Formal Business Report- Smucker’s

In this report exerts the analysis of the strategies implemented by the J. M Smucker’s company and the fit between the strategies and organization as the whole. It further explains how the company is attaining a sustainable competitive advantage in its markets. J. M Smucker’s is the high quality seller in North America since last 113 years. They have very strong beliefs seeded by their founder of the company J. M Smucker. They believe that their success is totally because of their values and the strong bond between the company and the customers.

It has a mission of the owning the food market by selling one of the finest brands in the market. That can be possible as there is not a single company at this point which is competing with them in each line of products. However it would be a difficult road for them as their machinery is obsolete and needed the replacement. As for the external analysis of the company, it can be concluded that the company is only dealing with few suppliers, and this could be dangerous if any dispute arises. J. M Smucker’s mission is to be on the top for this purpose, they are extending their business through acquisitions.

These expending strategy suits their mission perfectly. They are making direct sales with the customers for this purpose; they are using fewer suppliers who are a very healthy approach because if you have fewer supplies your goods would move faster in the market. As the strategic analysis suggests that their strategies completely blend with their mission and other organizational components. Introduction: J. M. Smucker was created in the year 1897 in the Midwestern farming community of Orrville by Jerome Monroe Smucker.

Since then the company has become one of the leading wholesome high-quality food product seller in USA (our company, 2010). The company’s product includes all the kitchen staples like peanut butter, fruit spreads, cooking oil and baking goods (smacker’s product, 2010). Company has a vision of owning and leading no 1 food brands in the markets of North America. Smucker’s vision and mission statements state the innovations and destination for the future with profitability by providing best quality products. This has become the direction of the company and helped the family to run the business smoothly and successfully.

Smucker is the independent enterprise, and they intend to have the control within themselves because they believe that their destiny is been controlled by their desires and motivations. Smucker’s takes up the responsibility of their employees in return asking for their commitment towards their respective jobs and company as the whole. The following report contains the critical analysis of the mission, strategies and the organizational components of the Smucker’s. This report is been developed to identify which strategies have been successfully implemented while others have failed.

Mission statement analysis of Smucker: J. M Smucker’s a renowned family owned business because of their control, and it has earned a reputation for honesty, independence, fairness, respect for their clientele and employees. The mission of the company is to increase market share, control the cost and improve the goodwill by implementing best practices. Jaffe (1998) state that mission statement, vision statement , values , goals and objectives are established within the paradigm of marinating independent , quality and respect for its customers.

With the respect of the customers, Smucker’s also keep their family involved in the governance of the company which helps eventually in the building of the culture. As Fisher et al (2008) explains that the mission statement reflects the set of values that were defined by the founding family. Hence, the conviction that this company has gotten has been due to its commitment to a mission statement that reveals what they are as a company and stipulates the principles of their operation in the market place.

This has been the guiding principle of the company since it helps the direction and gives the company purpose. In the early years of the JM Smucker’s, the founder of the company was more inclined towards few products with better quality but the With the next generation of the Smucker‘s new mission statement was formed, which was to improve market share, goodwill and cost of the products. To achieve this mission, the company is taking suitable steps to expend their business.

By analyzing their past record this is very evident that their expansion strategy includes the acquisitions (Graves, 2008). Organisational components of the sumcker‘s: Strategic market Goals and objectives: The strategic market objectives and goals are properly structured and focus on the continouos improvement of its long term market position and competative advantage. However, the main focus of the company does remain on the creating value to the customers and capturing more market shares (Jaffe, 1998).

Thus they are able to take-over their customers in terms of the high product quality. However, the objectives need to consider on the competitive action which highlighting on domination of the market niche. Duhamel et al (2000) argue that Smucker company goals and objectives should be open, permanent, convert the mission and vision into achievement, quantifiable and finally help in the sustenance of the competitive advantage of the company. The goals, on the other hand, should come out as most important outcomes of the larger strategic mapping.

Although Smucker’s goals are strategic, practical and precise, but they fail to help the company looks at the broader picture moving all activities of the company towards reaching the operational planning. SOWT analysis: The SOWT analysis reveals that the strength of the company is the market reputation which has been created by direct interaction with the customers. Product portfolio which is very wide due to this, they don’t have a competitor which is competing with them in each product; they have very few but very strong suppliers.

Where as the weakness is the lack of R&D, to remain on the top they have to get rid of the old technology. Opportunities could be expending their business in the inorganic markets through acquisitions, and increase focus on the new form of selling and distribution to the customers were as threats are the acquisition by the bigger players and product replication by the small players. External environment analysis: Smucker’s produces products that include all the kitchen staples like peanut butter, fruit spreads, cooking oil and baking goods (smacker’s product, 2010).

Company has a vision of owning and leading no 1 food brands in the markets of North America for this purpose it is important not to scan the external environment but also evaluate the current strategies. Smucker’s makes direct sales, and it has very few suppliers. Their major sales are generated by the wall-mart. Hence any changes occur in the relationship of the supplier they will lose a huge amount of sales. Moreover, they are operating in a market where barriers of the entries are highly moderate and substitutes can easily be manufactured.

The only advantage which is Smucker’s is having is that no company is competing with it in every product, and buyer has the strong perception about the product which creates the demand. World has just come out of the global slump that’s why the buying power of the consumer is pretty low and they are being more diets conscious, which might make them to shift from Smucker to organic products. Because of the technological wave, everything is been operated by the machinery these days in fact stores are also been shifted online. So to be on the competitive edge Smucker’s also opened a virtual shop.

Moreover, the strict rules and regulations made them to work on toes and go through continuous inspection because the inability to meet the legal requirement can be very destructive for the business. Conclusion: J. M smackers are very big players of the current period following their traditional values and beliefs. Their main mission is to expend their market and capture most of the market share for this purpose they are adding different products in their portfolio through acquisitions. By doing internal and external analysis, we have come to the conclusion that at the current moment company is having a competitive edge in the market.

Organization is making excellent strategies and implementing them very efficiently. Reference: Our company ‘http://www. smuckers. com/family_company/’ Smucker’s products ‘http://www. smuckers. com/products/’ Jaffe, D. (1998). Organizational Vision,Values and Mission . New York: Crisp Publications. Graves T. (2008), Standard & Poor’s Equity Research http://www. businessweek. com/investor/content/mar2008/pi2008033_133521. htm Fisher, C et al (2008). Human Resource Management. London: Wiley Publishers Duhamel, I et al (2000). A Managerial Perspective of Strategic Management. Oxford: OUP