Strengths and Weaknesses
sklmwinbrianna
Capstoneweek4-2.docx
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
1
Capstone: Week 4
A thorough organization and operational plan is essential to run a successful business. Without a written plan in place, an organization may struggle to implement vague ideas. Worse yet, lack of a written plan may mean employees are working toward differing goals leading to confusion or disaster (Fontinelle, n.d.). The Multi-Fry-er avoids any confusion with clear, integrative, and effective written plans including an organizational plan featuring a strong management team layout, the seven elements of a McKinsey 7-S Analysis, and a sound business-level strategy and an operational plan featuring a comprehensive supply chain, sound business partners and suppliers, operational effectiveness, and value chain components.
Management Team
Multi-Fry-er management is comprised of seven full-time employees. Any additional assistance will be acquired on a part-time basis if needed; such as lawyers and consultants. This section describes the functional areas and the management skills and talents required of each area head. The multi-fry-er management team is comprised of four divisions; financial, production, marketing, and finance and administration.
Marco Silver will be the CEO/President in charge of financing and administration division. The 47-year-old has strong corporate governance and management skills in the fast food and restaurant businesses for ten years. Before starting Multi-Fry-er, he was the CFO and GM of Café Fino coffee company. He graduated from the University of Southern California with Second Class Honors in Accounting and finance. Ever since he has held multiple positions and further academic growth opportunities. He has acute awareness in financial matters, acts decisively, integral, consistent, a listener and a communicator as well as a visionary leader (AMA, 2019).
John Paul, vice president of the production division, will head the department that is of a significant team member in Multi-Fry-er. The 29-year-old will concern himself with the operations of the chefs, suppliers, and purchasing as well as other miscellaneous operations surrounding the production department. Antonio Pierre has worked as a production manager at a milk company for eight years ever since graduating from the University of Brazil. He will oversee and supervise the business in the production department. This leader will exhibit high talents and skills of problem solving, communication skills, ability to set priorities and delegate work to the public relation and sales manager who will directly report to him.
The public relation manager, Georges Brian, a 31-year-old will serve the role of creating and maintaining a public image for Multi-Fry-er by communicating to the public of the delicacies provided and the health quality of the product. After his graduation from Texas State University, Brian has had a series of career opportunities and growth in the international marketing business and state office administration. Also, with his excellent communication and networking skills, he will be central in maintaining the organization's networking and social media affairs. Selina Casey will be the key to producing as the sales manager. The products created will be heading her way to sales management. She is highly qualified for this role with a Master degree from Boston University. The 27-year-old is excellent at team working, networking abilities, analytical abilities, and communication skills (AMA, 2019) and will use all these and collaborate with the public relation manager to supervise the sale staff.
The vice president in charge of marketing will oversee the matters concerning Multi-Fry-er marketing operations and promotional activities. Janet Ari, a 32-year-old completed her MBA in the FIU and worked with the PepsiCo in the US as a marketer. She has also worked as an International Sales and Marketing Representative for a major insurance firm in San Francisco. Her role will be to develop and implement marketing plans for Multi-Fry-er business to improve brand awareness while reviewing the marketing budgets. She is a good communicator with excellent networking abilities, commercially aware of the local business needs, excellent numerical skills, communication skills and very adaptive to market affairs.
These management skills will work best to ensure the business penetrates the market strategically. The diagram below presents a flow chart for the organization.
President
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VP of Finance VP of Production VP of Marketing
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An examination of the seven interdependent elements of the McKinsey 7-S Assessment demonstrates Multi-Fry-er’s organizational alignment.
Strategy:
Multi-Fry-er’s strategy is to 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 while building their brand awareness (Price, n.d.). Multi-Fry-er is also 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:
The management team is divided into four divisions; financial, purchasing, human resources, and public resources. These four divisions combine to create the board that heads The Multi-Fry-er. While each division has its own scope of responsibility, they form the managerial hierarchy that finalizes all major decisions and send all direction downward. The beauty in the Multi-Fry-er’s four top tier departments collaborating to form this board is the separation of power and the checks and balances afforded by the equality of all four divisions. This board organizes and aligns its priorities by addressing issues within all departments and acting collectively in the best interest of the organization and all interested parties. In spite having a board oversee the decisions within the organization, the Multi-Fry-er encourages input and contribution from all levels, in alignment with a servant leadership management style.
Systems:
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, both 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). By utilizing these systems to stay organized and on track financially, Multi-Fry-er will create a competitive advantage over other food trucks in the industry.
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 in filing cabinets for legally determined time frames.
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. Daily and weekly reports are used 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, recommendations from the staff about 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:
Multi-Fry-er’s shared values are community connection, customer service, sustainability, integrity, and continuous quality and improvement. Community connection comes into play through partnerships with local farmers and vendors. Customer service is always present ensuring the staff builds close, authentic relationships within the communities and at 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 in all aspect 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. Team values are strong because all the employees and management hold the same beliefs. This creates a strong framework with everyone being on the same page when it comes to priorities, making decisions and how Multi-Fry-er deliveries the customer service experience overall.
Style:
The Multi-Fry-er has a very participative management style. Employees at every level are kept informed of company issues and are encouraged to provide input regarding company decisions (Root, 2019). The Multi-Fry-er encourages a sense of ownership in every tier of its infrastructure and promotes the significance of each and every voice within the organization. This leadership style is found extremely successful as each employee within the company has a true sense of value and importance to the company. The success of the Multi-Fry-er relies heavily on the ability to stay one step ahead of the industry through innovation. The Multi-Fry-er understands that innovation can come from anywhere within the organization, and in many instances comes from the bottom. The only true way to encourage that is through a participative management style. The Multi-Fry-er maintains a healthy balance of competitiveness and cooperation. This is achieved by offering company incentives for good performance, and through the constant collaboration of team members to achieve overall goals and objectives. The Multi-Fry-er is operated by real teams functioning together who ultimately combine with other real teams within the organization to create one big successful family.
Staff:
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 “mise en place”, 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:
The employees of Multi-Fry-er have a vast amount of skills and knowledge they bring to the table that help with the formation and running of a small business. Multi-Fry-er’s task manager/leader Jill keeps the team in check and makes sure everything gets done on time and is on specification. Catherine is the head Chef. With a background from culinary school, she starts off the menu ideas and brainstorms with the other members to tweak them to simplify if needed. She also was the creator of the Multi-Fry-er brand name. Chelsea is the operations manager. She makes sure all the little things behind the scenes are getting done efficiently. She studies trends to see if Multi-Fry-er can streamline their processes even more to make things at the product end run more smoothly. (Admin., 2018). Brianna and Gabriel constantly scout locations and events across the valley for Multi-Fry-er to attend. This can be a daunting process when you consider the weekend events plus the weekday grind of lunch hours. Deciding where to place the food truck to allow maximum exposure is almost as important as the menu offerings. They also maintain the Multi-Fry-er App. This allows the consumer to stay in touch with Multi-Fry-er to know where they will be throughout the week. Brit is the procurement officer. She contacts and deals with the local farms, and foodservice companies to make sure the food truck is fully stocked for every event, weekday lunch rush, or after-hours event they can attend. Chris and David both have backgrounds in the grocery industry and travel to the local farms that supply Multi-Fry-er with their fresh options to inspect the quality as well as the amount received to see if more product needs to be procured.
There are no glaring skill gaps. Even though everyone has multiple tasks they are responsible for, everyone is trained for foodservice work. This way everyone involved with the business can work in the truck if necessary, which is helpful if there are multiple bookings in a day. The team can have everything set up on time or before for major events and maintains a clean and segmented kitchen since they not only offer fresh meats and produce, but vegan fare as well. Everyone excels at their position and is eager to help in any facet to ensure the success of the business. Skills are assessed monthly. Information is being recorded constantly, average wait time for a customer from when an order is placed, popularity of menu items, and customer feedback are but a few. Every bit of information is studied and evaluated by Jill and Chelsea to determine if any changes need to be made to the structure of the business and employees. This way they can maximize sales as well as market presence and create a following for their brand.
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.
The supply chain is 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 or by using one of the farm’s 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. (Kenton, 2019) Multi-Fry-er will have to have a solid plan and 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 (with the exception of specialty items 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 (Introduction to veganics, 2014). 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.
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). By utilizing these procedures, Multi-Fry-er will minimize expenses.
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). Through the use of a system, errors will be kept to a minimum and management will have the information they need.
The last step in operational effectiveness for the Multi-Fry-er is maintaining inventory par levels. Maintaining inventory par levels will allow the Multi-Fry-er to effectively keep overhead costs down and increase profit margins (Gupta, 2019). 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.
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
The detailed plans laid out by the Multi-Fry-er demonstrate its commitment to excellence and success. With a strong organizational structure, the Multi-Fry-er has put together a talented and dedicated staff that is equipped to make the Multi-Fry-er a success. Paired with an outstanding operational structure that produces consistent (and delicious) results, the Multi-Fry-er is poised to become a consumer favorite. There is no doubt that the Multi-Fry-er is ready to become a rising star in Phoenix’s food truck industry.
References
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Introduction to veganics. (2014). Retrieved from http://goveganic.net/article19.html
Kenton, W. (2019). Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scm.asp
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Sunizona Family Farms. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.goveganic.net/article156.html
