Executive summary
Kudler Fine Foods is a company that has been gaining its name and continual growth from the founders’ vision of the firm being a food store of choice for all. Mrs. Kudler has over the years had direct control over the human resource relations like hiring, customer relations, and the service section. She has expanded the company and made it a very vast food store. According to Gomez-Mejia (2002), a company can be strategically competitive if its structure goes hand in hand with its formulated strategy. This paper reviews how Kudler fine foods will keep its strategy on course and according to plan.
Company Background
Kudler Fine Foods came into being through Kathy Kudler who created it to be one of the major up-market gourmand food stores. This was due to the passion she had for cooking and also because she had been severely frustrated when shopping for food. This led her to think of opening a food store that offered very fresh, fine and extensive collections at very reasonable prices.
Mission, vision and value of the organization
The mission of this organization is to offer the client base a very fine selection of some of the best foods including wines. This is to make sure that the culinary vision of the organization is achieved. Retention of key differentiation elements is an essential key to success for the organization. There has been a wide outrage on the poor American eating habits a reason why Kudler foods took it as an initiative to have in its mission an inclusion of the best nutrition to achieve the vision for a healthy diet (Chase, 2006).
In most cases vision statements go hand in hand with mission statements. The vision statement, being the goal that the organization is eyeing, was set by Kudler to be the company of preference that offers the exceptionally best quality as well as the most delicious and nutritious food (Porter, 1985).
In value, the strategic and ethical aspects of any organization must tally and go hand in hand. In this case, there is a need for businesses to see to it that all the strategies which are to be implemented observe the requirements of all stakeholders. According to Porter (1985), mission statements are the basis for value statements. Because Kudler is a company that performs very highly, its value statement is, to improve people’s health through the provision of healthy foods (Gomez-Mejia, 2002).
Kudler strategy
The company depends highly on its strong customer relations for its future survival and success. Mrs. Kathy Kudler has outshone others in the business with her focus, cost leadership and a factor of differentiation. On finding that her local food store did not have what she required for her kitchen, she decided to come up with a store that was inclusive thus giving rise to the company. Through her vision, her business has continued to grow now and then. She now provides fresh products of all aspects ranging from seafood, meat, cheese, vegetables, and a wide variety of wines.
Success is set on getting, setting and retaining the right consumers or clients (Gomez-Mejia, 2002). Her effectiveness in leadership and inspiration to the employees is of high quality. She leads a very democratic atmosphere with a relational bond.
Environmental scan
To be on the competitive edge, an environmental scan of the Kudler fine foods environment is very necessary. The economic situation is favorable in the fact that the business cannot miss clients. As much as there might be a global slump in the countries economy, people have to eat to live. By being a company of its kind in the region, the company already has a go-ahead in the business due to the provision of very fresh products thus only a slight improvement in the management is needed. Ln the helm of technology, there needs to be an improvement in the Information technology sector so as there can be easier access to records and thus the company can easily foretell the company’s progress.
Another major concern is with the various stakeholders within the organization. For the success of any company, all the stakeholders should be directly or indirectly involved to feel as if they are part of the organization. With this taken care of, there will be cooperation which will lead to total success in the business.
Implementation strategy
For a sustainable company, there is the due requirement of formulation and implementation of the strategy. The various mission -statements are rather strong help in describing the overall functions that the firm holds. Mrs. Kudler is endowed with a way of thinking that helps her succeed in business. To succeed in her business, she is bound to portray quality leadership skills.
If a rival company gets into the local scene, the sharpness of the management decides who rules the market. The management should have optimum combinations of strategies. In this case she should have effective analysis of her strengths and weaknesses.
It is wise to consider that all strategies are viable to attacks from different types of places (Porter, 1985). In most cases, businesses favor the theme of cost leadership though it is one thing that loses its share in the market mainly as a result of the absence of differentiation in some people. For management to be overly effective, it should combine competitive advantage with strategy. In this event, there is dire need for Mrs. Kathy Kudler to continue and consistently keep reminding her employees on how rare their products are, the effectiveness of the customer service, and the low cost which will sufficient enough for her sustenance (Chase, 2006).
The company also aims at strategic information systems which can be inwardly or outwardly focused. The first method, inward method, focuses on enhancing competition of various positions within the organization by ensuring that the capability of the employees to work as a team is increased and that productivity, improvement of teamwork as well as enhancement of communication is well implemented (Turban, 2003). There is a tendency of companies that unify strategies to survive. The newly acquired internal workings of the organization can well be optimized to follow the vision of the owner. One way in which she can make this possible is to have a running website.
The technological focus will properly help her to view her environment to know of the next step to take. For Mrs. Kudler to keep in line with the needs of her customers, she needs to keep track of the goods that are currently on demand. Turban (1985) said that gathering information on other competitors encompasses competitive intelligence.
One other essential thing that she must do is to be aware of the occurring trends to keep her prepared for probable threats. All these systems of strategic planning of information are used to make sure that the competitive position of a company is enhanced. Data about other organizations can be effectively gathered from the internet and thus one can be able to fit/ survive in the competitive field. According to Turban (1985), companies that enhance competitive advantage using IT increased from 31% to 50% between the year 1993 and the year 1990. It is, therefore, necessary for the organization to take advantage of the ever-growing application of technology to make better strategic decisions. This can be done by hiring more computer intelligence personnel, analysts, and technicians.
Risk management
For a company of such magnitudes as Kudler fine foods, there are very many probable risks that may happen that may demean the company. In the event of an economic slump, it is possible for the company to be liquefied and also run at a loss. There are other risks such as poor supply, decrease in the number of customers, competition, and physical risks.
A risk management plan needs to have a listed number of possible constraints and the proper control measures that should be taken to abet the risks. In this plan the group at stake should dedicate some resources to investigate the possibility of the risks happening so that the major risks are taken into consideration first. Examples of these can be physical risks like fire or other physical hazards. The control measures need to be discussed with the top management so that implementation can take place. Implementation of the risk control measures often results from the recommendations given by the investigating team.
For Kudler fine foods, the risk management plan should be comprehensive enough so that all the possible risks are taken into account. This will help the organization to go on running in case a possible risk happens without throwing the organization into disarray.
GANTT chart
This Gantt chart can be used by the management of Kudler to set out a course on the laid-out strategies to confirm whether they are workable. If workable they can be implemented continually by the management to keep on track with quality.
References
- Chase, R. Jacobs, R. and Aquilano, N. (2006) Operations Management for a Competitive Advantage. New York: The McGraw Hill Companies.
- Gomez-Mejia, L. Balkin, D. (2002) Management. New York : The McGraw Hill Companies.
- Porter, M. (1980) Competitive Strategy-Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Performance. New York: The Free Press.
- Porter, M. (1985) Competitive Advantage-Creating and Sustaining Superior Technology. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
- Turban, E. Rainer, R. Potter, R. (2003) Introduction to Information Competitors. New York: The Free Press.