Waitrose Strategy Essay

This afternoon I made use of Jim and Tom’s recent blogs relating to Waitrose to have a fascinating strategy discussion with my A2 students.

As a basis for discussion we used the following question:

This Wednesday John Lewis will publish its half yearly results; these results will indicate that market conditions have been much tougher since it posted a 20% rise in annual profits in January. Waitrose continues to be the strong point of the company’s portfolio. To what extent do you agree that today’s announcement of ‘Little Waitrose’ coupled with the recent £15m revamp of the Canary Wharf store is nothing more than business greed coupled with over ambition?

It was interesting to tie in a number of factors including the overall corporate objectives, economic conditions, spending patterns during a recession, profitability, completion, importance of location amongst others.

My students will now complete this essay under timed conditions later in the week.