MGT501: Business Environment - Woolworths Stakeholder Analysis Report

This report presents a detailed stakeholder analysis of Woolworths, examining the company's functional areas and the roles of its internal and external stakeholders. It explores the degree and nature of interest of key stakeholders, identifying potential conflicts and their influence on the organization. The report includes an industry comparison to provide context and concludes with key findings. The analysis covers Woolworths' engineering, service process design, supply chain management, finance, marketing and sales, human resource management, capacity and demand management, quality checks, and R&D activities. The stakeholders discussed include employees, managers, owners, customers, suppliers, government, and the media, highlighting their impact on Woolworths' operations and performance within the Australian retail market. The report also addresses the importance of stakeholder management for the company's sustainability and success.

Business Environment
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Executive Summary
 This report shows detailed stakeholders’ analysis
 Woolworths is considered for the study
 Report discovered Woolworths functional areas that aids the organization to achieve
its goals
 The role, interest and influence of stakeholders upon Woolworths also shown
 Industry comparison undertaken to gain idea about stakeholders
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Woolworth’s Functional areas...................................................................................................4
Internal and External stakeholders of the company and their roles...........................................6
Degree and nature of interest of key stakeholders and inferences about their conflicting
interest........................................................................................................................................7
Identification of main stakeholder’s influence...........................................................................9
Stakeholders Matrix.................................................................................................................11
Industry Comparison................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Business environment over the years across the globe has changed its outlook because
after the onset of the globalization process the competition level increased and the domestic
companies exposed to severe competition level (Mukherjee, 2018). This increase in the
competition level urged the companies to adopt strategies that will help them to sustain in the
competitive business environment. To adopt optimal strategies for the sustainability
achievement stakeholders of the organization plays essential role. Both the external and
internal stakeholders are equally significant for the organization (Hyatt & Berente, 2017). In
this report a thorough stakeholder’s analysis will be carried out to gather the knowledge about
their influences upon the organization. The organization that will be evaluated is Woolworths
of Australia.
Woolworths is one of the renowned companies that operates throughout Australia
(Lewis & Phillipov, 016). Organization operates in the retail industry in Australia. The retail
industry over the past few years have witnessed huge competition because several
international retailors have entered the industry. However, Woolworths is the oldest and one
of the largest among all. Woolworths in Australia operates both in the online platform and in
the offline platform, currently there are about 1000 stores of Woolworths are serving the
Australian population.
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Woolworth’s Functional areas
Woolworths is a renowned company that operates in Australia and parts of New
Zealand. Company have structured its values by providing customers services and the
operational services. From the operational services aspects if the key functional areas of the
company are considered then it is visible that several parts are involved within it and this
analysis shown below in detailed format.
Engineering: Usage of cloud system is common within Woolworths functioning system.
Company uses the remote access to attain its objectives related to operational management
(Sambell et al., 2019). Cloud system is linked with the Microsoft cloud technology and thus
this shows huge engineering implementations within the product development stages of the
company. Artificial intelligence usage is visible within the Woolworths engineering.
Service Process design: In Woolworths the services provided by the company are mostly
intangible ones and some are tangible ones. Within the company the stakeholders play
essential role and it is because of their novel involvement company has been able to serve
better to its customers. Latest technologies such as the CRM system within the operational
units has aided the company to upgrade its overall performance level. Innovative services
such as self-checkout within the stores has made the company to stand alone as compared to
its competitors within the Australian market.
Supply chain management: Supply chain management for companies like Woolworths is
very significant because it serves as backbone for the company (Filipov & Vasilev, 2016). In
Woolworths the supply chain management is associated with the finance departments,
oversight information and the product planning process. The warehousing, inventory
management, suppliers all are linked with each other within Woolworths. Suppliers linked
with the company liable for the restock management of the products.
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Finance: Woolworths within the Australian market is prone to severe market competition and
from this view it can be observed that finance of the company helps it top adopt the
innovative strategies which involves high risks of failure. Operating expenditure and the
income of the company accounts an increment in their nature and this positive achievement is
achieved by the company due to incorporation of latest technologies within the organization
(Casson, 2018).
Marketing and sales: Marketing tools used by the Woolworths helps it to influence the mind
of its target customers. However, it can be observed that Woolworths undertakes less
investment in the marketing activities because company has been operating within Australia
over decades and for it getting customer attention is not that high because it already has large
market share within the industry (Merrett, 2019). Promotional activities of the company too
some extent liable for uplifting sales of the company because these activities aware the
consumers about the latest products invented by the company.
Human resource management: The HR department of the company is liable for the high-
performance management of the employees. Here HR managers undertakes duties such as
recruitment and selection, training and developments, resolvents, reward management and
many more. Presently company has 100,000 working under it and for this reason HR
department has undertaken some of the employee related policies for reducing the recent
attrition level of the company.
Capacity and demand management: This managemental body assures that company
undertakes its restoking functions, stoking functions optimally. This management thus helps
company to conduct its demand management activities in a proper manner so that better
customer satisfaction is ensured by the company.
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Quality check: Quality is the most significant aspect that Woolworths considers, as per
company’s mission statement the main aim to provide best quality to its customers (Feigin,
2016). To abide by its mission statement company undertakes special quality check program,
so that no complaints are reported against the quality of the company. Food and safety
standards are involved by the company in its production process to assure consumers are
getting best and fresh quality of products (Mulcahy, 2016).
Investing on R&D activities: Company from its initial years have undertaken several
investments in its R&D activities and these investments are undertaken by the company to
assure that changing customers preferences are addressed by the company by presenting
innovative products in front of them (Chereau & Meschi, 2018).
Internal and External stakeholders of the company and their roles
Woolworths stakeholders are heavily involved with the company’s operational
management processes. A detailed view of the stakeholders of the company and their roles
upon the organization in shown below.
Internal stakeholders and their roles
Internal stakeholders are considered to be the ones who are directly liable for the
company’s performance management and the operational management (Guerci, Longoni &
Luzzini, 2016). In Woolworths the internal stakeholders are the employees of the
organization, managers and the owners. Internal stakeholders main aim is to push company
towards its goals and achieve customer satisfaction. These stakeholders have the capability to
impact the business growth of the company. A lack of coordination or any kind of issue
within these stakeholders leads the company towards the failure. Thus, it can be assessed that
these internal stakeholders are the vital for assuring best performance by the company.
Woolworths has always taken care of its internal stakeholders’ employees. Company from its
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initial period have taken several policies to ease the operations of the employees and uplift
their performance level. To Woolworths the employees are one form of capital that aids it to
achieve its growth and sustain in the competitive market of Australia.
External stakeholders and their roles
External stakeholder are the ones who are not directly linked with the business
performance but their contribution is more than the internal stakeholders (Miles, 2017).
External stakeholders of Woolworths are its customers, suppliers, communities, government
and the investors. Woolworths have included its external stakeholder’s satisfaction
achievement into its mission statement and this shows how significant is the external
stakeholder customers to Woolworths. External stakeholders of Woolworths guide it to
deliver best and at the same time add competitive edge to its production process. Monitoring
activities undertaken by external stakeholders of Woolworths makes company aware of the
fact that they are under monitor and for this company uses its resources efficiently. Due to
external stakeholders company even considers its safety measures seriously and even has
undertaken CSR activities to occupy special place within the heart of the communities.
Degree and nature of interest of key stakeholders and inferences about
their conflicting interest
Due to existence of several stakeholders within Woolworths it is natural that conflicting
interest issues arises between them and this implication of conflicting interest is shown
below.
Employees: Employees are considered to be the human capital for an organization and if the
organization undertakes little investments upon them, they feel valued and worth within the
organization (Pasban & Nojedeh, 2016). However, if the agitation among the employees
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evolves then this agitation may result in severe loss within the purview of the organization. In
Woolworths the reason behind the evolution of agitation is related to the wage policy adopted
by the company and due to this company recently is facing huge attrition level. For this
internal stakeholders Woolworths recently is encountering poor performance in its business
process which is hindering company to attain its growth.
Consumers: Customers are the main external stakeholders to Woolworths ("Woolworths
Holdings Limited 2018 Key Stakeholder Groupings", 2019). Woolworths is operating in
Australia over several decades and for this reason consumers have high faith upon it.
However, If Woolworths fail to stand to the expectation of the consumers huge problems is
faced by the company. In Woolworths recently issue reported regarding the quality of the
product and for this reason company witnessed loss in its revenue bundle. Thus, customers
have the capability to help company to witness success and at the same time it is due to
customers review company encounters loss in its profit margin and at the same time looses
customers base.
Government: To Woolworths this stakeholder occupies a prime position because this
government helps company operate within the country without facing nay issue, this
government enables company to remain innovative its range of products and this government
is liable for helping its against the tough competition faced at the Australian market.
However, if Woolworth does not operate by taking considerations all the regulations set by
government then it has to pay a huge amount. In 2016, company paid a penalty amount of $9
million dollars to Australian government because of some of the trade practices which are
according to government are causing issue to the community.
Suppliers: Woolworths have huge number of suppliers in its business process and all of them
enable company to meet its mission statement which is providing best quality to consumers.
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Recent agitation among the suppliers of Woolworths have created issue for the company on
the ground of low remuneration. Australian retail market over the years have witnessed high
level of competition and for this reason the remuneration of the suppliers have also increased
but Woolworths has not into this aspect of increasing suppliers’ remuneration and for this
reason several suppliers have moved to competitors of the company (Govender, 2017).
Media: Media is responsible for growth of the Woolworths. Good reads about the company
helps the company to influence more customers however, negative news about company has
the potentiality to lose the market share of the company.
Identification of main stakeholder’s influence
For Woolworths the effect of the both the internal stakeholders and the internal
stakeholders is high, however the internal stakeholders affect the production performance of
the company so they are much more significant than the external stakeholders. Woolworths in
Australia is one of the largest employers here about 100,000 number of employees work so
Woolworths it is necessary to save the interest of this stakeholders towards the company.
External stakeholders such as suppliers, communities, government, investors and the
customers also affect the operational management of the company.
External stakeholder are the ones who monitors the company to a large extent. For
Woolworths it is utter important that company adopts all the regulations imposed upon it. For
the positive response of the communities, Woolworths even adopted CSR activities to
influence them and at the same time contribute positivity towards the society (Shaw & Shaw,
2019). Company recently have introduced the circular model of operations to reduce the
complications regarding pollution generation by the company. For the supplier’s company
have adopted timely payment policies (Hepworth & Newman, 2019). For restoring the
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interest of the investors towards the company Woolworths have incorporated the revenue
uplifting strategies so that investors invest more on the company.
In order to satisfy the internal stakeholders such as employees’ company has
incorporated all the workforce related policies in its business process. Woolworths have
introduced quarterly reward system for rewarding the employees (Grimmer, 2018). Company
even has introduced training and developments programmes for the employees so that they
feel motivated and put their best towards their work. Company has also adopted strategy of
flexible working and for this reason employees here can maintain the work life balance.
Stakeholder’s theory’s application is visible within the business process of
Woolworths. As per this theory stakeholders and organization are interrelated (Shahbaz et al.,
2018). For this reason, creating value for the stakeholders ultimately affects the company and
helps to gain comparative advantage.
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Stakeholders Matrix
Media
Distributors
Competitors
Consumers
Shareholders
Government
Board of directors
Employees
Managers
Suppliers
From the matrix it can be observed that competitors, distributors and media have the
high power upon the company. While customers, government, shareholders have high power
and high interest, thus, they occupy the prioritization position as per company’s list.
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P
o
w
e
r
HIGH POWER, HIGH INTEREST
HIGH POWER, LOW INTEREST
LOW INTEREST, LOW POWER
HIGH INTEREST, LOW
POWER
Interest

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Industry Comparison
Industry comparison will show how companies are being affected by the influence of
the potential stakeholders. In this report if Woolworths is compared to Facebook then it can
be showed that customers requirements faced by the organizations differs from each other.
Customers of Facebook creates impact upon the company only in online medium (Tran,
2017), while Woolworths faces customers influence both in online and offline medium.
Woolworths ahs to function by abiding the regulations imposed upon it by the government
and most of these regulations are regarding control of the competition level in the retail
industry of Australia, food and safety measures, quality standards. While Facebook is
observed to face laws related to privacy, storage data, protection of data.
Facebook is a social media platform that most of the companies uses top promote
their products, thus for Facebook the advertising aspects does not matter because this
company already very popular among the customers. However, Woolworths have to
undertake advertisements activities to influence the target market to gain more customers in
its purview.
In terms of competitors, both the companies face several competitors. Facebook have
competitors like Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest and Google. Woolworths in Australian retail
market faces competitors like Coles, Aldi, Costco, Target and many more. Woolworths in
terms of competitors faces more competition and this is due to the reason company serves
both in the online platform and the offline platform while Facebook faces less competitors
owing to its nature of business which is only online platform. Woolworths undertakes R &D
activities while Facebook focuses on technological developmental process.
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Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be observed that all the stakeholders are significant for
the smooth functioning of the organization. Report have clearly shown that each stakeholder
has its own influence upon the organization. However, organization out of all the
stakeholders prioritize the most influential ones because then only organization can reach its
goals. In the study, Woolworths considered for the evaluation and the results of the
evaluation show that organization sometimes faces severe issue due to conflict of interest
between the stakeholders. Woolworths analysis also shows that several functional areas of the
organization work together so that organization meet its goals. It can also be concluded from
the report, that organizational stakeholders change as per their industry.
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