Project Management is the process of planning, managing, and organizing various efforts that are essential for making a project successful. The process of project management involves the development of a strong project plan that has a number of sub-objectives and goals, which has to be accomplished for fulfilling the main objectives and goals of the project. Thus, the success of the project depends on the combine and collaborative efforts of a team that are all directed towards a single goal. For the organization Woolworths, it is very crucial to create a plan that will facilitate with better positioning strategies and also for an improved performance for the next four years. It is also even more vital for the organization Woolworth at this point in time, when a small organization is creating a strong niche for themselves and are eating up their target audience and emerging as a huge threat in the market. One such organization that has affected the business of Woolworths is ALDI. The four-year plan for the future will focus on addressing the major issues that the organization is facing and that is resulting in the loss of customers. Also, a better positioning strategy will help the organization in attracting new customers and also in retaining the lost ones. The main aim of the project management is also to identify the different risk and risk drivers that are present in the project and to control them accordingly. In the same way, it also has the responsibility to recognize the different opportunities and potentials that can be used to the best abilities for the success of the project. Project management is the process that requires an accurate application of methods, skills, processes, experience, and knowledge. This all has to be conducted and managed in accordance with the availability of time, cost, quality, and scope.
Strategic Intent
Mission, Vision, and Values of Woolworths.
The mission of the organization Woolworths is to provide the customers with utmost experience while they are shopping at the Woolworths store. The mission statement of the organization also includes that the organization will provide profound knowledge to the customers that will help them in decision making to select the correct product (Aluregowda 2013).
The vision of the organization is to provide the customers with exciting new offers and to offer them with the freshest quality food that is delivered to them with the quickest supply chain. The vision of the organization also lays a lot of emphasis on direct sourcing as this is crucial for developing and maintaining the quality of the product.
The values of the organization Woolworths focus on the company’s approach to delivering the product, that is, the best quality and style. In simple words, the organization values focus on the acts, choices, and the behavior of the customers to different products and offers, which helps the company in measuring the needs and wants of the customers. So, the approach of the values of Woolworths is providing the customers with the best quality food at reasonable prices (Arli et al. 2013).
The positioning statement of the organization can be determined from the Woolworths marketing mix approaches.
Woolworths provides a wide variety of grocery products that include vegetables, meat, packaged food, and fruits. They also sell various household and entertainment products like stationery items, magazines, jewelry, beddings, clothing, furniture, and various different accessories. The product strategy of the organization is differentiated product strategy.
The Woolworths operate in more than 995 locations in the whole of Australia. They also have an online website, which provides the facility for product delivery to the doors of the customers. They also have private brand labels that include Woolworths gold, Woolworths Select, Woolworths Homebrand, and the most popular one amongst them is the Woolworths Fresh (Becerril-Arreola, Leng and Parlar 2013).
The pricing strategy of the Woolworths is competitive pricing that is formulated according to the different products that are available in the market. Though, in recent years, the organization has shifted their approach between economy pricing and penetration pricing.
The Woolworths have a keen interest in promoting the brand. The organization has an aggressive promotional approach that can be witnessed with their different advertisement, campaign participation, social media posts and blogs, and the different loyalty schemes that are initiated to attract more customers (Danziger, Hadar and Morwitz 2014).
The value chain of an organization exhibits the approaches of an organization in a much clearer manner. For the organization, Woolworths, the value chain of the organization aims at sourcing the local food producers as this will also help the organization in achieving sustainable performance by providing the customers with quick delivery. The organization has the main approach of utilizing the local producers in attaining fresh products that will help the sustainable development of the customers, the local producers and also the organization Woolworths. For this, the organization, also has the objective of training the staff and building a highly skilled workforce and through this powerful human resource, the company delivers the customers with utmost customer experience. The development and advancement in the technology have also helped the organization in building a strong IT infrastructure that has helped in creating a better supply chain system that is simple, easy, and convenient (Dos Santos 2011).
Porter’s Five Forces
The Porter’s Five Forces help in the evaluation of the organization Woolworths and the environment that surrounds it. The new strategy that the organization should formulate for the coming four years should be formulated according to the analysis of Porter’s five forces.
It has been stated by Porter that the higher importance that a supplier has, the stronger he will be and will constitute as one of the most powerful suppliers of the organization. According to the current circumstance in the Australian supermarket, there are a number of big organizations that hold a huge market share. The Woolworths have the largest supermarket share in Australia and this exhibit stronger bargaining power of the suppliers (Ekpe, Eneh and Inyang 2015).
The bargaining power of the buyers at the Woolworths store is very high and strong. This is due to a large number of alternative supermarkets that are available in the market providing the same products. So, the organization Woolworths have to adapt to the competitors pricing strategy and due to the fluctuation that is mostly deduction, in the prices of the competitors the organization have to adapt to low-priced products or price penetration strategy (Hattersley, Isaacs and Burch 2013).
The threats of the new entrants in the market are considered as low because the organizations with larger market share like Woolworths has made it very difficult for the new entrants to enter the market, as this will involve a huge amount of capital for the initial startup along with the different non-financial resources, to compete with the such a big organization like Woolworths (Hwang, Bronnenberg and Thomadsen 2010).
According to the rivalry in the supermarket industry, there is a huge competition that the organization Woolworths have to face due to the presence of other prominent organization. All the other supermarkets are provided with the substitute products, so it is the duty of the organization Woolworths to formulate innovative plans to deal with the threats that may arise due to the substitute products that are mainly available at lower prices. For the Woolworths, the best approach to tackle these threats is by implementing the competitive price strategy. The biggest competitor of Woolworths is Coles, and they also tackle the threats from substitute products with the help of a rewind price strategy (Keith 2012).
There are some big organizations in the current market that are major threats to the Woolworths. Though, the organization has the largest market share in the Australian supermarket industry, the intense competition between the rivals and the new and innovative approaches of the competitors, regularly impose bigger challenges for the organization. The organization ALDI that is emerging in the market as the biggest threat has successfully shaken the bigger organizations like Woolworths and Coles (Matej 2018).
For analyzing the external environment of the organization, any tool that will be applied to understand the factors affecting the industry performance is PESTLE analytical too. This tool informs about the various aspects that affect the performance of the organization in the supermarket industry.
Woolworths is also affected by the political environment of Australia. Now, the same has happened with the latest decision that has been taken by the Federal Government of Australia. According to the new regulations, the government has introduced a new competition policy, under which the major independent organization or individuals does not have the right to eliminate the competition. It is due to the huge dominance of the larger organizations in the market. This decision of the government will affect the working of the bigger organization (Mitchell 2014).
Any changes in the economic market of Australia, be it positive and negative, it will have an impact on the working of the Woolworths. For example, if there is a decline in the Australian Dollar, then this will affect the international operations of the organization Woolworths, which will bring a reduction in the profits of the company (Nenycz-Thiel and Romaniuk 2012).
The Woolworths have to participate in community practices and have to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities to create a massive impact on the customers for today and tomorrow. This has been found that organizations that do not fulfill their social responsibilities have experienced a sudden downfall in recent years.
The Woolworths is an organization that has utilized the technology effectively in serving the customers in a better way. Be it the online shopping facility through the website or application or the utilization of the green refrigeration technology all have helped the organization to serve the customers in a better way. But, this is also a known fact that there are a number of uncertainties that are associated with technology that can ruin the customer experience (Pangarkar 2018).
The environmental factor also possesses the power to affect the performance of a company. The organization Woolworths are affected by this factor too. The organization’s businesses of making wine and petrol business have had severe adverse effects on the organization, which has also affected the profits of the organization. There are also other additional losses that the organization has to bear due to these two businesses that affected the environment (Sungku Kwon 2012).
The organization Woolworths is affected by the new regulations that have been introduced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has affected the economy. Also, the adjustment to the new changes has affected the performance of the organization.
Firm Value Chain
The mission statement of the organization Woolworths lays a lot of emphasis on providing customers with the freshest products and also to offer the customers with a high customer experience. Thus, for the organization Woolworths, all the value-creating processes are directed towards fulfilling these two objectives. Some of the value-creating methods that are conducted by the organization for the fulfillment of these promises involves –
The majority of the products which Woolworths sell is not produced by the organization. Thus, the organization is just a distribution channel for those products. In the distribution function of these products, there are two crucial activities that add value to the firm, which are procurement and logistics. Procurement is the process of certification that states that the product belongs to high quality (Sutton-Brady, Kamvounias and Taylor 2015). The Woolworths products are directed directly from the producers to a national or regional distribution center, where the products are verified and then they are distributed to the stores to sell it to the end users.
There are two main operations that are involved in customer value and convenience that are quality assessment and inventory management. The process of quality assessment at Woolworths is conducted to exclude all the defective products that may decrease the value. The process of inventory management involves the forecasting of the increase or decrease in the demands of a product. In the organization Woolworths, the demands of a product are forecasted with the help of a modern forecasting program that takes into consideration the various environmental changes which include seasonal changes, fashion trends, and economic changes. The organization also has a direct deal with the farmers which helps in better management (Barnes 2011).
At the Woolworths, there is an in-store quality management of the products provided by different vendors that are very helpful in examining the quality and freshness of the product. The two objectives of their mission and vision statement that is given highest priority.
There are two main activities that are performed by the organization for increasing the sales and conducting promotions and marketing that helps in creating a brand name that is reliable. The two activities are In-store promotions and organizational dynamism. The organizational Woolworths help in increasing sales by providing discounts on special items every week. Also, the organization provides sales catalogs in advance to attract customers and increase sales. The organization spends a huge amount on marketing and their promotion approaches are very aggressive especially on social media (Basker and Noel 2009).
The various different return policies that are provided by the organization and also the utilization of the trolley mounted scanners helps in the reduction of the waiting time at the checkout counter, all helps in increasing the customer experience.
Some of the support activities of the organization that is also the core competencies are-
All these various processes, strategies, approaches, and innovation have helped in building a powerful value chain of the organization in the market.
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Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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§ The organization has a huge dominance in the market due to the large market share. § The organization also enjoy a powerful financial status that facilitates the organization with the ability with better positioning strategies. § The organization deals with a wide range of products and due to this, they cater to a huge audience, which automatically increases the profits of the organization (Ramachander and Venkatesh 2010). § The organization has an effective supply chain management that helps the organization in providing the customers with products directly from the farm. |
§ The Woolworths is a huge organization, the largest in the Australian market, thus the operating cost of the organization is huge. § The organization has a lot of debts that are due to maintaining the hold in the market and also due to the different innovative strategies that are implemented to attract new customers. The aggressive marketing approaches are increasing the debts of the organization. § A major amount of products that the organization sell has very low-profit margins. |
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Opportunities |
Threats |
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§ The organization has the potential to elaborate its market share more, which is the biggest opportunity for Woolworths. § They have positioned themselves as an organization that is concerned about the health of the people. The organization can utilize this image to elaborate and expand itself in the health food department. § The organization can easily increase their customer base, due to the huge prominence and dominance in the current market. The customers have high credibility standards for the organization Woolworths. § The organization also has the opportunity of utilizing ICT that is very helpful in cutting costs wherever possible, especially in areas where there are unnecessary expenses. |
§ The Australian economy in the past few years has witnessed very slow growth that has also reduced the growth of big organizations. § The various legal, environmental, and political uncertainties that keep erupting in the Australian market are affecting the growth and expansion of the organization (Shenoy, Sequeira and Devaraj 2012). § There is a new change in the working styles and in the environment of the businesses that have enabled the suppliers with immense power and this has affected the organization’s profits. § The increase in the utilization of various technologies have a continuous threat as the technology can collapse anytime. |
Thus, from all the various external and internal analysis and also from the SWOT analysis, the organization Woolworths should take the following recommendation into account that will improve the performance of the organization in the next four years.
According to the new regulation that has been introduced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Woolworths organization should aim at implementing the strategy of fair price policy. It is an approach that the organization should try to incorporate in their pricing strategy.
Benefits
This will help the organization in increasing the profit margins on different products. The organization in the current circumstances requires this as to manage the different political and legal uncertainties that prevail in Australia (Tiutlikova and Besprozvannykh 2018).
The organization may initially face a loss, due to the various competitors who are providing the same product at a lesser price. But, after a certain point in time due to the legalization of this fair price policy by the federal government, the competitors have to also incorporate this change in their organization. So, the Woolworths should be the first organization to adapt the change.
It is important for the organization to re-examine all their future approached, in a manner that all the strategies are performed on a tight budget. Cost cutting is very crucial for the organization to reduce its debts (Waterlander et al. 2011).
The current and the future generation requires new, improved, and innovative approaches. This will build a working environment which will be very beneficial for the organization in the long-run.
It will be very difficult for the organization to adjust to the new approaches, especially when they have an environment that spends huge amounts on their every marketing strategy.
The organization has to incorporate, utilize and implement new social trends. This is crucial as the current preference of the customers has exhibited a dynamism that will be helpful in addressing the latest needs and demands of the customers, in accordance with the latest trend.
The incorporation of new trends will increase the level of innovation in the organization, which is very beneficial for the long-run.
The organization will witness a trial and error phase, as they would not be able to forecast the result of the different new trends.
The staff at the store have to be more skilled. The customer experience can be elaborated by implementing this approach. This can also be a differentiated approach (Xu, Song and Piao 2015).
The organization will be able to enhance the customer experience and will also help in staying ahead of its competitors, as this can be a unique selling point for the organization.
It is a time taking process and the organization has to fire some of its employees.
References
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Arli, V., S. Dylke, R. Burgess, R. Campus, and E. Soldo. 2013. “Woolworths Australia and Walmart US: Best Practices In Supply Chain Collaboration.” Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy| Ventura 16 (1): 27-46.
Barnes, R. 2011. “The Great Tesco Beauty Gamble (The Tesco Supermarket Chains Marketing Strategy for Breaking into the UK Beauty Services Market)”. Strategic Direction 27 (7): 20-40.
Basker, Emek, and Michael Noel. 2009. “The Evolving Food Chain: Competitive Effects of Wal-Mart’s Entry into the Supermarket Industry”. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 18 (4): 977-1009.
Becerril-Arreola, Rafael, Mingming Leng, and Mahmut Parlar. 2013. “Online Retailers’ Promotional Pricing, Free-Shipping Threshold, And Inventory Decisions: A Simulation-Based Analysis”. European Journal of Operational Research 230 (2): 272-283.
Cortini, Michela. 2013. “Rhetoric on Sale. Discourse Strategies in Supermarket Interactions.” Tópicos, Revista De Filosofía 17 (1): 9.
Danziger, Shai, Liat Hadar, and Vicki G. Morwitz. 2014. “Retailer Pricing Strategy and Consumer Choice under Price Uncertainty”. Journal of Consumer Research 41 (3): 761-774.
Dos Santos, Maria A.O. 2011. “Minimizing the Business Impact on the Natural Environment”. European Business Review 23 (4): 384-391.
Ekpe, Ekpe Oyono, Sunday Isaac Eneh, and Benjamin J. Inyang. 2015. “Leveraging Organizational Performance through Effective Mission Statement”. International Business Research 8 (9): 135.
Hattersley, L., B. Isaacs, and D. Burch. 2013. “Supermarket Power, Own-Labels, and Manufacturer Counterstrategies: International Relations of Cooperation and Competition in the Fruit Canning Industry”. Agriculture and Human Values 30 (2): 225-233.
Hwang, Minha, Bart J. Bronnenberg, and Raphael Thomadsen. 2010. “An Empirical Analysis of Assortment Similarities across U.S. Supermarkets”. Marketing Science 29 (5): 858-879.
Keith, S. 2012. “Coles, Woolworths and the Local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific”. Journal of Regional Food Studies 2 (1): 47-81.
Makhitha, K.M. 2014. “The Importance Of Supermarket Attributes In Supermarket Choice Among University Students”. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 1 (1): 25-40.
Matej, I. 2018. “Strategic Management Group Assignment 1”. Slideshare.Net. https://www.slideshare.net/KyleL1/strategic-management-group-assignment-1.
Mitchell, S. 2014. “Woolworths May Need To Sacrifice Profit Margins For Growth.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 2014.
Nenycz-Thiel, Magda, and Jenni Romaniuk. 2012. “Value-For-Money Perceptions of Supermarket and Private Labels”. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ) 20 (2): 171-177.
Pangarkar, Nitin. 2018. “Location Preemption by Oligopolists: Evidence from the Singapore Supermarket Industry”. Journal of Strategy and Management 11 (1): 131-146.
Ramachander, Anitha, and Prasanna Venkatesh. 2010. “Marketing Strategies for Perishable Fruits and Vegetables Retail Segment in Supermarket”. Adarsh Journal of Management Research 3 (1): 51.
Shenoy, Seema S., A. H. Sequeira, and K. Devaraj. 2012. “Service Quality: The Cornerstone of Customer-Centric Retail Strategy for Supermarket Retailers in India”. SSRN Electronic Journal 1 (1): 15-35.
Sungku Kwon. 2012. “The Effect of Store Characteristics of a Supermarket on Store Loyalty: A Comparative Study of the Local Supermarket and the Super Supermarket”. Journal of Distribution Science 10 (11): 61-70.
Sutton-Brady, Catherine, Patty Kamvounias, and Tom Taylor. 2015. “A Model of Supplier–Retailer Power Asymmetry in the Australian Retail Industry”. Industrial Marketing Management 51 (1): 122-130.
Tiutlikova, Viktoriia, and Oleg Besprozvannykh. 2018. “Development of the Method of Selecting Innovative Ideas for Following Commercialization On The Basis Of the Innovative Supermarket”. Technology Audit and Production Reserves 3 (4(41): 4-9.
Waterlander, Wilma E, Michael Scarpa, Daisy Lentz, and Ingrid HM Steenhuis. 2011. “The Virtual Supermarket: An Innovative Research Tool To Study Consumer Food Purchasing Behaviour”. BMC Public Health 11 (1): 22-33.
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