Strategic Analysis of Woolworths Supermarket & Implementation Plan

This case study provides an in-depth analysis of Woolworths Supermarkets' strategic approach in a competitive environment. It begins with an overview of the company's history, vision, and mission, followed by an evaluation of the internal and external environments using SWOT and PEST analyses. Key strategies and initiatives adopted by Woolworths are discussed, including improving offerings, competitive pricing, and technological upgrades. The study recommends an internationalization strategy and outlines the implementation process, challenges, and success measurement criteria, such as return on investment, net sales, and profits. The document emphasizes the importance of employee contribution and feedback in achieving the organization's long-term goals, contributed for educational purposes and available on Desklib.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Hello all! We have conducted this meeting to discuss the overall strategy of our
organization and the manner in which it has been able to ensure a strategic success in the
competitive and advanced VUCA environment. The business environment can be stated to be
very dynamic in nature and with respect to this, it has become very crucial for the different firms
to ensure that they are successfully able to undertake a key analysis of the external environment
which would assist the firm in ensuring considerable success in the long run. Our organization,
the Woolworths Supermarket group has been in the business since a long period of time and has
held the major share of the Australian supermarket. I am the CEO of the firm and hence, I have
held this meeting in order to highlight the overall planned strategy of the organization and also
discuss the different factors which have led to the particular strategy selection at large. The
presentation will discuss the overall mission and vision of the firm which will then be followed
by the discussion of the different factors of the external and internal environment. Based on this,
the overall strategy of the organization will be discussed and the implementation strategy which
the firm can adopt will also be discussed at large.
About the company
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 supplied along with other
stationery items at large. The company has more than 1000 stores across Australia and some
convenience stores as well with the same logo which helps them to shop goods and other related
products. Along with this, Woolworths online is also present which sells goods in the online
domain.

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History of the firm
The company was found in the year 1924 under the name 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. The firm begun to perform well and with respect to this, they started
gaining the attention of the employees and began to sell a large number of products like grocery,
stationery and others and along with this, the company also offered a money back policy which
further attracted the different consumers at large. As the firm began to gin success it began its
transition from just a normal grocery store to a store which used to sell various other products as
well. Currently, in the year 2018, the firm has made more considerations to ensure that it bans
the use of the single use plastic bags during the procedure of checkout along with the brands like
Coles and in the first three months, the firm has been able to make considerable improvements
and improved upon the waste reduction which can be considered to be a good move and would
not have been possible without the contribution of you, the employees who have stood as the
backbone of the firm.
The vision of the firm is to satisfy the needs of the consumers and provide them with the
best products whereby 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.
Evaluation of internal as well as external environment
The internal environment analysis along with the external environment analysis forms a
major part of the organization and contributes towards the formulation of the strategy which then
assists the various organizational members to engage in a strategy which will be beneficial for

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the overall welfare of the firm at large. The internal analysis of the organization was done using
the SWOT analysis and I would like to present the analysis of SWOT as follows:
Strengths
1. It is one of the oldest as well as the
well-known retail brands as present in
Australia.
2. It has a large market share
3. It offers a large product to the
different customers.
4. It has a sustainable CSR program
5. It shows a strong commitment towards
the different employees as present in
the organization.
Weaknesses
1. The firm took considerably late entry
in the online domain.
2. Furthermore, it has been losing out on
its competitive advantage.
3. The company lags international
presence.
Opportunities
1. It can produce in house label products
to win over the customers.
2. The brand can engage in better
promotions to win back the different
consumers.
3. 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.
Moreover, the external analysis which helped in the strategy formulation is the PEST
analysis and has been presented as follows for the employees to understand it. The PEST
analysis of the firm has been done as follows:
 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.

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 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
Woolworths Limited has not been a dormant firm and has taken considerable efforts to
ensure that it is successfully able to take various strategies as well as initiatives which will then
go a long way in ensuring success. The different strategies as adopted by Woolworths can be
stated to be as follows:
1. Improving the offerings of the firm so that the organization will be successfully able to
gain a larger share of market.
2. Engaging in a competitive pricing strategy so as to ensure considerable success with
respect to the long run of the enterprise.
3. Upgrading its technological game so as to ensure long term success of the firm.
Recommended strategies
Hence, after the given analysis, it can be recommended for the firm that it adopts an
internationalization strategy, the firm has been present in the business environment since a long
period of time and will be able to benefit largely if it is able to successfully use these advantages
to their benefit in the external environment of the firm.

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Implementation of the strategy and challenges
At first Woolworths would be required to successfully analyze the country whereby the
firm would like to conduct the business and then it would be required to accumulate the
resources with respect to which it would like to use in its plan.
The different challenges are as follows:
1. Competition from international firms
2. Various legislatives and laws as present in the international market
3. The needs and demands of the various customers
Hence, for this purpose the success will be measured in the following manner:
1. 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.
2. Net sales: The net sales incurred in the international market will also assessed in
understanding the long term success of the firm.
3. Profits incurred: The profits incurred by Woolworths also serves as a useful measure.
4. The number of stores as opened in the first year: The number of stores opened in the first
year also helps to understand
Hence, if the employees will be able to successfully provide their contribution, the
organization will be able to achieve its long term goals as well as the objectives easily and any
feedback as received will be appreciated.
Regards