ExpoArte and Alternative Trade Organization - Case Study Example

1. Companies that survive in this market depended on maintaining their commercial buyers who specialized in handicrafts. Additionally, to survive in the market firms need to carry out large exports. The market under which ExpoArte operate has a variety of distribution channels that occur within the US and the European market. The common wholesale and retail importers are ATO. The department store regarded themselves as both the retailers and the importers selling their products at a considerably high price (NICARAGUA, n.d.). This departmental store serves the higher segment of the market.

Firms that concentrated on importing their purchased products sold them to domestic and regional retailers who later sold them at a higher markup. The retail importers manage to sell their stores to the public. Based on the market analysis, ExpoArte needs to focus on its generation of profits until they secure its bottom line. The company needs to embrace product differentiation and implementation of the economics of scale to increase its sales. The company also needs to cut down on its operational cost and increase its profits. This will help the company to strategize on passing their production costs off to their artisans. The company also needs to come up with a new management culture. The new management culture will incorporate setting up an appropriate organizational structure that will safeguard every aspect of the company’s operation.

This will entail setting up operation managers in each department within the company. The move will help the company improve and distribute its administrative power efficiently. The company also needs to focus on its website for the market, the website will help the company to expand its advertising strategy. The strategy will help the company market itself beyond its stakeholders. Financial forecasting and encouraging their clients to pay a higher percentage for their upfront will be important. The strategy will help the company to plan well and ensure that they meet their short-term financial obligations. The short-term effect of the strategy will make the company be rated as a going concern business.

2. The strategic plan for the company needs to be based on its inventory. The company needs to come up with an updated inventory system that will streamline the procedures and the firm to run its operations smoothly. To ensure that the new system works at its best, the company needs to train its employees on how to use the system. The company needs to come up with a short-term plan that will update all its records. This is because old and outdated data were still included in their current stock. This is dangerous for the company for it will not be able to keep track of its proceedings (NICARAGUA, n.d.). This tends to affect the decision-making process for the company.

The company also needs to organize its inventory items. From the case study, it is evident that at times it happened that a single product code was used for a similar product with varied colors. The company also needs to align some of its products. From the analysis, the ceramics were not easy to organize due to varied finishes, forms, colors, and designs. Therefore, a plan will need to come to incorporate a varied technique that will cater to the finishes and processes for the ceramic. Some of the anticipated processes include relief carving, molding, and spinning. Read More