Posted: February 4th, 2015

Strategic Plan for Memos Factory

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

 

Course Project / Group project (30 marks)

Student groups could help in the development of strategic plans, which can be used for class discussions. These groups will need to work more closely with the course instructor to determine the right company/organization, topic, focus and content. Your assignment will not only be to write an interesting and useful strategic plan, but you must also indicate that you can apply the strategy concepts you have learnt during the course.

Address the following points in addition to any other strategic issues you may like to consider

Project content

1. Executive summary

-A summary of the whole project including a very brief description of the selected organization (1-2 page(s))

2. Mission, vision and values

– Develop or revise the vision, mission and values of the organization

– Compare between the organization’s mission, vision and values and those of competitors

3. Develop 4 strategic objectives

– Does the organization have strategic objectives? Is it really working for achieving them? If yes, analyse and revise them. If not, develop 4 objectives.

4. Identifying opportunities and threats
5. Identifying strengths and weaknesses
6. Positioning for competitive business-level strategy
7. Strategy implementation

– Develop action plans for two objectives

8. Strategy evaluation and control

– Develop key performance indicators for strategic all objectives

9. Conclusion and lessons learned

 

Develop a strategic plan for MEMOS FACTORY (selected firm)

It should review the strategy process, content and context of the selected organization, analyse what the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy process are, and give recommendations with regard to possible improvements. The intention of this assignment is not only to test your knowledge of the strategy concepts, but also to create synergy with your field research project.

Brief about Memos Factory

It is a small business in Qatar where they bake cakes, cookies, bisects, mini sandwiches and so on and they sell in a small shop, they own only one branch. They also sell cooking tools and clothes. The owner started her business at home in the beginning. The owner idea is to bake those things using organic and healthy ingredients like using unsaturated fats. She also tries to mix between the traditional and healthy food.

The owner is the first Qatari lady who started this idea of healthy organic bakery she started at home with 4 staff and now she has her own shop with more than 10 staff

https://www.flickr.com/photos/memosfactory/

http://memosfactory.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37lDFB9W7-Q

 

 

Description for each point in project content

1. Executive summary

– A summary of the whole project including a very brief description of the selected organization (1-2 page(s))

2. Mission, vision and values

– Develop or revise the vision, mission and values of the organization:

• The mission statement is a key indicator of how an organization views the claims of stakeholders. (The mission no more than 3 lines) then small explain about this mission.
• Describes what the company does
• Can be product oriented:
• Focus on the product the company produces
• Can be customer oriented:
• Focus on satisfying customers’ needs
• Example: Maytag Corporation
• To improve the quality of home life by designing, building, marketing, and servicing the best appliances in the world.
• The vision: ( also no more than 3 line) then small explain about it.
• The vision take about the desired future state of a company
• Tells what the company would like to achieve
• Intended to stretch a company by articulating its ambitions
• Meant to be an attainable goal that will motivate employees
• Example:
• Teach for America:
• One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

The values:

• Tell how managers and employees should conduct themselves
• Establishes the basis of the organizational culture
  • Organizational culture is the set of values, norms, and standards that control how employees work to achieve an organization’s mission and goals
  • Organizational culture is an important source of competitive advantage

– Compare between the organization’s mission, vision and values and those of competitors (1 page)

 

3. Develop 4 strategic objectives

– Does the organization have strategic objectives? Is it really working for achieving them? If yes, analyse and revise them. If not, develop 4 objectives.

Characteristics of Well-Constructed Goals

• Precise and Measurable
• Address Crucial Issues
• Challenging but Realistic
• Specify a Time Period

 

4. Identifying opportunities and threats

Identify the opportunities & threats confronting the firm.

Regarding to Porter’s 5 Point Analysis, what opportunities and threats may Memos factory confront?

At least:

– 5 opportunities with explanation

– 5 threats with explanation

5. Identifying strengths and weaknesses

At least:

– 5 strengths with explanation

– 5 weaknesses with explanation

6. Positioning for competitive business-level strategy

By determining how well a company can compete

• What customer need will be satisfied?
• Who is to be satisfied?
• How will the need be satisfied?

• Customer needs and, Product Differentiation: The process of creating a competitive advantage by designing goods or services to satisfy customers’ needs.
• Customer Groups: Market segmentation is the way a company decides to group customers, based on important differences in their needs or preferences, in order to gain a competitive advantage. Alternatives to Market Segmentation: 1- Choose not to recognize different needs; just aim to serve the average customer, 2- Separate markets and create a product to suit each group.3- Concentrate on serving only one segment.
• The third issue in business- level strategy is to decide which distinctive competencies

to pursue to satisfy customers’ needs and customer groups. Decide how to organize and combine distinctive competencies to gain a competitive advantage

Three basic competitive approaches: cost leadership, differentiation, and

Focus.

 

7. Strategy implementation

– Develop action plans for two objectives from point 3 (above)

Action Plan:

States what actions are going to be taken, by whom, during what time frame, and with what expected results.

Action plan elements

1. List specific actions.
2. List dates to begin and end each action.
3. Name person responsible for each action.
4. Name person responsible for monitoring timelines and effectiveness of each action.
5. Estimate expected financial and physical consequences of each action.
6. Develop contingency plans.

In table like this:

 

8. Strategy evaluation and control

– Develop key performance indicators for strategic all objectives

The Key performance indicators for Memo Factory, should be something similar to the following example:

• To increase the effectiveness of the teaching process by 10% during 2015
  • To increase the GPA of all students by 10% in 2015.
  • To increase the satisfaction of students on the teaching process by 10% during 2015.
• To increase the satisfaction of customers by 5% in 2015
  • To reduce complaints of customers by 5% in 2015.
  • To increase our market share by 2% in 2015.
• To increase our profits by 7% in 2015.
  • To increase our profits by 7% in 2013.

 

With brief explanation for each key performance

 

9. Conclusion and lessons learned