Pillsbury: a Tale in Management

IntroductionMy name is Kevin Chen and I am a senior consultant of the Boston Consulting firm. Per the request of the A/S Dansk Minox, a food products manufacturer, I am preparing this analysis to identify the existing problems within the business of A/S Dansk Minox and provide possible recommendations. As a consultant, I will present the analysis without bias and for the best benefits of A/S Dansk Minox. In the following analysis, I am going to answer the following question: Should A/S Dansk Minox bring the new product, complete meal, to the market?Company backgroundThis case is set in Denmark in 1967 when the "boom" in consumer food products was just beginning more working mothers, more disposable income, more choices in convenience food

This case analysis will be focused on the company QVC (Quality, Value, and Convenience). We will perform an analysis review, which, will provide a comprehensive insight into the company’s historical and current business structures, strategies and efficiencies in their operations. It will include a detailed SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) (Humphrey) and the primary activities of the Value Chain Analysis (Porter), to provide greater insight into the firms’ competitive advantage. These key concepts will be used to analyze QVC’s business model, define potential challenges and initiate a plan of execution. We will then recommend solutions

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the food industry was struggling with weak sales and low inflation which caused waves of consolidation among some of the largest firms in the industry. In 1998 General Mills studied areas of potential growth and value creation for their company which lead to small acquisitions of other firms. Looking to further grow their company, in December 2000, management of General Mills made a recommendation to its shareholders that they authorize the creation of more shares of common stock and approve a proposal for the company to acquire Pillsbury Company, a producer of baked goods, from Diageo PLC.

“Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption. So if you lose your place in the supply chain because of wild behavior you could lose a lot. It would be like pouring cement down one of your oil wells” (Friedman, T. n.d.). The introductory quotation from American Journalist Thomas Friedman establishes the purpose of this essay. This essay will briefly exhibit two factors that would change the demand for the product produced by GNC (General Nutrition Center); as elaborated upon in the last Session Long Project (SLP) this is the franchise I’ve selected for study during the duration of this session. Next, will be a short overview of activities that would affect changes in supply. After that, how could quantity demanded by changed? Finally, the type of demand the GNC product promulgates whether it is elastic or inelastic. First, let us dive into the two factors would change the demand for the GNC product.

The purpose of this paper is to do a value chain analysis of Costco, identify their resources and capabilities, to conduct a SWOT analysis to identify the opportunities in which they are lagging and to form a strategy to move forward using the recourses and capabilities in the direction of utilizing those opportunities.

Trader Joe’s is a leading firm that is taking over the supermarket industry. The company completely altered the idea of a traditional supermarket and turned it into a whole new experience for consumers. Through Trader Joe’s strategic planning, they’ve paved a way for consumers to have high-quality products while paying low prices. Trader Joe’s provides fewer products that are health-conscious, unique and privately labeled. Trader Joe’s has utilized this, secrecy, employee job satisfaction, culture and starting trends to its advantage. Within its industry companies are divided into different strategic groups. Aldi, similar Trader Joe’s strategic planning, is apart of the cultured-discount neighborhood market. This firm continues the low-stock, less-waste, small store, and low price method. A Walmart express used a hybrid strategy that made it a cross between a grocery, pharmacy, and convenience store. Tesco is the third that falls with small neighborhood markets strategy and focused on organic products, similar to Trader Joe’s. As the company grows and expands, there is caution in change of Trader Joe’s processes. With growth, there comes new management and employees which can alter the way a specific store is ran and there is worry of change in the stores normal procedures. Change that doesn’t follow the process could ultimately result in a downfall, so this can be considered a key challenge to watch in the future. Increased bureaucracy is additionally a

Situation analysis: Ivan Guillen was asked to develop a marketing strategy in Canada to improve the business portion of the Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods category of General Mills (pg 1).

The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.

As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has

Reed Supermarkets started out as a lower-end retailer, but over the past two decades Reed has moved into the high-end in the supermarket business. They have done this with a combination of exceptional customer service, a full assortment of both standard and high-end products, including bakeries, meats and seafood. This niche has been very successful and been the diving force in their growth. Unfortunately, as noted above, customer loyalty to a quality brand has dwindled and been replaced y the need to find the best price. Reed has attempted to combat this by both increasing their high-margin products (private label and prepared foods) and increasing the number and amount of specials they offer. These tactics have done little to change customers’ perception of Reed as a high-end and high-priced retailer. See Appendix A for a full SWOT analysis on HLL.

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.

Question 2. Was the implementation of ABC at GEI successful? What did GEI do well? What areas of the implementation could have been improved on? What are the key success factors that lead to or impede successful ABC implementation? Be sure to consider behavioural as well as technical factors. Analysis 2: It appeared that GEI 's two-phased implementation plan had been partially successful. The first phase succeeded in delivering timely, revised product-cost information for strategic pricing and mix decision making. The second phase struggled to deliver upon its promise of delivering productivity improvement and cost reduction. The ABC implementation was completed in the nine-month time frame, as planned. Based on a total of 88 interview sessions, 674 activities and 254 activity drivers were identified across all five plants and entered into the standard cost subsystem that provided data for the financial reporting system. The project team streamlined the implementation process by only including activities within the cost model that it believed could materially affect strategic product-pricing and mix

To achieve success and gain approval for the launch of Cadburys confectionary in Poland, an entrance strategy is vital in being able to predict how successful the venture will be for Cadburys. It is in the interests of all stakeholders that a detailed plan is delivered; where shareholders are concerned it helps ensure that there is no capital wasted and that the venture guarantees a return on investment.

This paper critically analyses the past and the current market trend, operations, and marketing strategies of Sainsbury’s Company. Different models of analysis were employed to clearly understand the current and previous state of Sainsbury’s. Some of these models include SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, CORE analysis, Porter’s Five Forces model, Key Success Factors, and Ansoff’s Matrix These models help in understanding all aspects that play a role for the success and the failures of the company that include its strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats, and several factors that bolster of hinders the success of the company. I also looked at deep analysis of the success of introducing “Dark

This report focuses on the United States-based ice cream producer, Dreyer’s, Inc., which used to be the largest ice cream company in America. In order to consolidate the ice cream industry, Rogers and Cronk, CEO of Dreyer’s, carried out some advancing operation philosophies including the launch of a strategic plan named the “Grand Plan” in the year 1994. The report gives a description of the expectations of the “Grand Plan” and their