Case Study On Woolworths Innovation Strategy

Question

Task: Students will undertake an analysis of an organisational case study. The chosen organisation is Woolworths Supermarket. The case study is selected due to recent proposed changes and reforms for implementation by the company.
Students are required to undertake the following in developing responses to this assessment task:

Review and analyse the most recent annual report of the company. A company annual report typically outlines the organisations performance, challenges, organisational strategy and governance arrangements.
Review both the company's internal news and other media releases that relate to the company's performance, leadership, human resources and changes. Students are also encouraged to review other documents available on the company's website to understand their performance and contributing factors.
Analyse and evaluate Woolworths Supermarket current situation focusing on key change management theories, models and concepts.

Once you have reviewed and analysed the various information sources prepare a report which analyses the following issues. Use key change management models, concepts and theories as an analytical frame.

Answer

Executive summary
There has been an analysis of Woolworths innovation strategy to know its changes and reform for the past and future. There has been the implementation of the change in terms of increasing the pickup location of 2900 stores. The future implementation is for innovation of the stores in Australia and New Zealand along with opening 11 new stores. There are factors like customer experience and profitability which are driving the change. Development strategies for human resources are followed by discussing the benefits of change and preparing for it. The future strategies to manage the global business environment are dealt with technology like MarketDial. It has been found that it is necessary to increase the customer experience with the business. It is recommended to the company to take the periodic innovation to increase the business performance.

Introduction
Changes are the crucial parts of Woolworths innovation strategy that reforms the organization which drives it to a better future. There could be an efficient impact of several resources when a change or reform is adopted. This change and reform have been analysed for Woolworth which is a prominent company in the retail sector of Australia. There could be greater advantages of this practice on organizations and their growth strategies. Changes are the universal fact and any company could not deny changing its organizational structure according to the need for time. There will be a discussion on Woolworths innovation strategy for the changes and reforms of the company, factors that are driving this and strategies involved in human resource development (Woolworthsgroup, 2019).

Analysis
a) Key changes and reforms implemented and future implementation
Implemented reforms and changes
Rogers' Change Theory

woolworths innovation strategy

Figure 1: Lewin's Change Management Model
(source: Kurt Lewin, 2000)

Rogers' Change Theory states that there needs to be interest, awareness, implementation, evaluation, and adoption in the changes and reforms that have been taken place and going to take place in the organization. There could be a significant impact of this on the vision of the changes are reforms. This theory comprises of all five steps is the modification of Lewin's change theory. This theory implemented by Woolworths innovation strategy is useful in long-term projects and could make a significant impact on the organization. This will be successful when best analysed and followed correctly by the people (Breslin, 2016).

The change that has been successful by Woolworth is to increase the number of the pickup location. This has been implemented for the region of New Zealand and Australia. The target was to cover the 2900 stores in the collective of these two regions. This has been done for these two regions supermarkets along with BIG W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS. The major scope for doing this change is to enhance the connections, convenient and personalized customer experiences (Lawrence, Dickie & Woods, 2018). the use of Roger's theory is significant in order to implement the change step by step. There has been the use of the interest which is for the customers, awareness in bringing the better connection, implementation, evaluation of the best networks in the forms of New Zealand and other regions and adoption of the change in order to bring the best for the company. (Woolworthsgroup, 2019)

Future implementation proposal
Again, for the changes and reforms, the biggest reforms that have been decided by the company are to evolve the renewal program of the stores. This will be done for the transformation of New Zealand and Australia food. According to the Woolworths innovation strategy, there will be a total of 80 renewals and there will be 11 new stores in the region of Australia and New Zealand (Curtain et al, 2017). There will be upgradation of the 54 stores in the proposed plan of reform and change. Woolworth operates in a highly competitive market facing competition with Coles, Aldi, and other competitors. This is the reason it is continuous in its change activities to increase the customer experience and ultimately the profit. [Referred to appendix 1]
b) Factors driving change
Lewin's Change Management Model

woolworths innovation strategy

Figure 2: Lewin's Change Management Model
(source: Kurt Lewin, 2000)

The model was developed by Kurt Lewin involving three major steps. These are changing, unfreezing and refreezing. According to Lewin the primary thing requited the change is the perception that the change is required and need. The same is followed by Woolworths innovation strategy (Hairon & Tan, 2017). It was determined the previous change that there is a requirement to increase the mobility of the store by increasing the pick-up location. After that, the second thing in this theory is marching towards the desired limit of the behaviour and solidifying the behaviours with the norm. The second step in this theory is changing which bringing and introducing the change which has been done by Woolworth in its previous change.

The factors that drive these changes are:

Increasing the customer experience- this is being the major or the prominent reason for the change and reforms. Customers are regarded as the asset of the company. They are the reason for which the Woolworths innovation strategy has been implemented to sustain the market. This is the need of the time because there are several competitors who are ready to grab the number 1 position. Coles is being the major competitor and both the company has a duopoly in the market (Persson & Napier, 2018). There could be a greater advantage of the activity as it could provide the chance to better among the competitors and in the eyes of the customer.

Competitive advantage- again there is another factor that drives the need of changes in Woolworths innovation strategy. This is the competitive advantage that Woolworth faces stiff competition from its competitors. It has become necessary for companies to join the club of competition (Peercy et al, 2017). It is the only that could help to survive in the competitive market. There is only one rule for the industry that, the survival of the fittest.

Profitability- it is required to implement effective Woolworths innovation strategy to make its presence in the market. An amount of the normal profit is required to survive in the industry. Thus, these changes and reforms are supposed to be an advantage part in order to bring the variance in the customer experience with better service (Bingham & Burch, 2017).

c) How human resource development strategies are impactful for Woolworths innovation strategy?
Woolworth is known for its best convenience, quality and valuable service. There is a total of 300 stores and counting. The objective of the company is fulfilled by its valuable team members which counts 201000. They serve a total of 29 million consumers or customers with their wide range of brands. This is the major source of development for the company as it thinks about the development of their team members or the human resources (Desimone, Wolford & Hill, 2016). Lewin's theory has proposed that employees need to be told about the change and proper support needs to be given to them. This could help to reduce the chances of the non-compliance with the change.

There needs to be a discussion with the employees about the Woolworths innovation strategy that is going to pertain. The discussion could involve the ethical practice that comes under the cat of communication. It is said to be the ethics that need to follow by the organization in the second step of the Lewin's model. This could help to describe the benefits of the change and bringing the best for to the entire resources of the organization (Richards, Kjærnes & Vik, 2016). There are real changes takes place in the change step of Lewin's model. there re communication often, empower actin and dispel rumours. The steps that have been Woolworth in this practice are:

Review of the current practice- Woolworth is determined to review the current practice in the organization. This helps to know the compliance of the human resources with the norms and their nature and behaviour towards the norms. After verifying this they implement the changes and reforms with the support of the strategies for human resource development.

Describing the benefit and preparing for the change- this is the major Woolworths innovation strategy for human resource development under the new compliance. Describing the benefit of the change, preparing the human resource for the change and many other activities are being performed by the company (Sadowski, & Baer-Nawrocka, 2016). The aspect f the reform or changes are being discussed with the employees. This could help them to perform better and have a better disbursement of work by the employees. [Referred to appendix 2]
d) Future strategies and global business environment
The future strategies of the company to innovate their existing stores are compiled by opening 11 new stores. There has been a consideration for New Zealand along with the area of Australia. This enables the company to perform on the global market. There are several things that are managed by the company under the roof of change and reforms (Maeda, Tokimatsu & Mori, 2015). The major aspect of this activity involved in the Woolworths innovation strategy is to bring the global platform convenient for the company. The 11 new stores will the part of the changing structure of the organization. It will be opened according to the requirement of the areas followed by the people of that area.

There is the use of the MarketDial software in order to bring optimization of the stores along with controlling the stores (Pollard et al, 2018). Thus, the new changes composed of the technologies that are helping the company to perform on the global market with ease. There is the use of the fast decisions I the change prices of the future reforms f he company. It has been analysed by the company that deficiency in investing the innovation, there was resistance in the business performance and customer experience. There is an efficient impact of the strategies for converging the reforms on the global platform.

The use of technology in a Woolworths innovation strategy is the major aspect that has been followed by the company. They used to align their changes with the technology to manage the global business environment. There is flexibility in the changes which could fit in the global business environment (Anderson, 2015). It could help to manage the periodic requirement in the reform and changes that could benefit the company. (Woolworthsgroup, 2019)

e) Reflection
The major learning after analysing the case study of Woolworths innovation strategy is that it is necessary to be informed about the change. This could help the employees or the human resource t prepared for the change. This could help them to understand the need for change and bring flexibility in the change. It has been learned that human resources could play a significant role in bringing the change ad reform into existence. There are 210000 employees of Woolworth who use to keep track of the number 1 retail company. They have provided stiff competition to their major competitors like Coles which used to follow the strategies adopted by Woolworth.

There has been a greater advantage of taking insight from the theories while implementing Woolworths innovation strategy. Theories which have been used for this paper on Woolworths innovation strategy have helped to understand the aspect of the change and reform for Woolworth more clearly. There is a great understanding of Lewin's theory. It has proposed that there are three steps that are equally important for any change and reform taking into an organization. These are changing, refreeze and unfreeze. Change in the major step under which the change is implemented and employees need to be aware of the new changes. There are several cases that are an employee as change and reform by the company. The implemented change is the increasing the ick up location for the 2900 stores. This has been done for increasing the customer experience and increasing the connection with them. Another future change and reform are the innovation or the renewal of the stores. There will be 80 renewals among which 110 will be the new stores for the company. This is being done for changing New Zealand and Australia food. It has been understood that to be in the number 1 in the race it is necessary to increase the customer experience ad build relationship with them.

Recommendation
It is recommended that in order to boost the Woolworths innovation strategy, the company should take the periodic innovation programs. This is s because this is the need of the time. There are decreased customer experience and business perforce for the company. There has been a decreased profit for the year 2017 by 2 million dollars. This is the reason for walking f the customer to other stores to fulfil their wants. It is recommended to the company to manage the budget before implementing the changes and reforms. Proper planning for the projects could help to better manage the resources of the company. There could be optimum utilization of the resources and increased chances of competitive advantage.

Conclusion
Thus, it could be concluded that Woolworths innovation strategy is considered as an important aspect of the company. It could not be denied by any organization. It has been better understood with the Rogers change models of Lewin's models. There are several steps involved in both which could help to successfully implement the change. The company has to take the responsibility of for human resource development and managing the global business platform. This has been done by the company with the help of technology.

Reference list
Book
Breslin, S. (2016). China and the global political economy. Woolworths innovation strategy Ger: Springer. Retrieved on 20.09.2019, from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.473.5950&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Journals
Bingham, A. J., & Burch, P. (2017). Navigating middle of the road reforms through collaborative community. Democracy and Education, 25(2), 1. Retrieved on 27.09.2019, from: https://democracyeducationjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1292&context=home

Curtain, R., Dornan, M., Howes, S., & Sherrell, H. (2017). Backpackers v. seasonal workers: learning from the contrasting temporary migration outcomes in Australian and New Zealand Horticulture. Seasonal Workers: Learning from the Contrasting Temporary Migration Outcomes in Australian and New Zealand Horticulture (November 23, 2017). Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper, (65). Retrieved on 22.09.2019, from: http://devpolicy.org/publications/discussion_papers/DP%2065%20-%20Backpackers%20v%20seasonal%20workers.pdf

Desimone, L. M., Wolford, T., & Hill, K. L. (2016). practice: A practical conceptual framework. AERA Open, 2(4), 2332858416679599. Retrieved on 28.09.2019, from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858416679599

Hairon, S., & Tan, C. (2017). Professional learning communities in Singapore and Shanghai: Implications for teacher collaboration. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 47(1), 91-104. Woolworths innovation strategy Retrieved on 23.09.2019, from: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/bitstream/10497/20426/1/Compare-47-1-91.pdf

Hall, R., & Cousins, B. (2018). Exporting contradictions: the expansion of South African agrarian capital within Africa. Globalizations, 15(1), 12-31. Retrieved on 24.09.2019, from: https://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10566/3355/Hall_Exporting-contradictions_2017_.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=n

Lawrence, M., Dickie, S., & Woods, J. (2018). Woolworths innovation strategy Do nutrient-based front-of-pack labelling schemes support or undermine food-based dietary guideline recommendations? Lessons from the Australian Health Star Rating System. Nutrients, 10(1), 32. Retrieved on 21.09.2019, from: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/10/1/32/pdf

Peercy, M. M., Martin-Beltrán, M., Yazan, B., & DeStefano, M. (2017). “Jump in any time”: How teacher struggle with curricular reform generates opportunities for teacher learning. Action in Teacher Education, 39(2), 203-217. Retrieved on 26.09.2019, from: https://yazan.people.ua.edu/uploads/4/0/7/4/40744017/peercy_m._m._martin https://democracyeducationjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1292&context=home beltran_m._yazan_b.___destefano_m.__2017__jump_in_any_time.pdf

Persson, M. E., & Napier, C. J. (2018). RJ Chambers on Securities and Obscurities: Making a Case for the Reform of the Law of Company Accounts in the 1970s. Abacus, 54(1), 36-65. . Retrieved on 25.09.2019, from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/abac.12123

Online article
Anderson, M. D. (2015). Beyond food security to realizing food rights in the US. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 113-122. Retrieved on 3.10.2019, from: http://www.academia.edu/download/31793671/2013_Beyond_food_security_to_realizing_the_right_to_food_-_FINAL.pdf

Maeda, M., Tokimatsu, K., & Mori, S. (2015). A global supply-demand balance model to assess potential CO2 emissions and woody biofuel supply from increased crop production. Energy Procedia, 75, 2865-2870. Woolworths innovation strategy Retrieved on 1.10.2019, from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610215013430/pdf?md5=1e3438343790a1b41e8ab2f2ee02d7a0&pid=1-s2.0-S1876610215013430-main.pdf

Pollard, C., Mackintosh, B., Campbell, C., Kerr, D., Begley, A., Jancey, J., ... & Booth, S. (2018). Charitable food systems’ capacity to address food insecurity: An Australian capital city audit. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(6), 1249. Retrieved on 2.10.2019, from: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1249/pdf

Richards, C., Kjærnes, U., & Vik, J. (2016). Woolworths innovation strategy Food security in welfare capitalism: Comparing social entitlements to food in Australia and Norway. Journal of Rural Studies, 43, 61-70. Retrieved on 29.09.2019, from: https://ruralis.brage.unit.no/ruralis-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2485109/Richards+Kj%C3%A6rnes+and+Vik+2016+Food+security+in+welfare+capitalism.pdf?sequence=2

Sadowski, A., & Baer-Nawrocka, A. (2016). Food self-sufficiency of the European Union countries–energetic approach. Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, (2 [40]). Retrieved on 30.09.2019, from: https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-1f063b47-c3e7-43dc-b444-9c669b31041b/c/44_2_2016_407.pdf

Website
Woolworthsgroup, (2019), Together. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT, Woolworths innovation strategy Retrieved on 4.10.2019, from: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/195396_annual-report-2018.pdf

Appendices

Appendix 1

woolworths innovation strategy