Management

Tucker, Young, Jackson & Tull

MGT 461

November 29, 2004

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY III

INTRODUCTION 1

EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT 2

Economic Forces 2

Social Forces 3

Political Forces 4

Technological Forces 4

Global Forces 5

Competitive Forces 5

External Factor and Evaluation Matrix (EFE) 6

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT 6

Management 7

Marketing 7

Finance/Accounting 8

Company Culture 8

Production/Operations 9

Research & Development 10

Management Information Systems 10

Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFE) 11

STRATEGIES IN ACTION 11

Executive Summary

Introduction

In today’s working society, business leaders play a major role in a company’s success or failure. Their ability to effectively assess the company’s environment and choose a strategy that will work best in this environment. For the purposes of this paper, we will be looking at Tucker, Young, Jackson & Tull, an engineering services provider, and Greg Parker, one of the company’s top managers.

Tucker, Young, Jackson & Tull is a engineering consulting firm that was established in 1984 by Paul Tucker. They work in many areas, including: Wastewater Treatment Plants, Process Treatability, Water Treatment, Water Distribution System Design, Water Feasibility and Planning Studies, Water Treatment Plant Process, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, Contract Documents, Pipeline Design. The company has offices in Michigan, New York, and Washington D.C.

Mission Statement

We strive to meet our client's needs to their satisfaction, at all levels of their organizations, and provide engineering excellence and innovative solutions through continued education and training of our professional staff to sustain our growth and development (www.tyjt.com).

Greg Parker

External Assessment

The external assessment of this paper will cover six categories of external forces including: economic forces, social forces, political forces, technological forces, global forces, and competitive forces. The external assessment section will also include an External Factor and Evaluation Matrix.

Economic Forces

One factor that is an economic force to TYJT is unemployment. Both high and low unemployment rates affect the company’s ability to do business. Times of high unemployment represent an opportunity to the company. It is a lot easier to find the skilled individuals that the company usually hires. Also, higher unemployment tends to give TYJT more control of over the labor rates that they pay their employees. This allows them to more effectively bid on projects with as they can charge customers less because their costs are less.

Times of low unemployment make it much harder for the company to secure qualified individuals. Job seekers have more control over the pay rates and the benefits offered. Many companies will be trying to attract the same high skilled individuals. TYJT will have to compete with other companies to attract the employees necessary to compete in the business.

Social Forces

Racial equality is a social force that affects TJYT. The company is minority owned and operated. Also, many of the company’s employees are from different countries and of different nationalities. Their customer’s acceptance of different races can affect the company greatly. This can impose a threat to the company. Though at this day and age, one would like to think that race does not matter. Sadly, this is not the case.

This could also be an opportunity to TYJT. The government has laws in place that might actually make being a minority firm an advantage. Many companies or local and state governments may actually seek out minority firms to fill a quota that a certain amount of business must go to companies owned by minorities or women. This can enable them to get business that might not otherwise be available to them.

Another factor that affects the company is minority and women workers. More and more women are entering the work force. Many minorities are entering areas of business that at one point was off limits to them. This presents a unique opportunity to TYJT. They can gain from the knowledge and new ideas that these people bring to the workforce to them.

Political Forces

A political factor that represents a threat to TYJT is government regulations. Working in industries like waste water and water treatment involve much government regulation. These are two major areas of business for TYJT. Changes in these regulations can greatly affect how the company does business. Tightening of regulations can cause the company to have to spend more money on project. The company will have to charge customers more. This could potentially cause them to lose business.

Labor laws also can pose a potential treat to TYJT. Many of their labor pool are foreign born. Government regulations on the hiring of foreign employees can threaten their ability to secure some highly skilled employees. Also, competition for American born employees would tighten causing labor rates to increase.

Technological Forces

The increased usage of the internet presents both an opportunity and a threat to TYJT. The opportunity it imposes is that the company’s market does not have to be where they are geographically