Kudler Fine Foods Virtual Organization - Management Assignment

Explore the Kudler Fine Foods virtual organization. You will find a link to the virtual organization portal on your Week One rEsource SMcourse page. This virtual organization is a unique and innovative learning tool specifically designed to teach and assess the problem solving skills necessary for success in the twenty-first century. It allows you to take the theories learned in class and apply them in realistic settings with realistic data to solve real-world problems. Once you have opened the portal, click on Kudler Fine Foods. You will find yourself on the organization’s Internet site, which will give you a picture of what the organization is like. Most of the work that you do in this course will require you to explore in depth the organization’s intranet site. Take some time to make yourself aware of the information that resides on both sites.

Once you are familiar with Kudler Fine Foods, write a 700-1,050-word paper in which you do the following:

a. Identify the primary functions of management, describing who is responsible for each function at Kudler.

b. Explain how technology and the Internet are utilized by Kudler currently and how that affects its management.

c. Cite an example from Kudler illustrating each of the five forces from Porter’s Model.

Kudler Fine Foods has three main areas of management, all of them are conducted by a President (Kathy Kudler). The areas of management are Finance and Accounting, Store operations and Administration and Human Resources.

Kathy Kudler, as President, is in charge of planning and strategy. The store has created a strategic plan. (University of Phoenix, Strategic Plan).

The director of Administration and Human Resources Develops policies and directs and coordinates administrative and human resources activities, such as employment, compensation, labor relations, benefits, training, and employee services.

The director of Finance and Accounting Plans and directs the finance and accounting activities for Kudler Fine Foods. Essential duties for this position include the development and implementation of goals, policies, priorities and procedures relating to financial management, budget, accounting and payroll. This position, also, Supervises and participates in the preparation of financial statements and reports. The director develops accounting procedures to maintain accurate records of receipts and expenditures; at the same time, supervises the maintenance of general ledgers, accounts receivable, revenue distribution, depreciation, cost, property, operating expenses, and insurance records for each store, as well as consolidated results.

The director of Store Operations manages the operations of three stores, including inventory, purchasing and logistics. Responsible for store safety, facility maintenance, security, and compliance with state and federal regulations. (University of Phoenix, Jobs Description).

Technology and the Internet

The company has a public Internet site, which is used mainly to promote the company. The Internet site shows information on Hours and Locations. It also promotes company’s products. The Internet site does not provide mechanisms for e-commerce. It does not provide an e-mail address. In other words, the Internet site, it is just like a magazine advertisement put as a Web site.

Kudler Fine Foods runs an Intranet. Surprisingly the Intranet contains more information than the Internet site. Probably this could mean that the customers are not Internet users and the company knows that potential customers will not buy products over the Web, since they are food. Probably, this is the reason why the Internet site is not a well developed site. However, as said above, the Intranet site shows several aspects of the company organized by areas.

It is interesting to see a very old technology as shown at the Intranet, where a connection of 56K (plain old telephone lines) is used to connect each one of the locations (La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas). (University of Phoenix, Information Technology).

Example from Kudler illustrating each of the five forces from Porter’s Model

Porter's 5 forces analysis is a framework for the industry analysis and business strategy development. The five forces are: The threat of substitute products, The threat of the entry of new competitors, The intensity of competitive rivalry, The bargaining power of customers and The bargaining power of suppliers.

The threat of substitute products. The existence of close substitute products increases the propensity of