Exploring Woolworths Value Proposition Plan

Question

Task: You are required to write a 2000-word report for a novel value proposition within an existing business or organisation. You must use appropriate headings to structure the body of the report.  

Your report must demonstrate:

1. Logical and persuasive articulation of: the problem to be solved; problem insight; a portfolio of generated solution concepts; solution selection analysis; novel value proposition; targeted customers; competitive advantage and strategic fit (this includes elements 1 to 4 in the disciplined entrepreneurship canvas by Aulet (2017, p. xviii) and all elements in the value proposition canvas by Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, and Smith (2014, pp. 8-9)).
2. Logical and persuasive assessment of critical assumptions and uncertainties related to: customer desirability; technical feasibility; and financial viability.
3. Logical and persuasive argumentation for the selection of the innovation tools and techniques used to support the report findings and recommendations.

Minimum five (5) tools and techniques must be applied from the provided list of tools and techniques.

1. Logical and persuasive application of the selected innovation tools and techniques used to support the report findings and recommendations. Minimum five (5) tools and techniques must be applied from the provided list of tools and techniques.
2. Candid and critical self-reflection about assessment 1 tasks including: a reflection on the development of personal innovation capabilities and practices; identification of own personal strengths and weaknesses; supported with suggestions for self-improvement.
3. Clear flow of thought throughout the report with: a convincing executive summary; clear and succinct purpose described in the introduction; relevant structure and content within the body of the report; and a clear and succinct conclusion.
4. Critical review skills and integration of relevant academic and professional literature. A minimum of ten (10) academic and professional references must be used.
5. Appropriate in-text referencing and reference list.
6. Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling. Appropriate report format with good use of bullet points, illustrations and figures. Within ±10% of the word limit for report, excluding references and appendices: 2000 words.

Select a business or organisation impacted by the advances of a technology and/or sustainability trend which drives industry innovation.

• Business such as, but not limited to:
•  
• CommBank (banking)
• Alipay (online payment platform)
• Uber (transport)
• Maersk (international shipping)
• McDonalds (fast food restaurant)
• Volvo Cars (automobiles)
• Lego (toys)
• IKEA (furniture)
• Toll (transport)
• Qantas (airline)
• Procter & Gamble (consumer goods)
• Cochlear (electronics - hearing implant)
• Danfoss (industrial products)
• Boeing (aeroplanes)
• Woolworths (supermarket)
• Government, not-for-profit, such as but not limited to:
• A business or organisation that you are or have been employed at and therefore know well. It is important that no confidential information is included in the submitted report.
• If in doubt about the selection of your business and organisation you must consult your local lecturer.

Select a technology and/or sustainability trend driving industry innovation to inspire development of a novel value proposition.

• Technology trends such as, but not limited to (Manyika et al., 2013):
•  
• Artificial intelligence (Davenport & Ronanki, 2018; Iansiti & Lakhani, 2020; McKinsey Global Institute, 2018)
• Robots (Tilley, 2017)
• Smart-connected-products (Porter & Heppelmann, 2014, 2015)
• Blockchain (Carson, Giulio Romanelli, Walsh, & Zhumaev, 2018; Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017)
• Augmented, mixed and virtual reality (Porter & Heppelmann, 2017)
• Big data (Hagiu, A & Wright, 2020)
• Connectivity (Grijink et al., 2020)
• Health-care (Pearl & Madvig, 2020)

Answer

Executive Summary
The Project mainly focuses on the technical issues faced by the Woolworths through a detailed Woolworths value proposition plan. Woolworths is a leading brand in the retail sector of Australia. It has a vast number of customers who frequently complain about the technical issues in the system. The Company has gone through a massive loss due to a lack of the latest tools. The Company also does not have proper leaders to handle such situations. In this Project, the Woolworths value proposition plan been discussed to mitigate the issues and extract the benefits of using the latest tools.

Introduction
The current study sheds light on the Woolworths value proposition plan. Woolworth is a leading brand in the retail sector of Australia. They deal both offline and online to reach to a large number of clients. Currently, the Company is suffering from several problems due to a lack of proper technological tools. In this Project, the latest technological tools will be discussed, along with the Woolworths value proposition plan. It will help the Company to meet its client's needs adequately. As a result, the sale of the Company will increase in the retail market. Woolworths can make a significant stand in the retail sector of Australia.

Problem insight
a. Portfolio of generated solution concepts

b. solution selection analysis
Blockchain Technology is a useful tool for addressing the technical issues in Woolworths. In the retail industry, there is a considerable contribution to blockchain technology. It helps the organization to track their stocks and categorize according to the availability (Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, & Wang, 2017). They can control all the operations through blockchain technology. Blockchain Technology is mainly a ‘Distributed Ledger Technology’ (DLT) that provides transparent solutions for the Company. According to the Woolworths value proposition plan, using Blockchain in Woolworths will help to organize the operations in an integrative way. The Company can implement specific management to do the different operations of the Company.

c. Woolworths value proposition plan and benefits (value proposition canvas)

Product & Services

• This block of Woolworths value proposition plan outlines that the purpose of the Organization is to sell their products all over the world. They also aim to increase their growth in the retail sector of Australia.
• The latest technologies will help them to reach a more significant number of customers in the world.
• The products mainly comprised of grocery items that need to be sold in the market. The Company always sells their products at a reasonable price without affecting their sale.

Gain Creators

• Including attractive discounts on the products will attract more customers towards the Organization. It will help to increase the sale of the Company.
• As per the Gain Creators segment of Woolworths value proposition plan, adding attractive features on the website of the Company will engage customers. The customers will spend more time on the website. It will help to increase the overall growth of the Company.
• Ease of Access is done when the Company has a user-friendly Application for the Customers. The customers can feel free to use such applications and provide order according to their needs.

Pain Relievers

• The use of the latest technologies like blockchain will help to mitigate the issues and provide an effective solution for the Company. Blockchain technology will provide a transparent method that can increase the flexibility of the Company's website.
• For addressing technical problems, the Company has to maintain the tools that they are implementing. Maintenance of Software increases its lifespan effectively. It also helps to make the Software secure from un unauthorized access.
• The threshold of the Organization can be increased by mitigating the constraints from the Company. Improvement in different aspects of the Company will make the overall growth of the Organization.

Gains

• Through this Woolworths value proposition plan, the Company can fulfill its desires. The Company can make active growth in the international market.
• The technical issues will get mitigated through this Project. It will benefit the Company effectively to make sustainable growth.
• Implementing effective processes will decrease the time for processing the Product. The Product will easily reach the clients in a short time. It will result in customer satisfaction.
• Implementing cost-effective techniques will save the considerable cost of the Company while processing the Product. It will increase the sales of the Company effectively.

Customer Jobs

• The Customer will get a transparent and effective method by which they can search their products easily. The Product will be user-friendly so that the Customer can easily understand the processes of the Application. It will also motivate the elderly customers that entirely depend on online tools for their daily requirements.

Pains

• The biggest problem that is faced by the Company is several technical issues in the system. These technical issues as discussed through the Woolworths value proposition plan have led to an imbalance in the system of the Organization. As a result, various conflicts have occurred in the Company.
• Due to the technical issues as stated in the Woolworths value proposition plan, inconvenience has been suffered by both the customers and the Company officials. Communication gaps increased, and as a result, the client turnover occurs in the Organization.
• Conflicts and lack of leadership goals, along with technical issues, are the primary annoyance of the Company. These annoyances can be mitigated by adopting technical methods to increase the performance of the Organization.

d. Target customer
The area of the target customer of the Company is large as all the people need grocery products for their daily living. Woolworths is a big name in the retail sector of Australia. Thus, huge Customers can trust this Company for their daily commodities (Roy, Balaji, Quazi, & Quaddus, 2018). For attracting more customers, the Company should implement the latest technologies in its system.

e. Competitive advantage and strategic fit
The listed factors basis the Woolworths value proposition plan need to be upgraded to gain over the competitors. They are listed below: -

The analysis of the SWOT technique can determine the strategic Fit of Woolworths.

Logical and persuasive assessment of critical assumptions and uncertainties
f.customer desirability: Woolworth lack in proper techniques to meet the customer desirability. Every customer desire to place its orders through user-friendly Application. The existing Application of the Company is not user friendly to satisfy customer needs (Nejad, Apanasevic, Markendahl, & Arvidsson, 2016). The Customer has to go through a complicated process to place their order on the Company site.

g.Technical feasibility: Technical Feasibility can be achieved in the system by using technological tools. The Company should always maintain a feasible technical structure to meet its client’s needs (Mao, Liu, Zhang, & Deng, 2016). The Stakeholder' expectations are also directly linked with technical feasibility.

h.financial viability: For surviving in the highly competitive market, the Company must follow some financial rules that could be effective for them (Tatham, Wu, Kovács, & Butcher, 2017). The Company should recruit financial experts to mitigate this uncertainty from the Organization.

Can you deliver a logical and persuasive argumentation for the selection of the innovation tools and techniques considering the Woolworths value proposition plan?
The innovative tool that can be used by Woolworths is Blockchain Technology.

Blockchain Technology is mainly Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that uses the method of cryptography to produce any digital assets or process transparent and unalterable. Through the use of blockchain technology, the document is not copied; it gets distributed throughout the network (Beck, Avital, Rossi, & Thatcher, 2017). It results in easy access to document by the users. Blockchain Technology always follows a transparent method that will not confuse users.

This technology follows three critical thoughts of technology. They are mainly-

1. The digital assets or the processes must be distributed throughout the system in place of transferring or copying.
2. The process should be decentralized means access to the system process must be done in real-time thoroughly.
3. The transparency must be maintained in the system. As a result, the user can trust the process or digital asset.

The working process of the blockchain is comprising of three essential concepts. They are namely-

1. Blocks- The block is the crucial part that consists of three elements- data, nonce, and hash. When the first block is created, the cryptographic hash is generated by the nonce(Pilkington, 2016). Then the data is considered to be permanently tied with the hash and nonce until it is mined in the process.
2. Nodes- The Nodes do the decentralization process. It is an electronic device that keeps records of blockchain for the functioning of its network.
3. Miners- Miners are considered to be experts in the mining process who use integrative Software for mining. The data is mined by solving complex mathematical functions. It is done to find the hash for generating the hash function(Sharma, 2017). All the blocks of the process are mined one by one to set the codes of the change management. Then the change is implemented in the network. It results in forming the desired Product of the blockchain. 

Logical and persuasive Application of the selected innovation tools and techniques used to support the report findings and recommendations
The Project on Woolworths value proposition plan aims to find a suitable solution for mitigating the technical issues of Woolworths. The purpose of the findings is to evaluate the suitable technical tools that will address the technical faults of the Company (Zheng, Xie, Dai, Chen, & Wang, 2017). The previous contribution of Blockchain Technology in the Retail Industry indicates that it will be the best technology for Woolworth. The technology has been applied logically under the team of experts for addressing the issues of Woolworths.

Critical self-reflection
i. A reflection on the development of personal innovation capabilities and practices

j. Identification of own personal strengths and weaknesses

k. Suggestion for self-improvement
The list of recommendations for self-improvement based on the current Woolworths value proposition plan is given below: -

1. Technologies must be updated according to the trend. It helps the Company to get potential customers. It will help in the rapid growth of the Company.
2. The Company must recruit experts to analyze the tools. Recruiting developers for developing the Software will help the Company to be updated according to the latest trend in the market.
3. The Company should recruit higher-skilled employees for doing effective operations. The process of delivering goods should not hamper. It will lead to negative feedback in the market. The Company has to face customer turnover that could bring a huge loss to the Company.

Bibliography
Aulet, B. (2017). Disciplined entrepreneurship workbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Beck, R., Avital, M., Rossi, M., & Thatcher, J. (2017). Blockchain technology in business and information systems research. Woolworths value proposition plan Springer.

Giri, A. (2016). The role and impact of e-commerce on consumer behavior. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, 390.

Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N., & Papadopoulos, T. (2017). Information technology for competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains: A review. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 99, 14-33.

Mao, H., Liu, S., Zhang, J., & Deng, Z. (2016). Information technology resource, knowledge management capability, and competitive advantage: The moderating role of resource commitment. International Journal of Information Management, 36(6), 1062-1074.

Nejad, M., Apanasevic, T., Markendahl, J., & Arvidsson, N. (2016). Stakeholders' expectations of mobile payment in retail: lessons from Sweden. International Journal of Bank Marketing.

Pilkington, M. (2016). Blockchain technology: principles and applications. In M. Pilkington, Research handbook on digital transformations. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Roy, S., Balaji, M., Quazi, A., & Quaddus, M. (2018). Predictors of customer acceptance of and resistance to smart technologies in the retail sector. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 42, 147-160.

Sharma, S. (2017). Blockchain Technology Review and Its Scope. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) Volume, 4.

Simshauser, P. (2019). Lessons from Australia’s National Electricity Market 1998-2018: the strengths and weaknesses of the reform experience.

Tatham, P., Wu, Y., Kovács, G., & Butcher, T. (2017). Supply chain management skills to sense and seize opportunities. Woolworths value proposition plan The International Journal of Logistics Management.

Zheng, Z., Xie, S., Dai, H., Chen, X., & Wang, H. (2017). An overview of blockchain technology: Architecture, consensus, and future trends. 2017 IEEE international congress on big data (BigData Congress) (pp. 557-564). IEEE.