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Nabisco Company case study
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Nabisco Snack Well Case
As of 1993 Nabisco put intense emphasis on new products and had 30 percent of sales from them. In the previous five years they had had five $100 million products. They stressed that the following story of SnackWell’s (first year sales of almost $200 million) was typical of their firm, but the process might not be for other firms because all innovators are not alike. Nabisco’s way was the result of an overhaul made when they realised that they were suffering the ‘silo’ problem and others. People were not talking to each other. In their new process, they sought new segments, not confined to foods, and not confined to traditional food channels.. For example, one new product effort involved selling individual-size packages of snacks in video stores and movie theatres.
Their process had three key requirements: 1) the item had to fill a real gap, 2) the item had to be on a key trend , and 3) the whole project had to be executed flawlessly. Doing only one or two just did not work in the food business. Gaps were discovered in two ways. First was a sophisticated gap analysis method of studying markets, probably built around the methodologies you will study later in the course. Second was a method of attribute analysis that sought ways a cookie could be created especially for a user, for an occasion, or just physically different. For SnackWell’s the gap was a user gap – cookies for adults. Kids had theirs, but adults did not have cookies with the attributes they wanted, namely, ‘great taste, fat-free, better for you’.
The second requirement, on a key trend was satisfied easily – there was very strong growth in adult population, and adults clearly wanted wellness.
The third key, flawless execution was achieved as follows. Nabisco believed in ideation and creativity. Ideas came from employees generally, from gap analysis (above) and from their special environment in the technical development departments. They encouraged blue sky ideation, they provided a ‘skunkworks’ environment by allowing time off to further personal concepts, staffers could present their ideas to management at annual May Fairs, and they ran brainstorming sessions where development people were joined by marketing, finance, operations, and R&D.
New product concepts that looked good (as SnackWell’s did) were given a feasibility check (could they retool for it, did it interfere with production, etc.
Product innovation is not limited to Tesco’s food ranges, but its growing non-food ranges too have introduced choices of many new product lines: from sporting goods including equestrian equipment to new ranges of ‘homeware’ and recently PC software.
As Kerr is an educator and a professor in universities and not an economist, he examines his idea or creativity in the organization by making inquires starting from top management to the bottom in the organization and also to people who knew what the buyer or customer should be; then he would run it through his network in and outside GE to cross examination and double check or assessment (Davenport et al). Kerr’s successes effectively with the standing of ideas and creativity mainly rely on his continuing exploratory research with great creative thinking skills, expertise and motivation, and they also depend on his outstanding leadership and exceptional organizational culture of innovation in GE (Davenport et al, 2003).
This involves choosing from a lot of alternatives of ideas and producing a strategy on how they will be able to make trade-offs. The team’s activities here include ambassadorship and task coordination. The key leadership activities here include visioning and inventing.
The fast-casual restaurant is one of the most competitive and fastest growing industries in the world. Chipotle has thought to have reinvented this category and this has led to their explosive growth in the early stages of the company. As it has leveled off, however, one can see where mistakes have been made leading to the sharp decline in their sales and stock. Starbucks has continued to grow, but has also seen declines in their stock. Comparing these companies, one can see how each have went from standalone stores to market leading companies. They must continue to innovate otherwise they will be seen as just another restaurant and no longer see growth.
In 1996, Jim Wagner was hired as chief financial officer and was able to successfully achieve steady profitability for the company. One year later, in 1997, in an attempt to source its strategic investments, Natureview organized an equity infusion from a venture capital firm; however, the venture capital now needs to cash out of its investment in Natureview and management will therefore need to find another investor or position itself for acquisition. In order to attain the maximum potential valuation, the company must make strategic marketing choices in an attempt to increase revenues to $20 million before the end of year 2001. And to meet this lofty goal, Natureview can potentially enter a new market and transition from the natural food channel into the supermarket channel, a move that would signify a dramatic departure from the company’s present cha...
After conducting a basic 10 year financial analysis of the company, it has become evident that even with a highly competitive market structure they are able to improve on their performance. Ranging from 2004 to 2013 financial information, the company has shown a significant increase in their sales revenue roughly $3865 million sales in 2004 to almost four time that valuing $12970 million in 2013, which was an “increase of 10.4% over the 53 week prior year” The company’s growth strategy has been to diversify its product market and make them...
The European Vice President of United Cereal (UC), Lora Brill, is confronted by a dilemma: to launch a new product called Healthy Berry Crunch as the first ‘Eurobrand’ or not. A wrong decision may destroy her career, especially since Healthy Berry Crunch is not only a new concept of healthy cereal, but also a pioneer of United Cereal’s Eurobrand, which is different from the company’s usual standards. On the other hand, if she makes the right decision, she may be able to grow the company to a whole new level.
Dansk Designs Ltd., founded in 1955, is a company that markets stainless steel flatware. The firm traditionally followed a strategy of differentiation. They produce high quality products for the “top of the table”. Their goal was to reach a small market segment, which consisted of upper class, prestigious customers. Dansk Designs wanted to sell the concept of the Dansk brand, and believed their consumers would purchase the Dansk products because of the prominent brand name and because the products were the very best in taste and quality. Ted Nierenberg, the founder of Dansk Designs has recently decided that he wants to keep Dansk growing at 15% to 20% per year. Nierenberg feels as if his current product line will not provide sufficient growth to meet his objectives, and believes it is in the company’s best interest to introduce a new line of house ware products called Dansk Gourmet Designs Ltd. Nierenberg believes they should market this new line to a much wider group of consumers at competitive prices. However, I believe that although expanding into a new market with a new product line will increase short-term revenues, in the long run it will be detrimental because the new line will dilute the brand identity of Dansk Designs. If Nierenberg wants to grow every year 15% to 20%, I believe he should consider ways to lower costs instead of increasing volume and revenues.
Krispy Kreme Case Study Question 1. The chief element of Krispy Kreme's strategy is to deliver a better doughnut and to appeal to customers in new ways. They have taken great steps to insure customer satisfaction from the use of their proprietary flour recipe to their automated doughnut making machines. They have chosen to target mainly markets with 100,000 households. They also were exploring smaller-sized stores for secondary markets.
Post Cereals was the first company to come up with the idea for a pastry that would later inspire Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. In the early part of the 1960s, Post began developing a method of packaging dog food in foil in order to keep it fresh and avoid refrigeration. They began applying this method to food for human consumption and created a new breakfast pastry that could be prepared in a toaster and would complement their already popular cold cereals. The announcement of this new breakfast pastry, which Post had decided to call “Country Squares,” came in 1963. Because the product was released so hastily, however, one of Post's biggest competitors, Kellogg, was able to come up with their own version and release it six months later. Even though Post had released their Country Squares prior to Kellogg's version, their sales were lackluster. Many believed that this was due in part to their name. In a time of progressive pop culture, the name Country Squares could be seen as a backward way of thinking. The developers working on the proje...
...oup of consumers. Through assessing the needs and wants of a major group of consumers, generation X, the biscuit company would be able to further their research and more specifically identify the niche they are required to fill. Due to the general motivations of generation X in buying biscuits as being consistent, fresh and reliable with a strong brand name and reputation, but not necessarily being the cheap alternative there is room for a new business to focus on these ideals and create a successful biscuit catering to their needs.
The case looks at prescriptive strategy as applied to multi-product group of companies. Unilever is based in over a hundred countries where multiple products are being made in each. However, the market is mature which means that growth is stagnant and innovation is almost non-existent. In order to improve on growth and sales, the strategies that are needed look at how to come up with new products that have high profit margins and penetrate new markets. The prescriptive approach was used to come with a strategy to improve growth and profit. In order to improve on innovation, both the prescriptive and emergent strategies can be used since both support innovation. From the case study, not much profit was made when the ‘Path to Growth’ strategy was first implemented (2001-2004). The strategy was initially based on cost cutting. There was a need to also build volumes through existing portfolio of branded products through innovation and marketing. By focusing on increasing sales in developing countries where growth prospects were high and increasing investment in personal care products where profit margins were higher, it was possible to improve the profit portfolio.
Not only is this a key part of the film but also very important skills to have in the business environment as it is always changing which is why employees as well as employers have to be able to think on their feet in order to overcome unplanned obstacles that they may be faced with. Contingency plans using creativity and problem solving is essential for the business environment. An example of these skills in the movie would be when Billy and Nick lose their jobs and Billy then thinks creatively in order to get the two of them jobs at Google which solves their problem of being unemployed. Another example creative thinking and problem solving is after Nick and Billy’s group return from the club, which was on the same day as the group’s due date for the app challenge, is when Lyle wants to send a message to the girl from the club when he is drunk and this is where the group comes up with their app idea of having to answer questions when you are drunk in order to be able to send a message. This is also an idea of the SCAMPER method as substituted ideas for the app challenge since the previous night, they combined their knowledge of creating an app idea with the necessary resources, they adapted the idea to suit the needs of the app users, they modified it in order to improve it, they eliminated ideas that would not work for the app since
In order to be effective, the company needs to honestly evaluate their current position within the market. Had Kraft completed and effective SWOT analysis, they would have likely realized that while they have a strength in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing, one of their singular weaknesses outweighed those positives. The main weakness facing Kraft in both China and India, was the simple fact that the consumers in that market simply did not like the taste of the cookie, and in China, the consumers were never known to be avid cookie eaters (Jain, Jose, & Koellmann, 2013). This miscalculation on the part of Kraft, nearly tanked the rollout of the
After looking at trends in the market and seeing that consumers are becoming more health conscious and the need for food that is easy to prepare it was decide that this product would do well in a consumer market made up of mid and upper mid income families and individuals.