain an overall summary and segments on the goods and
services, marketing plans and analysis, financial strategies and budget. The Sainsbury’s
company also have a very good and reflective business plan that is followed by the company for
performing various operations in the company (Barrow, Barrow, and Brown, 2018). The
strategic planning of Sainsbury Company depends on basic five components which are knowing
the customers better than any other competitor, selling good quality products at reasonable and
affordable prices, being available for the customers whenever they need any requirement and at
wherever time, resources making the difference from the competitors and the values of the
Sainsbury’s company is making them unique and different. The ability of the Sainsbury’s
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company is to give quality product and value at a time when price factor is the important point in
terms of retail segment. Also the business plan of the Sainsbury’s company works on three basic
functions better for customers, better for the planet and better for everyone. The strategic
planning is working in a very effective manner by the help of below mentioned points:
 The main aim of the company is to provide good quality food products to the customers
at a reasonable and affordable prices.by selling the food items at fair prices and by
integrity this company is considered to be the world’s largest retailer for trading the
products by value.
 Accelerating the growth of complementary non-food and services by succeeding the
standard of quality and worth and enabling the customers to have better experience of
shopping.
 Reaching more customers by opening new and additional channels. Developing online
websites for selling the products is also adapted by the company for increasing the sales
and expanding the business.
 Growing supermarket space by including all the products of foods and non-foods items
and the area of supermarket have increased by 156 per cent in the last two years (Abdul
Rahaman, and et.al, 2021).
 The last one is active property management as the ownership of the property provide the
flexibility in the operation and this will increase the value of the organization.
An action plan required when there is a change in internal environment depends on many factors
like change in the management of the organization , change in the morale of the employees,
changes in the art and culture of the company and the last one is changes in the economic
condition of the company. For mitigating these changes an action plan is required in the
company by which the resources can gain the advantage over these changes and the company
can grow and develop in the business sector more effectively (Adekemi, 2018).
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CONCLUSION
The strategic management within the organization helps in providing various tools for managing
the efficiency and also involve the process of knowing how and when to apply the innovative
thinking in the operations of the company. Strategic management is essential for the companies
when changing in business environments as it supports in tactical planning, analysing and
observing all the beneficial factors required for achieving success of the company. The report
have concluded external and internal environmental factors which impact on strategy in the
Sainsbury’s company and also review an organization’s strategic plan.
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REFERENCES
Books and references
Parnell, J.A., 2019. Strategic management. Sage.
Agwu, M.E., 2018. Analysis of the impact of strategic management on the business performance
of SMEs in Nigeria. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 17(1), pp.1-20.
Antipov, V.Y., and et.al, 2019. Some essential features of strategic planning. Наука и
образование: новое время, (1), pp.178-183.
Ayaganova, M. and Mamrayeva, D., 2020. FEATURES OF THE ASSESSMENT OF
APPLICABILITY OF BUSINESS MODELS FROM THE POSITION OF STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT. Интернаука, (22-3), pp.24-27.
Asobee, M.S., 2021. Exploring the importance of strategic thinking to strategic planning in the
strategic management process. Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 9(2), pp.68-70.
Bochenek, M., 2019. Balanced scorecard in strategic management process. Modern
Management Review, 24(26), pp.7-16.
Ali, H., 2020. What Factors Contribute to Efficient Management of The Supply Chain of
Supermarket Within UK Retailers? Case Study―Sainsbury Supermarket PLC Supply Chain.
Hanelt, A., and et.al, 2021. A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation:
Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management
Studies, 58(5), pp.1159-1197.
Fu, J.S., 2022. Understanding the Internal and External Communicative Drivers of
Organizational Innovativeness. Communication Research, 49(5), pp.675-702.
Naidoo, M. and Gasparatos, A., 2018. Corporate environmental sustainability in the retail sector:
Drivers, strategies and performance measurement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 203, pp.125-
142.
Barrow, C., Barrow, P. and Brown, R., 2018. The Business Plan Workbook: A Step-By-Step
Guide to Creating and Developing a Successful Business. Kogan Page Publishers.
Abdul Rahaman, N.A.N., and et.al, 2021. Business Model Canvas: Vegan Fivsh/Nur Aiman
Nadiah Abdul Rahman...[et al.].
Adekemi, D.A., 2018. Strategy and Business Model Disclosure in Corporate Annual Reports: A
Study of UK Listed Companies (Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex).
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