Corporate Communication Strategy

Question: Discuss about the Corporate Communication Strategy. Answer: Introduction The purpose of the report is to examine the responsibilities taken up by Woolworths to protect the environment in the end and the communication strategy used by the company. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the relationship between the companies in the countries in which they are operating with the citizens of the country (Hack, Kenyon Wood, 2014). To put it simply, it is the relationship between the company and the local residents where it operates. It also includes the relationship between stakeholders and the company. It includes the proper utilization of resources that are naturally available in its production process, the competitive factors in its own organization as well as with the market, creating employment opportunities in the local community where the firm is operating, distributing the profits of the firm amongst its workers and taking care of the employees (Pompper, 2013). The principles of CSR are sustainability, accountability and transparency. Sustainability is concerned with the actions that are taken in the present to preserve the resources for the future generation. Since resources are finite, every step must be taken in order to conserve whatever is left so that the future is not compromised (Rahim, 2013). Accountability is concerned with the organization recognizing its external environment and takes action based on it. It also reports the actions to its external stakeholders about the effects of the action that is being taken. It takes into account the developing, reporting and recording of the performances and the value added benefits that the organization gets out of these actions. Transparency is used in the information base so that the background details of the employees and knowledge is shared among the workers (Yoo Chon, 2013). Spatial externalization It helps to identify the costs that are incurred in order to transfer some other entities at a given time period. Some examples of this externalization are: Pollution causing agents add costs towards the society as whole; The disposal of wastes adds to the cost as the task is given to others to dispose the wastes; Firing of employees in a company also involves huge costs as the consumers have to wait in a queue for their time to come (Brock, Xepapadeas Yannacopoulos, 2014). Temporal externalization The cost is incurred to transfer the entities that are present in the current time in to the future. It leads to creation of values through accounting. Some examples of this type are: Failing to dispose of the wastes and keeping it as an investment for the future; Polluting agents that needs to be cleaned up are kept for the future; Unsustainable use of resources can leave the future generations wanting more the resource (Shroff, Verdi Yost, 2016). Company Background Woolworths Holding Limited started on December 5, 1924 as Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement in Imperial Arcade of Sydney, Australia. In 1927, the company opened a second store in Queen Street, Brisbane thus becoming a chain. During the Great Depression period all, the companies were having huge problems but Woolworths continued to grow for some reason. By 1955, the company opened its self-help stores where the customers could select their products and pay at cash, which was staged up front. The objectives of the company are to build a strong customer base and to have a store-led culture. To generate sales sustainably in the food section of the company so that the consumers can have access to products. The company has also diversified and provided assistance to the drinks business of the company ("The Woolworths Story - Woolworths Group", 2017). The strategies taken up the company is that they place their customers at the top of their priority list, listens to what the customers have to say and clearing out their queries and creating new techniques so that the customers can shop easily from their brand. CSR activities of Woolworths The year 2013 and 2014 proved out to be very useful for the company as they became the leader in food retailing sector according to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and was the first Australian company to achieve that feat. The CSR activities of the company are: The company employs around 198,000 people and provide them job security and number of opportunities to identify the potential of the employees. The supplier-retailer chain of the company aims to work fairly and collaboratively thus maintaining a mutual respect and gain for one another. The company has around 441,000 shareholders, the company offers them long term, and value creating benefits (Corporate Responsibility - Woolworths Group, 2017). The environmental benefits in terms of CSR are: To reduce the emission of carbon globally by 40% by 2015 25% reduction of carbon emission due to the company trucks that deliver the products To ensure that the wastage of food in minimal or nil by 2015 To develop and sustain other policies such as ethical sourcing, paper reduction, pulp, timber, pulp and paper reduction and welfare of animals to decrease their input of fish and seafood ("Environment and sustainability - Woolworths Group", 2017). Stakeholders of Woolworths According to Young et al., (2014) the company gives a patient hearing and understands the problems and requirements of the key stakeholders in order to be successful in their venture. The customers and the shareholders are given priority because without them the company cannot survive and thrive in the cutthroat competitive market. The employees are well taken care of and the company the necessary boosts that are required by them to bring out their best in favor of the company. Employees of the firm The company employs around 198,000 workers from different cultural background. They all work in harmony and peace to serve the company at its best. They play a huge role in the decision process of the firm as they interact with the consumers on a regular basis. The valuable feedbacks provided by the workers ensure the firm to satisfy the consumers plying according to their needs and demands, which keeps changing on a daily basis. The company derives many benefits from this process and sees that the employees are satisfied with the security of the job that they are doing, as it will give them the motivation to work with a positive attitude (Employees - Woolworths Group, 2017). Consumers of the firm Woolworths Limited gives top priority to its consumers, as they are the ones for the success of the company. Without the trust of the consumers, the company would not have survived for so long. The company also does great things to ensure that the consumers are happy with their products and delivery system. They are constantly developing new things to satisfy the needs of its consumers so that the dealings can be made more easy, simplistic, and hassle-free. The management team of the company ensures that the feedbacks given by the consumers are looked in to very seriously and necessary steps be taken to make the consumers satisfied. Suppliers to the firm According to Arli et al., (2013) the reputation of Woolworths depends on the quality of the food that the consumers purchase from them. The chain cannot be complete without the suppliers who supply raw materials to the company. The interest of the suppliers needs to be managed by the company in order to procure the fresh products that are available in the market. Issue Management This type of management process deals with identifying and resolving of issues related to suppliers problems, technical failures and the shortage of raw materials. It has a negative impact on the company as they hinder the production process. The issue, if unnoticed can cause conflicts in the company, which results in delaying or failure in the process of delivery. It is very important to identify the issues and prioritize them according to the level of urgencies (AO Dos Santos, Svensson Padin, 2014). Identification of issue Identification of the issue is of major concern because it helps to prevent the disaster that is awaiting the firm. Issues can either be from outside such as social, economical, or political and can be from inside the company such as the business impact on the society or the result derived from a new product. These issues can be identified through numerous SWOT analyses and thorough planning process in the company (McDonald, 2013). Therefore, to identify the issues the company needs to keep certain things in mind. They are: The impact that is created by the product of the company, its processes and programs and the use of the product by the consumers that is available in the market. The expectations of the stakeholders regarding the way the company will perform in a chosen market. The gap between the stakeholders and their expectations with that of the actual impact the company will have relating to the performance in the market (McDonald, 2013). Prioritizing the issue It is next to impossible to look into all the problems at the same time, so the company has to prioritize the issues and allocate resources accordingly. Four major factors fall in this category, namely: The problem arising from the perception of the customers affect the value of the company and the reputation of the brand name (Jones, 2016). The revenue section issues needs to be solved immediately as the profits of the company depend on this section. To operate in the open market and issues regarding the regulatory body actions, the fines and the penalties all needs to be sorted to make progress in the company. Issues regarding legality of the company such as the pending court cases and the litigations that are filed against the company. The reputation and financial criteria is further divided in to low impact, medium impact and high impact respectively according to the degree of impact the issue has on the company (Frederick, Hawryszkiewycz Kang, 2014). Issues of Woolworths The recent times have seen the downfall of the company due to the various activities the company has undertaken. It was not liked by the people because of which the company suffered a major setback. The chief executive of the company, Grant OBrien had a disappointment as he manipulated the figures of the quarterly reports that the company publishes. It is also facing stiff competition in the fresh food sector, which the company leads in the market, and for this reason consumers wanted more of Woolworths (Woolworths, 2017). One of the major reason for the failure of the company was to do the Cheap Cheap advertisement similar to the Down Down advertisement that was done by Coles. The ad was a huge flop in the market in spite of the ad educating the people about the price conscious and the low prices that they would be offering. The brand lost its image of the best fresh food produce available in the eyes of the consumers as they thought that the ad made the brand lacking in opportuniti es (Frederick, Hawryszkiewycz Kang, 2014).. The ad campaign had an impact on the sales of the company as well. The third quarter of the year 2015 saw an increase in the food and liquor sales y just 0.2 percent while in the fourth quarter of that same year the sales dropped to 0.7 percent respectively. The company had Jamie Oliver, a British cook as its brand ambassador as opposed to Curtis Stone for Coles as one of its models in business.. The company did not think it fit to include the cook in the portfolio and focused more on the ad campaign in order to compete against Coles. The experts felt that the company was keeping the prices very low in the market bargaining their own profit margins that were unsustainable to counter attack the competitions that the foreign companies were bringing to Australia. The Woolworths Company was even accused in bullying the suppliers to have their products discounted by the company so that they could fund their Cheap Cheap ad campaign. The suppliers were given a deadline to make the payments and many supplier companies paid from $70,000 to around $1 million (Hawthorne, 2017). Communication in Woolworths The company always has to report to its stakeholders about the things that the company is undertaking to make the communication process easy. The shareholders are reported via the annual reports that are being published by the company. The shareholders can share their grievances with the communication strategy taken up by the company directly with them. The company takes all the initiatives to make the communication process with the consumers very easy, as they are the reason for the survival of the company. They maintain a communications team to reach out to its customers and check for any grievances that might come in the mind of the customers. The company is also maintaining an online team of experts who take care of the complaints that are coming from overseas or distant customers. The online marketing activity that takes place for the company is often surrounded with many complaints, as the customers do not get their products on time or the right products. Recently, there has been an increase in the complaints, as the customers are not satisfied with the communication strategy that has been taken up by the company (Frederick, Hawryszkiewycz Kang, 2014). The communication within the company is very sound. The employees convey their daily interactions to the superiors if they need that some of the policies need to be changed. The company in turn listens to them very carefully and takes necessary steps so that the plan is meticulously carried out. The one message system is not prevalent in the company, as it does not fit the company well. Different sectors have different process of communication in the company so they need to be carried out properly (Hawthorne, 2017). The company is open to two-way type of communication where the messages are received and the feedbacks are sent to the superiors with the ideas that the employees put in to it. The company has to maintain an efficient system of communication in order to survive in the market. Miscommunications should not be allowed in the organization, as it will hamper the organizational structure that the company follows and due to which mishaps may happen which will hamper the company. The online portals are receiving many complains due to the wrong or delayed delivery. Proper communication needs to be maintained with the clients who are placing orders online so that the customer base of the company is broadened. All steps that are taken needs to ensure the proper communication in every channel inside the company (Jones Jones, 2017). Conclusion The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is being taken very seriously in the present world. About fifty percent of the companies in the world have CSR departments. The CSR experts manage this department but it also relies on the communication department to some extent. The two departments sometimes work in cooperation for the smooth running of the company. The board members are responsible for the communication and CSR department to work together (Frederick, Hawryszkiewycz Kang, 2014). The Woolworths Company that has been taken in to consideration for this report has vast CSR policies that help the company to maintain standards all over the world. The communication team is well versed and has a clear-cut concept of their tasks that is laid out in front of them. Owing to the stiff competition that is going on in the retail sector in the present world, the company is not doing well on the online portals and are receiving lots of complains due to the mismanagement of the products (Wu , Lin Lin, 2013). The recent news has shown the downfall of the company due to its rival company where the company followed the other in an ad campaign and lost the popularity. References AO Dos Santos, M., Svensson, G., Padin, C. (2014). A fivefold bottom line approach of implementing and reporting corporate efforts in sustainable business practices.Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal,25(4), 421-430. Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R., Soldo, E. (2013). Woolworths Australia and Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration.Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy| Ventura,16(1), 27-46. Brock, W. A., Xepapadeas, A., Yannacopoulos, A. N. (2014). Spatial externalities and agglomeration in a competitive industry.Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,42, 143-174. Corporate Responsibility - Woolworths Group. (2017). Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Retrieved 9 January 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/community-and-responsibility/group-responsibility/corporate-responsibility/ Employees - Woolworths Group. (2017). Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Retrieved 9 January 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/investors/shareholder-information/employees/ Environment and sustainability - Woolworths Group. (2017). Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Retrieved 9 January 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/community-and-responsibility/group-responsibility/environment/ Frederick Rose, J., Hawryszkiewycz, I., Kang, K. (2014). When and how to facilitate the introduction of new knowledge processes in organisations.VINE: The journal of information and knowledge management systems,44(2), 210-227. Hack, L., Kenyon, A. J., Wood, E. H. (2014). A Critical Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Timeline: how should it be understood now.International Journal of Management Cases,16(4), 46-55.