2 Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................3 Company description.................................................................................................................3 A. Description of the organizational culture..........................................................................3 The structure of strategic decision-making................................................................................4 B. Description of the strategic team structure.......................................................................4 C. External and Internal influence..........................................................................................4 Present strategic plan..................................................................................................................5 D. Benefits and drawbacks.....................................................................................................5 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6 Reference list..............................................................................................................................7
3 Introduction Proper strategic planning and organizational culture help a firm to gain a competitive advantage. Improper planning and lack of resources create barriers in the planning process. This impacts in future growth of the organization. EZ-pleeze is a well-established firm whose necessary components for strategic planning are discussed in this essay. Company description A.Description of the organizational culture EZ-Pleeze has successfully developed a good organizational culture that supports innovation and creativity. The leaders of this company believe that employees are valuable for this company. Due to this reason, this organization provides opportunities of development and growth to employees through training, employee credit unions and promotions. They look after wellbeing and safety of their employees. Employees get motivation from the leaders about respecting others and working collaboratively. As per the case study, it has been found that organizational culture of this company provides values to the needs of customers through relying on innovation and creativity. 1. Appropriateness of mission statement The mission statement of this company is postulating that they want to deliver the best quality products and services to customers. This organization believes that they need to invest in ensuring wellbeing and safety of their employees. Additionally, EZ-pleeze is dedicated to being creative and innovative for developing consistent profitability for the benefit of its shareholders. As mentioned by West (3), the mission statement must represent the values of the company along with its business intention. This mission statement is appropriate as it is displaying that EZ-pleeze is paying value to the needs of all of its stakeholders. 2. Appropriateness of vision statement
4 EZ-pleeze has the vision to achieve a position among the top three potato and corn producers in the US and across the world. At present, this company is holding the fifth position as the largest potato and corn producer in the United State. According to Feringa (268), the vision statement of a company postulates about the long-term goal of the business. Hence, it can be stated that the EZ-pleeze ‘s vision is appropriate as it is mentioning the long term goal of this company to enter into the top three potatoes and corn producers in the US and throughout the world. This vision statement is mentioning two desires of EZ-pleeze including becoming the third-largest producer of potato and corn and extending their business globally. The structure of strategic decision-making B. Description of the strategic team structure The decision-making structure of EZ-pleeze has a strategic team, which comprises divisional heads those work under the CEO of the firm. As opined by Garner (16), this kind of decision-making structure can have specific mandates. Hence, the decisions made will be innovative and specific to that department. Different business operations of this organization are taken care of by the divisional managers. Essential decisions about marketing, production and research and development are taken by the divisional managers and reports to the CEO. According to the organizational structure, the CEO then reports the decisions to the board of directors and essential shareholders. The board of directors and leaders plays the role of audience in the strategic team. Leaders can provide essential guidance and inputs to the decision-makers.For example, Karen Haley, the chief financial officer conducts audits with his team and provides financial help to the strategic team, which facilitates decision making. As said by Stancuet al.(80), advice from leaders helps to increase the strength of decisions and mitigate gaps in the decisions. Research and development division helps employees to make creative and innovative decisions. Director of R&D Mary Miller leads the team in
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
5 making innovative decisions.Moreover, she reports to chief of operations MR Brian Jansen about decisions taken by the team.In addition, strategic marketing decisions are taken by the marketing team, which is guided by the director of marketing, Mr. John Kerrington.This can help the company to gain success in the future and become the leader of the industry in relation to technology. They follow hierarchical organizational structure, which motivates employees to improve their skills and make proper decisions to gain promotion. C. External and Internal influence 1. Internal impacts on strategic decision-making For taking effective decisions, and plans EZ-pleeze has to depend upon different influential factors. Different internal factors impact the strategic decision making of this company. The research and development team is one of them that enables this organization to implement innovative and modern technologies for conducting operations. As opined by Calabreseet al.(160), innovative technologies help to increase competitiveness of a company. Different creative ideas can be generated inside the company and information about current and future trends in the market can be gathered. On the other hand, financial capability is another internal influence that facilitates the implementation of strategies taken. 2. External impacts on strategic decision-making Market trends are the major external influences that impact on strategic decision- making processes. This includes the needs of customers and their preferences. Moreover, government regulations on the food industry are another essential external factor. EZ-pleeze needs to follow the guidelines properly during the process of decision making that can help them to avoid any complications. Industrial trends and decisions of competitors also impact on the strategies of this company. A firm needs to follow industry trends and keep a close watch on competitors' decisions for strategic planning (Kubotaet al.355). Present strategic plan
6 D. Benefits and drawbacks 1. Benefits This company has realized that consumers of this modern era prefer to have healthy and tasty food products. Due to this reason, they have a strategy of investing in advanced technologies that can be used to produce healthy and tasty potato and corn products. This is the first benefit of the present strategic plan of EZ-pleeze. As mentioned by De Winneet al. (3050), considering advanced technologies for food production can help organizations to survive in this competitive marketplace. On the other hand, the second advantage of the current strategy is that EZ-pleeze has decided to sell its products on the food market instead of selling in supermarkets. Most of its rivals sell their products in supermarkets and EZ- pleeze is facing difficulties to have shelf space for many years. This problem can be solved by this strategy and EZ-pleeze may be able to attract more customers from the food market. 2. Drawbacks The current strategic plan of EZ-pleeze has drawbacks as well and these areas need to be reviewed before developing the new strategic plan. This company has tried to reduce its operational cost by laying off its 10% of employees, which is disadvantageous for this company. According to Garner (16), terminating or suspending mass employees make rivals understand the critical condition of organizations. This decision has hampered their market reputation and they may face difficulties in hiring a talented workforce in the future. The strategy of selling products at a lower cost is another drawback of the present strategic plan of EZ-pleeze. Demand for their products is increasing and this is the high time for them to produce value-oriented products to increase the profit margin. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that it is essential for EZ-pleeze to mitigate gaps in making proper strategic decisions. Its decision regarding the production of
7 value-based products is beneficial for providing a long-term advantage to the company. Moreover, essential resources like human resources and finance need to be used through proper planning.
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
8 Reference list Calabrese, Armando, et al. "Integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making: A fuzzy AHPmethodfortheselectionofrelevantsustainabilityissues."Technological Forecasting and Social Change139 (2019): 155-168. De Winne, Sophie, et al. "The impact of employee turnover and turnover volatility on labor productivity: a flexible non-linear approach."The International Journal of Human Resource Management30.21 (2019): 3049-3079. Feringa, Ben L. "Vision Statement: Materials in Motion."Advanced Materials(2020): 1906416. Garner, Randy. "LEADERSHIP AS A POLICE CHIEF: ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO’VE BEEN THERE."Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice14.2 (2018). 12-18. Joseph, John, and Vibha Gaba. "Organizational Structure, Information Processing, and Decision-Making:ARetrospectiveandRoadMapforResearch."Academyof Management Annals14.1 (2020): 267-302. Kubota, Chieri, et al. "Advanced Technologies for Large-Scale Plant Factories—Integration of Industrial and Systems Engineering Approach in Controlled Environment Crop Production."Plant Factory Using Artificial Light. Elsevier, 2019. 353-362. Stancu, Stelian, et al. "Use of New Innovative Technologies in Business by All Age Groups." Digital Entrepreneurship and Global Innovation. IGI Global, 2017. 79-103. West, Jonathan David. "The Effects of Mission Statement Design on Behavioral Intention." (2016).