Strategic Planning for Beverage Inc - Case Study Example

Strategic Planning for Beverage Inc Student’s Name Course Tutor Date Mission statement of Beverage Inc. The mission of Beverage Inc is to provide quality packaged natural fruit juices and be responsive and ethical in its business activities. We accomplish this mission by: Vision The Beverage Inc will be highly recognized as an excellent beverage leader in the natural juice market globally through developing partnerships both locally and internationally so as to develop potential for mores sales and creation of opportunities. The success of the company is vital for the community as corporate social responsibility (CSR) will strive to empower the local community both socially and economically. Analysis of the Company Internal Analysis Based on the company’s understanding of its mission and vision, the core values and the needs of the customers, the company has set aside the next two years to be solely dedicated for assessment of its business approaches in the wake of stiff competition as there are so many players joining the lucrative natural juice market.. Concurrently, the Beverage Inc. will put more initiatives in regard to leadership role in implementation of its business policies as suggested, many of the new entrants in the market are not following moral aspects of doing business. It will explore the possibility of engaging with the community so as to give it an upper hand in branding. This will be carried out with the help of community volunteers who will be recruited in all the regions. The company will therefore review and strengthen its organizational policies in regard to human resource management to ensure that there is efficiency to move forward the profitability off the firm. The model emphasizes consumer decision-making and community participation and integration. The company is committed to excellent customer service. However, Beverage Inc will from time to time assess customer needs in order to comfortably fill any dents in terms of product and services delivery. This assessment will serve as the basis for expanding or adding new services. As initiated a year ago, more emphasis will be put on employee training so as to acquire the necessary skills with the changing times that characterizes modern-day business environment (Kono 1994). External Analysis The following provides a summary of Beverage Inc opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses highlighted by the board and staff of the company. They are a clear representation of a segment of the complete environmental assessment that forms the basis of this strategic plan. Strengths The Beverage Inc main strengths encompass the company’s demonstrated ability to ensure provision of first class natural juice sold in highly hygienically packaging as well as after sales service that includes home delivery done by volunteers. Employees are very committed owing to better packages and work conditions they enjoy at the company. Programs and services are carefully monitored for quality. In times of challenges, the company counter them through diverse means, thus dialogue with employees and market innovation. The Beverage customer care services have over the past five years topped in ranking due to customer satisfaction thus looked to by other competitors as a leader in customer care. Weaknesses Some industry players have strongly believed that Beverage Inc significant growth in the last five years has resulted in a lot of challenges to the management of human resources, difficulty with supervision, lack of good structure for inter-departmental coordination as well as in consistencies clerical and administrative support. The company has also considered the need for initiating improved use of modern technology, management practices as well as increased use of sales agents in the neighborhoods. Issues relating to programs of employment have widely surfaced up, which concerns matching individuals to jobs and refresher courses. There have been concerns for inadequate visibility of the brand in lower-end markets. Opportunities The opportunities that have been considered to be very significant included: The company has an upper hand in increasing it community acceptance as well as opportunities when accorded priority in employment. There is also a strong backing of gender equality as more women need to be employed to be in tandem with modern day organizational requirements in terms of gender. The company can also score highly on its proposal of allocating a certain proportion of jobs for the disable. Such noble initiatives will definitely make Beverage Inc’s philosophy more relevant and may subsequently lead to more demand for its products thus more opportunities for growth. Greater inclusion will beneficially raise the people’s consciousness in seeing customers as resources that needs to be tapped. This can adequately change the company’s face in terms of sales that can result in economic stability and independence for the organisation and the consumers respectively. Beverage Inc could essentially do more selling to emerging and new markets by being responsive to those who are in need and interested. Expansion of product awareness programmes such as road shows are very important to sensitize the community in the shortest time possible about the range of products manufactured by the company. Threats The threats that were considered most significant included: Overdependence on shareholders’ funds. Capital inflow for the company’s expansion has not been impressive as the management relies heavily on capital injection by the shareholders instead of enlisting the company in the stock exchange to raise additional cash. The company needs to take an assessment of the real demand for its products, include private order options to be delivered to functions and homes and be positioned to explore more opportunities for income generation. There is also need of stepping up vigorous campaigns to make employees motivated and take their work very seriously. There is also a big challenge in terms of the cost involved in providing good package and schemes of work. It is not easy for a company such as Beverage Inc to maintain a pool of competent staff for they are well sort by other industry players who promise to offer excellent packages just to tap in on their expertise. The implication of that is evident in the fact that the company may eventually face very stiff competition and be edged out of the market as its competent workers who should ensure growth are poached by rivals. Increased technology and efficiency may come in handy in terms of high turnover; more so among direct employees in lowering administrative costs. In order for the company to appropriately respond to the current challenges it need to empower its workforce, step up fund raising as well as increasing staff opportunity to personal growth (Bradford & Duncan 2000). Strategic Initiatives Beverage Inc will constitute the following key strategic initiatives to be addressed by the process of strategic planning for a period of ten years. These include. • Greater responsiveness to employees needs in regard to salaries and other aspects of welfare, the promotion of their moral for an all-round workforce development • Effective response to the critical needs of customers • Increased funding for business expansion • Creation as well as maintenance of trust between management and employees, the company and the shareholders and finally the company and the customers • Promoting independency of departments and introduction of service meters to gauge employee performances • Recruitment and retention of well equipped and experienced employees for greater work efficiency and output Such initiatives can only be realised by Beverage Inc through comprehensive implementation of sound organisational strategies as detailed. As is the case, success must be measured against the outcomes that are identified for each strategy and thus the need for organisational communication strategy. Organisational communication strategy For Beverage Inc to prosper in its growth strategies, a formal strategy of communication is a must to adequately introduce new business models in tandem with its current business policies. Communication can viably be achieved through numerous channels that include regular employee meetings, memos, brochures, posters as well as others. It is in order to use different channels of communication so as to effectively reach all employees as others may not be easily accessible through certain channels. For example, workers who have no access to e-mail have to be reached via other means. The use of staff meetings may also not be appropriate for distribution of information especially in organisations where they are rarely held. In relation to studies done about the impact of effective communication in organizations, it has been demonstrated that individuals have varied preferences in terms of information presentation. Some people have the ability of getting the information better if presented verbally, while others get it better when presented through memos, e-mails and newsletters. Striking a balance between service and social life can vary significantly amongst employees. For example, a relatively young unmarried man might be interested to be actively employed and at the same time taking part-time classes and a young father may only be interested in getting home early to be with his family as well as requesting for day’s off to attend to family matters, while a relatively older woman may only be interested in taking her elderly parents for medical check up on certain dates. This in essence shows that varying approach is necessary for effective understanding between the leadership and workforce who are naturally in different age groups so as to provide a workable solution for the work and life needs. This essentially means that Beverage Inc must create distinct and separate campaigns bearing in mind the existence of different groups of workforce such as mothers, fathers, bachelors and others (Bryson 1995). Implementation and Evaluation The implementation process of Beverage Inc is to take a period of not less than five years and thus includes action plans development that put emphasis on the objectives, timeframes, criteria for progress evaluation and budget plans. As mentioned Rowley, Lujan and Dolence (1997), this process will not only be instrumental in realizing the organisational strategic initiatives but also of enforcing one of the core objectives of strategic planning, thus critical thinking and acting. Also needed are the processes of monitoring as well as evaluation that are tasked with the determination of any changes in the strategic plan or any amendments to its components. References Bryson, J.M 1995. Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Revised Edition; San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Rowley, D.J., Lujan, D,H & Dolence, G.M 1997. Strategic Change in Colleges and Universities; San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kono, T 1994. "Changing a Company's Strategy and Culture", Long Range Planning, 27, 5 pp: 85-97 Bradford & Duncan 2000. Simplified Strategic Planning. Chandler House. Read More