Kudler Fine Foods2

Kudler Finer Foods was founded in 1998 by Kathy Kudler with the vision to create one store that carried a wide-selection of fresh ingredients and gourmet tools at a reasonable price. Five years later, Kathy's vision has expanded to three stores, and soon a fourth. Kudler has demonstrated successful business strategies to maintain the growth her company has experienced over the life of her company. This paper will examine the primary functions of management as related to Kudler Finer Foods; discuss how technology and the internet are used by Kudler, and how Kudler fits into Porter's Model of Management.

Primary Functions of Management

There are four basic functions of management; planning and strategizing, organizing, leading, and controlling. These functions are necessary at all levels of the management process. Different levels of management may function more heavily in one function than another. A description of each function is listed in Table A.

Table A: Management Functions and descriptions

1. Planning and Strategizing Necessary to set future goals and objectives and important to develop a plan to reach the future goals.

2. Organizing Specifying how the company's resources will be used to achieve goals.

3. Leading "Energizing people to contribute their best individually and in cooperation with other people", (Gomez 2002)

4. Controlling Measuring performance and comparing it to the set goals, changing what is necessary, and watching progress.

(Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002)

Kudler Finer Foods is overseen by the founder and president of the company, Kathy Kudler. Kudler has three store managers and three directors that report directly to her; a director of finance and accounting, a director of store operations, and a director of human resources. Each director also has employees that report directly to that position to assist them with their job.

The president of the company is primarily responsible for planning and strategizing for the company. She keeps up-to-date on all aspects of the business by environmental scanning, and interaction with her direct reports. This enables her to steer her company into the future. Kudler is also directly involved in organizing, leading, and controlling of her company, although these functions are managed primarily by the other management levels.

The directors of the company function primarily in the organizing function of management. This is the area of management that is responsible for determining how resources, including inventory, money, and people are allocated. The president will have the final determination on these issues, but because of her primary focus on planning and strategizing, the organizing function will be carried out by the directors.

The individual store managers are mainly concerned with the leading function of management. They are responsible for leading the staff below them. They manage the day-to-day operations of the stores and keep the budget in mind. Once again, they also share all aspects of managerial functions, but function primarily in the leading role.

The accounting clerk, support specialist, purchasing manager, inventory manager, human resource assistant, administrative assistant and purchasing assistant are primarily focused on the controlling function of management. This group of managers is responsible for measuring performance and comparing it to the goals set by management, and monitoring the outcomes. The results they obtain would flow up to the president to be used for planning and strategizing.

"The four management functions should be closely linked. For instance, the control system should warn the organization that its plans and strategies are not working and need to be reconsidered", (Gomez, 2002). Kudler demonstrates that the four management functions are closely linked. This close linking of the functions is demonstrated through the technology the company uses to keep the employees and the stores up-to-date with the latest technology.

Kudler's Use of Technology and the Internet

"Technology is the means of transforming inputs into products", (Gomez, 2002). Kudler has used technology and the intranet on a daily basis for management functions and store operations. Kudler also has an internet web page for customers to learn about the company.

Kudler intranet web pages are more developed than the internet web pages for their customers. Examples of technology in the intranet include; the complete employee handbook, HRIS system that out-sources payroll processing to Intuit, excel spreadsheets, employee files, OSHA records, and many databases. The company also has a Point of Service Ethernet system that is used for all