Strategic Analysis of Woolworths Australia: Initiatives and Challenges

This case study provides a strategic analysis of Woolworths in Australia, evaluating both the external and internal environments using tools like SWOT and PESTLE. It examines Woolworths' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, alongside political, economic, social, and technological factors affecting the company. The analysis covers Woolworths' vision and mission, key strategies and initiatives, and measurements of strategic success, including return on investments, net sales, and profits. The study also identifies implementation challenges, such as competition from international firms and varying legislative environments. This assignment is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and resources for students.

Overall Strategy of Woolworths in AustraliaName of the Student, Name of the University, Author Note
ABOUT THE COMPANY AND HISTORY
• The Woolworths Supermarkets can be stated to be an Australian supermarket and
grocery store chain which is involved in selling groceries like fruits, vegetables,
packed food, household products, DVDs, health and beauty products along with pet
and baby supply along with other stationery items at large (Hill, 2017).
• The company was found in 1924 as Wallworths Bazaar Limited and later turned out
to be Woolworths Limited in Australia, The company opened its first store in the
Bargain basement whereby it looked to it that the brand offered all considerable
products at a considerable price (Woolworths.com.au ,2018).
VISION AND MISSION
Vision
The vision of the firm is to satisfy the needs of the consumers and provide them with
the best products (Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat, 2018).
Mission
The mission of the company has been to find success at every region and keep
expanding the business by successful amalgamation of employees and management.
MARKET SHARE OF WOOLWORTHS
EVALUATION OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL
ENVIRONMENT
• Internal Analysis using SWOT Analysis
Strengths
It is one of the oldest as well as the
well known retail brands as present
in Australia.
It has a large market share
It offers a large product to the
different customers.
It has a sustainable CSR program
It shows a strong commitment
towards the different employees as
present in the organization (Hitt, &
Duane Ireland, 2017).
Weaknesses
The firm took considerably late
entry in the online domain.
Furthermore, it has been losing out
on its competitive advantage.
The company lags international
presence (Robson, 2015).
Opportunities
It can produce in house label
products to win over the customers.
The brand can engage in better
promotions to win back the different
consumers.
It can use social media to win over
the customer base.
Threats
Competition with respect to Coles is
one of the major threats.
Aldi`s aggressive growth strategy
Slow growth of online retail in
Australia
The recommended strategy is the international strategies and the implementation challenges are as follows:
• Competition from international firms
• Various legislatives and laws as present in the international market (Doz, 2017).
• The needs and demands of the various customers
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
Political: The firm faces
considerable pressure due to
the duopolistic nature of the
specific retail market which
often leads to various problems
in the specific domain.
Economical:
The economic factors which
have an impact on Woolworths
is that the firm is greatly
impacted by the lackluster of
spending in Australia and the
easing regulations have paved in
way for the new entrants at
large.
Social: The social aspects are
that Woolworths has a poor
relationship base with its
different suppliers is very poor
in nature which then leads to
problems for the firm at large.
Technological: Lastly, there have
been various technological
advancements like the
implementation of the SAP
based system which can have a
long term impact on the overall
operations of the firm at large.
KEY STRATEGIES AND INITIATIVES
• Improving the offerings of the firm so that the organization will be successfully
able to gain a larger share of market (Wheelen et al., 2017).
• Engaging in a competitive pricing strategy so as to ensure considerable success
with respect to the long run of the enterprise (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014).
• Upgrading its technological game so as to ensure long term success of the firm.
The measurement of the success of the international strategy of Woolworths can be
stated to b the following Key Performance Indicators:
• Return on investments: The return on investments will serve as a useful measure
to understand whether the firm has been successful in attaining success or not.
• Net sales: The net sales incurred in the international market will also assessed in
understanding the long term success of the firm (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
• Profits incurred: The profits incurred by Woolworths also serves as a useful
measure.
• The number of stores as opened in the first year: The number of stores opened in
the first year also helps to understand
MEASUREMENT OF STRATEGIC SUCCESS
References
Doz, Y. L. (2017). Strategic management in multinational companies. In International Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.
Ethiraj, S. K., Gambardella, A., & Helfat, C. E. (2018). Theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 39(6), 1529-1529.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hill, T. (2017). Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Hitt, M., & Duane Ireland, R. (2017). The intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic management research. The Blackwell handbook
of entrepreneurship,45-63.
Robson, W. (2015). Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed.
Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. pearson.
Woolworths.com.au (2018). Shop groceries online [online]. Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ (Accessed on: 6 Dec.2018)
PESTLE Analysis