When Brenda Barnes took the helm as the president and CEO of Sara Lee Corporation, she enacted a plan to totally revamp the business. Her plan of retrenchment included divesting itself of business units that were lower performers, and concentrating their resources in the areas where they were already doing well.
Sara Lee’s retrenchment growth strategy was built around three main core competencies: “competitive pricing, innovative new products, and brand-building capabilities”. (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, & Strickland, III, 2012, p. C250) In 2008 they added another initiative, Project Accelerate, whose goal was to focus on cost savings throughout their value chain. This would support the competitive pricing strategy with overall savings.
In 2011 Marcel Smits became interim CEO, and his strategy focused on growing the most powerful brands in the company. As part of this strategy, Sara Lee made a major decision to reorganize its remaining businesses into two divisions; the International Beverage division, renamed D E Master Blender 1753, and its North American division, renamed “Hillshire Brands Company”. (Prigmore, 2012) Hillshire is using a broad differentiation strategy to grow the brand in North America. Sean Connolly, chief executive officer of Hillshire Brands, stated in an interview with Food Business News that Hillshire “…products have to be really differentiated. The reason differentiation is important is because it helps you break through the clutter and create loyalty between the consumer and the brand.” (Nunes, K. 2013)
Why is Sara Lee retrenching?
The main purpose of retrenching was financial. Sara Lee Corporation had grown quite large thru multiple acquisitions throughout the world, but sales growth had becom...
... middle of paper ...
...porate-ir.net/library/70/701/70115/items/314457/FoodserviceMTMFINALSlides.pdf
Nunes, K. (2013, February 26). Exclusive: Hillshire Brands’ ‘provocative’ product development strategy. Food Business News. Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Site_News/2013/02/Exclusive_Hillshire_Brands_pro.aspx?ID=%7B78A0AAAD-E108-4452-987F-DF5FF63A469C%7D&cck=1
Prigmore, B. (2012, June 12). Sara Lee: Split to unleash potential through brand building and cost efficiencies. Hillshire Brands Co (HSH):. Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://seekingalpha.com/article/639991-sara-lee-split-to-unleash-potential-through-brand-building-and-cost-efficiencies
Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., & Strickland, III. (2012). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (18th ed., pp. C243-C256). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
The apparel industry is among the most volatile sectors in the market today. Subject to overnight changes in trends and fashion, the industry leaders must be accurate with their predictions and quick to accommodate changes. Because of these fluctuations, it is very hard to assign a competitive advantage to one company over another. While Jones Apparel Group seems to have a comparative advantage in profitability and leverage, Liz Claiborne has been historically more effective at generating revenue from its assets. While Liz is surging to eclipse Jones’ ROE numbers as of late, Jones Apparel Group holds a historical comparative advantage in return on equity and overall financial health.
The purpose of this case study is to explore the implications for expanding the products offered by Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) from one product, Mountain Man Lager, to adding a Light version of the beer. This paper will evaluate the following:
In result of other companies wanting to play it safe because of the recession, Cote Baking won’t have a large amount of rivalry to compete with. However, the few competitors they do have has already established a relationship with its customers and are already one step ahead of it. Cote Baking may be look to brand themselves for the first time but they have already exposed themselves, have grown a customer base, and have a great possibility of this step becoming a success. Competing companies will see Cote Baking as a threat and will most likely attempt to compete but Cote Baking’s affordable prices and quality food will make them stand
...alented young managers in this area need to be aggressively obtained for long term growth. For a quick fix, this service should be outsourced to handle current needs. Distribution channels need to improve as well. Currently, competitor’s products are easily found at major retail channels. Nestle is in the position to gain a strong hold on the home dessert market for ice cream. Ice-fili needs to compete more aggressively in this portion of the market. In addition franchises and fast food chains should be targeted for partnerships or joint ventures so Ice-Fili’s ice cream can grow in association with a post meal dessert opposed to simply impulsive snack purchases. A key avenue to explore is an Initial Public Offering. This would generate enough funds to continue capital investment in technology desperately needed as well as promoting international market growth.
Downsizing, restructuring, rightsizing, even a term as obscure as census readjustment has been used to describe the plague that has been affecting corporate America for years and has left many of its hardest working employees without work. In the 1980’s, twenty-five percent of middle management was eliminated in the United States (Greenberg/Baron 582). In the 1990’s, one million managers of American corporations with salaries over $40,000 also lost their jobs (Greenberg/Baron 582). In total, Fortune 500 companies have eliminated 4.4 million positions since 1979 (Greenberg/Baron 627). Although this downsizing of companies can have many reasons behind it and cannot be avoided at times, there are simple measures a company can take to make the process easier on the laid-off employees and those who survive with the company.
The company of Corning has gotten to the point of its popularity and run-of-the-mill house hold commonness not on pure luck alone but with a plan, a plan for innovation, and inspiration. This plan is known as Corning's Innovation Recipe; The Innovation Recipe was built upon the previous set of values dubbed Total Quality Management by the previous, now retired C.E.O James Houghton of thirteen years. He was much lauded as a great all inspiring man who at a time of great economic distress in which as Roger G. Ackerman puts it “ roughly half of the companies listed on the Fortune 500 fell by the wayside” or in layman's terms half of the big companies had gone bankrupt due to the recession at the time . The recipe is composed of five bullet points of guidance first of which is...
...strategy when the initial downsizing failed to take them out of the red or gain back lost market share.
Arthur, A., Thompson, Margaret, A., Peteraf, John, E. Gamble, A., J., Strickland III. (2014). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 19e: Concepts & Cases. C6-C25.
Poor organizational management, failure to innovate and adapt to the environment, and an outdated brand image have all contributed to Sears massive decline. By not setting a clear organizational strategy, executives of Sears strayed away from innovation, allowing for competitors to attract Sears loyal customers to their organization. In addition, the outdated brand image of Sears has failed to meet the ever changing customers of today’s society. Overall, there are many reasons that have led to the downfall of a once powerful retail giant.
BR was sold to Delta Foods in 1996 for US $2 billion. At this time, it was one of the largest fast-food chains in the world generating sales of US $6.8 billion. DF purchase of BR brought in a new cultural paradigm. DF is an individualistic, aggressive growth company with brands they believe are strong enough to support entry into new overseas markets without the need for local partnership. The DF strategy is one of direct acquisition and JV’s were not part of their strong suit. DF strategic implementation is based on hiring local managers directly or transferring seasoned managers from their soft drink and snack food divisions. The DF disdain for JVs is clearly reflected by their participation in only those JVs where local partnering was mandatory (e.g. China) to overcome regulatory barriers to entry. JVs had been the predominant strategy for BR which was unlike the DF outlook. Terralumen’s strategy was misaligned and out of sync with the DF strategy. This was unlike the complementarity that existed with BR’s strategy. This misalignment began to affect the JV relationship that had worked well with BR in the initial years. The failure of Terralumen and DF to recognize this fundamental cultural difference between their operational strategy styles i.e. Individualistic and Collectivism leads to their inability to proactively create steps for better alignment in the early period after acquisition, creating uncertainties and difficulties for both corporations. There is a lack of communication and virtually absence of trust between two new partners. DF appeared to be flexing its muscles in the relationship and using a more masculine approach compared to Terralumen’s more feminine approach. Both the corporations are strategically involved in a complex situation where they appear reluctant to address the issues at stake and move ahead together. The DF strategy of
Charles Chocolate’s sales revenue decreased -1.176% between the years 2010 and 2011. The equation that as used to get that was Revenue Growth= 100 × (Current Value-Prior Value/Prior Value) 100 × (11,850,480-11,991,558/11,991,558). The change in the sales revenue could have happened for very many reasons. Being a premium chocolate making company, their product may not have been very high in demand. Also forecasting the demand for their product was not a very easy thing to do either. Another issue that Charles Chocolate’s faced their competitors, such as Godiva and Lindt, are more of a well known brand then they are.
Companies all over the world varies but yet shares a common challenge, that is to solve problem not only effectively and efficiently but also creatively. The P-O-L-C framework which stands for Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling plays a major role in both the company’s survivability and success. The SWOT analysis looks at both internal and external factors that can affect the Starbucks’s performance. The purpose of this report is to define and analyse how Starbucks respond and should have respond to the change of its external environment on the cofee market,This report will also identify and disscuss how The P-O-L-C framework and can help starbucks to compete and reduce the loss of their failing peformance in the Australian market and how SWOT analysis helps to define some externalities that can be a threat to Starbucks.
The Strategic Analysis will show some of the steps that have been taken to overcome some of the difficulties that Sears has had. The newest CEO, Arthur C. Martinez, has been a motivating leader for the company. He has implemented many changes that have increased sales and moved Sears back up to the top of the retail chain. These changes would include store remodeling, Internet strategies, differentiation, and human resource management.
Unilever is a multinational company which ranks third globally in fast moving consumer goods. They have an excellent value chain which is one of the factors that has resulted in them to be among top consumer goods company globally. Their merger and acquisitions have led them to expand their company in different sectors of the consumer goods. They have 400 brands and sell their products across 190 countries. They have to work on some areas of the value chain to work even better than how they are working now. Also, there are many opportunities that will help Unilever to overcome their shortcomings and make them a successful Consumer goods
Burger King’s core competency is fast food restaurant franchises specializing in made to order, flame-broiled hamburger sandwiches, particularly the “Whopper”. Using the strategy of industrial organization to capture market share Burger King offers a similar product (hamburgers) in a different way (flame-broiled). This strategy of product differentiation is part of the firm conduct category that Burger King uses to set itself apart from its competitors. In order to compete with its fast food competitors Burger King accentuates its core competencies in its marketing and product strategies, thereby leveraging market share.