Wm. Morrison's Business, Marketing, and Operations Strategy
Wm. Morrison is one of the supermarkets in United Kingdom dealing in the sales of groceries and fresh food products. It was founded in 1899 by William Murdoch Morrison as a wholesale company. The company developed and grown to the status of a retailing company and thereby became a public liability company by 1918. It was listed on the London stock exchange by the year 1967. The growth and expansion of the company has been through organic and acquisitions. A company that started out as an egg and butter seller in 1899, Morrisson supermarkets PLC has turned out to become a company that controls over four hundred superstores in United Kingdom by the year 2004. For a company like Wm Morrison, different strategies must have been put into play for the company to be moving forward.
“What is Strategy?” according to Slack & Lewis (2008, p.5) is a question that “is not easy to answer what seems like a straightforward question”. However, it has to do with setting of goal and planning the path to achieve the goals. According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008, p.3) "Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term”. It exists at different stages or levels in any organization; the corporate, business and the operational (Riley, 2012).
Business strategy of Wm. Morrison
One of the key factors that define Morrison’s business strategy is its regional business focus approach and its success is quite not unrelated to this. The company was predominantly a UK northern company where it enjoys the dominance of the market through its superstores.
Marketing Strategy Wm. Morrison
The marketing strategy of the company is wound round three factors which are; its pricing policy, the freshness of its products and the availability of products. According to Williamson et al (2004, p.165) “customers thought that Morrison pricing was extremely competitive and that pricing was an important factor in determining where they shop”. This stand of Morrisson’s
“What is Strategy?” according to Slack & Lewis (2008, p.5) is a question that “is not easy to answer what seems like a straightforward question”. However, it has to do with setting of goal and planning the path to achieve the goals. According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008, p.3) "Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term”. It exists at different stages or levels in any organization; the corporate, business and the operational (Riley, 2012).
Business strategy of Wm. Morrison
One of the key factors that define Morrison’s business strategy is its regional business focus approach and its success is quite not unrelated to this. The company was predominantly a UK northern company where it enjoys the dominance of the market through its superstores.
Marketing Strategy Wm. Morrison
The marketing strategy of the company is wound round three factors which are; its pricing policy, the freshness of its products and the availability of products. According to Williamson et al (2004, p.165) “customers thought that Morrison pricing was extremely competitive and that pricing was an important factor in determining where they shop”. This stand of Morrisson’s
References: Chopra, S. & Meindl, P. (2010) ‘Supply chain management: Strategy, planning, and operation’ 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Slack, N. & Lewis, M. (2008) Operations strategy. 2nd ed. Harlow: Financial Times and Prentice-Hall. Johnson, G., Scholes, K., and Whittington, R. (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Text and Cases, 8th ed. Prentice Hall 2008 Morrison (2013) “Strategy and Structure: Different and Better than Ever”[Online]. Available from: http://www.morrisons-corporate.com/About-us/Strategy-structure/ (Accessed: 13 May, 2013) Williamson, D., Cooke, P., Jenkins, W. & Moreton, K. M. (2004) Strategic management and business analysis. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann.