You are a consultant to Jackson Day Collins (JDC), a mid-tier accounting firm with offices in all Australian capital cities and many large regional cities such as Newcastle, Geelong and Townsville. Many of its technology, agricultural and retail clients are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and have a significant profile in their communities.

You have recently been contacted because the JDC financial analysis team, whose role is to provide advice to JDC's clients who invest in ASX-listed companies, has been experiencing some performance challenges. As a chartered accountant you understand the technical side of the work that financial analysis teams perform.

Jacqui George joined JDC last year as the new financial analysis team leader from major competitor Hamill, Fisher, Harrison (HFH) with an objective to design, implement and oversee a new service delivery program for JDC's major clients. The previous team leader, Barry Neville, was a strong believer in participative decision making. He believed that a democratic system should shape virtually all decisions and interpersonal relationships because it would be the most effective and lead to higher job satisfaction for workers than a more rigid hierarchical structure. Under Barry's leadership the team held at least five meetings each week and devoted the majority of time at each meeting to exploring interpersonal problems.

Most team members are young and had recently finished university. They often remarked that they sought a place to belong and feel accepted and the financial analysis team met that in many ways. Even their life outside of work revolved heavily around activities with other team members. Although they were bright, enthusiastic and motivated, some were just beginning to develop the skills needed for effective performance in their jobs. Barry therefore defined success on the job mostly in terms of his team member's ability to relate well to others at work and only secondarily in terms of their ability to work with clients.

Within three months of arriving, Jacqui submitted her plan for implementing the new program. JDC's managing partners praised it, calling it an amazing piece of work. Soon after the new service delivery program was implemented it became clear that it was not working but JDC's managing partners responded by continuing to say what a great job she was doing. Jacqui soon became frustrated and last week left JDC. A financial analysis report on Woolworths Limited for major JDC clients is due very soon but has not been started.

1. As the JDC financial analysis team cannot deliver by the deadline, you have been tasked to prepare a separate 1,250 report to JDC's board of managing partner that analyses the financial strengths and weaknesses of Woolworths Group Limited as presented in its:
   • 2022 Annual Report
   • F22 analyst presentation (slides)
   • F22 video message from CEO Brad Banducci on 25 August 2022

Your financial statement analysis must be compared and contrasted with Woolworth's own messaging about its financial performance. provide proper reference