Overview Of Management

Overview of Management

Introduction

Kudler Fine Foods is the result of Kathy Kudler's vision to make a one-stop gourmet food shop that offers a wide selection of food and cooking tools for people who are tired of shopping all over town. Kudler Fine Foods went into operation in 1998; and due to the success of the shop, Kudler Fine Foods opened up two other stores in the San Diego area. The stores offer a variety of domestic and imported foods that are divided into five categories: bakery and pastries, produce, meat and seafood, condiments and packaged foods, and cheese and specialty dairy product. Kudler Fine Foods' organization structure is divided into six major departments: finance and accounting (F&A), sales and marketing, human resources (HR), operations, legal, and information technology (IT).

Functions of Management

According to Gomez-Mejia-Balkin, there are four management functions: planning and strategizing, organizing, leading, and controlling.(Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 2002) At Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler is the president of the company, Harvey Stephens is the director of Finance and Accounting; Yvonne Reynolds is the director of Store Operations; Brenda Wagner is the director of Administration and Human Resources. To identify specifically who is responsible for each management function at Kudler is not possible because all departments have a role in the four management functions and all departments must work together to effectively perform the four management functions. For example, it takes the whole organization to arrange and coordinate the organization's human, financial, physical, informational, and technical resources; not the sole responsibility of the HR department. Similarly, it is not solely the job of the finance and accounting department to perform the controlling function.

Technology and the Internet

Selling foods and cooking ware is a competitive business for Kudler Fine Foods. Competitions such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and local supermarkets are treats to Kudler's profits or even existence. In order to stay competitive and profitable, Kudler Fine Foods has developed two response strategies to combat the forces of these competitions: internal efficiency strategy and the customer-oriented strategy. Kudler Fine Foods wants to increase "the consumer purchase cycle as a means to increasing the loyalty and profitability of its consumers," as well as to improve "the efficiency of its operations." These two initiatives can be summarized as plans to increase revenue and reduce cost for Kudler Fine Foods. To successfully implement these two strategies, Kudler must leverage the technologies that are available to them.

To reduce cost by increasing operation efficiency, Kudler has plans to improve its internal processes by benchmarking what Nordstrom department is doing. Furthermore, Kudler is integrating new software to facilitate its efforts to train its employees. Kudler also has plans to "reduce costs of ordering foods and minimize the amount of food to be stored, while also having a zero stock out policy." To implement these efforts, Kudler needs the help from new technologies and the Internet to help them automate the ordering, storing, and stocking process. For example, Kudler order forms are mailed, emailed, faxed, or handed to the suppliers. Email and fax could significantly increase the order time compare to contemporary mail. Information from Kudler Fine Foods' IT department shows that inventory, items, order, order line, and suppliers, are