Strategic Plan and Presentation

Implementation, Strategic Control, and Contingency Plans

Lee’s Sandwiches

Implementation, Strategic Control, and Contingency Plans

STR 581

Professor: Kenneth Kobus

Vincent Nguyen

Executive Summary

Lee’s Sandwiches has attained significant success since its establishment, and the key objective is to maintain this trend. The organizational strategy revolves around facilitating growth for the entity both in size and reach. The market for the Vietnamese and European cuisines provided by the company is constantly growing, and there is room for the company to market the same to attract a new market. The strategy aims at involving the employees in the attaining of the overall objectives. Another of the key ways that success will be reached is by using the organizational strength to facilitate growth. The most promising opportunities will be exploited.

Implementation Plan

The implementation of the organizational strategy will take five years in line with the gradual growth trend of the company. Lee’s Sandwiches is an entity that is privately run and that grows at a slower rate than most other organizations would. The five-year period will present adequate time for the company to utilize its strength to acquire a stronghold into the market. The main focus during this period wills the need to entice a wider market for the company. This will present the company with the opportunity to grow in current markets as well as in new markets.

The structure of the company vests a lot of responsibility on the individual managers running each of the cafeterias. The size of the company coupled with its structure requires these managers to be pivotal in the implementation process of the strategic plan. The managers will guide the employees working in each location and create a favorable atmosphere towards the overall objectives. The managers are also required to be aware of the performance and developments that their individual shops make towards these objectives. Perpetual assessments should be conducted every month for the five year period to keep progress in check (Pinho, 2010).

Objectives

The key objective for Lee’s Sandwiches is growth. The company is relatively small in the market it operates it. The market for its products is increasing, and this presents an opportunity for it to grow in a larger enterprise. The company will use different approaches to facilitate this growth. The first approach will be using its product leadership value discipline. This presents the company with a competitive advantage over its competition. The other aspect of facilitating growth for the entity is that the company will use will use the generic strategy of differentiation focus to set apart its products. Growth will be typified by the increase in market reach and a variance in the number of products that the company offers to its customers.

Functional Tactics

Product Leadership Value Discipline

The company will aim to grow by offering unique products to its market. There are no other major competitors offering similar cuisines as Lee’s Sandwiches which presents the company with the opportunity to secure the market and facilitate its growth. This tactic will be used further with the objective of acquiring and even larger market that what the company presently serves.

Focus Differentiation Generic Strategy.

The focus differentiation tactic will be aimed at targeting a specific market that can grow with the company. The tactic will emphasize on differentiating the products offered by the company by focusing on a specific market. The number of customers that the company serves is steadily increasing, and this will present the conditions that the company needs to grow.

Action Items

Customer Service Management

The level of customer service offered to all customers will be maintained at an optimum level. The company will aim at a specific market segment by offering specialized products, and use the interaction with these customers to create loyal customers.

Targeting Specific Markets

Individual managers in specific locations will be allowed to study the available market and make considerable changes to the menu with the aim of meeting the needs of such a market. However, the market will only target exclusive markets as provided by its strategic choices.

Motivated Employees

The company will aim to attain its growth by incorporating its employees in the strategic plan. Managers at each location are required to have set goals with the employees and the rewards of attaining such targets should be shared. The input of the employees towards the operations of each store should be heeded.

Milestone and Deadline

	Milestone	Deadline
1.	Identifying the specific markets that suit the company in each location	Within three Months
2.	Specialization of the products that the company will offer at each location based on the specialized market	Each location should have specialized products in six months based on the available market.
3.	Engaging employees in the strategic plan; having their views integrated into the plan	This should be done by the first month.
4.	Setting collective goals at each location where the company operates between the manager and the employees	This should be completed within the initial two months.
5.	Reviewing progress towards the overall objectives	Every six months.

Tasks and Task Ownership

	Task	Task Ownership
1.	Identifying the specific markets that suit the company in each location	The manager at each Lee’s Sandwiches location.
2.	Specialization of the products that the company will offer at each location based on the specialized market	The employees at each location under supervision from the manager.
3.	Engaging employees in the strategic plan; having their views integrated into the plan	The managers at individual shops.
4.	Setting collective goals at each location where the company operates between the manager and the employees	The managers at individual shops.
5.	Reviewing progress towards the overall objectives	Managers at each location. Top management for the company as a whole

Resource Allocation

The initial contributions in the form of resources will be used to investigate the specific customer preferences at each location. This will form the basis of the overall growth plan. The subsequent area of significance is that which will act on the results of the findings of specific consumer preferences to introduce the specialized products. Resources have to be allocated for these as a set since they complement each other. The final important area where resource allocation is essential is where the success that results from these two initiatives leads to the investment in new locations.

Change Management

There are likely to be changes in operations particularly based on the performed researchers that will be aimed at studying the market. The possible outcomes are that the company may need to make products that it might not have offered before. Although such products must be relevant to the kind of business that the company already engages in, it may require the use of new equipment or procedures to make. The employees would hence be required to be cognizant of such equipment or procedures in order to make the desired products. The manager will have a key role to play in this instance.

Adequate training will be made available where the employees and managers have not offered similar products in the past. The top management will be responsible for facilitating training to both the managers and employees. The managers will be required to be quick to learn and take over from the top management. The manager will ensure that each employee receives the most appropriate training and that they become fully aware of the developing changes.

Key Success Factors

Product Development Value Discipline Strategy

One of the key factors for the success of the strategy is that the company emphasizes on product development as its key value discipline strategy. This strategy allows the business to operate virtually as a monopoly in a market it conceives for itself (Ashton, 2005). In its prior operations, the entity has focused on Vietnamese and European cuisines that most other restaurants do not offer in the areas it operates from. This presents one factor that is likely to result in the success of the strategy plan.

Focus Differentiation Generic Strategy

This is one of the other notable success factors for the strategy. This technique requires that the company targets a specific segment of the market that requires a specialized product (Ormanidhi, 2008). This eliminates competition that is one of the key reasons the plan might end up as a failure. The market that the company deals with is exclusive and is receptive to new products. One of the provisions of the strategies is that the company should seek new exclusive products for its customers.

Experience

The entity has been built from the same strategies that make up this plan. The company initially only offered Vietnamese cuisine but later added a European flare to it. The company is also highly experienced in the industry to execute the plan successfully.

Budget

Each shop will be awarded a budget of five thousand dollars with which its main objective will be to perform a study of customer preference in their location. This is not likely to cost much as the number of customers is on the increase, ad effective customer service management can acquire feedback from such clients. Much of the budget is likely to be used up in the making and training the employees to make what the customers want. The head office in San Diego will be liable to make the provisions of new shops if needed.  The costing for each shop is about $25000 to set up.

Forecasted Financials

The basis for making forecasts on the financial outcomes of the plan is based on the financial success that the company has attained in the past using similar strategies (Rowe, 2001). Although the company is privately run and does not publish its financial reports, its constant growth is an indication of favorable financial performance over the last few years. The strategy plan to be implemented is similar to what the company has used since its establishment. This means that the forecasted financials are likely adhering to the same desirable trend.

Risk Management Plan

The risk of the failure of the plan is dealt with by making the strategy a step-by-step plan. The initial plan requires that each shop should be informed about its customer’s preferences. At this point, no considerable investments have been made towards the plan. The success of this step validates the undertaking of the next, and also minimizes the chances of failure of the plan. The second step is expensive and requires considerable investments to be made in order to offer the products that the clients seek. This may include purchasing new equipment and training the employees. However, the risks are managed by the fact that a market is available and that there are no competitors in it (Maric, 2004). The investment in either equipment or training should fit the budget provided.

Conclusion

The implementation plan will take place over a period of five years. This has been decided upon because the company is well founded to make speedy growth. Control of the implementation process will be mainly carried out by the managers at each location. The overall control will be carried out by the head office in San Diego. The managers will also be required to ensure that the process is proceeding successfully. Each step should be well managed and analyzed. This will serve as the primary contingency plan for the organization.

References

Ashton, R. H. (2005). Intellectual Capital and Value Creation: A Review. Journal of

Accounting Literature, 24, 53-134.

Maric, R. V. (2004). A Refined Risk Management Paradigm. Risk Management, 6(3), 57-68.

Lee's Sandwiches. (2015, March). Retrieved from Lee's Sandwiches.com:

http://www.leesandwiches.com

Ormanidhi, O. (2008). Porter's Model of Generic Competitive Strategies: An Insightful and

Convenient Approach to Firm's Analysis. Business Economics, 43(3), 55-64.

Pinho, P. (2010). Measuring success in planning: Developing and testing a methodology for

planning evaluation. The Town Planning Review, 81(3), 307-332.

Rowe, G. W. (2001). Creating Wealth in Organizations: The Role of Strategic Leadership.

Creating Wealth in Organizations, 15(1), 81-94.

Vincent Nguyen

STR 581