Management strategic - Term Paper Example

Sara Lee Corporation took some major decisions during retrenchment and post-retrenchment which were reflections of its overall business strategy. Though a focused retrenchment began with the appointment of Brenda Barnes as the president, the real foundation for retrenchment was laid when C. Steven Mc Millan launched several strategic initiatives to focus on smaller number of business segments. However, the appointment of Brenda brought retrenchment to the centre stage. Brenda took a major decision to exit seven non-strategic businesses.

These included direct selling, U.S. Retail coffee, European apparel, European nuts and snacks, U.S. meat snacks, European meats and Sara Lee branded apparel. Another significant decision taken parallel was to spin off the branded apparel business as Hanesbrands rather than selling it. This decision generated good cash flows for Sara Lee.After the retrenchment, Sara Lee Corporation took several strategic decisions to increase its sales and profits continuously. Quantitative goals were fixed for sales and profitability.

For achieving these goals, the company decided to focus on three competitive capabilities. The first was to focus on customer needs and satisfaction. The second was to have appropriate category management to win new accounts or customers. The third was to focus on operational excellence through lean manufacturing and centralized purchasing. In addition to these capabilities, the company decided to develop a revised three division organizational structure according to customer types. These three divisions were Sara Lee food and beverage division, Sara lee Foodservice division and Sara Lee international division.

This division was done in order to better realize the organizational goals.