Plan of approach and profile outline
The report approaches to the business by expressing the basic profile and the structure of the business. It will try to clarity the whole business environment of the business and its target group. In order to make it more clearly, firstly the profile of the business will be discussed.
Profile:
1.The company:
The official name for the company is "tasty Tom" which is a combination of four greenhouses that produce crops. The major greenhouse of the business is located in the outskirt of Delft, while the other three locate nearby as well. The business also has warehouse nearby to keep the goods. The ownership of the business is solo proprietor. The manager himself acts as the owner of the company, and he invested the money to run the business and to monitor the business. He has to make daily decisions about how the organization should work.
What's in the bag? Business of Software 2010
moo.com business cards
"moo business cards"Communications with the clients and partners are also crucial daily activities to the business manager. The business 13-15 staffs on average, during the rush season, there are up to 20 staffs in the business.
2.The product:
Generally speaking, the main products of the business are tomatoes, to be more concrete, we can say they are packs of tomatoes normally with 8 inside each. Average weights of the products are 40-45 grams. The tomato is firm and has an excellent shelf-life. The taste can be described as sweet with spicy, aromatic flavor. The company delivers the goods by trucks of their own to the customers. However due to the limitation of the size of the company, it cooperate with other logistic company as well. Because the tomatoes have a certain life span, the delivery of the goods is really important for the company.
3. The target group:
The target group of the business is individuals who shop tomatoes geographically, in supermarket and fair. Since tomatoes are suitable for everyone, the target group may cover people from all classes. These customers can be appealed by fresh tasty and new flavor of the products which is also the unique character of the tomatoes. In essence, the most important thing to the customers when they choose the tomatoes is quality, so they have to concentrate on their quality not only on quantity.
4.The feature of the business
The business is a debt free business which means the owner doesn't draw any loans from banks. He himself put the capital into the company and gains the return by its profit. Though the company is a labor biased organization (it requires mainly manual work, and nearly all the pick-up and growing are done by hands.), high-tech mechanism is also needed for the business such as sometimes they need specialists to help them killing all the insects from the crops, sometimes they need specialists to help them to improve the taste of the products. The nutrition for the tomatoes relies on technology because it is a soil free cultivation. The manager is the owner of the business he makes the daily decision for the business and he also plans the future for the company. The company distinguishes itself by providing the customers with high quality goods and JIT services. These are the unique character for the company.
Mission, Vision, Objectives and Strategy
Mission
The mission statement of the business is: a dynamic, innovative company that will compete in national markets and strive for excellence in every aspect of our business. The foundation of our commitment will be to provide our customers with timely delivery of quality products and services at competitive values.
Vision
The vision statement of the business is: Tasty tom will give you the best you can expect from a tomato. A new and unique product has been created by adapting the possibilities of nature in a optimum and environmentally friendly way.
Objective
The objective of the business is to provide the customers with high quality and fresh taste goods on a timely basis so as to compete with their competitors. To occupy as much market shares as they can.
Strategy
Their strategy can be described as:
1.low cost strategy
The business carries out this strategy in many ways. The number of regular workers is normally 13-15. However, in order to meet the rush season, they also recruit seasonal workers, who will only be paid on hour basis. The business can gain benefit from this because they don't need to keep the redundant staffs when there is not much work to do so as to cut cost. The lamps in greenhouse are controlled. When there is adequate light outsight, there will not be any light in the greenhouse. These low cost strategy save the company lots of money.
2.Customer based strategy
The business seriously considers customers' needs and desires. They try to serve the customers with high quality goods with their careful way of planting and picking. In order to reach their customers in time, they set up a just in time system, which can let the customers to get their products whatever they want with a guaranteed quality and freshness. The business set up a computer center which allow the customers order the goods on line and they could also know exactly the date of delivery, thus makes it convenient for the customers to reach.
3.co-operate strategy
Because tomatoes are time consuming products, the company has to think of a way to deliver the products to their consumer in a certain time span, otherwise tomatoes may get deteriorated. The co-operation with the logistic company allow they to have more flexibility about the delivery so that they can provide their customers with more qualified goods and promise them within a certain period of time.
The organization in its environment
The macro economy environment do not has an direct impact on the business since its debt free and regional business, but the environment of the organization is important to the business and it can be seen as many effects:
1. Economic forces affect the business.
Certainly the cost of purchasing seedling and nutrition are important; so are economies of scale and efficiencies of production. But the company should study and understand the impact of what is happening in the general economy too. For example, when there's an inflation of the price for the seedlings, they have to spend more to purchase, so their costs are up and result in a decrease in contribution margin. When there's a rise in unemployment, the business can hire staffs with less money. The company must know how these factors will likely affect the sales of tomatoes and the cost of doing business.
2.The internal forces affect the business.
The company has only one solo owner, and he decides the goal and the objectives for the company to chase. He accesses current circumstance and make proposal for the future improvement. His wrong judgment may lead to a disaster to the business, so the owner plays an important role in the business. If he wants to quit, the business is over. The staffs' donations during the work also affect the business. They need to work harder and careful so as to meet the criterion and they have to stick to it.
3.The external forces affect the business and it can be divided into:
(1)Social forces
This factor is crucial to all kinds of the business as their revenue depends on their customers. They have focus on their behavior especially they have to get involved in the society to let people accept them.
(2)Technology forces
With the development of modern technology, there are increasingly demands on internet. In order to serve these customers, the company built up a computer to process these kinds of orders. The computer center first receives the order from customers and they valuate it and put in into database. Then they get in touch with the warehouse to deliver the good to the customers. This improvement needs special trained employee. They have to have a good command of the internet and know exact how to deal with the on line transaction. The computer center has a good communication with the warehouse so that they could inform about the warehouse how many tomatoes they need to transport and save unnecessary inventory.
(3)Transportation forces
The company has their own trucks to transport the goods to the consumers, however this is not enough. The co-operation with other logistic company means they have to rely on other to perform their business quality and they will be influenced by them.
Gearing to the market
Consumers defined:
The main customers to the business are those who always purchase tomatoes, in more specific way we can say, those who often go to supermarkets and fairs. There is not a clear boundary to distinguish the target group.
Market mix
Product
Generally speaking, the main products of the business are tomatoes, to be more concrete, we can say they are packs of tomatoes normally with 8 inside each. Average weights of the products are 40-45 grams. The tomato is firm and has an excellent shelf-life. The taste can be described as sweet with spicy, aromatic flavor. The company delivers the goods by trucks of their own to the customers. However due to the limitation of the size of the company, it cooperate with other logistic company as well. Because the tomatoes have a certain life span, the delivery of the goods is really important for the company.
Price
Since tomatoes one of the most common goods sold in the market, the price of tomatoes are determined by the market which includes purchasing power, inflation, competition. When there is any changes in macro-economic it will influence the price of the tomatoes. For example, if the inflation occurs, the price of tomatoes will go up because the cost of growing tomatoes will go up and the profit has to be maintained.
Place
The major selling places for the company are supermarkets and fairs. They deliver the goods to those areas and sell them to the consumers.
Promotion
The company promotes their products main by ads: bill board on the stands in the fairs and on the lambs. They also advertise their products on TV. With the boosting of the use of internet, they switch their concentration to the webpage. Now they mainly promote their products on internet, and the consumers can not only take a look at the pictures of the tomatoes and they can order them as well.
Distribution
The channels of distribution contain two parts. The company uses their own trucks to deliver the goods to the consumers. The company also asks other logistic company to help them deliver the goods to their customers. The further development for the company to pursue is that they need to have a total cost concept in the ways of distribution which means they need to not only focus on the costs of using trucks, they have to pay attention to the usage of inventory and warehousing as well. They need to know that the ultimate way of transportation is to meet the need of their customers and they have to be in time.
Structure activities
The structure of the organization can be listed below:
Owner of the company (manager) ------Vice manager------accountant/internet maintainer-------workers/drivers
Now we can discuss them more clearly:
1.Owner
His duty is to plan the whole operation of the company. He decides the future plan of the company such as what kind of action the company needs to take so as to fulfill the desire of the customers. He also makes important decision like how many seedling the company is going to purchase the next year, how much the company should charge for a kilo tomatoes. He deals with the relationship with others as the logistic company. He needs to build up the co-operation system with the company's partners, which makes it easier for the company to grow. His responsibility also covers giving order to his fellow staffs, giving them punishment or rewards.
2.Vice manager
The main responsibility for the vice manager is to in charge of the staffs in the company. He needs to keep an eye on the performance of everyone in the company to make sure that they are doing their own job. If there is anything happens, he needs to report to the company and ask the boss to give further command. Of course, the basic task for the vice manager in the greenhouse is to work and his mechanism is far better than others, so he can teach other about how to perform.
3.Accountant
The job for the accountant is to provide the manager about the financial conditions with all kinds of statements such as balance sheet, income statement and cash flow. He plays an important role in the organization because his work can let the manager know exactly how the company perform whether the company is in debt or gaining surplus. His financial statement will also give the manager a piece of suggestion on whether he needs to change the plan of the company or not.
4.Internet maintainer
The job for internet maintainer is to keep the daily operation of the website of the company. Since there are increasing use of the internet, lots of orders are received from the internet, internet maintainer need to report to the manager of the amount of the tomatoes the customers want so that they could deliver them in time.
5.Workers/drivers
The job for the workers is to growing tomatoes. The growing mechanism is normally by hand. There are different period for growing tomatoes and they simply adopt different kinds of techniques. The job for drivers of the company is to deliver the goods to the customers by truck.
They are part of the company staffs.
People and organization culture
Relationship
The total number of the employees in the business is around 15. People usually have an intimate relationship among each other because the size of the company is comparatively small. They know each other and their family. When there is a leisure time during the day, they will sit together and chat, sometime even the manager will join them. The topics for them are various including all kinds of aspects. These kinds of informal talk will strength their relationship and encourage them to work harder.
Recruitment
There is no such kind of a formal recruitment. They recruit their staffs by internet or relatives. This will help them to save costs. The staffs in the organization are motivated by rewards. The more they finish, the more they will be paid. It all depends on their work rate and efficiency.