Kraft Foods: Strategic Business Plan

Kraft Foods: Strategic Business Plan Introduction This business report aims to discuss an example global organization, wherein the Kraft Foods Company (KFC) was used here. Topics were discussed on responses on the 2009 challenge of an external market assessment as an aspect of organization management and the evaluation of the SWOT analysis technique as an existing business strategy, consumer sector data and market share of revenues. Its chairman and CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, said: Weve had a very solid start to the year, and were on track to deliver our 2009 commitments. Our business momentum remains strong despite a challenging consumer environment. We are intensely focused on investing our cost savings to build our core brands, improve our product mix and drive superior retail execution. This will further enhance our profit margins and improve market shares as the year unfolds. Being an already flourishing food maker of the industry, KFC still aims deliver its commitments in full blast, with a head strong business momentum, using business strategies on investing cost savings to be able to continue making its set of core brands, enhance its product mix and maintain a world wide reputation in excellence as a retail manufacturer. It also ensures that its investments adds profit margins and instigate productive market shares in the next years to come with a timely full-year tax rate. Lastly, KFC has confidence in achieving its goals with a very good net revenue growth of approximately. Such performance never fails to frustrate us and other competitors as well in the food industry. Literature Review 1. Kraft Foods Company Background Kraft Foods Company (KFC) currently produces delicious foods across 150 countries. It has 103,000 employees in hand. Product brands ranges from American brand icons like Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings, Maxwell House coffees and Oscar Mayer meats, to global powerhouse brands like Oreo and LU biscuits, Philadelphia cream cheeses, Jacobs and Carte Noire coffees, Tang powdered beverages and Milka, CÃ ´te dOr, Lacta and Toblerone chocolates. Now, it is the worlds second largest food company in generating annual revenues of $42 billion. Also, the company is an affiliation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard Poors 500, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Ethibel Sustainability Index (Kraft Foods Company, 2009.) Kraft was founded in 1903 by James L. Kraft, with starting only as a cheese delivery service. It was transferred to Krafts brothers Charles, Fred, John, and Norman, during its down times. They named it incorporated as J.L. Kraft Brothers in 1909. It then again changed the name to Kraft Cheese Co. back in 1924. With a follow suit trend in per se, there were turn abouts of Kraft Foods Co. in 1945, Kraftco Corporation in 1969, and Kraft Inc. in 1976. It also merged with Dart Industries in 1980 and again change the name to Dart Kraft, but got forgotten in 1986, where it is again Kraft Inc. From then, it was bought by Philip Morris (now is Altria) in 1988. It also absorbed competitors General Foods and Nabisco. Finally in 2007, Altria managed Kraft Foods. During its long business run in the industry, a couple of celebrity endorsements were done to promote its products. There were Bill Cosby (a comedian), Michelle Kwan (a champion figure skater), Lindsay Lohan (Hollywood actress) and Joe Montana (a football star) (NNDB, 2009.) 2. The Business Vision and Mission KFC slogan is Make today delicious Thats our higher purpose. At Kraft Foods, delicious is our difference. Its products are trusted during That first cup of coffee in the morning. A tasty low-fat snack. A nourishing meal on a budget. An indulgent treat. These are KFCs vision and mission (Kraft Foods Company, 2009.) Company objectives revolves around perspectives rewriting the organization for growth, reframe categories, exploit our sales capabilities, drive down costs without compromising quality and strategies growth. With goal of achieving the new Kraft = growth (KFC, 2009.) It aims to meet responsibilities as a public company and promote that being a global citizen is the right thing to do and what is right for its business. They transforming the brands that consumers have lived with for years into new brands they will love. Its corporate responsibility indexes are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Sustainability Index and 2006-2008 Ethibel Sustainability Index. Last September 12, 2008, it started the mission program The Lunchables Team and First Book Launch the Million Page Mission and Help Children Receive Much-Needed Books (KFC, 2009.) Discussion The External Market Assessment KFC runs under the food industry, with a stock market ticker of NYSE:KFT. Its headquarters is located at Northfield, IL (NNDB, 2009.) Finances of KFC, as of 2008, are (in millions, except per share data) Net revenues $37,241 8.4%, Operating income 4,331 (4.2%), Net earnings 2,590 (15.4%) and Diluted earnings per share 1.62 (12.4%) (KFC, 2009.) Its external market share now is a percentage of more than 99% of U.S. households. The international market sells its leading brands, which are almost all of KFC products. It has 9 brands with revenues greater than $1 billion and 50+ additional brands garner revenues beyond $100 million. To this, about an exceeding number from 40 of KFC brands have an age life of 100+ years old. The billion dollar brands include: Kraft, Jacobs, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco and its Oreo brand, Philadelphia, and Oscar Mayer With an estimate figure of 103,000 employees worldwide, it has 180+ manufacturing and processing facilities across countries. With the consumer statistics of millions times a day, computed in an account of 150+ countries, these persons eat their favorite Kraft brands. It is also a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The figure 1 below is the market share of revenues in each type of KFC Brands as of 2007 (KFC, 2009.) Figure 1. KFC Market Share of Revenues 2007 (KFC, 2009) Existing Business Strategy KFCs follows SWOT analysis technique for its existing business strategy. To start with Strategy is the practice of settling on placing the organization in its competitive environment righty, with the goal to achieve and sustain competitive advantage as well as profitably. It is the onion skin approach in business, wherein each layer of skin must be peeled off and studied on prior to the core Strategic Business Unit (SBU) element is arrived at (Elkin, 1998.) The SWOT analysis is an extensively used philosophy framework for classifying an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT entitles key factors to be apparently documented as a high level summary of a business (or personal) circumstance. Defining it is a summary which is simple but powerful; its system is generally used by consultants to certificate the key factors that should derived from the examination of a particular project or business. Moreover, SWOT allows an investigation to be conducted on the whole perspective view of internal as well as external conditions of a business and the plans in which it is surging on, from the means of knowing its current Strengths and Weaknesses. An added aspect is the allowed ability of a judgment on external business environment, which can greatly influence the performance. SWOT technique aids in putting in to comprehensible explanations of strategic choices, in order to have clear executive decisions that are to be a ssessed and identified. Lastly, it compares existing and potential future traits of the organization and supports evaluation of the consequences from alternative actions (Elkin, 1998.) Recommendations Experts Advise During the press release of Kraft Foods Q1 2009 Earnings Report in May 5, 2009. Irene Rosenfeld, its chairman and CEO, said: Weve had a very solid start to the year, and were on track to deliver our 2009 commitments. Our business momentum remains strong despite a challenging consumer environment. We are intensely focused on investing our cost savings to build our core brands, improve our product mix and drive superior retail execution. This will further enhance our profit margins and improve market shares as the year unfolds (KFC, 2009.) She further advised the KFC group on a solid drive in gaining heightened profits from operations. In the previous year, there was a drive for cost-driven pricing actions, which yielded organic net revenue growth and an exceeding expectation of a better-than-expected volume/mix number of sales. She also advised that the business segments drive for operating gains across the globe should be focused on operating income growth, margin expansion and higher earnings per share (KFC, 2009.) This years forward-looking statements are reaffirmed 2009 GAAP EPS guidance; that KFC is on track to deliver 2009 commitments; that business momentum will be strong; that it is greatly focused on investing cost savings to formulate core brands, enhance product mix and execute excellent retail execution; that the investments adds profit margins and induce fruitful market shares as the year unfolds; timely full-year tax rate; and gain confidence in achieving 2009 organic net revenue growth of approximately 3 percent (KFC, 2009.) Implications It is advisable to used the environmental mapping as a new business strategic plan as an improvement from KFCs current SWOT analysis technique. It is a kind of technique which is aimed to define the key characteristics of the environment in relation from where the business operates. It presents the `backcloth formula that will make visible the future strategies and plans. Its model consists of four areas of focus. Advised action under this kind of strategy is to separately map the varied environments where the diverse countries of the company operate. How should KFC apply environmental mapping into their company business process? Necessary information and records should be based from the senior management of the business from their own accounts knowledge and experience. During cases this is not possible, external knowledge should be consulted from sources to supplement the present management needs. The mapping defines general pressures and conflicts which encircle the industry wherein the business operates, main conditions of environmental group, and matters that are prevailing and are plausible to bring to bear the most difficulty or authority on the upcoming direction and prospects of KFC. This is normally accomplished by using H/M/L (High/Medium/Low) tagging of every factor (Elkin, 1998). In writing and formulating an environmental mapping for KFC, these questions should be asked and answered: What are the characteristics of the environment(s) in which the business operates?, How are the key factors changing? and What will be t he impact on future strategic choices? Conclusion In conclusion, Kraft Foods Company (KFC) has shown exemplary performance in the year 2009 being an example global organization. Its external market assessment has a gradual uprising line, which basing from the theories of organization management and the evaluation of its SWOT analysis technique proves that KFC uses an effective existing business strategy, generates high consumer sector data and earns more market share of revenues than any brands in the market. Basing on the consumer sector data and market share of revenues feedback on the current performances indicators of KFC, there is a definite positive satisfaction gained from its range of products. With patterns from a strategic business plan, it is able to handle functions to promote their views, handle communications and even handle a global environmental concern. It is very sensible to use the environmental mapping as a business growth from KFCs usual technique of using a SWOT analysis. Not only does it endow consumers with healthy products, it is also a new strategic business plan that shows mature key characteristics of an organizational awareness for the environment for the present and future. This way in improving business performance can also determine general pressures and conflicts to deal with aside from catering to a global concern that allows main conditions of environmental group to work together with the present matters on the continued success of KFC.

Essays on the Realistic Hero in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer :: Adventures of Tom Sawyer Essays

Realistic Hero in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tom Sawyer, the main character of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain, is an average boy who is bored with his civilized life and escapes these constraints by pulling pranks.   The character, Tom is presented as a realistic and convincing boy.   He is kind and loving, but also cruel, stupid, and hypocritical.   As the story progresses, Tom shows signs of maturity.   The story of Tom Sawyer, as well as TOM being about a realistic character, is a story that is instructive to adults and children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tom is shown, throughout the story, as a typical boy of his time.   He has a loving, happy home, with his devoted Aunt Polly to care for him.   He is restricted by his home routine of prayers, meals, chores, bedtime, ETCTERA, but when his routine life gets TOO dull, he has the nearby river and woods, where he can go to escape.   Though Tom is not " the model boy" of the village. He plays boyish pranks on Aunt Polly, Sid, his friends, and everyone in town.   He steals, lies, plays hooky, fights, and goes swimming secretly, but he is a normal boy, what normal boys do at his age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tom is an imaginative boy who has a good knowledge about human behavior and knows how to use it.   He continually outwits his Aunt Polly, and also persuades other boys to do his work for him, without them even knowing of his trickery.   One example of this is in the whitewashing scene, when his Aunt Polly makes him whitewash the outside fence before he is allowed to play.   He slyly convinces the first boy by saying "...I don't see why oughtn't like it.   Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence everyday?" (21) With this cunning use of words he manipulates the boy to whitewash the fence, which leads to others also joining in to help.   In the end, Tom has made a tidy profit as well as GETTING the whitewashing done without actually doing it.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As well as Tom being known as a strong boy, he also has fears.   He is afraid, at various times in the book, of being harmed by Injun Joe, starving to death with Becky in the cave, of witchcraft, and of death during the thunderstorm when he is ill with the measles.

The Night the Power Went Out

THE NIGHT THE POWER WENT OUT! It was a dark rainy night; the rain came down hard, sheet upon sheet, of bone chilling rain. I lay relaxed on the couch watching a horror movie when suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder and then there I lay all alone in complete darkness. I felt a little nervous but hazardously made my way to the kitchen by the guidance of the moons light. I went in search of a torch and found one on the kitchen table. I flicked it on and at that precise moment I heard a crash from above. I started to make my way towards the stairs; torch clutched tightly in one hand and a gun in the other. As I ascended the stairs I felt an ice cold gust of wind which made me tremble all over. As I reached the second floor I found that the window was no more but shattered glass on the ground. I spun around in search of the perpetrator. As I made my way towards the shattered window something powerful tackled me and knocked the breath right out of me. I started to collapse to the ground; this sent my torch and my gun flying through the air and land in complete darkness. I turned towards my attacker and gasped in shock. It seemed like a vicious, four eyed beast with long fangs which looked like it was craving flesh; my flesh. I searched along the ground for a weapon that may assist me and to my relief I came across a sharp object. It was the shards of broken glass from the window. I grasped it tightly and started to stab the beast ferociously. Its skin was hard but I could feel the glass piercing it and its unusually thick blood oozing down my arm. I felt its hot putrid breath upon my face as it growled viciously revealing rows upon rows of sharp yellow teeth. It started to back away but I could see that it was preparing for one final attack. The moon lit up the entire room with an array of bright light and I managed to spot the gun. I made a dive for it and at the same time the beast made a dive for me. It ripped through my leg with is enormous teeth as I grabbed the gun. BANG! I heard a loud yelp and found the beast staggering backwards. BANG! BANG! The beast now lay sprawled on the floor motionless. I picked myself up feeling rather traumatised and with a huge cut on my leg, I limped myself to the phone but someone or something had chewed it to bits. I limped towards the open window and it was as if a cloud of fear was cast through my whole body. My heart was beating faster than ever because down on my lawn there lay hundreds of four eyed, flesh eating beasts. I patched my leg up and gathered my torch and a lot of guns and made my way through the darkness of my home. As I reached the entrance I thought, â€Å"I have 2 options. I can stay here and wait for the beasts to feast on my flesh or I can give them a fight worth living for. † I kicked the door open and yelled, â€Å"If I’m going to die at least I’m going to die fighting†, and as the beasts closed in I got my guns out and now the real fight for survival began. BANG! BANG! BANG! THE END!

Analysis Of Emma Watson s The Un Woman Goodwill

â€Å"The groundswell of response we have received in support for HeForShe tells us we are tapping into what the world wants: to be a part of change. Now we have to channel that energy into purposeful action,† (Emma Watson). This quote by Emma Watson illuminates the powerful impact of her gender equality speech by exhibiting her audience’s immense interest in the new HeForShe campaign. Emma Watson, the UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador delivered this speech on September 20, 2014, at the United Nations headquarters in New York in order to launch the HeForShe campaign, which promotes the involvement of both sexes with feminism in an attempt to accomplish gender equality throughout the world. This campaign is important, as often it is primarily females who identify as feminists. The goals of this campaign is to move feminism away from being solely seen as a female movement to allow males to identify as feminists and generate greater steps towards gender equality within society. By employing a multifaceted assortment of rhetorical and performance elements in her speech, Emma Watson is able to generate an empowered, emotional response from men and women worldwide, achieving her objectives of inspiring her audience to join the HeForShe campaign. Emma Watson begins her speech by using the rhetorical device of distinction in order to prevent resistance to her references to feminism, as feminism is often a misunderstood word with negative connotations. By elaborating on what it truly meansShow MoreRelatedThe Body Language Of The Speaker, And The Emotion930 Words   |  4 Pagesspeaker s different tone. On September 20, 2014. Emma Watson, a famous movie actress known for her movie series, Harry Potter, launched a speech at the United Nations called,HeForShe. In her speech she was using audience appeals, repetition, diction to argue the reality of the gender inequality that still existed and call for actions taken by men and women together. The definition of audience appeal is the quality of being attractive to an audience(Collins English Dictionary). Emma wasRead MorePatriarchy And Gendered Inequality?1421 Words   |  6 PagesDo you agree that feminism remains a highly relevant ideology in its challenge to patriarchy and gendered inequality? The aim of this essay is to present some very important aspects of feminism as an ideology and its importance in today s world. It is commonly believed, that feminism is no longer needed and should be considered as successfully completed movement. However, there are many misinterpretations of this ideology, which should be corrected in order to fully understand its prime postulates