Business Project: Critical Evaluation of Waitrose During Pandemic

This business project critically evaluates Waitrose's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report begins with an introduction to business projects and Waitrose, a British supermarket. It analyzes Waitrose's business structure, including its mission and customer-centric strategy. The result section details the challenges faced by Waitrose, such as supply chain disruptions and employee demotivation. The discussion section explores the impact of the pandemic on Waitrose and the effectiveness of strategies like online services. The conclusion summarizes the negative impacts of the pandemic and the importance of online services. The recommendation section suggests future strategies, including expanding e-commerce, providing employee training, and implementing motivation strategies. References include various books and journals related to the pandemic's impact on supply chains and business strategies.

Business Project (Critical
evaluation of an
organisation’s response
during the pandemic)

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Result...............................................................................................................................................1
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................2
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
The concept and implication of the business project tend to comprises and includes of the
plans and actions which are designed by a form to effectively achieve the set business objectives
and goals and needed to be align with the overall business strategy (Hobbs, 2021). The current
project is based on the Waitrose Company which is a well known British supermarket founded
during the times of the 1904 and headquarter in the London, UK. Further, the current project
comprises of discussion about the key challenges and issues that are faced by an organisation
during the times of the pandemic along with suitable strategies that could be implemented for
future success.
Result
Waitrose is a well-known and one of the most famous supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
Further, Waitrose tend to has over 330 shops and retail stores across the UK (Ajmal and et. al.,
2021). Apart from this, it tend to have a wide product range that tend to includes and comprises
of the grocery items such as bakery products, fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, fresh meat,
cheese, party food, ready meals, soups, juices, desserts, easy to cook meals, pasta, toiletries, baby
products, wine, spirits etc. Further, the Waitrose tend to have a functional set of organisation’s
structure where all the business activity and task are properly divided on the basis of function
comprises of finance, HRM, marketing and many other departments (Worku and Ülkü, 2021).
Beside this, the Waitrose also tend to support and have a standardised IP telephony system across
all branches to set better coordination and communication among all departments. Further, the
mission statement of the Waitrose tend to states and based on the “The happiness of all the set of
its members by the way of leading and offering their worthwhile and satisfying employment and
service level in order to sustain and remain a successful business. Beside this, the organisational
strategy of the Waitrose company tend to consists of customer centric focus where all product
and services are designed and offered in a way that ensures higher customer convenience and
satisfaction. Along with this, the Waitrose also tend to have a strategy of having aggressive
marketing and promotional strategy in order to attract and cater a larger number of customers.
Beside this, the Waitrose is also having a healthy and positive set of the company culture based
on equality and diversity that supports and brings out higher creativity and success level for the
Waitrose Company. Beside this, Waitrose also tend to ensure regular training as well as regular
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performance based incentives and perks for its employees to have a positive and motivated
company culture (Coopmans and et. al., 2021).
It has been seen that the spread of covid-19 pandemic has created and brings out many
challenges and issues for Waitrose in form of the sudden lockdown as well as strict social
distancing norms. It has been seen that the implication of the sudden lockdown lead to
disturbance within the supply chain of the Waitrose that created issue and challenges related with
the delays in delivery (Salam, Imtiaz and Burhan 2021). Apart from this, a higher level of stress
and anxiety among both employees and customer is also being faced by Waitrose during time of
global pandemic that lead to a reduction within the overall productivity of the firm. Issue of lack
of motivation and higher employee turnover is also being faced as a main challenge during the
times of Covid-19 (Hobbs, 2021). Thus, the strategy and solution that has been adopted by the
Waitrose to overcome this situation of reducing productivity and sales level comprises of making
use of online and digital set of services for customers. During the times of lockdown and
pandemic the offering of the online and digital services provides the best way and strategy for
the Waitrose to ensure higher convince and meet the satisfaction level of customer along with an
effective reaction to attract and cater larger number of customer during the pandemic (Worku
and Ülkü, 2021).
Discussion
On the basis of current project, a discussion can be made that the global pandemic of
covid-19 has created many challenges and issues for a Waitrose in form of strict lockdown and
social distancing that disturbed its supply chain as well as productivity level. Further, an issue
related with de-motivation in employees along with high employee turnover has been also faced
during the times of Covid-19 (Coopmans and et. al., 2021). Thus, a discussion can be made that
some effective strategy such as offering online services seemed to be an effective way and step
by Waitrose that supported better reaction and mitigation of the challenge carted by global
pandemic.
Conclusion
On the basis of current report, a conclusion can be made that the spread of the covid-19
has negatively impacted the sales and productivity level of organisation. Further, it has been also
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summarised that the disturbance in supply chain as well as higher employee turnover has been
also faced during the times of global pandemic. Beside this, it has been also summarised that
offering online service is an effective way to supports better mitigation of the issue created by
covid-19.
Recommendation
It has been seen that the new or alternative strategies and ideas that could be implemented
by Waitrose for future success tend to includes and comprises off supporting higher expansion
through e-commerce and online services (Ajmal and et. al., 2021). Along with this, providing
regular training to employees is recommended for Waitrose as it supports better technical skill in
its employees to ensure improved online services for customer. Beside this, to mitigate the issue
of lack of employee motivation and higher turnover implication of effective motivation strategy
such as leading performance based perks and incentives could also be made by Waitrose that
would supports higher workplace creativity and success level (Salam, Imtiaz and Burhan 2021).
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Ajmal, M.M. and et. al., 2021. Socio-economic and technological new normal in supply chain
management: lessons from COVID-19 pandemic. The International Journal of Logistics
Management.
Coopmans, I. and et. al., 2021. COVID-19 impacts on Flemish food supply chains and lessons
for agri-food system resilience. Agricultural Systems, 190, p.103136.
Hobbs, J.E., 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic and meat supply chains. Meat Science, 181,
p.108459.
Salam, M.T., Imtiaz, H. and Burhan, M., 2021. The perceptions of SME retailers towards the
usage of social media marketing amid COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Entrepreneurship in
Emerging Economies, 13(4), pp.588-605.
Worku, A. and Ülkü, M.A., 2021. Analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
vegetable market supply in Northwestern Ethiopia. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing
and Emerging Economies.
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