Analytically Evaluates Strategic Management

Question: Discuss about the Analytically Evaluates Strategic Management. Answer: Introduction The current study elucidates the strategic management as a process of planning, monitoring, assessing business operations with special orientation to the operations of Woolworths Limited. Woolworths Supermarkets is a publicly traded major supermarket store chain headquartered in Bella Vista, Australia. The company has extensive retailing operations Australia as well as New Zealand that is owned by Woolworths Limited. The current report analyses the internal as well as external business environment of Woolworths and recognises the core competencies and valuable resources of the firm. In addition to this, the study also analytically examines the key issues faced by the firms for analysing the overall strategic management of the corporation. Internal environment analysis The internal business environment of the business of Woolworth Limited can be analysed using the SWOT analysis that explains the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. The SWOT analysis is presented in tabular format below: Strengths - Strong financial position of the firm - Strong brand equity and brand reputation - Superior relationship with suppliers (Woolworths.com.au, 2016) Weakness - Limited geographical presence of the company and therefore restricted market share - Late entry into the online platform has resulted in competition where there is lower prices Opportunities - Increased online retailing - Growth opportunity in the new health food segment - Growth opportunity of the brand through advertisement, promotions as well as financing. - Growth opportunity through diverse strategic acquisitions as well as franchise replica in different emerging nations (Woolworths.com.au, 2016) Threats -Competitive threats from other retail players such as Aldi, IGA, Coles and many others (Woolworths.com.au, 2016) -Economic recession can also hamper the entire overall growth strategy -Increasing costs of the raw materials from both food as well as non-food can adversely affect the profit figure of the firm (Woolworths.com.au, 2016) Identification, differentiation and evaluation of the key resources as well as competencies of the organization Analysis of the core competencies of the corporation Woolworths Limited reveals the fact that the company has an advanced world class supply chain, innovative practices namely, (re-fresh, new idea program. In addition to this, the core competencies of the company Woolworths limited includes its capability to vertically integrate different supplies by manufacturing own inputs to enhance the market power and to reply to the private level movement (Carroll et al., 2016). Furthermore, the Woolworthss core competency also include branding and marketing activities such as The Fresh Food People slogan (Woolworths.com.au, 2016). Assessment of operations of the company Woolworths Limited helps in understanding the significant resources as well as capabilities of the firm. The key resources of the firm include very effective supply chain of the firm, high brand reputation, effective location as well as effective top management (Bettis et al., 2016). The management of the corporation Woolworths Limited has selected an integrated competitive strategy that refers to both utilization of cost leadership along with different differential components for competition, effective supply chain for minimization of cost, brand image for differentiation founded on quality (David David, 2016). Strategic factors specifically the minimization of future threats and keeping the corporation flexible in wake of environmental alterations are also critical for the sustenance of Woolworths Limited. The management of Woolworths Limited after taking into consideration the above mentioned factors can ascertain the following significant resources as well as capabilities of the firm: Effective global supply chain: The effective distribution network of the firm Woolworths Limited can be regarded as a resource as well as capability in its in-bound as well as out-bound logistics. The tangible as well as intangible assets such as technological capabilities as well as supplier associations of the corporation is very significant as it helps in savings of cost through its logistics network and this in turn helps in attainment of more profit than Coles (Zhaon et al., .2016). Reputation of the Brand: Woolworths has built a strong reputation of the brand as the fresh food people over several years. The management of the company has achieved this brand reputation through positive experience of the consumers regarding the products of the company. However, this can be essentially attributed to the stringent procedures of assessment of quality throughout its entire supply chain as well as Fresh Food People advertisement and promotional campaign (Woolworths.com.au, 2016). Effectual Management Team: Woolworths has successfully attained higher rate of growth in spite of recessionary pressures as well as increasing rate of inflation. This can necessarily attributed to the effectual top management of the organization (Eden Ackermann, 2013). Therefore, it can be said that the potential of the top management that drives Woolworths through the present economic situation towards achievement of higher rates of growth can be considered as a valuable resource of the corporation (Ward Peppard, 2016). Location: The locational advantage of the corporation can be considered as an important resource of the firm. The favourable regional zoning regulations, leasing contracts as well as strategic selection criteria can be regarded as the locational advantage and a valuable resource (Hambrick et al., 2015). Summarization of the findings based on the internal and external environment analysis The internal analysis using the SWOT analysis reflects the fact that the company Woolworths Limited has a financial position as well as strong brand recognition. In addition to this, the company also faces growth opportunities from omnipresence in both physical as well as online presence. However, the company entered into the online platform late and consequently faced stiff competition in the online retailing market (Hill et al., 2014). However, the external analysis using the Porters Five Forces reveals the fact that the company Woolworths Limited faces high bargaining power of the buyers as the majority of the customers are necessarily individual purchasers (Hitt et al., 2012). Again, the bargaining power of the suppliers are quite weak as the company Woolworths, particularly the Safeway Supermarket have considerably low reliance on the suppliers. Again, the external analysis also reveals that the company high threat of substitutes as there are several supermarkets in Australia that offer substitutes. The threat of new entrants is relatively low as establishing a business with huge number of stores offering brilliant quality requires lot of start-up capital for the fixed facilities as well as operational purposes (Mahoney Qian, 2013). Furthermore, the intensity of competition is high as there are strong competitors in the market such as Coles that can imit the share of market of Woolworths Limited. Identification of the key issues that the organization faces The key issues that the organization faces are faltered marketing strategies, threat to the market leading position and rising threat of competitors such as ALDI and many others. The companys Cheap Cheap campaign can be considered to be flawed as managements pursuit of value shoppers that increasingly stressed on lowering the price adversely affected the organization. The price driven competition that is driving the price down has thus affected the organization (Rothaermel, 2015). This strategy of lowering the price can be considered an uncertain as well as unclear strategy. ALDI has attracted customer segment belonging to the small and medium segment and this has driven the price of the company Woolworths Limited down in competition (Woolworths.com.au, 2016). Recommendation Analysis of the strategy of the firm Woolworths Limited reveals the fact that the management needs to invest hugely for advertisements and promotions. Precisely, the management of the company Woolworths Limited needs to generate advertisements that can depict the way Food variety of healthy meal of Woolworths can fit into the everyday routine of the consumers. In addition to this, the management of Woolworths Limited also needs to concentrate on convenience as well as enjoyable consumer shopping experience during the long term. The current program of Woolworths for refurbishing the retail stores needs to be supplemented by different measures that can improve the entire store atmosphere. The improvement of the store atmosphere refers to inclusion of relaxing music for joyful atmosphere in addition appointment of helpful staff that can generate an enjoyable shopping experience of the customers. Conclusion The above mentioned study helps in gaining deep understanding regarding the internal environment of the company Woolworths Limited using the SWOT analysis. The current study also helps in gaining deep insight regarding the core competencies, valuable resources as well as capabilities of the firm. In addition to this, the current report also helps in arriving at the summarized view of the internal as well as external business environment analysis. The current segment also helps in identification of the key issues that the organization faces and put forward recommendations for resolving the challenges. References Bettis, R. A., Ethiraj, S., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C., Mitchell, W. (2016). Creating repeatable cumulative knowledge in strategic management. 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