Running Head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 0

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: PART B

ORGANIZATIONAL BEST PRACTICE MGT610

NOVEMBER 9, 2019
WALEED AHMED SHAKIR
00275362T
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1

Executive Summary:
• Woolworths, an Australian company founded in the year 1924, is a large retailer that
deals in selling food, groceries, liquors, and other general merchandise.
• The company is also engaged in selling other games and hospitality products. The
company also implemented the process of benchmarking in their organization to target the
prevailing opportunities of the environment.
• For any company to implement an effective benchmarking process in their organization,
it is important that this benchmarking should be best-practice oriented.
• One of the opportunities that can bring the long-term sustainability and success to
Woolworths is identified further, and various benchmarking and milestone setting will be done
that will help the business organization to provide the adequate results and methods to achieve
the set objectives and goals of the business organization.
• It is analyzed that Woolworths has various opportunities in front of them that will help
them to grow and become successful in their business operations.
• But to successfully achieve that opportunity it is important that the organization of
Woolworths should analyze what the important factors that will affect the easy and successful
achievement of these objectives are.
• By analyzing these factors, Woolworths an easily take action and steps to fight with
these factors to ensure that the proper achievement of the opportunity is done.
• Various factors that can affect the successful achievements of the opportunities of
Woolworths are social factors, ethical factors, environmental and technological factors, etc.
• For any company to implement an effective benchmarking process in their organization,
it is important that this benchmarking should be best-practice oriented.
• Based on the identified opportunities, various scenarios are developed that will provide
opportunities for Woolworths.
• These scenarios will ensure the long-run sustainability of Woolworths that will provide
them with various long rum benefits and will ensure the future growth of the organization.
• At last various benchmarks and milestones are set that will ensure that the best
opportunity sceneries that are analyzed is being achieved by the organization of Woolworths.
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• This will make sure that the activities of Woolworths to get the benefit from that
opportunity is according to the set benchmarks and milestones of the Woolworths.
• Apart from this, Woolworths can also measure any kind of deviations by analyzing the
actual efforts and activities they are putting into getting the benefit from that opportunity and
the benchmark that they have set to achieve the benefit from that opportunity.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 3

Table of Contents
Executive Summary:................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 4

Main Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 5

Environmental factors affecting the opportunities ................................................................... 5

Three scenarios .......................................................................................................................... 6

Scenario preferred for the organization's long-term sustainability .......................................... 7

Benchmarks and Milestones ...................................................................................................... 8

Recommendations / Conclusion ................................................................................................ 9

Significance of the analysis ...................................................................................................... 10

Steps to be taken ..................................................................................................................... 10

References ............................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction
In the competitive world of today to become successful, it has become important that
every firm should implement an effective benchmarking technique and process. For any company
to implement an effective benchmarking process in their organization, it is important that this
benchmarking should be best-practice oriented.

Woolworths, an Australian company founded in the year 1924, is a large retailer that deals
in selling food, groceries, liquors, and other general merchandise. The company is also engaged
in selling other games and hospitality products. The company also implemented the process of
benchmarking in their organization to target the prevailing opportunities of the environment. By
implementing the various benchmarking processes, the company identifies the best ways to
perform activities in the organization that will help them to achieve their future goals and
objectives.

The major opportunities or the alternative future that the company identifies are
expanding the business into the new markets, develop the online presence of the business, and
reducing the prices of products. By carefully approaching these opportunities, Woolworths can
easily reach to the global markets and can compete for their various competitors such as Amazon,
Walmart, etc. In today's world, it has become important for every business organization to
effectively and efficiently respond to the changing business needs and the scenarios. The
company that adjusts itself to the changing business environment can guarantee the long-term
success and growth of the organization.

The most preferred alternative that is capable of maximizing the success of Woolworths will help
them to reach more customers and earn the long-run success of the business organizations.
Various benchmarks can also be set to ensure that the maximum benefit of this scenario is
achieved by Woolworths.
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Main Discussion
The opportunity that Woolworths find out to bring success and growth will help the
organization in building a strong and impactful presence, expanding their business to new global
markets and reducing the prices of their products. This will help Woolworths to attract more
customers and build a distinct image of their company.

Environmental factors affecting the opportunities

Every business and its prevailing opportunities in the internal and external environments
are affected by a number of factors (Gaglio, 2018). In the organization of Woolworths also, there
are a number of external and internal factors that have the potential of affecting the opportunity
of Woolworths. Various environmental factors are as follows:

• Social Factors: Social factors are those factors that include factors related to society.
These forces are present in society. Woolworths has identified the opportunity of establishing its
wide presence, but Woolworths has to go through various factors that can affect their business
opportunity. Various social factors exist in the business environment that can affect the
opportunities of the firm. The norms and practices of the society are the biggest factors that
affect the working of any business organization. These also have a negative effect on the
opportunities identified by Woolworths.
• Legal issues: There are a number of laws that deal with monitoring the presence and
practices of business organizations. Any unethical and wrong activity can hamper the overall
benefit that Woolworths can achieve with these identified opportunities. Therefore, a business
organization has to look towards various laws and has to abide by those policies to earn the
advantage from the identified opportunities.
• Financial factors: Apart from various external factors, Woolworths has also to deal with
various internal factors that can affect the organization's capability to take advantage of the
identified opportunities (Ainin et al., 2015). One of such factors is the availability of efficient funds
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 6

with Woolworths. With the inadequate funds, Woolworths won't be able to take advantage of
the identified opportunities.
• Competition: The extent of competition is another important factor that has the
capability of affecting the benefits derived from the opportunities that Woolworths has
identified. The major competitors in this opportunity are Amazon.
• Skills: The organization and management of Woolworths should possess certain skills that
will be required to apply and take advantage of this opportunity in the business organization.
Some of these skills can be technical, while others can be soft skills that will be required to get
adequate benefits from the identified opportunities.

Three scenarios
Woolworths has identified several opportunities that could provide them with success
and growth in the future. But there are a number of factors that affect these opportunities and
create the following future scenarios for the organization:

• Fewer customers: With the lack of digital presence, Woolworths won't be able to retain
their existing customers and won't be able to tap the customers from different parts. As in today's
online and hi-tech world, it has become important that Woolworths should have an online
presence for technology-oriented customers (Jardon & Molodchik, 2017). The online presence
has the capability to attract the maximum customers towards Woolworths as it helps an
organization to define its greatest strength and uniqueness to the general public. The online
presence of the business will provide an advantage to both Woolworths as well as to the
customers as the online conducting of business will provide ease to the customers, and
Woolworths would be able to tap the new market areas and sustain new customers.
• Revenues: In the highly competitive world of today, it has become important for every
organization to have a global presence. This helps a business organization to earn more revenues,
get new customers, and earn great goodwill into the global markets. Woolworths also has to
ensure its global presence as this will help Woolworths to earn more revenues from the
customers of different countries and different markets.
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• Ease in marketing: With the lack of competitive pricing, it becomes difficult for business
organizations to adopt effective marketing strategies and systems. Woolworths has to reduce
the pricing of its products or has to make certain competitive changes in the quality, uses, or the
characteristics of its products so that Woolworths can have effective marketing strategies and
campaigns against its competitors like Amazon.

Scenario preferred for the organization's long-term sustainability

There are several scenarios that can help Woolworths to earn the long-run sustainability
of the business environment. The word sustainability with reference to the business
organizations means the potential growth of the business organization with respect to its
important issues and not to its urgent issues. It means building getting growth in the business
organizations in the long-term so that the business organization can also earn long-run growth
and profitability.

For Woolworths out of the above mentioned and discussed three scenarios, the most
important scenario that can provide the long-run sustainability to Woolworths is expanding its
global reach. In the highly competitive world of today, it has become important that every
business organization expands itself to the global markets. This will make it possible for the
business firms to reach the new markets across the geographies and earn a large customer base.

Expanding business organizations and their operations to new markets is a long-run

process of a business organization. The global presence of Woolworths will help them to reap a
number of benefits in the long run. It will provide long-term sustainability to the organization of
Woolworths. Following are the benefits that Woolworths will earn in the long-term by expanding
their business to the new markets:

• Revenues: In the long-term, the organization of Woolworths will get higher revenues as
compared to the current revenues. With the global presence, the firm will be able to earn more
customer base and offer products and services to a large number of customers.
• Expanded markets: reaching global markets means expanding the operating area of
business firms. Through global reach, Woolworths can serve a large area of the market in the
long run, which will provide them long-run business sustainability and earn more revenues
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• New skills and talent: With the global reach Woolworths will be able to get access and
benefit from the unique skills and capabilities which is difficult to get in the home country. This
will also enable the firm to get more revenues.
• Goodwill: The global reach of Woolworths will earn the long-run goodwill of the firm. This
ensures the long-term sustainability of Woolworths. This will also help Woolworths to call itself
an international organization that has the capability the serve the needs of global customers.

Benchmarks and Milestones

Every business organization uses various benchmarks and milestones to access and
analyze the progress and success of their business organizations. This ensures that the activities
and the steps of the business organization lead to the success and progress of the business
organization in the long-term.

Benchmarking is the process by which an organization access and measure their progress
against the set standards. Woolworths also has to set various benchmarks and milestones which
to measure and access the organization’s progress and growth towards the global reach
(Farahani, Tata & Nordstrom, 2019). Woolworths has found out the opportunity to reach the
global markets to ensure the long-term sustainability of its business organization (Tallman, Luo
& Buckley, 2018). To make this opportunity, successful, Woolworths has to set the benchmarks
and milestones so that they can compare their actions with that of the standards that are
necessary to adopt so as to get the benefit from the global reach. The following are the
benchmarks and milestones that Woolworths can set so as to ensure that Woolworths tap the
opportunity of reaching the global markets:

• Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is an important indicator of business success. If, after buying from the
business organization, the consumers are not satisfied, they definitely won't do it again (Zablah,
et al., 2016). The satisfaction of customers can also be considered as one of the most important
benchmarks or milestones to access a successful global presence.
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• Understanding Culture:
While going global, it is important that Woolworths should understand the different
cultures. As currently, Woolworths is conducting its business in their home country only. They
just know the rules and regulations of their home country, taste, and preferences of the
customers of their home country, legal norms of the home country only. But to successfully
expand itself to the global market, it is important that Woolworths should understand the global
culture. This is termed as another important milestone that Woolworths has to achieve so as to
earn the benefits from the opportunity of global reach.
• Product’s Quality

As the expectations and users of a particular product are different in different countries,
one product may be important and an essential product for a particular country but not may be
of no use to some other country. Therefore, while going global, Woolworths has to ensure that
they are providing the product while ensuring adequate quality according to the standard of a
particular country. This will be termed as another important benchmark and milestone that
Woolworths has to set and has to compare and measure their products attribute in accordance
with these set metrics only.

• Legal Norms:

Woolworths Also has to ensure that they are following the legal norms and regulations
of the particular country or not. It is important for every business organization to follow legal
norms and policies. These are some of the most important benchmark or milestones that
Woolworths has to follow to set a successful business in global markets also. Under this,
Woolworths has to set the list of legal norms and policies that they have to abide by to ensure
the successful global business.

Recommendations / Conclusion
Therefore, it can be said that it has become important that if a business organization
wants to become successful and wants to grow in the future, they have first to identify the
business opportunity that can lead to a successful business.
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Significance of the analysis

Whenever a business organization wants to get benefit from a newly identified
opportunity, they have to set various benchmarks and milestones that will ensure that the
organization's efforts and activities are going in the right way towards the achievement and
fulfillment of that opportunity (Amankwah-Amoah, 2016). The importance of this analysis
towards benchmarking for Woolworths is as follows:

• It will help Woolworths to improve and take the corrective actions whenever their actual
performance does not go with the set benchmarks. This will ensure that the firm is achieving
whatever they have set.
• By setting the right benchmark and setting an adequate milestone, it will provide a
competitive advantage to Woolworths and to the customers as well.

Steps to be taken
Steps that should be taken from here are:

• Following adequate policies: It is important that every business organization should first
set up an adequate benchmark regarding the rules and policies that they have to follow while
setting their business in another country. This will ensure that the organization won’t face any
legal actions from the government of that country.
• Customer satisfaction: Another important benchmark that has to set by every business
organization is regarding the adequate measurement and metrics for the customer's satisfaction.
By setting this benchmark, the firm will be able to analyze what quality and standards they have
to follow so as to ensure maximum customer satisfaction in the global market.
• Culture: It is important for every business organization to follow the adequate cultures
and norms of the country in which they are dealing or are planning to go international.
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References
Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N. I., & Mohd Shuib, N. L. (2015). Factors
influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 115(3), 570-588.

Amankwah-Amoah, J. (2016). Global business and emerging economies: Towards a new

perspective on the effects of e-waste. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change, 105, 20-26.

Farahani, K., Tata, D., & Nordstrom, R. J. (2019). QIN Benchmarks for Clinical Translation of
Quantitative Imaging Tools. Tomography, 5(1), 1.

Gaglio, C. M. (2018). Opportunity identification: review, critique, and suggested research

directions. In Reflections and Extensions on Key Papers of the First Twenty-Five Years
of Advances (pp. 1-47). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Jardon, C., & Molodchik, M. (2017). What types of intangible resources are important for
emerging market firms when going international?. JEEMS Journal of East European
Management Studies, 22(4), 579-595.

Tallman, S., Luo, Y., & Buckley, P. J. (2018). Business models in global competition. Global
Strategy Journal, 8(4), 517-535.

Zablah, A. R., Carlson, B. D., Donavan, D. T., Maxham III, J. G., & Brown, T. J. (2016). A cross-
lagged test of the association between customer satisfaction and employee job
satisfaction in a relational context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), 743.