Bonieta123 Only

strategic plan part 1 1

strategic plan part 1 8

Strategic Plan Part 1: New Service Offering - Collaboration & Partnership Beyond the Sale

Tamera A. Lank

BUS 475

June 6, 2016

Tosh Stuart

Strategic Plan Part 1: New Service Offering - Collaboration & Partnership Beyond the Sale

Allied Air Enterprises, a division of Lennox, prides itself on providing distributors and dealers what we believe is the ultimate source for heating and cooling solutions. We provide these solutions for a range of applications, from compact residential to large commercial projects. We offer a wide range of products, resources, and competencies that are unmatched in the market. Our brands include Armstrong Air, Air Ease, Ducane, Allied Commercial, Concord, and Magic-Pak.

Our major competitors are Johnson Controls, United Technologies, and Trane ("Lennox International Inc. Competition", 2016). Distributors and dealers who partner with us are making a big investment. They often choose to come to us after doing business with one of our competitors. A move to us means they have to rebrand their entire business. We partner with them and help them every step of the way through the re-branding experience. Many of the owners of these businesses are technically savvy but are not necessarily business savvy. Many inherited their businesses from fathers and grandfathers. We currently partner with our distributors and dealers from a marketing standpoint and sell-thru strategies, but rarely is there collaboration beyond that, until now. We have recently opened dialogue with one our largest distributors to collaborate from a planning and logistics standpoint. However, we see this as an opportunity to partner with them and others in many other aspects as well, to help increase these owners’ business savvy and, couple with the technical savvy they already have, will help them improve their operational efficiencies and grow their businesses even more. For Allied Air, our plan through this new service offering would be to build a stronger brand loyalty with these distributors and help grow our business as a result as well. Our new service will not only address a need for our distributors but will help them, as well as Allied Air, gain a competitive advantage.

Vision and Business Model

The vision for our new service would be simple – “To build strong relationships, partnerships, and businesses in our distributor and dealer network.” To make this vision become reality, our mission would be “To offer all distributors and dealers partnership beyond the sale, meeting their unique business needs to help them improve operational efficiencies and gain a competitive edge.” This vision and mission aligns with our overall vision and mission statement, which according to "Allied Air Enterprises" (n.d.) is “To give distributors and dealers the ultimate source for heating and cooling solutions and redefine ease of business through a breadth of product, resources, and competencies unparalleled in the market.”

Our business model will be based on providing collaboration with dealers and distributors after the sale beyond just marketing assistance. We will help distributors get the most out of their freight costs by partnering them with other distributors in their region and setting up milk runs from our distribution centers where possible. For example, our pilot customer for this new service receives multi-stop loads from our mid-west distribution center. We propose to assist them with setting up milk runs for each of their three distribution centers that would service three or four of their dealers in each of those areas on a regular basis (see Figure 1, pg. 8). We can also partner service parts orders with equipment orders going into Dayton and Louisville, making more efficient use of freight costs. We will also assist with setting appropriate inventory levels and establishing the triggers for placing orders. We will offer assistance when it comes to establishing efficient operations through lean and process improvements, and help them establish the appropriate metrics to track progress toward their specific strategic initiatives.

Our target customer segment will be distributors, with an early adopter of the new service being one of our larger distributors in the mid-west region of the United States. As our vision and mission statements indicate, our new value proposition will be collaboration beyond the sale. We have had several calls with our pilot distributor to develop a strategic plan, with a visit to their three main distribution hubs to better understand their operations. Each distributor that signs on for the new service offering will follow the same process. Based on the strategic plan and customer visit, we will develop a unique solution for this pilot distributor. While the basic business model will remain the same for all distributors who accept this service, the solutions will be unique to each one’s specific needs. Although Allied Air already partners with its distributors and dealers when it comes to marketing, the byproduct of the improved partnership and collaboration can and should be an increased level of marketing collaboration. For example, we can offer special distributor offerings that they can roll out to their dealers. For example, our business model can include offering Yeti coolers, camo gear, and such that would be given to distributors when they order. They can then offer those items to their dealers as incentives to place orders. These offers can be made at strategic times to encourage more level-loading of orders and shipments, which in turn would mean better planning and control of inventory levels for both the distributors and Allied Air.

Key metrics for the distributors will be based on the individual solutions that are defined for their operations. At minimum, metrics that should be affected by providing improvements in planning and logistics should be cost savings in freight and increased sales from the dealers they ship to. With brand loyalty, Allied Air should see increased sales from the distributors as well.

Our research indicates that this is a service not offered to the dealers and distributors of our competitors. This means we will be pioneering this type of a service and will be setting our organization apart.

Guiding Principles and Values

The guiding principles and values for our new division and service offering will be integrity, respect, and excellence. These core values align with those of our parent company, Lennox International ("Our Core Values", n.d.).

Integrity

We will commit to conducting ourselves in an honest and straightforward manner. Our distributors will be sharing confidential information with regards to their business. This is information that they hold very close to the vest because if mishandled it could result in a loss of business and market share. This new service offering will require true partnership and the understanding that the success of the distributor will result in the success of Allied Air and vice versa. Therefore, integrity will be of utmost importance and at the heart of everything we do to build that trusting relationship.

Respect

We will respect our distributors and dealers, as well as the communities in which they work and live. We will take the approach that we are not there to tell them what to do or how to run their business but to offer solutions that will be beneficial to them. We will respect the family heritage upon which their businesses have been built. We will work to develop sustainability solutions regarding fuel emissions when it comes to putting excess trucks on the road by improving the volume percentage on each truck, thereby also reducing traffic in their local areas.

Excellence

We place a high level of performance expectations on ourselves with regards to the quality of this service offering. We will commit to sharing our resources and will be completely committed to the partnership in a manner that is cost effective for both our distributors and the shareholders of both parties.

Summary

The vision, mission, values, and guiding principles outlined here will be the north star that will guide us in making sure that the new service we offer will be one that be beneficial for our customers and our organization. Our customers will be more partners than customers. As such, we will need to always measure every initiative and every action against the values of integrity, respect, and excellence. If we do not we will not only fail in this new division, but we will lose valued partners as well. If we lose those partners, our vision is doomed. Much the same as product quality, this new service offering’s success is dependent on the quality of our actions. When our partners put their trust and their business in our hands, it is a very big deal not to be taken lightly. Fortunately, we already have a good track record of partnering with our distributors and dealers. We just need to build on that record. But we will need to understand and respect the level of additional trust our partners and customers are placing in us.

References Allied Air Enterprises. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.alliedair.com/ Lennox International Inc. Competition. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.hoovers.com/company- information/cs/competition.Lennox_International_Inc.d2fd1ef8b212458b.html Our Core Values. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lennoxinternational.com/corevalue.html

Figures

Figure 1 (Allied Air Enterprises, 2016)