Strategic Management Report: Analysis of Aldi's Business Plan

This report provides a detailed analysis of Aldi's business plan, addressing various aspects of its strategic management. It begins by examining Aldi's strategic planning, including its approach to low-cost goods acquisition and competitive advantage. The report then delves into Aldi's vision, mission, and objectives, followed by an analysis of internal and external environmental factors influencing the business. Key stakeholders and communication strategies are discussed, highlighting the channels used for disseminating information. The report further explores resource management, including physical, human, and intellectual resources, and identifies potential challenges in fundraising and risk management. Components of the business plan such as executive summary, company overview, market analysis, and financial estimations are also explained. The report also analyzes communication plans, measurement tools, and reporting methods. The assignment also presents a case study of system failure and explores areas of self-improvement for the student.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Developing and implementing business plan
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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ACTIVITY 1A
Aldi needs to be praised for practising strategic planning for acquisition of goods at
low cost from the suppliers. This provides the company with higher competitive advantage in
comparison to the other retailers. Here, one of the conditions is minimization of the
production costs (Aldi.com.au 2019). Typical evidence of this lies in the construction of the
business plan, which revolves around controlling the pricing of the products and the services.
The current operational plan reflects the measurability in terms of low production costs. This
is one of the effective grounds for luring more and more clients and customers. This is
through the means of quality products at cheaper rates. For this, adopting effective
communication channel helps in enhancing the parameter of customer relationship
management (Aldi.com.au 2019).
ACTIVITY 1B
1. Aldi’s vision aligns with providing a platform for the clients and the customers to
purchase the products and services at low costs (Aldi.com.au 2019).
2. Aldi’s mission is to acquire 50% market share to emerge as one of the reputed
organization, operating under the retail industry in Australia (Aldi.com.au 2019).
3. Aldi executes its business operation with the objective of maintaining consistency in
the productivity for maintaining the topmost position in the retail industry of Australia
(Aldi.com.au 2019).
ACTIVITY 1C
1. The internal environment factors of a business includes value system, mission, vision,
organizational structure, corporate culture, human resources, labour unions, physical
resources and technical capabilities (Papadas, Avlonitis and Carrigan 2017). All these

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factors conglomerate to form strategic planning, which is needed for achieving
infrastructural development.
2. External environment factors of a business is segmented into macro and micro. In the
micro-environment, the factors involve the suppliers, customers, intermediaries and
financers affecting the productivity. On the other hand, in the macro-environment, the
main factors are political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental,
which governs the expansion activities (Papadas, Avlonitis and Carrigan 2017).
Balance in the internal and external factors helps Aldi to gain higher competitive edge
in the market.
ACTIVITY 1D
The key stakeholders of Aldi are managers, shareholders, board of directors and
suppliers, who are involved in the planning process. Effective communication channels are
adopted for disseminating essential information related to the execution of business activities.
Examples of the channels are social media, emails and notice among others. The managers
are entrusted with the responsibility of creating strategies and executing it to the stakeholders
through the implementation of proper communication channels.
ACTIVITY 1E
1. There are many types of resources, which needs to be catered while making a
business plan. These are physical, human and intellectual reources. Physical resources
include raw materials, buildings, vehicles, transportation, storage, machines and
factories (Chambers and Humble 2017). Human resources are the employees and the
staffs, who would produce the required labour. Intellectual resources implies the
patents and copyrights, which helps in averting the illegal instances.

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2. Examples of physical tangible resources are cash, inventories, vehicles, equipment
and investments, which expand the scope and arena of the business (Cant 2018).
3. Lack of basic understanding towards the goal of raising new funds can act as a
challenge in the fundraising activity. Along with this, resource inadequacy is also an
issue in terms of raising funds. Not conducting comparative analysis is also a threat in
terms of achieving financial stability (Sargeant and Shang 2016).
ACTIVITY 1F
1. New activities are the changes proposed and implemented by an organization for
upgrading the standards and quality of business. These activities are assistance in
reaching to the benchmark level of performance (Amit and Zott 2015).
2. The new activities planned, needs to be accompanied with the risk management for
measuring its impact on the productivity. Not considering the risk management
activity can be harmful in terms of encountering negative outcomes (Hopkin 2018).
ACTIVITY 1G
1. The components of a business plan are executive summary, overview of the company,
market analysis, organizational management, strategies for increasing the sales
revenue, requirements for fundraising and financial estimations in the upcoming
financial years (Hopp et al. 2018).
2. Executive summary is essential for gaining an insight into the main idea, which is
disseminated through the business plan. Description of the company or organization
sheds lights into the managerial practices, which is comprised of the strategies for
achieving financial flexibility through increasing the sales revenue (Brinckmann et al.
2019).
ACTIVITY 2A

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1. The areas, which are addressed in a communication plan are the event, message,
audience, timing of the event, the tools to be considered, format, feedback and
maintenance of the communication platforms (Butt, Naaranoja and Savolainen 2016).
2. Segmentation of stakeholders and employees improves the focus of the company or
organization in terms of enhancing the efficiency in the operations. Along with this,
segmentation also assists in achieving higher competitive edge through customer
retention. Communication plays an important role in this context (Ramus and Vaccaro
2017).
ACTIVITY 2B
1.
Describe the parameters of your skilled
labour that would be available to
implement a new business plan
 Vocational training
 Practical sessions
Describe the governance structures in
place
 Review of the sales growth in
each quarter
 Written reports for the employee
performance
2. Examples of the measurement tools and their importance
Measurement tools Your comments
 Review of the sales growth in
each quarter
 Written reports of the employee
performance
This review would help in detecting the
need for the additional measures to
improve the sales growth
Preparing reports for the performance
exposed by the staffs would help in
record keeping, which is further
assistance in estimating the sales
forecast
ACTIVITY 2C

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1. For reporting, the areas, which needs to be focused is the progress in terms of the
resources, performance and the extent to which the targets have been accomplished
(Maas, Schaltegger and Crutzen 2016).
2. User friendly indicates the competency of the staffs with the systems. This can be
achieved by taking practical tests, which would be effective in measuring the extent to
which the staffs possess the capability to use the systems for conducting the allocated
tasks. Scoring the performance is assistance for detecting the need for providing
additional technological training (Ramus and Vaccaro 2017).
ACTIVITY 2D
1. One of the incidents of system failure, which occurred in our workplace is insufficient
computer memory, due to which we encountered difficulties in storing the essential
information. This situation compelled me to face awkward situation while giving
presentation to the foreign clients regarding the product launch (Butt, Naaranoja and
Savolainen 2016).
2. In this situation, the basic need is to delete the programs, which is consuming bulk
space. After this, the virtual memory needs to be increased from the advanced system
settings. As a sequential step, RAM needs to be upgraded, but conscious approach
needs to be exposed towards not reinstalling the Windows (Brinckmann et al. 2019).
ACTIVITY 3A
1.
What is analysed/measured? How is analysed/measured?
Overall productivity in the form of sales
growth at each quarter along with the
performance of the staffs is measured
Performance reports are prepared for
measuring the performance exposed by
the staffs. As a matter of specification,
the focus is on the underperforming
employees.

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ACTIVITY 3B
1. I lack self-confidence, which compels me to encounter issues in communicating with
others. This lacuna is also a threat in terms of creating a positive image in the minds of clients
and the customers, which adds to the threat in terms of enhancing my personal and
professional development. I also lack time management skills, which is an issue for making
the submissions within the stipulated time.
2. I think creating action plans would be effective in terms of prioritizing the activities.
Sharing the action plans with the peers, supervisors and trainers would be a planned and
reasoned approach towards improvising on the process of approaching the allocated duties
and responsibilities. I also feel that evaluating the exposed performance would help me to
detect the areas, which I need to improve for achieving the benchmark level of performance.
ACTIVITY 3C
1. At the initial stage, identification and mapping the current processes is required. The
starting can be done by stating the current status of the processes and the systems.
Interactions with the clients and the customers is a crucial activity at this stage (Hopp et al.
2018). As a sequential step, mapping the new plans and objectives is to be done for assessing
its feasibility in terms of the identified and the specified objectives. The next step is to
analyse the technologies, which possess flexibility in executing the tasks according to the
requirements.
2. As per the recent trends, the focus of Aldi is on conversion of the stores. Typical evidence
of this lies in the expansion of the wooden products with the installation of clear signals and
energy efficient LED lighting (Aldi.com.au 2019). The stores are more spacious, which has
enabled the customers to surf the products and services carefully before implementing the
purchasing decisions. In terms of experience, the example of body washes can be cited,

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which has upgraded in the parameters of price. This situation has provided the customers
with an experience, which they can cherish (Aldi.com.au 2019).

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References
Aldi.com.au 2019. About us. Available at: https://www.aldi.com.au/ [Accessed on 11th Aug
2019]
Amit, R. and Zott, C., 2015. Crafting business architecture: The antecedents of business
model design. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(4), pp.331-350.
Brinckmann, J., Dew, N., Read, S., Mayer-Haug, K. and Grichnik, D., 2019. Of those who
plan: A meta-analysis of the relationship between human capital and business planning. Long
Range Planning, 52(2), pp.173-188.
Butt, A., Naaranoja, M. and Savolainen, J., 2016. Project change stakeholder communication.
International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), pp.1579-1595.
Cant, M.C., 2018. Blueprint for a business plan competition: Can it work?. Management:
journal of contemporary management issues, 23(2), pp.141-154.
Chambers, I. and Humble, J., 2017. Developing a Plan for the Planet: A Business Plan for
Sustainable Living. Routledge.
Hopkin, P., 2018. Fundamentals of risk management: understanding, evaluating and
implementing effective risk management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Hopp, C., Greene, F.J., Honig, B., Karlsson, T. and Samuelsson, M., 2018. Revisiting the
influence of institutional forces on the written business plan: a replication study. Management
Review Quarterly, 68(4), pp.361-398.
Maas, K., Schaltegger, S. and Crutzen, N., 2016. Integrating corporate sustainability
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Papadas, K.K., Avlonitis, G.J. and Carrigan, M., 2017. Green marketing orientation:
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Ramus, T. and Vaccaro, A., 2017. Stakeholders matter: How social enterprises address
mission drift. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(2), pp.307-322.
Sargeant, A. and Shang, J., 2016. Outstanding fundraising practice: how do nonprofits
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