Strategies for Dudley Land Company: A Decision-Making Project

This project analyzes the challenges faced by Dudley Land Company, a major oil and petroleum marketer, due to declining customer numbers and increased competition. The project explores various decision alternatives, including improving customer relationships, staff training and incentive programs, and redesigning product covers. It details the pros and cons of each alternative, presents a preliminary set of objectives, and identifies key stakeholders. The methodology includes gathering decision data through stakeholder engagement and feedback, followed by a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the impact of different variables. The results highlight the importance of product diversification, particularly the introduction of lubricants, and emphasize staff training and customer relationship improvements. The project concludes with lessons learned, emphasizing the significance of stakeholder participation, market research, and the role of staff in decision-making processes. The analysis provides valuable insights into strategic planning and customer retention for the company.

Description of the decision
Desire to come up with new strategies to remain
relevant in the market share

Background
Dudley Land Company, is one of the major oil
and petroleum marketers in the USA and it
has been in operation for forty years, having
stiff competition from G2 Petroleum and
Brooklyn Oil Company.
Dimensional paradigm in the product and
service delivery has seen the company lose
customers and therefore, a strategic plan to
salvage the situation in inevitable

Problem
Since its operations in the US for the last 30
years, its services have been on higher rating
but in the recent years, customer number has
started declining and therefore it is a high
time the company strategizes well in its
operation. I have tried to look into the
problem statement that the company can
employ

Decision Alternative
In order to mitigate the problem, the
following decision alternatives creates room
for more market participation change and
customer retention as well as increasing the
firm’s sales
1. Improving customer relationship
2. Staff training and incentive programs
3. Redesigning product covers

Alternatives Details
Alternative 1: Improving customer relationship
– The company needs to improve its customer relationship through free service
provision for example free handbooks on car maintenance, screen wiping and
polite language use during service.
Alternative 2:Staff training and incentive programs
– Staff training on how to serve customers is necessary, how to help customers in
vehicle engine check and offering reliable solutions incase a customer encounters a
problem. Staffs’ morale needs to be boosted by offering incentives in terms of
commission and even vocational trips annually. This is to encourage and empower
them to work extra hard for the achievement of the company. competitor
companies have ventured into this but as Dudley Land Company, we are putting
more emphasis on staff training.
Alternative 3:Redesigning product covers and more advertisements
– This can also be a rebranding form whereby the product covers needs to be
redesigned to be more customer-appealing as well as carrying a promotional
message of the product. This will make customers have a chance of reading on the
products’ quality aspect. Media advertisement especially television and radio is
also important, customers are able to see the qualities of the company’s products.

Pros and Cons
Just like in any enterprise or business, there
are both pros and cons and are always not
inevitable, companies are aware of this and
as it ventures into any new strategy, they
should be ready for any of the outcomes.

Improving customer relationship
: Pros and Cons
Pros
Having a strong customer relationship helps in retaining
customers and identifying with them and the station
It will also help the company in building corporate image
It will enhance customer loyalty and quick product purchase
Cons
 Can lead to staff reluctance as they will engage more in
conversations with one customer, thus dissatisfying other
customers on the line
 Other customers are unfriendly and this may demoralize the staff
members serving them .
 Some customers may take advantage of this and seduce the staff
members thus reducing equality of service customer among the
staff members.

Staff training and incentive programs
: Pros and Cons
 Pros
i. Promotes staff understanding on the company’s products
ii. Enhances higher productivity- training helps in ironing out
weaknesses observed among the staff members
iii. There will be less supervision and thus higher productivity in
the company
 Cons
i. Can be costly as incentives and training requires financial
resources.
ii. Training on new trends and strategies can be stressful to stall
and may limit their productivity as their minds will only be on
training.
iii. There is a higher probability of staffs leaving to better paying
jobs after gaining enough experiences through training.

Redesigning product covers and
more advertisements: Pros and Cons
 Pros
i. Promotes the company indirectly through product description
on the cover
ii. Promotes company niche and enhancing brand identification.
iii. Improves cost effectiveness and modernizes products by
achieving new product goals
 Cons
i. Costly as financial resources is required.
ii. Other customers may not find it appealing and therefore lose
interest with the company.
iii. Uncertainty and confusion if there will be prior information to
the customers. It will confuse customers if nor properly designed
and customers informed.

Preliminary Set of Objectives
1. To create a nation-wide image by building a
strong PR and customer relation.
2. To train and equip staff members with more
new relevant skills to better the company’s
production
3. Increase cash product sale by having a new
product image but maintaining the product
quality.

Participants
To get the best information and feedback, I
decided to engage with various stakeholders,
executive members, board, staff and consumers so
as to give a wider view. They included the
following:
Tom Havenstrite – President of Dudley Land
Company
Kyle Blair– Prospect Manager
Scott Riley – Head Business Administration
Dwayne Hyzak – Staff Member
Robert L. Kay - Customer

Participant’s Roles
 Wolfgang Siegfried Fischer – Chief Executive Officer, he is the ultimate
decision maker and is involved in major decisions affecting the
organization, his feedback is directly related to internal affairs of the
company.
 J. Russell Denson – Board of Directors Chairman, head of the board
members and his feedback can be both external and internal, bringing the
view of the outside market and also the internal affairs of the company
 Scott Riley – Head Business Administration, his feedback is entirely
internal, he only gives what affects the business internally. His internal role
is heading the business department.
 Dwayne Hyzak – Staff Member, Dwayne being a staff member only gives
feedback on internal affairs that affect all the workers in all levels, he
understands the working relationships with clients and customers.
 Robert L. Kay – Customer. Robert gives reliable external feedback,
representing the views of the customers and perception of the company,
his feedback is given much attention as it deals directly with the customers