SDI, Inc. Strategic Case Analysis #1 1.What problems do you see at SDI, and which of these problems is the most important issue facing management? The most important issue facing management is the lack of a business plan and a logical strategy and objectives. It seems as though there was never a plan to make money. Strategic and financial objectives were not considered and goals were not measurable, time bound or assignable. Producing high quality squirrel resistant bird feeders is both time consuming and costly. In addition to high costs, demand is not being met and sales opportunities are being lost. Management needs to troubleshoot both production issues and sales strategies in order to reduce costs and build sales. Other problems …show more content…
Is the strategy working? Are fundamental changes needed? Current strategy is differentiation. To differentiate their product from any other product available on the market while also providing high quality. The fact is, the bird feeders have won several awards and have proven to be a popular novelty, especially by women. There is obviously a market for this item. Differentiation is a good strategy to gain and sustain a competitive advantage but fundamental changes are definitely needed in order for the business to survive and to grow. 4. What are your recommendations to the owners and managers of SDI in regard to the Solar Feeder product? Why do these recommendations make sense? Strategic planning needs to begin with a good business model, identifying financial and strategic objectives, and realizing goals. Objectives need to be measurable, time bound and assignable. Either drastically cutting costs of production by using materials that are both less expensive and easier to use or outsourcing production needs to be considered. Since using the cost-base approach didn 't ' work for pricing, they need to reduce prices to what customers are willing to pay, $150. The wholesale price will need to be $75 in order for the retailers to make the 100% profit that they desire. A consultant, such as an engineer, needs to be consulted on ways to improve the feeders, and hopefully cutting costs. Mounting kits and plant boxes should be taken off of the
If Parkland wants to achieve the aggressive growth that the board desires his ability to improve the capabilities and the operations of the company will be one of his greatest barriers. Due to the affluent nature of the customers and the possible variety in the product Parkland should focus on improving the company’s organizational capabilities. A new plant will eventually be needed but that decision can be delayed if Charles can streamline its operations. Parkland needs to institute policies that will measure productivity and develop an accurate method of forecasting sales. This will result in lower inventory carrying costs, fewer out of stock issues, and fewer backorders that need to be filled. If Charles can reduce the number of back orders and out-of-stock products it can focus on a single product line at a time which will reduce the frequency of expensive switching costs.
1. In relation to your current business environment (or one that you are familiar with):
6. Once completing your analysis, what is the opportunity represented by addressing the problem? What is the cost of poor quality? What is the impact on customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty? How could this help increase revenues? How could this help increase our capacity? How could this improve our ability to improve our process controls?
The main issue is that their clients have moved away from the old vertical manufacturing structure (i.e. acquiring the upstream/downstream components of the value
Ed Welsh and Bo Haeberle discovered an idea of the solar feeder. After years of developing, the product became very successful. It even won several prizes like the best new product in the Bird Watch America trade show, the national birding convention. After this, Ed and Bo decided to sell their final product under new established company Squirrel Defense, Inc. They opened a small shop in Greensboro and begin the production of the solar feeder so they could take orders for the demanded product. Owners spent too much money and time on developing the product and now, their expectations are high because they have an advantage of unique product and even the investors showed interest in the company.
-What is the main problem(s) or opportunity(s) that you (as decision maker) must deal with?
4. What would you recommend managers to do insure a smooth integration of the information systems, given the
Thanks to a lucky series of events, Atomic Company has enjoyed a sharp increase in sales of their Tiger Pants line. The most obvious and immediate pains being felt by management is the inability to predict future sales and the high amount being paid out in sales commissions. While these are legitimate concerns, I believe deeper problems exist.
Identify & describe the failure points in TJX's security that requires attention (including, but not limited to: People, Work Process, and Technology)?
1. What actions can Peanutty’s managers take to ensure the supply of raw materials for its operations, while reducing the risk of stockouts or high production costs?
Sunflower Nutraceuticals (SNC) is barely breaking even and is strategizing on methods improve its growth and cash flow through capital budgeting. This paper will discuss the decisions the CEO made in each area of the 3-phase process, and evaluate how the decisions affected SNC. The numbers in this analysis are in thousands.
At first, identifying the potential problems. Though I will pay more attention to the top three classical problems, it is necessary to analyze other potential problems in specific project by investigating similar IT projects that is “Failure” or “Success” before kicking off project. The “similar” can be explained in many aspects, such as same goals, cost, scope, same industry, background and so on. I need to investigate how such similar project fails. For example, we assume that a company want to launch an ERP projects recently. In this area, there are many companies did it before. Failure of high-profile ERP projects is common. In order to avoid mistakes that usually occurs in such IT project, it can investigate many failure projects, such as Airforce, Saudi Telecom and so on. The project failure of Airforce due to the following reasons: weak teamwork & composition and lack of top management support. The Saudi Telecom’s failure attributes to lack of top management support, inadequate of company culture, and huge system customization (Aldammas & Al-Mudimigh, 2011). As you
Provide a detailed explanation of the various components existing in the management environment that can influence or impact Brinker International. (25)
3. What are the biggest risks faced by the firm in the next 5-10 years?
3. How would you characterize the current interdependence between departments? How should it be improved?