Telstra's Strategic Management: Evaluating Corporate Strategies

This report examines Telstra's current corporate-level strategies, focusing on renewal and stability approaches implemented to address market competition and financial challenges. It evaluates the suitability of these strategies, highlighting their effectiveness in solidifying market share and generating capital through cost reduction. The analysis suggests that while renewal and stability strategies are appropriate for Telstra's current situation, incorporating growth strategies, such as market penetration and diversification, would further enhance the company's long-term potential. The report recommends Telstra invest capital from renewal efforts into growth initiatives to capitalize on opportunities within the Australian market and diversify into related sectors like IPTV and gaming services, thereby increasing revenue streams and brand value. Ultimately, the integration of growth strategies alongside existing approaches is deemed crucial for Telstra to regain market leadership and enhance its business operations.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the current corporate level strategies being followed by
Telstra in their business operation. In doing so, this report identified and evaluated the suitability
of the corporate level strategies for their business operation. The effectiveness of their corporate
level strategies is being critically discussed on the basis of views given by different authors. It is
identified that Telstra is following renewal and stability strategies, which are effective enough in
helping them regaining the lost position in the Australian market. In addition, this report also
recommended that Telstra should also initiate growth strategy in the forms of market penetration
and diversification strategy. This will help them in enhancing their business effectiveness in the
long term.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Identification of the current corporate level strategies of Telstra....................................................3
Evaluation of the suitability of the current strategies of Telstra......................................................4
Recommended strategies.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Effectiveness of the corporate level strategies is having much importance for the
contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that contemporary business
scenario is much more competitive than it was a decade ago. Thus, the business organizations
should have proper corporate level strategies to ensure that they are staying ahead in the
competition (Kazanjinan, Drazin & Glynn, 2017). It should also be noted that corporate level
strategies are important for the organizations, which are earnings profits along with the
companies incurring losses. Telstra is one such organization, which is going through change
process to regain their lost position in the market. They are one of the leading telecommunication
brands in the Australian market but in the recent time they lost their major markets owing to the
competition faced in forms of the global players.
This report will discuss about the corporate level strategies being initiated by Telstra to
mitigate the challenges they are facing. In addition, the effectiveness of the strategies in respect
to their business will also be evaluated from different perspectives. This report will also states a
few recommended steps that can help in overcoming the shortcomings in the current strategic
intent of Telstra.
Identification of the current corporate level strategies of Telstra
According to the different reports being analyzed, it is identified that Telstra is following
stability strategies and renewal strategies over other forms of corporate level. This is due to the
reason that even though Telstra is termed as the most valuable brand in Australia as of 2017, they
are facing huge challenges in terms of new customer acquisitions, retention of the existing
customers and market share (Le Roy & Sanou, 2014). Moreover, they are also facing challenges

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in maintaining their financial performance due to crunch in capital. In terms of the stability
strategy, Telstra is initiating strategies such as simplifying the service delivery process, portfolio
management and eliminating customer pain points (Pellergrin-Boucher, Le Roy & Gurau, 2013).
These activities are being initiated in line to the growing popularity of the global players such as
Vodafone in the Australian market. The major objective of initiating the stability strategies is to
improve the customer experience and increase the retention ratio of the existing customers. All
these strategies are being included in the change management process through which Telstra is
currently going.
On the other hand, it is also identified that Telstra is also initiating renewal strategy in
view to the loss they are making in the market. This includes sacrificing revenues from the
mobile connections worth of $500 million and reducing their total workforce by about 8000.
Moreover, it is also decided that Telstra will sale their assets worth of $2 billion in the next few
years (Simon, Fischbach & Schoder, 2014). These activities are being planned in order to
increase the flow of capital in the operation and to regain the competitiveness by enhancing the
balance sheet. It is also being identified that these strategies are being initiated to limit the
operation of Telstra without getting much diverse and complex. Thus, it can be concluded that
Telstra is following both renewal and stability strategies.
Evaluation of the suitability of the current strategies of Telstra
It is already identified that Telstra is facing challenges in the form of high level of
competition in the market and their financial condition is getting affected. Thus, in this case, they
are having the requirement for renewal of their business processes and regaining the lost spot.
According to Adamides (2015), it is important for the business organizations to link the

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operations strategy of the organizations with that of the corporate level strategy due to the reason
that the corporate level strategy being initiated should have coordination with that of their
operational approaches. Thus, in the case of Telstra, their operational approach is to regain the
profitability in the market and in accordance to this approach; they have initiated renewal
approach of corporate level strategies. This should be noted that initiation of the growth
strategies may helped them in gaining profits from new markets but it cannot helped in
enhancing the financial position rather the capital flow for Telstra would have been affected
further by investing in new markets. Hence, with the challenges they are facing in the market, it
is important for Telstra to first enhance their financial condition and it can be concluded that
renewal strategy is the suitable approach for them.
On the other hand, it is also identified that Telstra is also following the stability strategy
in retaining their existing customer base and market share. According to Engert, Rauter and
Baumgartner (2016), prior to the initiation of the growth strategy, it is important for the business
organizations to gain sustainability in their existing business operation. Thus, in the case of
Telstra, it is important for them to cement their existing spot in the Australian market in order to
have the long term sustainability to initiate further growth. It is identified that the various
activities being initiated by them under the stability strategy will help to retain their existing
market and business. Thus, it can be concluded that based on the situation, Telstra is facing, both
the renewal and stability strategies are suitable and effective in enhancing their business.
Recommended strategies
It is recommended that Telstra should also initiate growth strategy in their existing
business area. This is due to the reason that in the Australian market, they are having good and

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potential business opportunities. Thus, initiating market penetration strategy under the growth
approach will help them to increase their revenue streams and regain the market leadership
position (Johanson & Mattsson, 2015). This should also be noted that with the help of the
renewal and stability strategies, Telstra will be able to retain their existing business but growth is
important for enhancing the business. Hence, they should invest the capital from the renewal
strategy in the growth strategy. Initiation of both the stability and growth strategies will help
Telstra cementing their existing market along with enhancing the business operations in the long
term.
On the other hand, it is also recommended that Telstra should also initiate diversification
strategy due to the reason that in the current telecommunication sector of Australia, business
firms are offering multiple services such as IPTV and gaming services. Thus, apart from offering
their existing services, they should also diversify their brand in other related sector, which will
increase the target customer segments along with the revenue. In addition, initiation of the
diversification strategy will also help Telstra to have larger brand value with having more
presence in the market (Lien & Li, 2013). Diversification strategy is being recommended due to
the reason that it will complement the above recommended strategy of growth. With the effective
implementation of the diversification strategy, Telstra will face more growth opportunities in the
long term.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that the major challenge being faced by Telstra is competition
in the market and losing of market share to the competitors. In accordance to these challenges, it
is identified that they are following renewal and stability strategies to solidify their existing

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market share along with the generating capital by cost reduction. This report also concludes that
both these strategies are suitable with their situation but with the implementation of the
recommendations, their business effectiveness will further get enhanced. This report
recommended that apart from the existing strategies, Telstra should also follow growth strategy
in the forms of market penetration and diversification approaches. This will enable them to
further enhancing their potentiality in the market.

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Reference
Adamides, E. D. (2015). Linking operations strategy to the corporate strategy process: a practice
perspective. Business Process Management Journal, 21(2), 267-287.
Engert, S., Rauter, R., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2016). Exploring the integration of corporate
sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner
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Johanson, J., & Mattsson, L. G. (2015). Internationalisation in industrial systems—a network
approach. In Knowledge, networks and power (pp. 111-132). Palgrave Macmillan,
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Kazanjian, R. K., Drazin, R., & Glynn, M. A. (2017). Implementing strategies for corporate
entrepreneurship: A knowledge‐based perspective. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating
a new mindset, 173-199.
Le Roy, F., & Sanou, F. H. (2014). Does coopetition strategy improve market performance? An
empirical study in mobile phone industry. Journal of Economics & Management, 17, 64-
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Lien, Y. C., & Li, S. (2013). Does diversification add firm value in emerging economies? Effect
of corporate governance. Journal of Business Research, 66(12), 2425-2430.
Pellegrin-Boucher, E., Le Roy, F., & Gurău, C. (2013). Coopetitive strategies in the ICT sector:
typology and stability. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 25(1), 71-89.

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Simon, D., Fischbach, K., & Schoder, D. (2014). Enterprise architecture management and its role
in corporate strategic management. Information Systems and e-Business
Management, 12(1), 5-42.