Comprehensive Organizational Management Report on Woolworths (MBA600)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths' organizational management, fulfilling the requirements of an MBA600 capstone assignment. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, outlining the report's purpose. The core of the report details Woolworths' organizational strategy, business model, and approach to operations, including supply chain management, technological advancements, and distribution centers. It examines marketing and sales strategies, including the 4Ps of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion), and product development processes. The report also explores Woolworths' innovation and growth initiatives, focusing on customer service and value, and its change management and strategic implementation, addressing market pressures and competitor analysis. Recommendations are provided to optimize services, customer focus, and differentiate products. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and insights into the future of Woolworths' organizational management.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF WOOLWORTHS
Organizational Management of Woolworths
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Executive Summary
The organizational management is the process of planning, structuring and directing the
resources along with the members of the organization for achieving the goals. In this report,
the organization chosen for the assessment 1, Woolworths is used for applying the learning
having undertaken additional research. This report further articulates the organizational
strategies and business model and outlines the approach to the operations in detail such as
innovation, growth, product and marketing. It further recommends after identifying the areas
of focus and opportunity to enhance the organisations performance in the future.

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Summary of Woolworth’s strategy........................................................................................4
Operations..............................................................................................................................5
Marketing and sales................................................................................................................6
Product development..............................................................................................................8
Innovation and Growth..........................................................................................................9
Change and strategic implementation....................................................................................9
Recommendations....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
An organization is an entity which consists of the members and the resources which
are directed towards the goal achievement. The organizational management can be
considered as the process of structuring, planning and directing the members and the
resources of the organization for attaining the goals. This requires the leaders to have the
methods for resolving the issues and develop the solutions which help the business move
closer to the desired vision and the goals (Williams et al. 2017). It is the combination of
various components of leadership in a particular firm. The real information of the company is
used for gathering information and analyse it. The analysis is utilized for the development of
strategies which could be further implemented and executed through meetings, trainings and
promotions. Almost all the businesses make use of the organizational management in some
different way that is contingent on the unique requirements of the business. After the
implementation of a plan, the organizational management should monitor and adjust the
activities depended on the results. In this report, the organization chosen for the assessment
1, Woolworths will be used for applying the learning having undertaken additional research.
This report will further articulate the organizational strategies and business model and outline
the approach to the operations in detail such as innovation, growth, product and marketing.
The report will pay attention to the use of research and insight along with the strategic
implementation and change.
Summary of Woolworth’s strategy
There are few primary areas of Woolworth’s organizational strategy. The biggest
strategy is to provide the services and products for satisfying the requirements and demands
of the customers. In order to provide higher levels of satisfaction, the company examines the
shopping habits of the customers and divides the supermarkets according to that. It also

creates the brand value through influencing the customers with their performances and
delivering the quality goods. The organization is also trying to maintain the availability of the
products all over Australia thus helping the customers to access the products easily.
Moreover, the market is dominated by Woolworths by providing a wide range of products.
Since they are the market leaders in the grocery market, it is also becoming known for the
footwear, clothing, range of accessories in the entire industry. The production cost has been
lowered down by Woolworths for delivering the products at reasonable prices and attract
more customers. It is further working on the sustainability through improving the farming
conditions by the farming programs in various areas. It increases the quality of the product in
this manner reducing the costs (Woolworths.com.au 2019). The four levels of branding also
helps the company to become more profitable such as Woolworths select, Woolworths Gold,
Woolworths fresh and Woolworths home brand. The family range that is provided by the
company includes the organic food, the vegetarian products, gluten-free products having
reduced salt and sugar levels and fat levels too.
Operations
The operational strategy can be referred to as the business function of a particular
organization that is largely related to the supervision, redesigning and the supervision of the
business operations for the production of service and goods. A company can easily design an
efficient and effective system for using the work processes and resources by the procurement
of technologically advanced machineries along with recruitment of the competent staffs. In
Woolworths, the operational strategy is concentrated on the delivery of quality products
along with the service to the customers (Namada 2018). It is undertaken by the operational
department ad under this department there are various areas such as the supply chain
management, improvement of the information technology, the distribution centres along with
other strategies for the reduction of the shrinkage. Woolworths believes that sub-contracting

with the suppliers is a good strategy for the business. This is the reason Woolworths does not
have any manufacturing plant (Mesquida and Mas 2015). The company is required to
concentrate on how to select the suppliers along with maintaining the quality of products
which would attract and retain the customers. It further concentrates on developing strong
relationship with the suppliers and buys stock from the potential suppliers who produce only
for Woolworths. The main concern of the operational strategy of Woolworth is to reduce the
costs without reducing the quality of the products. It keeps the products always available
which reduce the level of competition in the market.
Marketing and sales
The 4Ps of the marketing mix are known also as the ‘product mix’. It is a crucial tool
which helps in determining the offering of the product to the customers (Hornstein 2015).
The 4Ps of the marketing mix are product, price, place and promotion.
Product
It has been found that Woolworth is one of the leading retailers which offer almost all
types of grocery as the part of its product portfolio. The range is diversified and includes the
apparel and accessories, household products, baby products, pet food, liquor, pantry items,
bakery and others too.
Place
Woolworth has been able to occupy almost 80 % of the Australian supermarket. The
organization is located in Austria, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, New Zealand and Asia.
It has more than eight hundred stores in the United Kingdom. It has further set up a
widespread chain which operates through nine hundred and seventy-six supermarkets along
with nineteen convenience stores. Woolworth has recently launched the online and a mobile

app in order to make the shopping from home easy to the customers. Additionally, it offers
the home delivery services to the customers. The firm considers the employees to be an
integral part of the organization and has appointed the efficient staffs to efficiently deal with
the customers. The happiness and satisfaction of the customers is given more focus by
Woolworth.
Price
It has been found after analysing the annual reports of Woolworths that the company
has earned the revenues of almost 42.132 billion A$ by the end of the year 2015. The upper-
middle class and the working class has been the target of Woolworths. It has further
positioned itself as the outlet which is extremely customer-focused and delivers every
convenient product under affordable prices (Vasu, Stewart and Garson 2017). It also
provides discounts and incentives and other additional benefits on the fuel prices. The pricing
strategy that is adopted by Woolworth that is completely dependent on the products, the
related markets and the competitors’ prices too.
Promotion
It has several schemes for creating and maintaining the brand visibility in the
consumer market. The firm also makes use of the radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards,
newsletters, leaflets and hoardings to be parts of the marketing and promotional techniques in
order to develop future brand awareness. It also takes help of the social media and online
platforms such as the mobile app, Twitter, Fcaebook and Youtube in order to create a niche
place through positive marketing. The company started Fresh Food People in the year 1987
that continued till the year 2012. The loyalty schemes have been launched by the company
for maintaining the brand loyalty. It consists of the incentives in the form of subsidized prices
of petrol which are owned by Caltex Woolworths.

Product development
The product development and the product launching can sometimes lead to a break in
the business. The product development steps vary found on the type of business along with
the style of management but maximum business follow certain common steps. Woolworths
also follows such steps.
The product idea brainstorming
In this step, it generates the idea for the product after consulting the employees , the
customer dealing staffs for innovative ideas. They also conduct survey on the customers for
giving feedback on the existing products.
Evaluation of the ideas
Next, they make a list of the product ideas and share with the accurate decision-
makers in the firm as the management teams. Then they discuss about the advantages and
disadvantages of the ideas for narrowing the list and short list the ideas.
Feedback evaluation
They gather feedback from the customers, the partners and the employees to come to
the idea which is the most appealing. The social media is used as s powerful tool to solicit the
feedback.
Market testing and launching
After the prototype development, the market testing is done to see whether the
product attracts the customers or not. It is a small version of the actual product launch. After
this, Woolworth prepares for launching the product having evaluated the results of the market
testing and demand.

Innovation and Growth
The company is developing everyday and as of now , it has employed more than
114,000 people to deliver the customers good quality products, superior service , convenience
and value. Whenever the company sees a scope to serve the customers in a better way, they
test and validate the ideas prior to making a huge investment. They set-up plans in the
innovation lab collaborating with Thoughtworks. Rapid techniques of prototyping have
helped Woolworth to trial new ideas with the customers and bring new concepts too. For
example, the Organic roasted chicken is considered to be a big seller identified by the
innovation team to be a chance for customer inspiration with ideas of meal which would
complement the food items.
Change and strategic implementation
The change management is referred to as an approach that directs the transitions in a
particular organization. It affects the entire productivity of the organization. It further helps in
the strategic implementation of change in the organization too. The principles are consisting
of the tools that focus on the individual restructuring (Adams, Smart and Huff 2017). It
focuses on the way an organization is well affected by the actions and the decisions. The
report of the company suggests that Woolworth is facing some market pressures in the recent
times from the competitors such as Mark & Spenser, Coles and others. It is also facing huge
change in the share prices. In order to revive the loss, the company is implementing savings
in other areas too. It is implementing the technological advancement in the organization and
the operations for adding value to it. The strategic implementation is a special process which
puts the plans and the strategies to reach the desired goals. The strategic plan details the steps
along with the processes required to reach the goals including progress and feedback reports
ensuring the plan is on track (Cassilo and Sanderson 2017). Woolworths focuses on the
recruitment of the right people, the resources such as money, time to implement their

strategies and manage the change. They prioritise the communication systems in order to
track the implementation in the workplace.
Recommendations
As found from the assessment 1, Woolworth is recently facing certain customer
service related issues and there is lack of proper customer focus. The customers have
accused the staffs lacking the retail basics and quality reduction. There products do not have
proper differentiation and there is improper response to the complaints. The company is also
facing threats from the rival companies. In order to optimize the services of the company, the
recommendations are as follows:
 Woolworth should focus on framing the strategy with the political and societal
conditions prevalent in the country. It should also aim at adapting the strategy of fair
price policy to the customers.
 It should also aim at performing consistent innovation and this should be kept as a
primary part of its strategy. It is because of the consumer social trends along with the
preferences that show dynamism. It can be easily addressed by adopting the strategy
of higher growth levels.
 The employee skills should be enhanced through proper training programs so that the
customers feel valued. It will resolve the issues with the customer service and
optimise the business process.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Woolworth is one of
the biggest retailers in Australia and in other various countries too. The report has properly
articulated the organizational strategies and business model and outlined the approach to the

operations in detail such as innovation, growth, product and marketing. The report has also
paid attention to the use of research and insight along with the strategic implementation and
change. Woolworth can easily improve the weaknesses having followed the
recommendations.

References
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