Prince Edward Island Preserve Company: Turnaround Case: 1

Problem Statement

Should MacNaughton still be a Jack of all trades, master of none? Should he avoid further product expansion and focus on joint ventures and line expansions in progressive domestic and international markets? If so, how? The choices available to sustain and achieve further growth include proper staffing, mail orders, distributors, company-controlled stores, approaching interested domestic clients and international markets like Japan with optimized marketing mix.

Analyzing Case Data

The main problem seems here is lack of proper business strategy that MacNaughton should have on priority. To save few in resources, he is clearly not focused on future opportunities and market demands. Also, in greed of constant product and line expansions with new ventures, he failed to manage his finance and spend most of the energy in nonproductive things rather than grabbing upcoming future opportunities and meeting new clients.

The first constraint is lack of experienced dedicated staff and ad hoc distributors. As an only key manager of the company, he is spending 40 percent of his time in only restaurant business which is affecting his other businesses. Dependence on word-of-mouth publicity for this large-scale company certainly seems in-logical. For both financial and managerial constraints, the company had not hired any expert professionals.

There are ample amount of opportunities and demand available in preserve and shipment business, in both domestic and international markets. Though we do not have information about the productivity of all equipment and machinery, it seems that there is a lack of productivity in using assets wisely in operations, like kettle equipments. To increase new customer base and sustain with the increased local and international market penetration in the gift/gourmet and specialty foods industry, there are many other opportunities available with a company that could be addressed very well with proper marketing mix.

The purchasing power of the Japanese market for P.E.I. Preserve is evident by the considerable number of Japanese visitors who come to Prince Edward Island annually. Also, through “Anne of the Green Gables”, the marketing in Japan seems easier.

Generating Alternatives

One of the options for MacNaughton at this stage is to structure his corporate strategy and take some tough decisions about current products and business segments. Whether he still wants to give hard on continuing restaurant business or move further. Though it generates revenues for the company, at the end of the day, it is a loss-making business that renders synergy of other. To get rid of current debts, if Bruce winds up and sell this business, he could use this financial and human resources in