Strategic Plan and Implementation Report: Woolworth's Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworth's strategic plan and its implementation. It begins with an executive summary outlining the company's background, vision, and mission, followed by a strategic analysis using PESTLE and SWOT frameworks to identify opportunities and t...Read More

Running head: STRATEGIC PLAN 0
Strategic plan and implementation

STRATEGIC PLAN 1
Executive summary:
It is the report that discusses about the company called Woolworth. It is the company that
operates in the industry of supermarket. The report initiates with the discussion of the company’s
background information. The report focuses on the vision and the mission of the company as
well as the approaches that has been used by the company to achieve the same. Strategic analysis
of the company is done in the next section of the report so that the revised mission and vision is
identified and framed for the company with better opportunities for the company to avail. SWOT
and PESTLE analysis is done to conduct the strategic analysis of the environment. According to
the analysis, the new strategic plan is developed for the company. The next part of the
assessment discussion about the implementation of the plan and the objectives achieved. The last
part is about the communication of the pal to various audiences.

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Table of Contents
Company background:.................................................................................................................................3
Vision and mission:......................................................................................................................................3
Approaches to achieve vision and mission:.................................................................................................3
PESTLE analysis:...........................................................................................................................................4
SWOT...........................................................................................................................................................4
Potential competitors:.................................................................................................................................6
Revised vision and mission:.........................................................................................................................6
Organizational values required:...................................................................................................................7
Formulation of strategic objectives.............................................................................................................7
Develop strategies: timeframe, parties responsible, and performance indicators......................................7
Part 2:..........................................................................................................................................................8
KPI progress:................................................................................................................................................8
Milestone progress......................................................................................................................................9
Overall progress........................................................................................................................................10
Improvements:..........................................................................................................................................10
Communication plan: audience, resources, time frame, presentation......................................................11
References:................................................................................................................................................12

STRATEGIC PLAN 3
Company background:
Woolworth is the firm that operates in the industry of supermarket. The company started its first
store in Sydney in the year 1924. Till the year 2012, the company has been considered as the
biggest firm in the industry (Australia, 2007). Today also, it is one of the largest supermarket
chains in New Zealand as well as in Australia. There are number of brands that the company
operates such as Safeway, Dick Smith and Big W etc. the major function of Woolworth is that it
acts as the mediator between the producers and the customers (Woolworths, 2017). The company
serves the people with their online website as well and thus it makes the customers base from the
online services. There are many competitors to the company but the major one is Coles. Both
these companies have duopoly nature of leadership in the supermarket industry of Australia but
government these days is suppressing their power and giving chance to the new companies to
enter the industry so that the duopolistic situation can be controlled and the new companies can
also serve the people in the market.
Vision and mission:
As far as the vision of the company is considered, it has been analysed that the company believes
in delivering the best shopping experience to the people every time. The mission statement of the
company suggests that it wants their customers to be fully knowledgeable about the products and
the services they are availing from the company.
Approaches to achieve vision and mission:
There are different approaches of the company to achieve the above stated vision and mission.
There are four strategies that have been used by the company in order to have the vision and the
mission of the company. The strategies are:
 Extending the leadership in the area of food and liquor.
 Improving the portfolio of the company to increase the value to the shareholders.
 Tracking the records in order to grow.
 Putting in place all the areas for growth.

STRATEGIC PLAN 4
PESTLE analysis:
Political factors: Political factors involve the elements that are related to the government
involvement in the industry. The government of country directly involves in the practices of
supermarket industry (Freeman, 2010). Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, Trade
Practices Act and Foreign Investment review Board are some of the associated authority that
regulates the industry in Australia.
Economic factors: Economy factors are related to the economy of the country. All the factors of
economy are favourable for the company called Woolworth. This is because the economy of
Australia is stable in nature. People here have high purchasing power and thus can afford to buy
the things from Woolworth.
Technological factors: as far as the technological factors are considered, it has been analysed that
the company is very well versed with the technological tools such as online shopping facility.
The company has its own website that provides good user interface to the customers (David,
2011).
Social factors: the major social change that has been observed in Australia is about the choice of
diet food. The people are more concerned about their heath these days and thus require Diet food
(Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012). The company is offering the same to the customers in the
form of healthy food products.
Legal factors: Trading policies are the major legal element that affects the functioning of
Woolworth. This is because it imports many products from different countries.
Environmental factors: Woolworth practices producing the organic food are one of the practices
that shows the company is concerned for the environment sustainability (Hill, Jones & Schilling,
2014).
SWOT
Strength:
Large market share

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 Good financial position in the market: the company is serving the large market and has
large number of business thus it has good and strong financial position as compared to
other companies in the industry (Peppard & Ward, 2016).
 One of the leading firms in the industry: the company has the duopolistic power and thus
have large market share in the Australian supermarket industry.
 Efficient supply chain management system: the supply chain of the company is so
effective and thus supplies the products on time (Klein, 2009).
 High brand image: the company never compromise in quality and serve the customers
with good quality products and have a great brand image.
Weakness:
 High operating cost because of large operations: As the company operates at very large
level, thus the overall operating cost of the company is very high.
Opportunities:
 Opportunity to develop more sustainable practices: there is an opportunity for the
company to develop the practices that are more sustainable such as green marketing.
 Launching own brand of diet food or drinks: serving the people with own brands products
is also an opportunity to expand business in the new section (Swayne, Duncan & Ginter,
2012).
Threats:
 Competition from the small companies like ALDI: the small competitors such as ALDI
are giving tough competition to the company.
 Technological advancement: change in the technology act as the threat for the company.
 Change in customer choice: in this dynamic environment, the choice of customer’s
changes and thus it is a threat for the company to cater the different needs timely
(Hesterly & Barney, 2010).

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Potential competitors:
The major competitor for Woolworth is Coles. This is because; both the companies are serving
the market with duopoly in the industry. It is the subsidiary company of Wesfarmers. Some of
the strengths and weaknesses are:
 Strength: the company is the major competitor for Woolworth thus has the large market
share in the industry. Its pricing strategies are very impressive and provide the customers
with frequent price cuts and offers (Finkelstein, Hambrick & Cannella, 2009). The online
pick-up and delivery service of the company is also very efficient.
 Weakness: the company has faced the criticism from suppliers for negotiating with them
and this has affected the company’s image in negative way.
Revised vision and mission:
As per the analysis of the overall environment of the industry and the market it has been
analysed that Woolworth should make some of the alterations in its vision and mission. The
revised vision of the company should be:
“To deliver the best services and experience of shopping to the customers with convenience”
This vision is revised in order to make the changes in the shopping experience of the people and
to serve them with better services (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007). Convenience is the best thing
that can attracts the customers to the shopping centre and thus providing convenient services and
processes to shop helps in attaining customer satisfaction.
The revised mission should be:
“To serve the market with diet food with low price and offers”
Diet food is the first choice of the customers these days. Thus, it is important for the customers to
make such changes in their food options. Delivering the market with the food products helps the
company to attain the customer market share of new market segment (Thompson & Martin,
2010).

STRATEGIC PLAN 7
Organizational values required:
There are many values that the company uses to achieve its objectives. Now as per the analysis
the alteration has been done in its vision, so the company needs to add on some values in its old
value set. Some of the values that need to be added are:
 Being responsible towards the environment
 Manufacturing own products at low prices
 Enhancing the practices of customers support
Formulation of strategic objectives
The new strategic objective of the company should be related to create some new experience for
the customers at the time of shopping and providing them with great offers along with serving
the customers with their products. Some of the objectives are:
 To develop the staff and customers interface
 Improving the online website interface to make it more user friendly
 Making the sustainable manufacturing process and serving the customers with organic
food (Wheelen & Hunger, 2017).
 Provision of offers and discounts to loyal customers; increasing the number of loyal
customers by 20%
Develop strategies: timeframe, parties responsible, and performance
indicators
Strategies Time duration People responsible Performance indicators
Training to the sales
staff
3 months HR department of the
company is responsible
for this activity
The performance
indicator is the
customers satisfaction
score
Making changes in the
customers support
option of the website
3-4 months The IT department of
the company
The performance
indictor in this case is
the website surfing

STRATEGIC PLAN 8
(Evans, Stonehouse &
Campbell, 2012).
score or the number of
people using the
website for shopping
Discounts on non-
seasonal products
Every year The pricing department
of the company
The performance
indicator of the strategy
is increase in sales of
the non-seasonal
products
Serving the customers
with own organic
brands (Keith, 2012).
A year Production department
of the company along
with top management
The performance
indicator in this case is
successful release of the
new products.
Part 2:
It is the part that discusses about the implementation of the strategies that has been formulated in
the above part of the assessment. The strategy can be implemented by some of the support
services such as the human resources of the department, prior communication of the strategies to
the people and providing and evaluating the implementation of the new strategy in the company
by some of the methods.
KPI progress:
1. Customer satisfaction score: It is the performance indicator that describes about the level
of customers satisfaction and the increase in the number of customers who are satisfied it
to services (Arli, Dylke, Burgess, Campus & Soldo, 2013). For this purpose, the analysis
needs to be conducted in order to determine the level of customer satisfaction after
training the sales staff. It has been analysed that the earlier a score of customer satisfaction
was76% and now after three months of the training implementation, it has been observed
to be 83%. This suggests that the strategy that has been sued to make the customers
interaction better and to improve the shopping experience of the customers has proved to
be successful at some extent (Vonk, Geertman & Schot, 2007).

STRATEGIC PLAN 9
2. Number of online shoppers: It has been analysed that number of online shoppers suggest
the level of user friendly interface of the site. If the number of online shoppers of the
company increased, this means that the website of the company is user friendly. After
assessing the new website features, it has been analysed that the online shopper percentage
has increased by 5% from the last 3 months.
3. Increase in sales of non-seasonal products: even after implementing the strategy of
discounts and offers the sales of non-seasonal products has not showed any improvement.
Thus this strategy should be altered to make the progress.
4. Release of new products: As the evaluation is done after 3 months, so identifying progress
of this KPI is not possible. It has been analysed that the company has planned to enter the
range of healthy food products and manufacturing the organic food but the plan is still in
progress and has not been approved by the top management.
Milestone progress
1. To develop the staff and customers interface:
This is the first objective that has been set by the company. It has been observed that the
interface between the staff and the customers has improved because the customer’s
satisfaction level and the number of foot falls in the store have also found to be increased.
It can be said that the objective is 70% achieved.
2. Improving the online website interface to make it more user friendly
There are several customer supports features that has been changed and altered according
to the requirement to make the website for user friendly (Dos Santos, 2011). The
objective of the improving the website and getting more customers has completed around
40% as the rise in the number of customers is 5%. The company wants it to be at least
12.5%.
3. Making the sustainable manufacturing process and serving the customers with organic
food: It has been analysed that the plan or the manufacturing the organize food and
releasing it into the market is ready but need the approval of the top management thus the
objective is 20% achieved.

STRATEGIC PLAN 10
4. Provision of offers and discounts to loyal customers: the loyalty of the customers has
been increased by 5% only and thus it has been observed that there is no such growth.
The non-seasonal product sale is also found to be increased.
Overall progress
As far as the overall progress is concerned, it has been analysed that the objective of achieving
large number of online customers is at the verge of completing and the company is doing well
with its strategies (Khan, 2011). The strategy of providing discounts have failed as it does not
forced to be effective, thus it is required the company to make alterations in this strategy. This is
because it is the major strategy of the competitor fir that is Coles. If Woolworth failed to apply
this strategy effectively then it is difficult for the firm to compete with Coles. The online sales
have also increased slightly as the change is website is done (Wahyuni, 2010). This change is
effective but by making more changes and making the site easy to use for the customers can
provide more benefits in this field.
Improvements:
In terms of improvement, the major improvements have been seen in the customer’s satisfaction
store. It has been analysed that the customers are very much satisfied with the new and trained
staff. Training of staff results in better communication skills and better interaction.Improvements
have also been observed in the field of online shopping. The better user interface of the website
brings new improvements in the online shopping facilities by the company. There are many
benefits of that have been observed in the company’s process. The improvements that have been
observed support the company to compete with the competitors and also with the new entrants
who are also serving the market very well and grabbing the market share. There is still the scope
of improvement in the strategic plan. The improvement can be made in several areas such as
online website. Here the customer supports feature can be improved so that customers can easily
contact the customer supports executives and get immediate response. The major area that needs
to be improved is providing area. This is analysed that the offers and the discounts that are
offered to the customers are not that promising. It is really important for the company to make
efforts in this area and prepare a good plan for pricing.

STRATEGIC PLAN 11
Communication plan: audience, resources, time frame, presentation.
Communication plan is required to map out the activities that need to be done in order to
communicate about the plan to the relevant audiences (Spillan & Ling, 2015). The
communication plan requires some of the resources and people to deliver the information to the
relevant audiences.
Audiences:
The audience of this report or the strategic plan are the employees and the top management
people along with brad of directors. This is because it is required to inform the employees of the
respective department about the changes made in the strategies and the revised mission and
vision of the company (Narsing, 2011). Top management needs to know all these things as they
need to make ultimate decision over the changes. The other stakeholders such as shareholders
also have right to know all this and different mediums can be used to save the information to
shareholders such as E-mails.
Resources:
The resources that are required to conduct the communication of the information are the meeting
room and the presentation for the employees and the top management. For shareholders, the
information required to be transferred from mails or letters thus computer system is require along
with the typed information.
Timeframe: the time required to communicate the plan is 1 week for the shareholders, 2 or 3
days for the employees and a week to all the top management people.
Presentation:
References:
Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R., & Soldo, E. (2013). Woolworths Australia and
Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration. Journal of Economics,
Business & Accountancy Ventura, 16(1).

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Australia, E. C. (2007). Sustainability. Every Child, 13(1), 1-35.
David, F. R. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
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journal, 28(9), 935-955.

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https://www.woolworths.com.au/Shop/Discover/about-us [Accessed 24 Aug. 2017].