Assessment Rubric

Assessment  Attributes	Fail  (Yet to achieve  minimum standard) 0-49%	Pass (Functional) 50-64%	Credit (Proficient) 65-74%	Distinction (Advanced) 75-84%	High Distinction (Exceptional) 85-100%
Research and  comprehension Percentage for this  criterion = 30%	Content does not  adequately  demonstrate a  postgraduate standard  of detail and thought	Content somewhat  superficial or with some  gaps in understanding	Good coverage of the  topic with clearly  articulated explanation  of the topic. Reasonable fit between theory and practice	Thorough coverage of  the topic. Good  application of theory.  Good use of credible  sources	Comprehensive  understanding; insightful  discussion; excellent and  relevant application of  theory. Multiple and  credible references used
Analysis and  synthesis Percentage for this  criterion = 30%	Reader cannot  understand the  foundations of the  topics from the  information provided.  Poor logic. No evidence  provided to support  arguments	Basic intent covered;  analysis and arguments  could be more convincing  with some evidence  provided	Reader understands the  arguments presented  through focused analysis  and evidence	Reader has a good sense  of the analysis and  evidence, which is well  discussed in argument.  Insights are drawn from  synthesised information	Readers’ understanding  of the analysis and  arguments is clear;  logical and well  organised; detailed and  insightful analysis;  structured arguments;  synthesis and  understanding of links  between issues
Writing mechanics Percentage for this  criterion = 15%	Layout is confusing;  logic, flow and use of  language difficult to  follow; numerous  spelling and grammatical errors	Layout is adequate with  acceptable logic flow and  use of language. Some  misspellings and  grammatical errors	Overall presentation is  easy to digest; language  succinct and well chosen;  less than four spelling  and grammatical errors	Good presentation  content and language;  easy to read and draw  conclusions; no more  than two spelling and grammatical errors	Overall style, use of  language, figures and  tables encourages  comprehension; creative  and engaging report

 

Reflection and  conclusions Percentage for this  criterion = 25%

Little reflection evident;  unclear conclusions

Poor reflections and  generic or somewhat  irrelevant conclusions

Good reflections  highlighting key aspects;  relevant conclusions  which are a mix of  generic and specific  conclusions

Rich reflections drawing  from good research,  analysis and synthesis.  Relevant and specific  conclusions

Insightful conclusions  drawing well from the  discussion and evidence;  creative and insightful  reflection with relevance  to the topic

 

The following Subject Learning Outcomes are addressed in this assessment
SLO a)	Critically examine how strategic management and core competencies can build and sustain competitive advantage in  different organisational contexts
SLO b)	Critically examine how strategic management and core competencies can build and sustain competitive advantage in  different organisational contexts
SLO c)	Develop and plan the implementation of a selected strategy for different organisational levels including for change  management processes
SLO d)	Consider the external environment of an organisation and analyse capabilities that can enhance potential market  opportunities and manage risk Submission

 

 

 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Executive summary

The report provides a detailed description of the management strategies and competence for the development of the organization. The report is about providing a better analysis of the market and developing a better consumer base. Woolworth has faced various issues to improve the facilities or the management criteria. A strategic management plan is provided which constrains various analyzing techniques as well as influences the market with various techniques. The recommendation is also provided for the development of strategic management as well as generating revenue. Effective techniques are also provided for consumer satisfaction.

Introduction

Strategic management and core competencies are the major parts of an organisation. These are the ways to compete in the current market and develop better methods to perform effectively in every situation. In this report, a proper analysis is been conducted for analysing the market as well as improving the management of the system of the organisation. The plan needs to be implemented by the different organisations to develop strategic changes according to the need of the consumers or customers. Strategic management in an organisation not only changes the management but also develops a better working culture for the employees. Woolworth is a retail organisation and is considered to be one of the major supermarkets in Australia and needs strategic management to maintain o9r meeting g the needs of the customers. The external entities have also an effect on the management of the organisation to compete in the competitive market. 

 Aim 

The aim of the report is to develop strategic management for organizational benefit and to identify the different strategic influences that make impact on the organizational outcome of the organization Woolworths.

Discussion 

Woolworth is a retail supermarket in Australia with a proper customer base due to effective engagement with the consumers. This not only provides a better service but also provides quality products with proper different facilities such as return replacement or refund with certain policies (Woolworths.com.au, 2022). The organisation provides offers as well as rewards to the consumers according to their loyalty and some of the offers are introduced during the festive season. The terms that cast an effective image on the consumers are advantages provided by the orgasmatron to support the comfort of the consumers.

1. Analysis 

 According to Hepworth & Newman (2019), the issue faced by the organisation is that the higher authorities in Woolworth are exploiting the labours and building negative perspectives in the working environment. This results in the joining of trade unions and has an effective image on the employees which will hamper the working culture of the organisations. Effective efforts are to be engaged by the chairman of the management so as to build a friendly working culture for the employees as well as labours. 

The pandemic situation has had a lot of negative impact on business as consumers were facing various issues regarding purchasing food items as well as different important accessories.  These had a negative impact on the business by reducing the revenue and casting a negative shadow on the organisation in the consumers.  “According to the company’s F21 half-year results, group sales increased 10.6% year on year to $35.845 billion”. The pandemic has made an effective loss in every business in the world so the same is noticed in Woolworth but still, it refrained and competed in the current market. E-commerce has boosted the organisational concept by improving the revenue of the organisation. According to the author “e-commerce sales doubled amid COVID-19, with an upward revision of 77.9 per cent to $2.937 billion” (Wang,  2022). The problems faced by the organisation as examined by the feedback of the consumers were deficiency in meeting the demands of the consumers and operation failure according to the issues faced by the consumers. Despite issues, the organisation has recovered in the year 2021. “Dividends per share have also increased by 15.2% (2021)”.   

2. Strategic influences 

The motivation of the employees in the organisation will lead to the development of the production sector or the service sector as they are the primary stakeholders of the organisation. Properly motivated employees will help in building effective relationships with consumers. The motivation and effective culture will develop a good relationship with the higher authorities and the employees will also take part in various programs. The programs which will lead to companies' progress are effective decision-making as well as proposing innovative ideas. The other aspect is to develop a better design for the package so that attracts the consumers and increases sales.

Communication is one of the major factors that influence the stakeholders, especially the external stakeholders (Truter, 2021). Effective communication with external stakeholders builds good affection and results to generate effective revenue as well as achieve suitable support from the external stakeholders. 

The other aspect to improve the business revenue is to improve the marketing criteria and build an effective engagement with the consumers. The market strategies include various processes to cast a better impression as well as develop a better image and knowledge of the products and services. The market strategies include different models such as the STP model implementation of the 4Ps as they help in providing better marketing techniques. The STP model suggests segmentation of the market, targeting the market and the last P stands for positioning of the market. The segmentation of the market provides better analysing techniques this helps in segmenting the market into three different forms which include demographic, behavioural and geography. The targeting works in targeting consumers according to the age group of the consumers. It specially uses AI for identifying the consumers according to the number of visits as well as interest in the consumers.

The promotional activity in Australia is noted as follows: foods with price promotions, three of the four supermarket groups had a greater proportion of display space devoted to unhealthy (compared to healthy) foods at each promotional location measured (end of aisles: 66%; island bins: 53%; checkouts: 88%) (Grigsby-Duffy et al. 2020). The promotional activities must be conducted by Woolworths for capturing unknown consumers. 

 3. Strategic implication 

To practice strategic management the organisation needs to develop a schedule as well as needs to set a goal for managing the strategies developed for the development of the organisation. There is a little process that needs to be met for implementing strategic management in the organisation. The management process includes setting clear goals by identifying the key variables. This provides clarity to the working management of the organisation and sets the aim for the employees.

The next process understands the role and responsibility of individuals to set the strategic management established by the professional.  A roadmap must be built for the schedule and develop a proper management system, according to individuals' responsibilities. 

The upcoming process is to delegate the work so that every individual gets to know their short-term goals as well as long terms goals. This brings a big picture to the stakeholders and provides a better understanding of responsibility as well as the vision of the organisation. Then finally come to the execution of the management system and monitor the progress as well as a performance by providing regular support to the stakeholders. The other process for implementation is to focus on the supply chain process and create a better and more effective network (Vandchali, Cahoon, & Chen, 2021). It increases the network by improving the relationship and focusing in build effective management systems and implementing the process. 

4.  Identifying strategic action course  

According to Biyela, (2018), Woolworth needs to design a mix of marketing strategies for better management of the competitive market as the competitors in the market are using different methods. The aims and objectives need to be known for the management as well as fulfilment of the market need. The strategic management as well as the competence must include the 4P of mixed marketing. The 4Ps can be expressed as product, pricing, place and promotion. The change in management needs various courses of action such as planning carefully, having transparency in the organisation, having fair communication with stakeholders, forming the road map, and providing effective training in skill development.  The next process includes inviting participants for receiving feedback and be patient in reviewing the result. The checking points of the strategic courses of action are monitoring the workflow measuring the process and demonstrating effective leadership. The process for a better approach needs an accounting of the strategic approach which includes financial accounting it will change the business structure as well as improve the cash flow in the market. The sources of finance are also identified and provide special attention to the revenue generator (Hancock, Robinson, & Bazley, (2019)). Behavioural strategies are also one of the major problem solvers in introducing strategic management for the organisation. It helps in solving real-life problems as well as building good relationships with stakeholders. Various techniques such as de-biasing techniques as well as the building effective mindset for developing behavioural strategies for the benefit of the organisation (Borchardt, Kamzabek, & Lovallo, 2022). This helps in the real world in the aspect of resource allocation, deal-making and capital projects.

5. Setting of strategic goals and their implication 

The strategic goals that Woolworth should set for the development of the organisation provide a vision statement that Woolworth must set for supporting a meaningful full vision. The strategic goals statement for development is improving consumer relations and innovating new ideas.

To improve the relationship with the consumer the organisation needs to understand the needs of the consumers. The most important part of understanding the needs of consumers is to know the consumer each consumer. Understand the need by knowing the services needed for each consumer. The different aspects of knowing the consumers must be adopted. The important tools should be used to grab the information regarding the consumer’s details.

Seeking the information or feedback of the consumers is the next important aspect to improve the relationship between the consumer and the organisation. A review must be received by the organisational management so as to improve the management structure and build an effective preferred public management facility. Consumer loyalty must be rewarded with an effective process such as providing points and implementing cash-back offers on certain products. The consumer's expectation must be fulfilled and if possible the expectation must be exceeded. The service provided by the organisation needs to be improved and must reach a greater extent so as to attract consumers (Ksl-training.co.uk, 2022). The approach of the consumer towards the feedback process must be effective as well as easy to provide so the consumers don't feel stressed about providing feedback. 

According to Du (2022), innovation in Woolworth must include better management in the delivery of the products so as to remove the traditional process and implement a drone process for delivering the products. This drone process provides a better service which is free from traffic and has the capability to meet the deadline of the product. This will improve the current situation and develop a better service for the consumers.

Conclusion

Strategic management is to be maintained for building effective management in the workplace and providing a better service to the consumers as well as generating revenue. The various risks or the theatres faced by Woolworth in recent years has been challenging part for different stakeholders as they have faced problems due to various changes in the organisation, The change was caused by the outbreak of the pandemic and the economic part was crashed in the world and during that phase, the Woolworth also faced certain issues like dissatisfaction of the consumers. The next issue was the exploitation of the workers the company needed to develop a strategic management system to handle the issues very effectively. The various services must be provided by the organisation so as to develop a good relationship with consumers. The effective ways to implement marketing strategies by applying different techniques will increase the sales as well as revenue of the organization.

Recommendation 

The effective use of strategic management as provided in the report must be implemented for the successive development of the organisation. The other marking criteria should be as follows a proper analysis should be done for acquiring knowledge of the current market. The next implement various tools to identify the market which includes certain analyses such as SWOT analysis, and PESTLE analysis. A model must be developed for building a plan and following according to the build model. They attract new consumers from the market various offers must be provided by the organisation.

 Reference list

Journals

Hepworth, K., & Newman, F. (2019). Trade Unions v. Social Audits: Addressing labour exploitation in Woolworths domestic food supply chain. Human Rights Defender, 28(1), 14-18. Doi: https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.462941875726565

Wang, Y. (2022). A Survey and Research on Woolworths Customer Satisfaction. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 12(5), 1006-1011. DOI: 10.4236/ajibm.2022.125052 

Truter, T. (2021). Exploring the factors affecting employee motivation to be innovative on product development: A case study for Woolworths South Africa (Master's thesis, Faculty of Commerce). Doi: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/36206

Grigsby-Duffy, L., Schultz, S., Orellana, L., Robinson, E., Cameron, A. J., Marshall, J., ... & Sacks, G. (2020). The healthiness of food and beverages on price promotion at promotional displays: a cross-sectional audit of Australian supermarkets. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(23), 9026. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17239026

Vandchali, H. R., Cahoon, S., & Chen, S. L. (2021). The impact of power on the depth of sustainability collaboration in the supply chain network for Australian food retailers. International Journal of Procurement Management, 14(2), 165-184. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJPM.2021.113487

Biyela, S. M. (2018). Marketing mix strategy adaptation in response to global economic crisis at Woolworths in KwaZulu-Natal (Doctoral dissertation). Doi: https://ukzn-dspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/17275

Hancock, P., Robinson, P., & Bazley, M. (2019). Contemporary Accounting: A Strategic Approach for Users 10e. Cengage AU. Doi: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fdnYDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=strategic+course+of+action+of+woolworths&ots=keCPEwImPD&sig=TsVS4pbvA7jl0IYnmxTRUALQ0AE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=strategic%20course%20of%20action%20of%20woolworths&f=false

Borchardt, W., Kamzabek, T., & Lovallo, D. (2022). Behavioral strategy in the wild. Management Research Review, (ahead-of-print). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-12-2021-0876

Du, W. (2022). The Feasibility of the Drone Delivery System for Woolworths. Intelligent Information Management, 14(4), 119-132. DOI: 10.4236/iim.2022.144009

Websites

Woolworths.com.au , 2022. Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online. Available at:https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed on 16/11/2022]

Ksl-training.co.uk, 2022. Available at:https://www.ksl-training.co.uk/free-resources/customer-service/how-to-improve-customer-service/ [Accessed on 16/11/2022]

Appendices 

Appendix 1: marketing strategies of Woolworth

Figure 1: marketing strategies of Woolworth

(Source: https://www.pngwing.com/en/free-png-nlfwa)