Overview Of Management

Kudler Fine Foods - Overview of Management

Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale specialty food store located in San Diego, California. What started out as a small endeavor has escalated into three stores throughout the San Diego metropolitan area. The three stores are located within existing shopping centers and contain the following departments: bakery and pastries, produce, meat and seafood, condiments and packaged foods and finally cheese's and specialty dairy products (Kudler Fine Foods - Home). Kudler's mission is to provide their customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment (Kudler Fine Foods - Home). In order to develop this mission, Kudler Fine Foods needed to first develop a strong management team, focus on new technologies and realize the reality of competition.

Currently, Kudler Fine Foods operates under a very normal management structure. Kathy Kudler is the founder and President and all three store managers report to her. Under Kathy in the corporate structure are three key directors: Harvey Stephens - Director of Finance and Accounting, Yvonne Reynolds - Director of Store Operations and Brenda Wagner - Director of Administration and Human Resources (Kudler Fine Foods - Organizational Chart). All Directors manage two to three people in their respective departments.

Gomez-Mejia and Balkin (2002) emphasized the four management functions which involve planning and strategizing, organizing, leading and controlling, and decision-making. Decision-making is intertwined with all functions of management because each function does require some sort of decision-making process in order to develop its initial plan.

Planning is a function that helps different parts of the organization to set future objectives and to help develop activities necessary to achieve those objectives (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, Chapter 1, p. 5). With planning and strategizing, the objectives of individuals, teams and management coordinate together to help support the organization's mission. Kathy Kudler developed the mission for Kudler Fine Foods and is ultimately responsible for the overall mission and objectives of the corporation. However, Kathy is not alone in this endeavor. Yvonne Reynolds, Director of Store Operations, works closely with Kathy in the planning and strategizing of Kudler Fine Foods. Yvonne acts as a consultant to the management on operational matters for store operations and she also is responsible for developing budgets, staffing levels and pricing structures for the stores. This all falls under planning and strategizing. Yvonne is responsible for keeping attuned to the ever-changing environment of the industry and making adjustments as necessary.

Organizing is another management function. Organizing involves specifying how the organization's human, financial, physical, informational, and technical resources are arranged and coordinated to perform tasks to achieve desired goals (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, Chapter 1, p. 6). At Kudler, all four major executives are heavily involved with this management function. Kathy is more of an overseer but the other three play a significant role. Brenda is the Director of Administration and HR and she is ultimately responsible for coordinating all new hires, developing policies on employment, compensation, training and benefits and analyzing wage and salary reports to determine competitive rates (Kudler Fine Foods - Job Descriptions). Brenda works closely with Harvey who is the Director of Finance and Accounting. Harvey plans and directs all finance and accounting activities at Kudler (Kudler Fine Foods - Job Descriptions). Developing and implementing goals, policies, priorities and procedures relating to financial management, budget, accounting and payroll are just some of Harvey's main responsibilities (Kudler Fine Foods - Job Descriptions). Both Harvey and Brenda work together with Yvonne on budgets and staffing levels to make sure that together Kudler is meeting its goals.

Leading is another management function that Kudler is using to help meet its goals. Leading is energizing people to contribute their best individually and in cooperation with other people (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, Chapter 1, p. 6). Leading involves making sure the goals of the organization are communicated down to all levels and inspiring those employees to meet those goals. As the President and founder of Kudler, Kathy Kudler is in charge of leading her organization. It is ultimately her responsibility to communicate the mission of Kudler Fine Foods and to see that each member of her staff clearly understands the positions they are in and why they are there. The three store managers are also important as they are the direct representatives of Kathy when she is not around.

The final management function is controlling. Controlling consists of measuring performance, comparing it to objectives, implementing necessary changes, and monitoring progress (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, Chapter 1, p. 6). Controlling is a form of performance feedback or what is commonly known as performance reviews. Typically this is done on a direct supervisor level so ultimately all management levels at Kudler are responsible for controlling from all Directors down to the three local store managers. These managers take the necessary steps to make sure that all the employees under them are meeting their objectives as well as those of the company as a whole.

Kudler Fine Foods has a strong management structure. This has allowed Kudler to meet one of its strategic objectives and experience significant growth. To keep up with the growth and profitability it is experiencing, Kudler has had to focus on expanding some of its services. Kudler has been working on improving the efficiency of its operations and increasing the consumer purchase cycle (Kudler Fine Foods - Sales & Marketing).

In order to make these improvements, Kudler has looked at new technology to aid its initiatives. Kudler has started a frequent shopper program that will help to track purchase behavior at the customer level and provide high value incentives through a partnership with a loyalty points program (Kudler Fine Foods - Sales & Marketing).

This new incentive program requires new technology to help keep track of what each customer is purchasing.

Kudler is also tracking financial information such as dollar value and profit margin per transaction, dollar sales and profit levels by day, and dollar sales and profit margins by item (Kudler Fine Foods - Sales & Marketing). This new technology is huge for the finance and accounting Director. With this technology