Organizations culture, operative goals and stakeholders

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: Dr. Culbreth

FROM: Latosha Madison

DATE: July 26, 2007

RE: Assignment 4

Running head: SWEET TREATS ROLES

Sweet Treats Roles

Latosha S Madison

Virginia College

Sweet Treats Roles

Support functions:

1. Purchasing: At sweet treats the purchase officer and his assistant
are responsible for the purchases of raw materials. This is important
because only the best quality of ingredients go into the making of the
sweets.

2. Customer service/sales: These are the persons who directly come into
contact with the customers and are responsible for meeting customer
needs and reacting to customer concerns at Sweet Treats

3. Internal auditing: This function at Sweet Treats keeps a watch on the
financial transactions of Sweet Treats and keeps a look out for frauds.

4. Legal department: This department at Sweet Treats takes care of the
compliance needs of the company.

Production function:

1. The production an operation is actively involved in sweet making,
their efforts ensure that the sweets are made under the most hygienic
conditions and in accordance to the recipes that have been provided.

2. Quality control: This department at Sweet Treats ensures that every
sweet made and packed is of the highest quality and is designed to bring
satisfaction to the company.

Maintenance functions:

1. Personnel: The HR function at Sweet Treats takes care of recruitment,
training, retention and promotion of personnel. They also take care of
payroll administration and compliance with the labor laws.

2. Engineering: The engineering department maintains the building,
machinery and the administration block in good repair.

3. Janitorial services: These services maintain the overall security of
Sweet Treats.

Adaptive function:

1. R&D at Sweet Treats: Continuously works to produce new sweets. It
innovates and creates new selections for the festive season.

2. Market Research at Sweet Treats: This finds out the changes in
customer preferences, changes in customer requirements and assesses the
appropriateness of Sweet Treats’ current offerings.

3. Long-range planning: This is done by the top management at Sweet
Treats, they set up long term goals, set deadlines and allocate
resources for the achievement of long term goals.

Managerial functions:

1. Top managers at Sweet Treats set strategic objectives and give
responsibilities to different managers. For instance on the strategic
objectives of Sweet Treats is to commence export of sweets to the EU
countries;

2. Middle managers at Grandma Sweet Treats execute projects: Currently
there was a project to set up a Grandma Sweet Treat making facility at
Tennessee. This was executed by the middle managers at Grandpa Sweet
Treats.

3. Lower Level Managers: At Grandpa Sweet Treats supervise the stringent
quality control measures, and through the workers manage the
manufacturing process.

Sweet Treats Roles PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 4

Running head: GRANDMA SWEET TREATS ANALYSIS

Grandma Sweet Treats Analysis

Latosha S Madison

Virginia College

Grandma Sweet Treats Analysis

Introduction

Our Sweet treats bakery was started by my Grandmother. This sells low
carb, low sugar, low sodium and low fat recipes and has become very much
popular. Now the demand is coming from many parts of the country and
internationally. We are thinking of launching the comprehensive
ecommerce strategy of our venture in order to cater to the worldwide
demand of our sweets.

Environmental analysis and SWOT analysis

Socio & Economic Factors

One has monitor the economic trends like GDP trends, Interest rates,
Money supply, Inflation rates, Unemployment levels, Disposable income.
It has to identify the growing target segment and introducing new
products and services to meet their needs.

They have to provide convenience, quality, speed and top notch
products and services

to attract new customers and to retain the loyal existing customers as
well. In today’s modern and fast-paced world, people are constantly
looking for ways to help them better manage their time. People strive
to make their life better, and this home based shopping has the
potential to fulfill all of these needs. Thus there is opportunity in
targeting busy individuals who don’t have the means, energy or time to
visit the physical sweet shops.

Political Legal regulations

As an organization it should also be aware of economic, tax and
business laws. One should also be aware of foreign trade regulations,
attitude towards foreign companies as it want to internationalize the
operations

• Alliances

There is lot of opportunity for the alliances with the manufacturers,
retailers, suppliers and other websites.

Technological environment

Ecommerce or internet Marketing is an important method of passing
information to clients as they would like to be fully informed as can be
seen in their insistence on brands. Thus this is an important use of
technology in marketing and this adds value to the aims of the marketing
organization, which would like to sell more and more.

When the Internet is used, there is no requirement for any gap and one
can get an order from the customer directly. What this means is that
when a customer becomes interested through an advertisement for say a
sweet pack, the customer can be requested to click on a sign near the
product.

This will move the customer to another site where the customer will get
more knowledge about the product. Then the customer also has the liberty
to buy the product and the entire process from interest to purchase may
be completed in very little time. (Internet Marketing Basics) It is
clear that one of the most obvious results of improvement as a result of
Internet has been in the areas relating to customer communications. This
has made firms that were always working in a mass market situation now
try to understand in situations that may be called “one to one”
marketing. In Internet, one always tends to have contacts with the
customer directly across the computer screen. The result is always that
there are evolve several forms of direct exchanges between the client
and that of the organization which takes out marketing. This makes it
easier for the marketing organization in order to understand the
mentality and the understanding of the client and at the same time learn
regarding how to talk to the client in such a manner that will make him
to purchase the product of the organization. It needs to be noted that
this is not just a once in a lifetime event, but it tends to happen
regularly. It is well known that communications which take place over
the Internet are one of the cheapest types of communication. (Database
marketing: Technology-enabled advantages in the nineties) Moreover
Using Internet has following benefits:

* The Internet has a geographically disperse market.

* The main benefit of the Internet is that niche products reach a
wider audience e.g. Scottish Salmon direct from an Inverness fishery.

* There are low barriers low barriers to entry as set up costs are
low.

OPPORTUNITIES

Economic development of Asia and other developing countries

Trend of consumerism and online business increasing

Opening up through WTO

Opportunity of Alliances

Business 2 Business transactions are also increasing considerably.

Threats

Increasing government regulations

Strong regional competition

Technological changes and emergence of new technologies

Foreign trade hindrances

Cultural differences especially in foreign country.

Strengths:

1. Customer Intimacy

The degree of customer intimacy, community building, and one-to-one
marketing is the forte of our venture Sweet treat. We have successfully
created a “community feel” with its customers by our personalized
services.

2. Strong Brand

It has become synonymous with the low sugar, low fat sweets. This has
been achieved by continuous innovation and keep customer delight is its
main focus.

3. Technology

It is able to retain the customer participation through its superior and
innovations in

the product variety and purchasing the best quality raw material for the
sweets.

We have our own manufacturing unit and superior quality systems which
help in providing unique products and services.

Weaknesses

Small scale- Limited resources

Our scale is very small and has only one store up till now. Thus we have
limited resource which put us in a disadvantageous position compared to
the global and regional players in the industry.

Narrow Focus

Currently our focus is limited to the low calorie sweets which hamper
our market size.

Recommendation for our Ebusiness Model

We will have strategies both for B2B and B2C.

Business to consumer

In this segment, we have the businesses that directly sell to end
customers. Typically, the per customer volume of transaction is low but
the number of customers serviced is large. To draw a large number of
customers these sites need to do a lot of advertising, both on and off
the net and are thus much more visible than other segments.

Business to business

As the name indicates, this means businesses that sell to other
businesses. E.g.-Intel sells it’s chips to other businesses—which
make computers, motherboards and other digital devices.

This serve a limited number of people but the turnover of many a
business-business site would be many times that of most famous business
to consumer sites. And most importantly, they make profits. Today, Intel
takes orders from its customers over the net and makes billion dollars a
month.

Strategies for B2C

Competing on the Internet is different from competing in the traditional
industrial world. Competition no longer takes place in the physical
marketplace but in the market-space. In a typical B2C flow of
information between business and consumer typically is through the
medium of Internet (Refer Figure 1). This flow includes product
orders/service requests from customers, product information,
specifications, providing of services OR GOODS by Business etc. In
addition, it may also include, flow of tangibles (e.g. goods ordered
from customer, documents transfers between business and customer etc.)

CONSUMER

/

COMPUTER TERMINAL

(CLIENT)

/

COMPUTER TERMINAL

(SERVER)

/

COMPANY



Benefits for the company

a. Increased demand

b. A low-cost route to global reach

c. Cost-reduction of promotion and sales.

d. Reduced costs

Benefits for the customers

a. Lower prices

b. Wider choice

c. Better information,

d. Convenience

Thus by following the above model we will cater to our consumer
directly. Visitors to the website are able to create an account using an
email address and a unique password. Upon creating an account, the
customer is able to place an order, check the status of that order, and
keep track of previously placed orders. Upon registering with the site,
a new account is created for customer use. The customer is able to
search within our product categories including of electric utilities. A
search for a specific product is also allowed.

The viewer can see the product catalog, purchasing options
for wholesalers, contact information, a store locator, help options, and
log off by clicking on the appropriate tab. Visitors to the site may
select items based on specific features quality, price, and quantity.
The price of each item is displayed next to a "Buy Now!" button that
allows visitors to place items in an online shopping cart. The site
provides the following links at the bottom of each page: Home, Privacy
Policy, Site Security, Shipping Info., Return Policy, Affiliate, and
Links. Payment methods VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and PayPal
are also displayed at the bottom of each page.

Thus Our website will be simple but user friendly and convenient.

Thus we will effectively use the distribution strategy by having
internet and ecommerce as its main elements to create competitive
advantage. Internet as channel of distribution has following advantages:

* The Internet has a geographically disperse market.

* The main benefit of the Internet is that niche products reach a
wider audience

* There are low barriers to entry as set up costs are low.

Web-enabled infrastructure will also allow us to customize our offerings
and customers can order other products they need or desire. This virtual
integration structure eliminates the need to manufacture everything, and
instead uses the power of the Internet to share and exchange information
with suppliers and vendors to build a truly superior supply chain that
keeps inventory turnover low and costs to a minimum. This model is
followed by Dell, by late 1997; it became the industry leader by keeping
costs low and wringing efficiency out of the direct sales and
build-to-order business model. (dotcom.com/news/dell.html).

Thus the offering products via website on the internet are not only cost
effective, but also offer superior coverage for its products. This
approach had two advantages: (i) by passing distributors and retail
dealers eliminated the markups of resellers, and (ii) building to order
greatly reduced the costs and risks associated with carrying large
stocks of parts, components and finished goods. Thus B2C model will
help us to build and provide superior customer service globally.

Growth through B2B markets

B2B is increasing rapidly and it will give the chance to tap this market
and utilize its innovative tools to penetrate and grow in this market.
It can provide ecommerce enabled supply chains to tap following
strategic opportunities. It can use B2B portals to purchase its raw
material and to streamline its supply chain. The B2B markets can be
useful in following manner:

• To provide a starting point where buyers and sellers enter the
market either through a web browser, procurement interface or supply
chain optimization solution.

• To gather buyers and sellers of a specific industry in a centralized
marketplace actively collecting and controlling the data that is shared
within the market.

• To facilitate and enable transactions by building trust in the
on-line market through credit verifications, reputation ratings and
decision making support tools.

• To support post-transaction customer service such as warranty and
maintenance, asset management etc to promote recurring participation
like it is doing in B2C and the market places. For performing these
functions, e-markets get their revenue from advertising, subscription
fees from members, transaction fees, data collection fees, licensing
fees etc.

Thus it can create value in B2B space for it members by aggregating
buyers and sellers, creating marketplace liquidity and reducing
transaction costs.

Implementation

Implementation issues

Effective implementation depends upon carefully communicating the
strategy to all stakeholders - both inside and outside the organization.
It involves creating fits between way things are done & what it takes
for effective strategy execution and delivering the right results at
right time.



PRINCIPAL TASKS OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

* Building a capable organization

* Allocating ample resources to strategy-critical activities

* Establishing strategy supportive policies & procedures

* Instituting best practices & mechanisms for continuous improvement

Handling of Privacy and cultural issues effectively

There are issues of diverse cultures and languages; legal and regulatory
differences; localization, technology and infrastructure. Moreover the
markets are flooded with various products. Various options are available
for end customers to switch loyalties. Hence the product life cycles are
considerably shorter. Shorter product life cycles have denied companies
the sustained growth and financial benefits and posed a challenge of
survival to many others.

Thus the survival of many organizations is at stake. Another issue is of
privacy and security. The most important challenge that e-commerce face
is the ability to guarantee customers' privacy and safety when doing
transactions online. Thus the major worries encountered in electronic
commerce transactions are that of data protection, data authenticity and
taxation.

Another worry is to manage cultural barriers and differences of beliefs,
ideas, norms and values that shape peoples' lives. The challenge is to
find the common ground between cultures on which to build and market
their products.

The ethical processes of providing safe and secure medium of enabling
the transactions are key to the success of business website. The other
Security Issues such as Firewalls, viruses, hacking, site certificates,
encryption and privacy policies are the major areas of concern which are
holding corporations back from entering the digital world too deeply as
it makes them more vulnerable to corruption and breakdown. Thus proper
measures has to be taken by the sweet treats to tackle the above issues.


Conclusion

Following will be our USP:

1. The quality of their offerings;

2. Personalized services and sourcing those big organizations cannot
afford.

3. Community building

4. Products for Low Calorie market.

Thus by offering customers content and time value, E-Marketing has
opened new vistas for marketers like sweet treats. The greatest feature
of the digital economy is that it enables the E-Marketer to eradicate
many traditional barriers before entering new markets. These barriers
include economies of scale and geographic positioning. The innate
strength of an E-Market comes not from the seamless flows of goods and
services from the producer to the customer but in the geometrically
increasing returns from converging ideas and technological change. The
strength of online communities has never been so great, and companies
have used them to develop new markets.

Time has come for it to fine tune its business process to incorporate
the customer responses to leverage the power of the Web to gain
competitive advantage over the rivals. It should focus on its best
selling products and also avoid brand dilution. Moreover it should
rapidly expand its international operations to tap the growth in
international markets.

References

Information management by K.D. Saxena

MARKETING MANAGEMENT BY PHILIP KOTLER

F.F.Reichheld and P.Schefter, "E-Loyalty :Your Secret weapon on the
Web," Harvard Business Review July-August 2000 ,pp. 105-113

Business Models for Electronic Markets by Paul Timmers, Electronic
Markets, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1998.

http://www.indiainfoline.com/bisc/ieec.html

Anderson, Elana. “Seven Ways to Bridge Marketing and IT” CMO
Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.cmomagazine.com/analyst/123004_forrester.html Accessed 17
November, 2005

Austin, Mark; Aitchison, Jim. “Is Anybody Out There? The New Blueprint
for Marketing

Communications in the 21st Century” Retrieved from
http://www.business-in-asia.com/is_anybodyoutthere.html Accessed 17
November, 2005

“Chapter 1: Introduction to Global Marketing” Retrieved from

http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5973E/w5973e02.htm Accessed 18 November, 2005

DeLegge, Peter. “Internet Marketing Basics” Retrieved from

http://www.marketingtoday.com/imarketing/imbasics.htm Accessed 18
November, 2005

Grandma Sweet Treats PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2

The name of my company is called Grandma Sweet Treats. The company will
be serving the customers with the best quality low sugar sweets. Thus
this venture will be part of the sweet industry. Our Mission and vision
will be as follows:

MISSION STATEMENT

A mission statement is the statement that explains what action a company
will do in order to achieve the company's goals and mission. Considering
the nature of a mission statement, therefore, a mission statement should
be clear and concise and should avoid being verbose since it might lead
to different implementation. However, the mission statement should
clearly describe what will be done, by whom, for whom, and why (Answers
Corporation, 2006). Thus our mission will be:

"By providing tasty, premium and quality food, we will make delight the
consumers through out the globe. It will be distinctive as we will
provide low calorie and health friendly food including sweets. The
identity of the corporation will be framed by substantive commitment to
research and development and making low calorie food available and
affordable through out the globe."

VISION STATEMENT

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream," and what followed was a
vision that changed a nation. That famous speech is a dramatic example
of the power that can be generated by a person who communicates a
compelling vision of the future.

Management author Tom Peters identified a clear vision of the desired
future state of the organization as an essential component of high
performance. A vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a
contribution to society. If a strategic plan is the "blueprint" for an
organization's work, then the vision is the "artist's rendering" of the
achievement of that plan. It is a description in words that conjures up
a similar picture for each member of the group of the destination of the
group's work together.

A vision is more encompassing. It answers the question, "What will
success look like?" It is the pursuit of this image of success that
really motivates people to work together.

A vision statement should be realistic and credible, well articulated
and easily understood, appropriate, ambitious, and responsive to change.
It should orient the group's energies and serve as a guide to action. It
should be consistent with the organization's values. In short, a vision
should challenge and inspire the group to achieve its mission.

Our Vision statement

We will serve as a low calorie food provider to delight the customers
which values such food through high quality and affordable food. To make
individuals happy, energetic and healthy.

DIVERSITY

1. I will ensure that 30% of the employees in my company are
colored/black persons.

2. I will keep 35% of the positions in my company reserved for women.

3. There will be 10% of positions in my company for handicapped persons.


4. I will also make sure that the minorities, women or handicapped are
not discriminated against or abused.

5. I will ensure that there is an easy method by which complaints of
harassment can be made.

VALUE

1. I will create value by making lathes that are more accurate than
others available in the market.

2. I will create value by making lathes in accordance to specifications
provided by the customer.

3. I will create value by responding to customer order with immediacy
and in the shortest possible time.

4. I will create value by providing excellent, prompt and courteous
after sales service.

5. I will create value by keeping my prices competitive and attractive.

Reference:

1. Book: Corporate Strategy by Gary Johnson

2. Book: Marketing Management by Philip Kotler