Oscar Mayor - McGrow

OSCAR MAYER

A.1. At the very beginning McGraw was struggling with what direction to take in his upcoming strategic planning presentation to his boss at Kraft foods. The reason being, there was a market research report by McTiernan Corp on the possible sluggish market share threat for the company OM in the coming years. Marcus McGraw, the president of the division, is also not able to get a concrete solution from any of his managers on the solution side and the suggestion from all four of them seems to be unique and different from each other. He was about to declare a projected growth of 4% on volume and 15% on income to the higher management. Keeping the concern shared by the consultancy firm he was unsure of proclaiming this to the management. This made him to think that he had never encountered such a complex business challenge thus far.

The report provided by McTiernan Corp was an eye opener and equally alarming. As per the report the demand for the existing red meat products will decline in the near year and the sales of his new products will only improve marginally. To revamp the whole situation, he needs to add another category or improvise the existing product line to meet the current demands of customers. To do this he needs to invest on all areas including R&D, A&P and Sales Strategies. Hence he changed his stance from a never encountered complex business challenge to a hard investment issue.

McGraw need to revisit his strategies for the coming year and we suggest he apply the following decision making process to get away from the inbounding problem.

1. McGraw needs to call for a strategy meeting with all his senior managers and also include Mike (Consultant) and get clarity on the facts collected. The research material complied needs to be discussed thread bear and any anomalies need to figure out. If the sampling done by the agency is not sufficient, then a 2nd research can be initiated. Market facts mentioned in the report need to be scrutinized and the relevancy aspect has to be aligned with the facts in hand.

2. Once convinced on the report and its facts depicted, McGraw need to form a core group containing senior managers from his divisions including Finance, Marketing & Sales, R&D and get their inputs on the case in hand.

3. Some of the ideas mentioned in the memos are relevant to the industry and can be incorporated with some deliberate consultations and discussions.

4. Suggestions rendered by Mr. Jim Longstreet seem to be innovative and it needs some serious attention and thought among the senior managers. McGraw should incline towards these suggestions and get a consensus and move on with the idea.

5. Overall, McGraw should consider developing a 4th segment and include one of his innovative products in it to market effectively keeping in mind of the changed circumstances in place. This will