Overview Of Management

Successful organizations often result from an individual's passion for a certain product. In the case of Kathy Kudler, her passion was gourmet cooking and after the frustration of going to various locations to purchase the required ingredients for her gourmet meals, she decided that she would offer the convenience of one-stop shopping and opened a store in La Jolla, CA. (Virtual Organizations [Computer Software], 2007). As her business continued to flourish, Kathy was able to expand her passion and opened an additional two stores-one in Del Mar and Encinitas.

The management structure of Kudler's food consists of an overall organizational chart and individual charts per each store. The primary administration chart for the Kudler Foods identifies Kathy Kudler as the president with the following positions reporting directly to her: three store managers, an administrative assistant, the Director of Finance and Accounting, Director of Store Operations and the Director of Administration and Human Resources. Within each store, the charts list the store manager as the executive for that specific area with the assistant managers reporting directly to them and in turn the department heads report directly to the assistant store managers.

The President is responsible for the overall administrative management of the business and has delegated the control of each store to a manager. Additionally, the other direct reports to the president are responsible for the following: Director of Finance and Accounting is responsible for the planning and directing of the financial and accounting practices of Kudler Fine Foods; the Director of Operations manages the operations of the three stores including the management of the inventory and purchasing along with the additional responsibility of store safety, facility maintenance, security and compliance with both state and federal regulations; and the Director of Administration and Human Resources develops policies and directs the human resources activities such as employment, training labor relations and other tasks (Virtual Organizations [Computer Software], 2007).

Overall the management of KFF distributes the workflow in a manner that fits the mold of a small-based business. It exemplifies the Hawthorne effect which finds that paying special attention to employees motivates them to put greater efforts into their jobs (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 14). In the case of KFF, the employee recognition program allows the business to acknowledge the efforts of the employees and in turn, the employees are motivated to contribute to the success of the business.

A comprehensive analysis of the organizational structure shows that while the workflow seems to be distributed accordingly, KFF has room for improvement. One fact that stood out throughout the search for the performance reviews was that there was no evidence that there were any reviews conducted of the store managers, and the direct reports to the president. Each direct report must be held accountable to the President and as such, must consistently require performance reviews from their teams and in turn must do the same to their leader. The reviews must be strongly encouraged since one of the issues encountered was apparent in the market study's overall ratings of the store operations that declined from 2005 to 2006. This is an area that the Director of Operations is responsible for and with a consistent review process should be addressed formally and the accountability placed in the manager's purview.

Technology

Kudler Fine Foods is relatively a small operation and it seems to have a firm grasp of the data management of its customers. The technology that KFF uses provides both the data that includes the raw facts such as the number of items sold along with the information gathered and converted to a meaningful context (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 386). The information compiled allows KFF to market to customers and make their shopping experience more personal and efficient. However, the data management of KFF has some inefficiencies that it must address. The current network of KFF is not as technologically advanced as it should be to both meet the demands of the internet savvy consumers and bring KFF to the next level in the internet marketplace. For instance, the equipment falls short of bringing KFF's products to the internet marketplace since the hardware that it maintains requires a significant overhaul to compete in this area. Given the high-speed technology available, it is unacceptable for all the stores to run on modems with the speed of 56K. KFF needs to conduct an overall assessment of the technology needed to bring it to the level that will allow it to increase its customer base on the internet. The technology needs to be consistent across all stores unlike the current state that has the Encinitas store lacking comparable equipment. Updating the technology would allow KFF to strengthen its database and compile detailed information that would be both cost effective and profitable. In addition, improved technologies would allow KFF to compete on the internet and sell their products online to a wider consumer base.

Porter Model

In 1980, Michael Porter identified the five forces that impact the profitability of an industry. Since competition defines the successes or failure of any organization, Porter's models are used to develop and implement strategies for companies to improve upon their competitive edge (Turban, 2003). The following examples illustrate how Porter's Models are reflected in Kudler Fine Foods.

The threat of entry of new competitors

Kudler Fine Foods has three retail stores and has a solid hold on the gourmet market in the geographical area. However, the market surveys indicate that the customer base is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the pricing of the goods as well as