Management Team
Red Team Capstone: Week 4
Brianna Baldwin, Brittney Mendez, Catherine Thyben, Chelsea Slawson,
Christopher Mitchell, David Chavez, Gabriel Parra, Jill Peterson
Grand Canyon University: BUS-485
March 31, 2019
Running head: ASSIGNMENT TITLE HERE
Capstone: Week 4
Organization Plan (500 words/Chpt 4 &6)
Describe who will comprise your management team and what talents or skills each of the team members will bring to the organization. Include a simple organizational chart.
(Jill’s suggestion: The management team will be comprised of four divisions; financial, purchasing, human resources, and public resources.)
Outline a McKinsey 7-S Assessment/Model (strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, skills) as it applies to your business. Review the McKinsey 7-S Resources in the topic materials for additional information on completing this section.
Strategy: (Jill)
Multi-Fry-er’s strategy is create an entirely different experience in the world of quick food by providing outstanding customer service and unexpected french fry options within an environmentally friendly operation. By offering seasonal french fry varieties and toppings (think pumpkin spice in the fall and red, white, and blue fries for Independence day) and consistent customer interaction (Multi-Fry-er’s staff cares about building relationships with their customers), Multi-Fry-er is able to respond to competitive pressures by other food trucks and restaurants. Multi-Fry-er is sensitive to their customers desires. The company follows the latest food trends and menu items are changed accordingly. In the same way, the Multi-Fry-er is sensitive to changing needs in the environment. Multi-Fry-er leads the way with clean frying options and oil recycling programs. By partnering with organic suppliers and keeping up on the latest science in the industry, the Multi-Fry-er’s strategy is utilize its passion for environmentalism to differentiate itself from the competition.
Structure: Gabriel
· How is the company/team divided?
· How do the various departments coordinate activities?
· How do the team members organize and align themselves?
· Is decision making and controlling centralized or decentralized? Is this as it should be, given what we're doing?
· Where are the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?
Systems: (Chelsea)
Multi-Fry-er has total quality management systems that run the organization effectively and efficiently. Total quality management is a process that focuses on committing to the customer to make continuous improvements while empowering the employees in the organization (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2015). Total quality management systems focus on customer satisfaction, increasing and improving it, cutting costs, and reducing time to introduce new products (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2015). As far as financial systems, Multi-Fry-er utilizes systems to analyze sales forecasting, budget cost, purchasing, and labor usage (2018). With Multi-Fry-er utilizing these systems to stay organized and on track financially, it will help create a competitive advantage over other food trucks in the industry that are in the same area. QuickBooks Online will be used for HR, reporting, transaction, and storing purposes as Multi-Fry-er can make use of the reports section in the system to analyze the profit and loss statement and many other segments. The other positive to using QuickBooks online is the fact that it is accessible remotely. For document storage Multi-Fry-er has an in-home office space where confidential documents are locked up and stored for the adequate time frames that are legally set in filing cabinets. The controls are being monitored and evaluated by the operational manager and all information is shared to each employee so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to goals and how to strategically achieve them. The internal rules and processes the team uses to keep on track is daily and weekly reports in order to implement monitoring daily and analyze the trends to see where Multi-Fry-er might need to make up in order to increase revenue. The reports include progress and sales that were made, recommendations from the staff about the status and then actions that need to be done in order to continue operations successfully. Once the reports are reviewed and all staff members are on the same page, changes can then be executed.
Shared Values: (Chelsea) Comment by Brittney Mendez: Should we have a source?
The core values of Multi-Fry-er are community connection, customer service, sustainability, integrity, and continuous quality and improvement. Community connection comes into play with local farmers and vendors that are utilized. Customer service is always present by ensuring the staff builds close, authentic relationships within the communities and events that are booked with Multi-Fry-er. Integrity is very important because Multi-Fry-er promises to deliver a safe, clean, honest, and accountable environment from the truck kitchen to the transaction of money between the customer and staff member. The corporate/team culture is happy, positive, welcoming/inviting, and personable. The values within the team culture are strong because all the employees and management hold the same beliefs which sets a strong framework on everyone being on the same page of priorities, making decisions and how Multi-Fry-er deliveries the customer service experience overall.
Style:
· How participative is the management/leadership style?
· How effective is that leadership?
· Do employees/team members tend to be competitive or cooperative?
· Are there real teams functioning within the organization or are they just nominal groups?
Staff: (Catherine Comment by Brittney Mendez: should we have a source?
The staff of our truck is the heart of our operation. There are a few positions that are specialized, such as the chef and bookkeeping positions. Our chefs will need to understand the art of mis en plac, or in English “everything in place”. This is the act of prepping for the next day. This will be vital to our success, since the toppings are the most varied. Our bookkeeper needs to handle all financials including payroll and tax preparation. Other positions that need filling would be the customer facing jobs. Taking orders, handling money and giving people their food.
Skills: (Christopher)
· What are the strongest skills represented within the company/team?
· What is the company/team known for doing well?
· Do the current employees/team members have the ability to do the job?
· How are skills monitored and assessed?
Business-level strategy (Jill)
.Describe your business-level strategy (chapter 4 – cost leadership or differentiated) and explain how it fits with the corporate-level strategy (chapter 6 – low, medium, or high differentiation plus value creating, value neutral, or value reducing) for your organization.
The Multi-Fry-er utilizes a differentiated business strategy. French fries are standard fare at nearly every restaurant, in order to differentiate the Multi-Fry-er can offer their customers superior quality, organic components, or unique takes to stand out (Kokemuller, 2019). By offering a variety of unusual french fries and toppings, it stands apart from the average fast food and food truck options, turning a side dish into a main course. The Multi-Fry-er’s organic and vegetarian fries, combined with their creative toppings and outstanding customer service set their product apart from the rest.
At the corporate-level, the Multi-Fry-er has a low level of diversification, as it only sells fries, toppings, and beverages, which is a single-business diversification strategy. This strategy allows corporate to share operational related activities across many food trucks. As the Multi-Fry-er expands into franchising, particularly internationally, its corporate-level strategy will be aimed at value creating differentiation by sharing core competencies with franchisees.
Operational Plan (500 words/chapter 3 and pages 88, 113, and 116)
Supply Chain (Christopher ) Comment by Brittney Mendez: should we have a source?
The supply chain seems relatively simple for Multi-Fry-er since it is a smaller locally run enterprise. This does not mean it will not have some small hiccups or hurdles. Multi-Fry-er will acquire much of its product from local farms if possible that specialize in organic produce. The exact farms depend on the area their mobile operation will be in (more info in next section: suppliers). Since they will be local, there is the opportunity to pick it up directly from the farm orby using one of the farms contracted services for delivery (ex. Sterns Produce). This will enable Multi-Fry-er to use the freshest quality products to serve to their customers. With the majority of their products being local there will be less of a chance for delivery issues, as well as time constraints of when the product will be delivered. Multi-Fry-er will have to have a solid plan/outlook for the coming weeks however, in order to be aware of the availability of certain produce due to seasonal changes. This will be an issue with using smaller suppliers. Though an order has been made, there is not 100% certainty that every single one will be filled. Bad crops, less crops, and weather issues can all affect the orders from a supplier. Should there be any issues, exceptions might have to be made. Other suppliers may have to be contacted in an emergency capacity in order for Multi-Fry-er to have the product they need to stay in business. By staying local and keeping the delivery services to a minimum will help with higher nationwide costs. This will allow Multi-Fry-er to keep any shipments that are outside the local area to a minimum (specialty item only available in another part of the country). Multi-Fry-er will be an important part of the supply chain by showing the consumers the quality and value of using local produce. Since they will be the end result of the supply chain, the consumers will have the ultimate opinion of the end product.
Multi-Fry-er will partner with reputable local farms that specialize in organic and non-gmo produce. To ensure Multi-Fry-er has access to ample supply for its business needs, the company will contract with three separate farms. Blue Sky Organics in Litchfield, Arizona will be a main source for the west side events happening in Arizona. Crooked Sky Farms will be our source for Phoenix events. Lastly, Sunizona Farms in Wilcox will be a source that delivers to Multi-Fry-er’s base location for all events. Sunizona Farms is known for its “veganically” grown produce that reduces the use of products that have animal-related elements such as animal fertilizer (goveganic.net, 2010). By contracting with three different farms in varying locations Multi-Fry-er will have an effective contingency plan to handle low or no supply, delivery delays, and weather problems farms may be facing. Multi-Fry-er will use Restaurant Depot in Phoenix and Webstaurantstore.com online for additional needs such as napkins, plasticware and serving paper products.
Operational Effectiveness (David)
The Multi-Fry-er’s operations manager will utilize sales forecasting and write down sales forecasts for each day of the week, this will limit the risk of purchasing too much or too little food products. Sales forecasting is the first of a critical operational system every food truck should perform (Gupta, 2019). The Multi-Fry-er will also plan to have the right amount of staff members on hand for each daily event, this will ensure customers are satisfied and staff members are not being paid to not work. The operations manager will build a budget to determine cost of goods sold and determine staff level targets. Determining the Multi-Fry-er’s cost of goods allows the operations manager to categorize food expenses, comparison shop to find better pricing, measure ingredients in food-preparation procedures, adjust the menu or prices accordingly when using seasonal ingredients and design specials that reduce waste using slow moving stock (Myrick, 2019).
The Multi-Fry-er will use a purchasing operations system to implement sales forecasts every month. The purchase operations system will allow the operations manager to see all purchases made by customers and create a better understanding on how much ingredients, staff and money to have on hand. The purchasing operations system will also help create an accurate forecast and determine the right amount of supplies to efficiently purchase on a weekly basis (Myrick, 2019).
The last step in operational effectiveness for the Multi-Fry-er is maintaining inventory par levels. The operations manager will ask food and beverage suppliers to provide a report of previous purchases for the previous month. These reports will help determine how much of every ingredient is needed based on forecasting for the upcoming customer volume. Maintaining inventory par levels will allow the Multi-Fry-er to effectively keep overhead costs down and increase profit margins (Gupta, 2019).
In addition to having a highly trained staff operating the trucks at events, Multi-Fry-er will employ a full office staff to assist with management of employee schedules and paychecks, bookkeeping, marketing and event scheduling in have a complete value chain. The Human Resources department personnel will ensure employees are scheduled and paid in a timely fashion. The department will also strive to make certain each employee’s needs are met, concerns are heard and working toward solutions is a top priority. The marketing department will focus on building relationships with event coordinators and venues all over the valley. Additionally, marketing personnel will establish relationships with other businesses doing similar work to create a coordinated effort to bring more events and business to the Metro Phoenix area. Lastly, management will oversee all departments as well as handle orders and supplier relationships. With this team in place, Multi-Fry-er will create positive relationships with employees, customers and suppliers and maximize “social capital” (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2015).
Conclusion
Conclusion. Restatement of the thesis.
References
Sunizona Family Farms. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.goveganic.net/article156.html
Gupta, R. (2019). Two Sides of a Coin: Strategy and Operational Effectiveness. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/302782
Myrick, R. (2019). Controlling Your Food Truck COGS | Mobile Cuisine. Retrieved from https://mobile-cuisine.com/business/controlling-food-truck-cogs/
5 Food Truck Operational Systems Your Truck Needs | Mobile Cuisine. (2018). Retrieved from https://mobile-cuisine.com/business/5-food-truck-operational-systems/
Kokemuller, N. (2019). Differentiated business strategy. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/differentiated-business-strategies-20638.html