Kudler Fine Foods Environmental Scan This paper will discuss the west coast based specialty grocery store, Kudler Fine Foods in terms of their background long term goals. An environmental scan will be performed in order to illustrate their positioning in the current marketplace relative to their goal of growth and eventual expansion. Kathy Kudler opened here first store in La Jolla, CA in 1998 and has since expanded to two more locations in both Del Mar and Encinitas over the subsequent years. Kudler Fine Foods has a niche in supplying freshest gourmet foods in five major areas of concern to include bakery, wine, meats, produce, cheese and dairy. The specialty store has enjoyed measureable success creating avenues for its potential expansion to key Southern California locations. In Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage, the strategic management process details significant phases that any business must undertake when planning such tactic for the future. An environmental scan is such a phase that encompasses a critical analysis of a company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Op...
Kudler Fine Foods is a store unlike any in the grocery industry. Kudler Fine Foods represents a store that could possibly spark a new era within the grocery world. The owner of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler, has watched her dream of owning and operating a grocery store that specializes in fine quality food grow within a short period of time. The success of Kudler Fine Foods can be attributed to the innovative ideas, effective leadership, and organizational structure. The overall mission of Kudler Fine Food's "is to provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparallel consumer environment. Our selections coupled with our experienced, helpful and knowledgeable staff, merge to offer each customer a delightful and pleasing shopping outing" (Apollo Group, 2003). Kudler has managed to maintain its mission statement by providing its customers with the best and as a result the company has flourished. "Kathy considers one of her key responsibilities to be that of identification of new gourmet items that can be offered in her stores (Apollo Group, 2003)." Therefore, Kathy is considering plans to contract with local growers of organic produce to yet obtain the best in quality products for her consumers and take her business to the next step. If Kathy makes the decision to contract with local growers then changes could be introduced into the company's overall structural organization. Each aspect of Kudler Fine Food's organizational structure from basic business process to the supply chain and quality control process will be affected by the formation of a contractual relationship with local organic growers.
The newest idea from President and owner, Kathy Kudler, is to start contracting with local growers of organic produces to include the products in each store location. Each store has become successful at its current location and with its current stocks. These results have assisted Kathy in believing that the expansion of produce concept will help in providing the consumers the "choice for purchasing the finest of epicurean delights" (University of Phoenix, 2007, para. 1). For the purpose of this assignment, Kudler operations system will be analyzed to recommend possible changes to the existing business process. All the information relating to the Kudler Fine Foods shops was retrieved from the Kudler intranet and Internet via the University of Phoenix web link.
A periodic evaluation of your internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process. Strengths describe what an organization excels at, allowing decisions on how to gain a competitive advantage. Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They have the potential to reduce progress or to give a competitive edge to the competition. Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that an organization can use it its advantage. If utilized effectively, opportunities have the potential to create a competitive advantage. Threats refer to factors that have the potential to negatively impact an organization.
Kudler Fine Foods has designed a market research plan that includes using data collection tools to assist them in determining and improving their level of customer service. The data the company collects from the research tools will help determine a future marketing plan that appropriately positions their product and resonates and connects with the customers Kudler is trying to attract. Each of the tools selected will provide Kudler with insight into the customer behavior and opinions of Kudler’s customer base as it relates to customer satisfaction. They intend to expand on their current survey materials to help quantify the areas that they will need to focus on to improve their service levels.
Its reputation has been Whole Foods Market’s most valuable capability and will continue to be the key to its success. As mentioned into the case, Wal-mart’s foray into sustainable fishing and its introduction of environmental friendly practices have been met with doubts and criticisms. Whole Foods Market however, has an excellent track record that is tested and proven. In fact, Whole Foods should assume the leading role in promoting environmentally sustainable practices by taking on a more aggressive approach with regards to its sustainable practices. This will serve as an excellent form of marketing and will allow Whole Foods to respond effectively to Wal-mart’s entry into the industry by gaining a huge and sustainable competitive edge.
According to Wheelen & Hunger, strategic management “is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation. It includes environmental scanning (both external and internal), strategy formulation (strategic or long-range planning), strategy implementation, and evaluation and control” (2004, p2). All eleven good to great companies are benefit from strategic management and gain long term strategic advantage then lead to outperforming compared companies.
Environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information about events, trends and relationships in the organization’s external environment (Choo, 2001). This information can then be used in the planning of future actions for an organization. There are many variables that contribute to environmental scanning, including, natural, societal and task environments (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012). In the case of Yahoo, Inc. the following external factors had major influence in the struggle the company has faced recently: technology advancement, changing pace of life, and competitor analysis.
Organizations today are continuously evolving and employing new strategic management techniques to meet their potential. It is common for companies to regularly evaluate their performance through a gap analysis of where they are now and where they wish to be. This instructs their change in strategies and guides them to their goals. Organizations employ strategic management concepts to fill the gap between their actual performance and their potential.
Environmental scanning is the process of gathering information about events and their relationships within an organization's internal and external environments. The basic purpose of environmental scanning is to help management determine the future direction of the organization (Barnat, 2004). For a business to succeed, it is important to study the business environment of the firm that consists external and internal influences that affect the firm’s decisions and performance (Grant, 2010). Environmental scanning includes the assessment of Macro and Micro environmental analysis.
How Environmental Scanning Helps an Organization to Fomulate Strategy Including Both Microenvironment and Macroenvironment Factors.
When starting a small business, in the food and beverage industry, there are always several trends and conditions that will affect your business, including consumer choice. Consumers want to be able to chose their personal preferences, which have been focused on natural culinary ingredients, that are sourced locally, and that possess natural and sustainable factors; becoming a healthier lifestyle, for most. Kudler Fine Foods provides consumers with specialty food, beverages, cuisines, and culinary themes that will have an influence on the trends for 2015, (Food Trends, 2015).
The main purpose of this report is to analyses the alternative approaches to strategic management and identify their viability, suggested benefits, implementation issues, and limita¬tions of each approaches. The three approaches that will be discussed is Stakeholder ap¬proach, Dynamic Capabilities approach, and Sustainable approach.
Environmental analysis is a significant constituent in the strategic planning process since it ensures formulation of correct strategies made from an informed perspective of the prevailing organizational conditions and the organization’s competitive external environment, (Ansoff 1990, Barney 2007, Bruce and Longdon, 2000). Strategy formulation entails making strategic decisions or strategic choices based on the organization’s strategic issues and the strategic options at hand, (Lynch,
...d to learn from the chess game in terms of the ground rules and specific strategic management points of views. There are three common strategic principles and management expertises that the corporations need to be aware of and follow. First of all, it is highly advisable for them to conduct a macro environment evaluation through resorting to the PESTLE Analysis and the Porter’s Five Forces Model. Second, it is of significance to carry out self evaluation analysis with a view to better understanding the firms’ own advantages and capabilities through using SWOT Analysis. Last but not least, the corporation is advisable to conduct an all rounded competitor analysis in order to gain a detailed acknowledgement of the current circumstance possessed by the major competitors so as to assist them to generate a better corresponding strategies in the future business operation.
Strategic management is the “identification of one or more sustainable competitive advantages a firm has in the markets it serves (or intends to serve), and allocation of resources to exploit them” (Business Dictionary, 2016). In order for industries and organizations to thrive, they must have strategies in place and strategic management processes to stay competitive, profitable, attractive to stakeholders, and to sustain advantages that set them apart from other competitors (Barney & Hesterly, 2015). The strategic management process involves a set of procedures that lead to choosing a strategy that will eventually lead to competitive advantage (Barney & Hesterly, 2015). The six steps of the strategic management process involves defining