individual proposed strategic actions

Set out initial assignments, develop a preliminary outline of your assessment and case history report, and prepare for initial contact with your company. Prior to visiting your firm, you should find out as much as you can about the assessment process and about your company. See the client’s web site. Look for newspaper articles in the Tribune and Times. Each individual on the team needs to read the case and complete 2-4 pages of write up about the following questions by the weekly meeting in Week 2.

Identification and evaluation of the organization’s purpose

What is the strategic direction in which the firm is heading? What are the firm’s mission and goals? Has a mission statement been written? If there is no mission and/or vision, state why they are important and write one for the client and include it as the first part of the Recommendations section.

The strategic direction that Trash Butler is heading in is to differentiate itself by providing its clients with personalized tailored service to each individual client. Their mission is to service their clients with the best quality butlers that they can find, and ensure that their trash is taken out every night. From what one has seen there is no visible mission statement, but they make their purpose known in the introduction to the case. It is important to have a mission or vision statement because it clarifies what they are doing, and the service that they provide in a specialized text form.

Identification and evaluation of the organization’s current strategy

What is its current strategy? Is its strategy consistent with its mission and stated objectives? In this section, you should identify which generic strategy the company is following. If the current strategy is not clear, describe why a clear, distinctive strategy is important and make sure your Recommendations support a clear, distinctive strategy.

Since Trash Butler have their services in tweeny-five different states around the country, they consider their services wild and diverse. The strategy that Trash Butler following is to provide a personalized service to collect trash under contracts. Customers can leave their trash at the door in a plastic trash that Trash Butler provide and it will be collected to the dumpster. That strategy will lead and focus on the consumer’s comfort. Trash Butler offers their services from 8-10 pm. Although, they can change the operational hours for consumer and schedule it if the consumer wants. The purpose that Trash Butler scheduling that operational time is to avoid distribute the community during nights, which gives a clear image that the company is targeting the consumer comfort and to have a healthy environment.

Trash Butler is not only dealing with consumers, but also dealing with complexes by signing contracts to do business. They have 65 contracts but their vision to double that number to achieve 130 contracts by the third quarter of 2017. Also, Trash Butler want to reduce the number of non-renewal contracts under their vision to maximize the profits and make more productivity. Therefore, they are targeting the revenue to double it in the year of 2017.

As a company which founded in 2014 at Tampa, Florida, Trash Butler has developed its service in twenty-five different states only by three years. Trash Butler provide their service as the VIP service of trash collect service area, collect customers’ trash door by door. Customers only need put their daily trashes into a plastic bag, put the bag into dumper, and leave the dumper in front of their home’s door. Trash Butler staff will collect those trashes. With this VIP mode service, so many clients have grown in a very short period of time, and it still growing. A low cost, high quality service is the goal and mission which Trash Butler has kept working on.

Because of Trash Butler’s business strategy, Trash Butler success winning the competition with their biggest competitor Valet Living. But, Valet Living as a trash collection service company which was founded in 1995, still taken the largest market share of the country. So, if Trash Butler wants to grow bigger, should make a better business strategy for the market competitive.

Milestone 2: Company research (official) The strategic direction that Trash Butler is heading in is to differentiate itself by providing its clients with personalized tailored service to each individual client. Their mission is to service their clients with the best quality butlers that they can find and ensure that their trash is taken out every night. From our research, there is no visible mission statement, but they make their purpose known in the introduction to the case. It is important to have a mission or vision statement because it clarifies what they are doing, and the service that they provide in a specialized text form which is available to the public. A good mission statement for Trash Butler could be, “To provide the utmost service in the retrieval and proper disposal of the garbage and recyclables in your community in order to sustain a healthy environment for everyone.” Since Trash Butler have their services in twenty-five different states around the country, they consider their clients vast and diverse. The strategy that Trash Butler is following is to provide a personalized service to collect trash under contracts. Correspondingly, the generic strategy that Trash Butler seems to be taking is differentiation. Customers can leave their trash at the door in a plastic trash that Trash Butler provide and it will be collected to the dumpster. That strategy will lead and focus on the consumer’s comfort. Trash Butler offers their services from 8-10 pm. Although, they can change the operational hours for the consumer and schedule it to their preference. The purpose for Trash Butler to schedule that operational time is to avoid disturbing the community during nights, which gives a clear image that the company is targeting the consumer comfort and to have a healthy environment for them. Also, a low cost, high quality service is the goal and mission which Trash Butler has kept working on. Trash Butler is not only dealing with consumers, but also dealing with apartment complexes by signing contracts to do business. They have 65 contracts but their vision is to double that number to achieve 130 contracts by the third quarter of 2017. Also, Trash Butler want to reduce the number of non-renewal contracts under their vision to maximize the profits and make more productivity. Therefore, they are targeting the revenue to double it in the year of 2017.

Milestone 4 External Analysis

Trash Butler is one of the well reputed companies in the Multi-Family Housing Industry. The services which the company is providing to the customers are based on selling these services to the owners of the multi-family housing complexes and the apartment buildings. The main services of the company include providing door to door collection of Trash and for this purpose the company has hired different employees. There are different factors which are affecting the opportunities of development and expansion of the business of Trash Butler, LLC. Multifamily buildings industry have created large market for the company. The main targets of the company are the owner occupied buildings like homes and the typical apartment complexes which are referring to as the renter occupied (Trashbutler, 2017).

Trash Butler is providing services to different states of USA so it is very important to note that the certain environmental factors would have an impact on the performance of the company. On the basis of the population, USA is on the third numbers. The economic environment of the country faced recession after the 9/11 attacks. After the recession in the economy during the period 2008 and 2009, attractive steps were taken by the government of USA and this was the reason that the development in the economy of the country occurred which eventually resulted into the decrease of the unemployment in the country, consumer expenditure and it increased the business investment in the country (Collegezoom, 2017).

There is effective rule of law and democratic setup have been established by the government of the USA because of the conduction of the transparent and fair election. One of the important things regarding the country is that it has greater economic & political influence both at the local and international level. In view of Trash Butler performance, the performance of the industry in which the company is operating is growing on moderate basis. In the first half period of the year 2017 the government of the USA was focusing on the development of the laws and regulations. The changes in the laws and regulations of the government directly impact the business and the strategies and the policies of the company. The changes in the regulations such as the affordable care act have been developed by the U.S. government and the change also have been made by the government of UK in view of the Overtime regulation is this type of the changes in the regulations affect the performance of the company. One of the most important thing is that the changes in the regulations for example the changes created by the government in regards of the tax collection are considered as having both the benefits and problems for the companies. Moreover, the deregulation in the country may negatively affect the business because I may let to have more competition in the market therefore, it could be a threat to the company.

Economy is one of the most important factors which play very important role in view of the success of the company. Economic factors have both the positive and negative impact on the performance of the company. For example; increase in inflation; cost of labor, increase in interest rate, taxes and change in government policies may affect the performance of the company. The economy of the USA nowadays is very stable so this is the reason that there are different opportunities are available for Trash Butler to expand the business and to increase the market share of the company therefore it can be considered as opportunity. The GDP of USA is considered as over $16.760 trillion and well developed economic system of the country is creating wider range of the opportunities for the services providing companies. According to the report presented in the mid of the year 2017 after taking the seat of president by the Donald Trump there is noted as sharp fall in the Asian stock market and this is the reason that the decrease in the value of the Dollar occurred so this is the reason that the changes or downfall in the stock market has an direct impact on the success and the market share of the companies around the world. Due to the Trump economic policy the Dollar had been weakening on uncertainty basis which is eventually increasing the trade war in the world which eventually become the reason of loss of opportunities for the Trash Butler but also for the other companies around the world (Theguardian, 2017). The stock market instability can be considered as threat to the company.

Technological changes are other important factors which create positive and negative impact on the business. As the Trash Butler is providing the waste cleaning service to the customers and the people in the USA so it is very important the company to focus on the development of the technology because people always expect that the companies will follow the improvement and the development in the technology. Company also could reduce the cost of the provision of the service with the use of the technological developed tools so this is the reason that technology is considered as one of the most important macro environmental factors. Therefore, technology can be considered as opportunity for the company.

Increase on or aging population is one of the most important factors which are creating problems for the government of the USA. This is one of the social factors due to which the governmental bodies are facing threat that it will increase the tax rates and the serious labor shortage in the future. Rising racial intolerance is considered as one of the most serious concern in view of the people social needs and this concern is rising because of the liberal mindset of the people of USA. Demographic changes can also be a threat to the company. Social factors also have considered as little level of the impact on the availability of the opportunity for the company because of the nature of the business of the Trash Butler. Trash Butler deal with the complexes, which means it is currently doing business in business to business field.

Environmental factors are considered as very important for the Trash Butler because of the needs and the consciousness of the people of the USA regarding the protection of the environment. There are certain environmental laws which the governments of the country have developed which must need to be follow by the management of company (Reportlinker, 2017).

Industry Analysis

For the trash collection industry, based on the research of traditional mode of trash collection on Waste Management by OECD in 2013, traditional trash collection industry has a high entry barrier. Labors, equipment, management, and trucks are the main costs of the traditional trash collection industry. However, consider about Trash Butler’s new trash collection business mode, the barriers to entry in this industry is low and are steady. Trash Butler provide a labor-intensive management mode, and everything will happen is based on communication. The management activities were supported by technology. The trash collectors are working in the same neighborhood for 2 hours every day, so the company also can save a lot in the salary expense.

The industry also has a low-level barrier of regulation. The industry is controlled by various governments (which include local city government, county government, and state government) and management, so the company only need to meet conditions of those properties’ requirement.

The power of buyers is based on the property management, is not on any specific consumer. Property management would consider about service that Trash Butler can provide, include price, quality, and the breadth. And then, the property management might compare the offer which provide from Trash Butler and other trash collection company. Because of this, the consumers have a higher bargaining power. The property managements are always looking for a low price and high quantity offer. Then, the management might meet several companies which provide same service as Trash Butler, and using those each company’s offering price to bargain with each other companies. Such a smart way to keep a low cost and high quantity service from property management side. So, the property management has the biggest power of give the contract to Trash Butler or not.

Talking about competitors, Valet Living is the biggest competitor of Trash Butler. Valet Living was founded in 1995, and it also headquartered in Tampa. As company which has 22 years’ history, Valet Living already has its own business working system. As an example, Westly Shores Apartment is the client of Valet Living. The collectors collect trash bag around 7pm from Sunday to Thursday. Residents only need living their trash bags outside their apartments before 7. Then, the collectors will collect trash bags. And in the hand, Valet Living also provide personal service for independent house residents. The residents can order their own service from Valet Living with some extra payment. For example, a Hillsborough County local resident who lives in a house at north Tampa, generally the Waste Management would take care his trash, but he need some extra service of dumping trashes, so he can contact Valet Living, and order the personal trash pick-up service from there. Compare with Valet Living, Trash Butler’s service seems don't have any new ideas, because Trash Butler only provide service to the property management. So, why property management don't chose a company which has 22 years’ history and full of experience to cooperate? Trash Butler wants to win the competitive, the company should create some new service with high quality and low price. If not, potential customers will find substitute to replace the service from Trash Butler. And in this industry, Valet Living is not the only competitor of Trash Butler, some other trash collection companies like Junk King, Junk Shot Junk Removal, XS Trash also are developing. So, how to reduce the cost is a very important thing for Trash Butler, and Trash Butler’s suppliers would be the most important circle in its business chain. Trash collection market is so competitive, trash collection business suppliers are limited. Construction Machinery Manufacturing Remediation & Environmental Cleanup Services and Waste Collection Services are the main suppliers of Trash Butler. With limited number of suppliers, Trash Butler is involving a supplier market. Suppliers have more power on bargaining power, because Trash Butler have no other choice if Trash Butler don't use those suppliers’ service.

Competition in the industry is medium so it's not too hard for one to enter the industry and succeed but it's also not a walk in the park. The main ways that companies compete against each other is by price, location, and quality of service. Companies offer different prices depending on a couple of things. First is the type of waste, as in if it’s either trash or recycle. Second, the geographical location of both the complexes and the dumpsters. Third, the number of residents in the complex. And finally, is if the residents would like additional services from the company.

Many companies try to have one special feature or service that can differentiate them from the competition to try and attract new customers. For example, a company may offer site services, which includes cleaning, vacuum services, and site decontamination. These options might be important to certain customers, which will help land them. However, if you don't have any special features or services to offer but do a good job of the primary services and can offer them cheaper than the competition then you can attract new customers relatively easy.

There are a couple of developments [RL1] that are having an influence on the industry such as growth in consumer spending, increase in recycling, hazardous waste segments like medical waste, and the recent waste to energy projects. First, estimates predict that economic growth will increase consumer and business consumption. Since people and corporations will have more money, then that equates to more spending. Second, as recycling’s popularity has grown in the last couple years, there is naturally less waste to be picked up. This might be a negative for companies that focus solely on waste retrieval. But if one of those companies, like Trash Butler, has a recycling department then that’s still good business for them. Third, since there are still waste that can’t be recycled, like medical waste, and the volume of such waste is growing, then that can only be good news for business. And finally, there has been an increase in both state and federal waste regulation that will contribute to higher costs for companies who own and operate landfills. However, if those companies invest in waste to energy projects then they will benefit from tax incentives for renewable energy investment.

All of these developments may also influence key success factors for this industry such as business expertise of operators which includes the quality of service, proximity to key clients [RL2] so it's easier to facilitate them, and having contact with profitable clients which means they should be in business for a while which is a good thing for both parties. Additional factors included are the ability to compete on tender, access to latest technology and technique, able to comply with government regulations and having an extensive distribution/collection network. (IBISWorld, 2017)

The forces that are emerging and look likely to have a permanent change in the industry is the rising residential rental costs and rising demand for commercial space. Since valet trash service companies’ primary customers are residential complexes and the cost of living in them is rising then many people might consider moving into a home thus negating the need for such service. And this trend is looking like it will stay like this for a while. However, since there is rising demand for commercial space then a good way to offset the loss of the rental customers would be to focus on office buildings and seeing if they would to purchase the valet trash service.

Competitor Analysis

Any company that offers any type of trash service is considered a threat by Trash Butler, especially in Florida. There are too many companies offering kind of the same service that Trash Butler offers. Junk King, Junk Shot Junk Removal and XS Trash Florida are popular companies in Florida. One of the most successful companies in this industry in 2017 is Valet Living.

The major services provided by Valet Living are door-to-door trash collection, opportunity knocking, and data collection. This is in direct competition with Trash butler. Not at all like a pool, exercise center or business focus, Valet Living Doorstep is the one courtesy all inhabitants can utilize. Disposing of the requirement for occupants to transport their loss to the group's dumpster or compactor implies they can invest more energy with companions, family and making the most of their homes. Benefit expands your group's lifetime esteem by including another income stream and limiting the requirement for group upkeep.

They likewise offer a year stage in, giving your group an additional positive detail with no start-up speculation. The pricing strategy of Valet Living is based on the complex or household. So, they look at the customer, and then they decide what would be the best pricing strategy for that customer based on their income. This makes them attractive to people who need their services[RL1] . Moreover, I think they changed the company’s name from Valet waste to Valet Living due to the new services the company offers. Valet living now offers new services; the company calls it new standards, which they are turns services, maintenance support and pet solutions.

Junk king was found in 2005 in San Carlos CA. Two friends came up with a simple idea due to the garage they owned. So they offered a good customer service and recycling. According to Junk King website, “Today, Junk King is the #1 Rated Junk Removal Service in North America, with over 90 locally owned franchises in 29 states and Canada”. Junk King has a strategy they still follow since 2005 until now which is according to Junk King website “ we are offering fair, up-front pricing, call you 15 - 30 minutes ahead of every job”. Shot Junk Removal is not alone a Junk removal, but also provides a moving furniture service. Shot Junk Removal was founded in 2008. The business started with a borrowed pickup truck then in 2010 they became Accelerated Waste Solutions. In 2012 Shot Junk Removal created an App for their company and the company named it “Shot Junk”. According to Shot Junk Removal website, ““Shot Junk”the U.S.A.’s 1st & Only Junk/Bulk Removal App & Fleet”. Furthermore, anyone can download the app and after downloading the app, take a pic of the waste and send it to the company. Also the company has to many tuck sizes. Lastly, Xs Trash Florida provides 9 different services in Florida, The company has Junk removal, Hoarding Junk Removal, Wrecking Junk Hauling, Appliance Removal and Disposal, Furniture Removal and Disposal, Property Clean Out, Flood Damage Cleanup & Hauling, Warehouse Cleanout & Hauling Construction, and Remodeling Debris Removal.

In my opinion, Trash Butler has some first move advantage such as 24/7 call hour’s service. Moreover, The company became the largest junk removal and moving company in the nation. The competitors are very big and each company has an unique strategy and services. However, There are few companies in trash business which makes it easy for every company to compete against each other.

Internal Analysis

The Trash Butler Company has an abundance of advantages based on the uniqueness of its services. It is this that has allowed it to attract former clients of its most prominent competitor, Valet living. Its competencies are evident in its ability to meet the needs of the client in a tailor-made fashion and treating each client in a manner that the client would best like to be treated. It may have fewer employees than the competitor, but the quality of service stands out based on the references that it gets. The ability to collect clients from the most significant competitor of a company is a reflection of the quality that the company offers. The resources that are its disposal, therefore, are based on the capability to allocate resources that fit within the desired hours based on each client and provide additional services while still sticking to the primary objective that made its establishment possible. This is an indication of organization and proper planning. Most organizations have the challenge of organizing their staff to stay within the spelled out objectives (Cummings and Christopher, 2014). An even larger company denotes this problem as there are various departments and duties. Trash Butler may deal with same issues, however, a smaller staff implies simpler organization. The other way that the firm implies organization is its ability to attract more clients by offering quality and tailor-made services. It is not unlikely that the competitor may have slightly strayed from the original functions that it was founded upon. While this may be seen as a survival tactic especially when other companies emerge that perform the same role, it is often overrated, and corporations tend to stray away from their objectives. The process of doing this leads to loss of trust and effectiveness. In the end, such organizations such as Valet Living end up losing their clients to smaller and more objective-oriented companies such as the Trash Butler Company. Therein the objective is to offer tailor-made garbage disposal services. What serves as the firm’s organization concept is its ability to stay true to its objective and offer unique and quality services that meet individual client’s needs.

Similar to effective management and organization, a large firm that has intense competition such as Trash Butler must have effective communication. Communication is the core of all the systems within the business (Normore, Long & Javidi, 2016). It is the one that determines the ability of the employees to know their purpose and how to go about it and through it the desires of the clients are known and are met. The Trash Butler Company has several departments that include the butlers, the accounting, Human Resources, Finance, Marketing and Sales departments. It is through active management that the company has been able to produce the returns that it does. Despite having indicated a slower rate of growth and given the financial analysis, the company is slowly but steadily growing. This suggests that the clients that it serves are content though they may not have adequately expanded to accommodate the more significant market share just yet. Given the present competition in offering trash services to housing complexes, the company is said to have grown. Its projected revenue is at a $2.5million growth in the next few years. Presently the company has returns of $3million. Effective communication acts as a motivator for the staff within a firm as people are kept in the know of every step that the company makes (Normore et al., 2016). In the Trash Butler Company there is need for effective communication between the different departments so that the functionality of the company is maintained that translates to satisfactory services.

It is true that human resource strategies in place provide for continual training and development of personnel as it involves all the activities put in place by different enterprises for the purposes of ensuring that there is effective utilization of the employees’ skills so as to enable the organization to meet its objectives. The human resource strategies consist of all the management focuses for the business to safeguard the welfare of the employees. The training and the development of personnel brought by the human resource strategies equips the employees with enough skills and knowledge which brings about effective management and exploitation of the available man power. However, the development and training of the organization’s personnel brings about a good relation in the business hence sharing of ideas is encouraged to improve the general performance of the organization. It will therefore increase the job qualification of the employees hence their output rates are increased due to the improved performance in their respective fields of work.

Moreover, the human resource strategies enables the organization to make effective selection, recruiting and assessing so as for it to acquire the most qualified staff which will be subjected to trainee and development to increase their levels of output. Due to the levels of qualification, the employees will ensure that the goals and the objectives of the organization are met within the shortest time possible. The training and development will therefore enable the employees to make effective use of the available resources so as to ensure that wastage is reduced. This will again reduce the occurrence of losses which might bring about the closure of the organization. The human resources strategies are put in place to maximize the employees’ performances and the satisfaction levels by providing them with enough skills and knowledge for them to perform their tasks accordingly. This will enable the strategy to push the employees towards meeting the goals and the objectives set by the organization within certain duration of time.

The nature of the firm’s performance appraisal systems should be in a way that will provide effective communication to the employees for them to realize the goals and the objectives of the firm. The appraisal should again be able to make the needed evaluation of the employees’ behaviors, which will determine the progress of the organization. The behaviors of the employees according to the appraisal systems should be in a way that will enable the business to meet its set goals within a short duration of time. However, the appraisal systems should therefore be able to translate the firm’s norms, culture and purposes to the employees to understand it fully. This nature should be in way that the system will inform the employees of the firm’s competitive strategy for them to work objectively by developing a mechanism or strategy to meet the objectives of the firm. Again, the nature of the appraisal systems should be in way that will ensure that positive returns are obtained by the firm as it meets its objectives within the stipulated. The nature should again be strategically made to ensure that goals of the performance management are made for the firm to improve in its general performances.

Employees do not seem happy with the firm’s performance appraisal as it monitors all their behaviors which to some extend don’t please the management of the firm. The appraisal system covers the employees’ activities to ensure that they meet the needed standards and hence this does not make the employees happy as they are subjected to a lot of works for the appraisal system to be effective.

It is not easy for a company to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The constant competition with other firms forces the company to come up with improvements and creative new ideas. Innovation and providing always the best service is a high standard to get and keep. Valet Living is currently Trash Butler’s main competition in the trash valet industry. They have many years of experience and connections in the business, since it is longer in the market than any other valet trash service. Their biggest competition making it very difficult for Trash Butler to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over a longer period of time.

Trash Butler’s main goal is not to keep the company but to sell it after they made the company very successful and valuable. This is not the right way of thinking to attain a competitive advantage since they do not want to own it after. The company is not competing well because of the low profile in the market. They do not put themselves really out to maintain a sustainable advantage. They can’t be the number one in the nation if they are not paying attention to their new customers and do not advertise the services in a convincing and outstanding way. They do not add new services to their plans and are not innovative in making deals with new customers like their competitor Valet Living. These features are easy to adapt for Trash Butler to be the best in their game. Their competitor is working hard to turn their valet trash service into a helper in all apartment needs. They came up with more apartment services for almost the same price. The services they added to their plan include help in all apartment problems and work. It even includes pet care and service. In United States, especially in Florida, a lot of luxury apartments are built and that is a great opportunity for them to differentiate themselves and provide the firm with a sustainable competitive advantage.

There are couple other things that does not give them the great sustainable advantage. The lack of advertising and management makes it hard for them to provide the company with a sustainable advantage. There are not enough employees hired for the different positions in the management and marketing department. It is hard to compete if you do not have enough employees in your company to do the work. For example, there is just one person who does the marketing, telephone calls, management, social media, and many other tasks. This makes it hard to invest hundred percentage time and effort into one part. Instead, the one person who is responsible for everything puts average or even less productive work and time into a section.

A way to see how they would provide the firm with a sustainable competitive advantage is to look at their higher quality of service and more responsive service according to the reviews of their customers. Their benefits are that they already established a customer base which is wide in range. They have the major advantage of being a part of the leading INC Company. INC Company is mentioned in well-known media like Times and

Oprah. This gives them advantages of a wide range of customers. They also already have many years of experience in this business, too. They could provide in a very short time period their firm with a sustainable competitive advantage

7). The long-term goal of Trash Butler is hit one hundred million plus more revenue in sales of the business in three to five years. But the Trash Butler doesn't have a specific plan to achieve the goal, cause the ten-years plan had changed to three-years plan. Trash Butler’s 2017 goal is double its unit account, to achieve this goal, Trash Butler needs more contracts to win the market competitive for its goal. Trash Butler provides alternative services to customers. The company can just stay in the trash pick-up services to hit one million goal, but the company decided to start offer other services to give customers more options[RL1] , like offer recycling services as an upgraded service, offer pet stations, pressure washing and etcetera, because customers don't like service company only give them one option. Another competitive advantage of Trash Butler is Trash Butler hires specific butler for each property, every property has its own butler. So, the residents could see the same person every day, and build a strong bond between property residents and company. compare with the Trash Butler, competitors are hiring hourly employees, so probably several collectors are working at the same time in the same property. So, build bond between company and customers, and provide alternative services is the strategy of Trash Butler to keep the competitive advantage[RL2] . However, Trash Butler’s competitive advantage is not a sustainable competitive advantage. From the valuable capabilities side to evaluate, the Trash Butler’s alternative services and specific butler service are valuable for Trash Butler itself. But it’s not valuable to customers, because residents of property only care about trash bags are picked or not, and the quality of the service. They don't care about who will provide the service and who will pick up trash bags. So, those facts are proving Trash Butler’s service substitute by other companies which provide same services. But, the specific collector service has brought a rare advantage to Trash Butler that other trash collection service companies don't have, that is the bond between property residents and butler. This bond directly looks like person to person; indirectly is between customers and Trash Butler. And this strategy can make Trash Butler has costly to imitate advantage. Trash Butler normally send its director to other cities for training new staffs, so Trash Butler has to spend money on human resource, traffic expenses, training expenses, timing, and so on. That will cost a lot of money. Therefore, competitors would consider about cost of provide the same service. Based on those reasons, Trash Butler’s competitive advantage more likes a temporary competitive advantage.

8). The weakness of Trash Butler is sales and marketing. Trash Butler doesn't have any social media account or any app to communicate with its customers and the people who is willing to be its customers. Trash Butler recently doesn't have a strategic market plan. A good strategic marketing plan is always following successful sales. With the company is developing every day, Trash Butler figured without a strategic marketing plan for chasing the expect sales in old ten-years plan seemed impossible. So, Trash Butler had changed ten-years plan to three-years plan. However, Trash Butler has already lost contracts before the plan was changed. And no marketing plan still is the main reason of Trash Butler lost those contracts. Based on these situation, Trash Butler seems like doesn't have specific solutions and strategy of how to solve these two problems. But, the good news is Trash Butler is starting hire marketing position which is for make strategic marketing plan.

By Gabriel Villagrasa

9.) Trash Butler has been able to utilize there strengths of their butlers and operations. Since they emphasize that what makes them unique is their butlers. They have one butler per community in order to provide the best service by having that one person dedicated to that community’s maintenance. And another strength is their operations. Basically they can operate anywhere in the states since all they need is for a representative to go wherever they want to start business, get a contract with the property management and hire a butler to start maintaining the property. However, they have been unable to defend their main weakness which is sales and marketing since they dont have a department dedicated to them.

In order to combat that weakness they should hire at least one person for each department with plenty of expertise so they can rapidly and efficiently tackle that issue head on.

10.)Trash Butler seems to have an average strategy in the sense that they are following a tried and true plan. They have been successful thus far but not to the level that they would like. I believe that until they create or find a new strategy that effectively highlights their strengths while simultaneously improving their weakness then their success will be mediocre.

2015- 6,635.85/692,487.46= 0.96%

2016- 32,266.82/1,239,982.39= 2.60%

2017- (33,938.69)/1,216,436.21= (2.79)%

2015- 6,635.85/95,911.61= 6.92%

2016- 32,266.82/152,880.73= 21.11%

2017- (33,938.69)/336,783.61= (10.08)%

2015- 692,487.46/95,911.61= 7.22

2016- 1,239,982.39/152,880.73= 8.11

2017- 1,216,436.21/336,783.61= 3.61

2015- 78,841.38/102,254.97= 0.77

2016- 142,435.46/164,388.90 = 0.86

2017- 330,202.90/83,529.47= 3.95

2015- (78,841.38-1,550.77)/102,254.97= 0.76

2016- (142,435.46-7,043.61)/164,388.90= 0.82

2017- (330,202.90-0)/83,529.47= 3.95

Work cited

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

In Normore, A. H., In Long, L. W., & In Javidi, M. (2016). Handbook of research on effective communication, leadership, and conflict resolution. Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference.

References