Business Model and Strategic Plan Part II: SWOTT Analysis Paper - Essay Example

Business Model and Strategic Plan Part 11 al Affiliation) Kimberly-Clark is a company that deals with global healthand hygiene by offering personal care as well as consumer tissue products like Kleenex, Kotex, and Huggies among many other products. Like other corporate organization, Kimberly-Clark has the internal strength and weaknesses as well as the environmental opportunities and threats that face the company. Consequently, the organizations internal environment includes the Human resource and personnel, finance and accounts, production capabilities and so on.

The external environment includes the legislation, changes in technology, competition, social cultural changes and so on. Some of the internal factors at Kimberly-Clark include the presence of brands that are trusted with high recognition from the consumers. In addition, the company undertakes research to develop and to keep up with the changing conditions of the market. The company also does creative marketing as well as the development of innovative products to be used by the end user thus making the company to constantly innovate to meet the consumer’s needs and wants (Reading, 2002).

Consequently, some of the weaknesses of the organization include the dependence of the revenues on specific geographies like the United States for huge proportions of the company’s sales. In addition, there is limited presence of the company’s products in some locations such as China, where the rival company Proctor and Gamble has taken over. The opportunities of Kimberly-Clark include the existence of dynamic products. Additionally, there is an increase in the preference for organic as well as personal care products by consumers.

There is also an increase in the consumers’ level of expenditure as well as the change in consumer lifestyle and the growth of retail channels have contributed to the development of other regions. Therefore, one of the opportunities of the company is that is can establish in the Asian market. In addition, the continuous strategies make the company to have a competitive advantage and generating more sales. The rising awareness of environmental issues is providing the company with an opportunity to produce eco-friendly products (Reading, 2002).

The company also faces some threats, including, competition in pricing among the major market retailers that pressurize the prices of the goods it manufactures and distributes, downwards. In addition, increases in the cost of labor, raw materials, and cost of energy have seen the company’s profits go down. The profits margins have also reduced due to the necessary marketing expenditure that makes the company be on a competitive edge. Moreover, due to the company operating in many countries, they are bound to adhere to the rules, regulations, and legal procedures of the countries.

This is for ensuring that the company stays relevant in meeting its objectives in the country in which they conduct business. Moreover, the global economic slowdown also affects the company as majority of the people especially the youth are unemployed thus have no income to spend. Due to the changing times, most companies have the pressure of modifying their supply chain process to be on a competitive edge. Therefore, the company decided to embark on the development of supply chain of the future.

This came about after the company’s customers said they would like an improvement of the service levels as well as reduce inventories and cycle times. In addition, the companies need to become more demand –driven has enabled the inventory to be pulled through the supply chain. Kimberly-Clark has closed down 70 distribution channels and replaced them with mixing facilities that enable them to improve efficiency, lowers the inventory stocks and increase customer satisfaction since they are now capable of ordering the full product line and receive the goods as a single shipment.

In addition, the supply chain of the new division will include the acquisition of new technology that will help better understand and monitor the activities of the store shelf. In addition, it includes the ability to assign the production process the best facility that offered the best supply chain cost as well as the service trade off the same time. The plans for developing and leveraging on the core competencies and resources within the supply chain include an understanding of the company’s supply chain process.

This will help in the recognition and the willingness to work collaboratively with the supply chain professionals to ensure workflow in the supply chain process. In addition, I will ensure supply chain is able to successfully plan and execute supply chain management. Exemplary execution will provide an opportunity to work strategically with the organizational leaders to discuss on how the run effectively with minimum costs. Moreover, the other plan is to involve all departments to have some knowledge of the activities in the supply chain since it touches on all departments in the organization.

Lastly, there is need to find the target market for this particular product. In this case, mothers are the target market since they are the homemakers who ensure their home are clean and hygienic. Reading, C. (2002). Strategic business planning: A dynamic system for improving performance & competitive advantage (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page.