Business Development: Case Study on the Theft of Nuts in California

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes the rising issue of nut theft in California.

GROUP REPORT TASK 3
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background to the case....................................................................................................................3
PESTEL analysis.............................................................................................................................3
Porter’s five forces analysis.............................................................................................................5
Recommendations to resolve the case.............................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
The complete report is about the case study of the stolen nuts in the “Central California” during
the last six months. The complete background of the case study is being descried effectively &
efficiently which will enhance the detailed description about the stolen nuts & thieves who may
have the long chain also for stealing the huge size of nuts. The PETLE analysis is also being
conducted for analyzing all the external factors which may have the negative impact on the case
study. The five factors of Porter are also being analyzed in relation to the case study along with
the effective recommendations to solve out the problem.
Background to the case
The black market is being identified in California for the nuts. The case study involves the
stealing of 30 loaded big trucks of almonds, cashews, walnuts, pistachios and pecans during the
last six months in California. The doubt has been identified on the long chain of thieves who may
have the direct link to the retailers. The president of the “Western Agricultural Processors
Association (WAPA)”, Roger Isom said that they have never seen any case like this. Criminals
are moving towards the nuts as they are highly expensive & also have the long shelf life. Also
they can neither be tagged nor traced in the electronic form. The high percentage of nuts is being
grown by the state & also gets imported. It has been identified that the stolen amount of nuts by
the thieves has been rapidly increased up to the 4 million dollars in the year 2015 from the year
2012. It has been stated that the range of criminals have been grown between the supply chain of
buyers & sellers, as this chain get expanded from the sub-contractors of trucks including the
independent drivers (Johnson & Cody, 2015). In some of the cases, the drivers also get involve
in stealing the nuts, unintentionally. The emergency meeting was also been called up by WAPA
in which 120 members were sitting for thinking about the measures that can be drawn to protect
the people from the increasing crime. From this detailed case study, the director of Olsen’s
Communications, “Allison Wescott” stated that the legal rules & laws are very essential &
necessary to be enforced in order to put up the big red spot on all these crimes & criminals.
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PESTEL analysis
The PESTEL analysis is the strategic tool which is being conducted in order to analyze the
different factors of political, economic, social, technological, environmental & legal. All the
factors are being analyzed in the context of the case study in California. Following are the
analyzed external factors along with the impact they may have on the related parties of the case
study:
Political factors: These factors determine the long-term profitability of the Californian nut
producing industry. The political factors in relation to the case study includes the high level of
corruption, lack of effective legal frameworks, regulations of trading and other political factors
which may influence the overall case study in the negative manner (Baur, et.al. 2016).
Economic factors: Multiple economic factors can be identified such as the rate of inflation,
interest rate, rate of savings & the foreign exchange rate. These factors may affect the level of
competitive advantage of the Californian nut producing industry. Other economic factors include
the economic systems in the whole country, intervention of the government in the whole
business market, stability & exchange rates, level of education & understanding in the economy,
productivity cost & the labor cost, growth rate of the economy, inflation rates & many more
(Battisti, et.al. 2014).
Social factors: These factors may affect the culture of the Californian nut producing industry
along with their social beliefs. Some of the identified social factors in relation to the case study
include the level of population, education level, culture, attitude & behavior of the people living
in the country. The social factors in the country should be increased & enhanced so that the high
level of education can be possessed by the different individuals who will reduce the number of
criminals in the country. The attitude & behavior of all the people should be maintained at the
higher standard because of which the level of corruption in the country will also get reduced.
Technological factors: Technology is widely used in the whole World, but in this case, the
impact of technology is at minimum level, because the stolen walnuts cannot be traced with the
help of technological equipments. But the technological applications & other technological
equipments can be used to gather the relevant information required to resolve the case study &
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implement the necessary measures for reducing the chances of fraud (Donner, et.al. 2015).
Hence, these technological equipments should be utilized in the effective as well as in the
efficient manner.
Environmental factors: These factors include the weather, laws related to the environmental
pollution, climatic changes, attitude of people towards the ecological products, etc. During the
worse climatic & weather conditions it will be difficult for all the thieves & the criminals to
effectively store the stolen nuts properly, therefore, this chance can be taken as an advantage by
the legal regulatory bodies to search for all those thieves with the help of implementing the
effective strategies.
Legal factors: These factors are very essential to be considered in relation to the given case
study such as the legal laws & regulations of stealing, laws related to the consumer-protection,
safety laws & many more. These legal laws & regulations are very necessary to be implemented
for reducing the high level of crime. These factors are very important among all the above
factors because only these factors have the ability to reduce the level of increasing crime
(Marvinney, et.al. 2014).
All the above external factors are being analyzed effectively & efficiently in the context of all the
case study. The specific factors are being illustrated & also how they may impact the Californian
nut producing industry in both the positive as well as the negative manner along with the people
living in the country.
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Porter’s five forces analysis
This five forces analysis of porter is also another strategic tool of management which should be
conducted effectively & efficiently by the Californian nut producing industry in order to get in-
depth information & causes of the case study. The effective strategies can be developed &
enhanced with the help of these five factors analysis. The problem which is running from the
very long years can be solved permanently with the help of all these factors as this analysis
provides the deep knowledge for implementing the relevant strategies to eliminate the crime.
Following are the analyzed five factors of porter:
Threats of new entrants: Entry of the new markets can increase up the level of crime into the
country, as the criminals may develop the strategies for to steal the products of new companies
also which eventually result into the increase in the level of crime & corruption in the whole
state. The Californian nut producing industry need to identify the possibility of new entries &
should face all the challenges accordingly; it should make all the new entries & business
organizations aware about the case prevailing in the state. Therefore, in all these ways the new
entries of the business organizations should be restricted (Farrar, et.al. 2016).
Bargaining power of suppliers: The higher level of the power of bargaining supplier may result
into the reduction of profitability level of the Californian nut producing industry. The supply
chain is the main cause of the increase in the percentage of crime. Because of the wide chain of
supply, the nuts get stolen from the actual seller & could not reach up to the actual buyers.
Hence, it is very essential to build up the most efficient chain of supply for supplying the nuts to
the actual buyer in the appropriate manner. The weak & ineffective supply chain encourage the
thieves to steal the nuts, therefore it should be developed very strongly & effectively.
Bargaining power of buyers: The higher level of bargaining power of all the buyers demand for
the effective amount of discounts & offers. The base of the customers should be developed on
the wider basis by the Californian nut producing industry so that the level of bargaining power
can be reduced & the potential sales can be increased. It is very essential for the Californian nut
producing industry to provide the nuts to loyal & trustworthy customers only because the thieves
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may also act as the fake buyers & can get all the nuts stolen (Ahmad, 2015). Therefore, it is
necessary for the Californian nut producing industry to keep their both the eyes open.
Threats of substitute products/ services: The Californian nut producing industry should provide
the effective services also to all its customers rather than only delivering them the products.
Delivering the effective & efficient services to all the customers will help in maintaining the
better & long-lasting relationships with them & then there will be no need for finding out the
loyal customers, as the loyal relations will be made already.
Rivalry among the existing competitors: Because of the huge level of competition prevailing in
the business market, the Californian nut producing industry will have to reduce down all its
prices which will result into the reduction in the amount of overall organizational profits
(Sumner, 2014). The Californian nut producing industry should effectively build up the
sustainable differentiation so that it can compete with all the challenges in the effective as well as
in the efficient manner. The market size should be get wider by the Californian nut producing
industry by expanding its overall business rather than just only sticking on to the small or
particular business market (Ames & Dufour, 2014).
All the above factors of porter are to be analyzed effectively & appropriately by the Californian
nut producing industry so that the effective measures can be taken & implemented by the
company to reduce the level of crime & secure all it’s produced as well as the expensive nuts
along with the strategic implementation of all the standard business strategies.
Recommendations to resolve the case
It has been recommended that the legal laws & legislations should be formulated & developed in
the effective as well as the efficient manner. The strong punishment should be fixed for all the
criminals for stealing the nuts so that the high level of fear of punishment should be fixed in the
mind of all the criminals. The government should develop the new regulations & laws
continuously in the standard & appropriate manner for all the criminals & thieves. Another
effective recommendation is to develop & enhance the strong chain of supply between the buyers
& direct sellers because the wide chain of supply of the nuts increases the chances of stealing.
Therefore, all the suppliers should develop & maintain the standard & long lasting relations with
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all the customers who are loyal & trustworthy so that the chances of stealing & crime get
dissolved completely. Smaller the chain of supply, minimum will be the chances of crime
(Battisti, et.al. 2014). The Californian nut producing industry should also develop the strong
storage for keeping all the nuts safe & secure.
Conclusion
It has been concluded that the stealing of the nuts has been increased on very huge basis & the
supply chain has been found very weak because of which the number of criminals has been
increased. The strong relations are to be enhanced by all the suppliers with all the potential
customers so that the nuts can be delivered to them directly without following up the large chain
of supply. The necessity of implementing the legal laws & regulations is being illustrated in the
assignment which is very essential to reduce the level of crime & corruption in the overall state.
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References
 Johnson, R., & Cody, B. A. (2015, June). California agricultural production and irrigated
water use. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service.
 Battisti, A., Benvegnù, I., Colombari, F., & Haack, R. A. (2014). Invasion by the chestnut
gall wasp in Italy causes significant yield loss in Castanea sativa nut
production. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 16(1), 75-79.
 Donner, M., Lichtemberg, P. S., Doster, M., Picot, A., Cotty, P. J., Puckett, R. D., &
Michailides, T. J. (2015). Community structure of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus
in major almond-producing areas of California, United States. Plant disease, 99(8), 1161-
1169.
 Marvinney, E., Kendall, A., & Brodt, S. (2014, October). A comparative assessment of
greenhouse gas emissions in California almond, pistachio, and walnut production.
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-
Food Sector (pp. 761-771).
 Farrar, J. J., Baur, M. E., & Elliott, S. F. (2016). Adoption of IPM practices in grape, tree
fruit, and nut production in the Western United States. Journal of Integrated Pest
Management, 7(1).
 Ahmad, S. (2015). Green human resource management: Policies and practices. Cogent
business & management, 2(1), 1030817.
 Ames, G. K., & Dufour, R. (2014). Climate change and perennial fruit and nut
production: investing in resilience in uncertain times. National Center for Appropriate
Technology. Retrieved July, 15, 2016.
 Battisti, A., Benvegnù, I., Colombari, F., & Haack, R. A. (2014). Invasion by the chestnut
gall wasp in Italy causes significant yield loss in Castanea sativa nut
production. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 16(1), 75-79.
 Baur, P., Driscoll, L., Gennet, S., & Karp, D. (2016). Inconsistent food safety pressures
complicate environmental conservation for California produce growers. California
Agriculture, 70(3), 142-151.
 Sumner, D. (2014). Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Opportunities in California Agriculture.
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