Outline Of A Brief Autobiography - 1792 Words

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A Short Biography of William McKinley - 1046 Words

Introduction A. Background information B. Anecdote C. Map Early Life/Student A. Serious Student B. Allegheny College i. Illness caused dropout C. Worked full-time ii. Worked as clerk Military Career A. Enlisted after war started B. Went up rankings quickly i. Went up for courage C. Fought in savage battles ii. Battle of Antietam Creek Lawyer Career A. Entered Albany Law School B. Opened Law Office i. Partner Judge George W. Belden ii. Opened in Canton, Ohio C. Met Ida Saxton iii. Married on January 25, 1871 D. Children iiii. Had Katie in 1871 iiiii. 1873, had Ida Political†¦show more content†¦Grant. In the summer of 1869, McKinley met Ida Saxton. On January 25, 1871 they got married. On Christmas day, their first child Katie was born. In 1873 they had a second child, Ida. Within a few months, the baby died. Then in 1876 Katie died of typhoid fever. The couple were grief-stricken. In the 1876 election McKinley was elected to Congress. He served as congressmen from 1877 to 1883. 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Roger’s Chocolates Strategic Analysis Free Essays

CBAD-478*5 Rogers’ Chocolates I-case Strategic Assessment Report November 13, 2012 Dr. Janice Black Dara Servis Executive Summary Rogers’ Chocolates specializes in a wide variety of premium chocolates that are enjoyed by all who experience the products. Whether looking for a truffle, nut and chews, or premium ice cream, consumers can always expect high quality, handcrafted products. We will write a custom essay sample on Roger’s Chocolates Strategic Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now The firm prides themselves on high quality products and unique customer experience. Throughout the dissection there were many opportunities and weaknesses to uncover. Strong consumer loyalty is an important strength that can help increase word-of-mouth of the brand. Many people look for information for new brands online through websites, reviews, and blogs. Loyal consumers can partake in a blog discussing the greatness of Rogers’ Chocolates to help spread awareness of the brand to consumers who do not know about them. In addition, extending the in-store chocolate experience that Rogers’ provides, to the web, may draw in consumers through interactivity of their website and help build stronger relationships in the future. A major weakness uncovered at this time, is Rogers’ employees cautious of change as they believe it will compromise Rogers’ long-standing history and reputation. Newer technologies are available to make their jobs easier and more efficient as well as increase consumer awareness. If they gradually introduce new technologies into the company and involve employees in the transition process, the resistance to change should ease because employees will not feel as if the company is changing or sacrificing its history, but improving to create a long-lasting and profitable future. A brief description of what will be dissected in the body of the assessment report for Rogers’ Chocolates consists of: the area of operations, external analysis, internal analysis, and the plan of action which will be developed in-depth in the body and appendices of the assessment report. This individual assignment challenged my ability to write throughout this writing intensive course. Table of Contents Executive Summary2 Apple Analysis5 Areas of Operation5 Present Strategic Profile6 Performance Assessment6 Leadership and Governance6 Essential Challenges7 External Analysis7 Current Industry Framework7 Five Forces Analysis7 Key Success Factors7 Strategic Group Map8 Closest Competitors8 PESTLE Analysis8 Critical Change Summary with Opportunities and Threats8 Internal Analysis9 Strategy Diamond9 Internal Analysis Alignment9 Balanced Scoreboard9 Resources and Capabilities9 Creating Value9 Competitive Strength Assessment10 Summarizing Internal Analysis10 Plan of Action10 SWOT/TOWS Analysis10 Recommendations10 Implementations and Execution11 Works Cited12 APPENDIX A: Areas of Operations13 APPENDIX B: Present Strategic Profile21 APPENDIX C: Performance Assessment30 APPENDIX D: Leadership Governance39 APPENDIX E: Essential Challenges44 Appendix F: Current Industry Framework48 Appendix G: Five Forces53 Appendix H: Key Success Factors61 Appendix I: Strategic Group Map64 Appendix J: Closest Competitors Analysis66 Appendix K: PESTLE Analysis68 Appendix L: Critical Change Summary with Opportunities Threats70 Appendix M: Strategy Diamond77 Appendix N: Internal Analysis Alignment80 Appendix O: Balanced Scorecard84 Appendix P: Resources Capabilities86 Appendix Q: Creating Value90 Appendix R: Competitive Strength Assessment92 Appendix S: Summarizing Internal Analyses96 Appendix T: SWOT/TOWs Analysis100 Appendix U: Recommendations106 Appendix V: Implementations Execution110 Apple Analysis Areas of Operation Rogers’ Chocolate has many challenges but is in a good position to grow their business. The company’s profits and revenues are continuing to increase but they are not keeping up with the competitors of the industry. To be able to expand as planned, Rogers’ is going to have to modernize and implement an integrated production planning and operational control to decrease its cost of operation. Hand processed and wrapped chocolates need to become part of the past except for possibly putting that final touch on a premium product line. They need to streamline and automate their production in order to improve the efficiency of their plant before they expand. They will need to compete in price and have the production capability to mass produce the planned lower end chocolate product line. Additionally the company needs to look to lower cleaning costs and reduce set up times. Due to the company’s workplace culture, this will have to be implemented carefully. Rogers’ relies heavily on their British Columbia geographic segment which is where most of their retail stores are located. In the future Rogers’ Chocolate should consider branching out and testing other geographic areas for their retail stores. The wholesale business should be expanded though a selective process to acquire additional profitable wholesalers. The wholesale operational segment is an excellent vehicle to build sales without much capital expenditure. They will steadily increase Rogers’ sales and profits. An increase in sales and strong customer brand awareness will be created by the use of a well-executed web site design. This will serve as an asset to their loyal customers and attract potential younger customers. This firm has several critical stages on their value chain; suppliers, main factory, distribution processes, and finally service. They need to insure that they find more reliable providers of their tins and boxes so they are able to fill orders during the peak times. Rogers’ has very good control of their supply chain through company owned retail stores and wholesale distribution. See Appendix A. Present Strategic Profile Rogers’ corporate strategy is to aggressively grow their business. They want to double or triple the size of the corporation. In order to accomplish this goal they should look to their strengths in retail marketing. This helps to maintain control of the business and exploit Rogers’ premium brand while introducing new or existing products like their line of ice cream. They should look to open stores in similar areas keeping the Rogers’ customer experience of free samples and first class treatment. If they are able to open two need stores a year would add about ten percent to Rogers’ top line. With the projected growth of fifteen percent from existing retail stores Rogers’ will have the cash flow to finance the growth in retail store and increase advertising for online business. They should also look to grow sales and geographic presence through the wholesale business. See Appendix B. Performance Assessment For the small business that Rogers’ is, they appear to be doing quite well in their industry. Of course, not much can be determined about the overall direction the company is headed from just two years of data. However, with positive inventory turnover and a profitability ratio over 50% for both years, we can conclude that Rogers’ is holding their ground in the chocolate industry. A few areas of concern for the firm would be the negative figures for percent change in revenue and percent change in income from the horizontal analysis. The loss in revenue was only about two percent, but the loss in income was nearly 17%, which could be a concern if it continued. Again, we have to remember there are only two years of data and 2006 could have simply been an off year for the company and they did not perform up to their standards. See Appendix C. Leadership and Governance The assessments of the firm’s leadership have turned out to be very positive looking toward the future. Phoenix, Wong, and Bjornson have been working together for 15 years, and with Steve Parkhill’s insight and leadership as CEO of the company, the future is looking bright for Rogers’ chocolate. I fully believe that with Parkhill in the driver’s seat, this company is going to begin to grow exponentially as he said it would when he took over in 2007. With most of the TMT having stocks in the company, it is likely that most of them will be around for a while; and the more they work together the better off the company should be in the long run. See Appendix D. Essential Challenges Rogers’ Chocolate has many challenges but is in a good position to grow their business. The company’s profits and revenues are continuing to increase but they are not keeping up with the competitors of the industry. To be able to expand as planned, Rogers’ is going to have to modernize and implement an integrated production planning and operational control to decrease its cost of operation. Hand processed and wrapped chocolates need to become part of the past except for possibly putting that final touch on a premium product line. They need to streamline and automate their production in order to improve the efficiency of their plant before they expand. They will need to compete in price and have the production capability to mass produce the planned lower end chocolate product line. See Appendix E. External Analysis Current Industry Framework Rogers’ Chocolate is in a good position for the current industry framework. They are capable of taking advantage of the growth in their industry and reap the rewards and benefits of increased profit because of their vertical integration opportunity. To make sure that they are able to p provide for increased demand they will need to look into the modernization of their production process to lower costs, increase their flexibility and output without sacrificing quality. A huge threat Rogers’ faces is the lack of expansion. This is a main concern since the industry is constantly growing and expanding. Rogers’ Chocolates depends on its status of a producer of the highest quality product. See Appendix F. Five Forces Analysis Roger’s is in a strong position to fulfill its major goal of growth over the following years. Because it is a private corporation it has many avenues to attain financing. The major area where it needs to focus is to modernize its infrastructure concentrating mainly on the manufacturing process. With projected increase in its market by using its strong retail and regionals sales Roger’s will be able to maintain profits from its sales. Through the use of selective wholesale partnership’s and web Roger’s has the capability to more than reach its goals. Once the factory is modernized profit margin will increase along with the ability to produce more products quickly and at a lower cost. See Appendix G. Key Success Factors Rogers’ Chocolates needs to continue to utilize the major key success factors that have made them successful and look towards newer technology to grow their business. Most important is to continue the use of high quality materials, integration with distributors, strong retail store presence, accurate order process and strong marketing of brand name. These factors have the most direct impact on our customers. Going forward to maintain success in the industry we mostly concentrate on the utilization of production assets to maintain quality, increase capabilities and realize osts savings. Rogers’ has a great product but to increase business and maintain market share we need the ability to compete with pricing at the wholesale level which will only be achieved by lowering our costs. Maintaining the brand name is also vital because it represents the company and creates customers loyalty that provides sales through delivering a high quality product. Some o f the major key success factors of the premium chocolate industry I found were the use of high quality materials, integration with distributors, accurate orders and brand name. These were the factors I found to have the most impact on firms in the industry. The use of high quality materials ensures that the final product will consist of the finest ingredients and deliver the best taste. Integration with distributors helps bring together suppliers and distributors and eliminate many simple but common problems. Accurate orders help to keep customers happy and coming back next time. Lastly, the brand name is one of the most important because it represents the company and creates customer loyalty by delivering a high quality product. See Appendix H. Strategic Group Map The two characteristics I chose for the Strategic group map were price/quality and geographic coverage. I believe these two characteristics distinguish the firms in the industry well based on their price and quality of their chocolate and their geographic market segments. The strategic group map shows how firms in chocolate industry price their products as well as how spread out the firm is corresponding to their geographic coverage. According to the strategic group map, the two closest competitors to Rogers’ chocolate firm are Bernard Callebaut and Godiva. This is because both Callebaut and Godiva are premium chocolate producers with similarities to Rogers’ in price and quality. However, Callebaut and Godiva are more global companies than Rogers’, because all of Rogers’ international sales are online. The map suggests that the Canadian chocolate industry is broken down into two segments, local lower cost firms and premium price global firms. Between the two segments, these firms dominate the industry and meet customers’ specific quality or price needs. The group map suggests that there may be slight overcrowding at the premium chocolate level. The lack of expansion is an important threat to consider when considering the congestion in market. There are three firms competing in the same market and trying to expand to a global presence. Also the group map shows there is a wide open space for a firm looking to produce a low-cost product at the multinational and global levels. This is a major opportunity for Rogers’ to expand into the new growing markets. See Appendix I. Closest Competitors Rogers’ Chocolates closest competitors are Godiva, Hershey’s, Bernard Callebaut, Lindt, and Purdy’s just to name a few. The analysis was done on Godiva because the company is backed by Nestle and is a current competitor with Rogers’ Chocolate because of its strength in packaging, advertising and distribution. Godiva commands a high-price point because customers think of the brand as sleek, modern, glitzy and high quality. Godiva’s positioning is the most similar to the image Rogers’ aims to attain and likely appeals to similar target consumers. Unfortunately, in the Rogers’ Chocolates case that was provided in the e-book there is no sufficient evidence to complete the closest competitors’ analysis. Therefore I cannot fully complete this worksheet. See Appendix J. PESTLE Analysis Rogers’ Chocolate has many challenges but is in a good position to grow their business. Rogers’ Chocolates investors want sales to double or possibly triple within the next 10 years. The key marketing opportunity is to raise company brand awareness. They strived to become a leader in the premium chocolate market category. The company also hopes to increase manufacturer capability and brand recognition of their product lines. Focus on the health conscious organic and sugar free products to attract a growing population of conscientious consumers. See Appendix K. Critical Change Summary with Opportunities and Threats Rogers’ going forward needs to build on their strong brand and further grow recognition of their premium brands. They must address their critical issues in their labor intensive outdated production process. A strategic plan has it be developed and implemented to utilize technology to replace old equipment to reduce the amount of time spent on set up and cleaning of the machinery. They mostly need to take advantage of newer technology to reduce costs and provide better utilization of production assets to be competitive in the industry. Through their existing retail business they need to closely watch how the retail store sales are affected by tourism and make steps to insure that they keep traffic up in the storefronts because of the high sales and profit margins. Expand the wholesale channel through strategic partnerships and aggressively utilize the internet to reach more customers. Rogers’ premium quality products will capture market share but the cost of production and material supply chain needs to be improved so the company will be able to grow and be competitive. See Appendix L. Internal Analysis Strategy Diamond Rogers’ based on its arena is very similar to it other regional competitors. Its strength is its superior quality that sets it apart. They are taking advantage of technology to increase sales outside their geographic area through the internet with online sales. Modernization of its production infrastructure has not been done so they will have higher costs then some of their bigger competitors. Improvement utilizing newer technology will help their bottom line and enable them to change many aspects of the company. They need the capability of changing their production line more quickly and streamlining this process to become more economical. If they are able to utilize new technology they would be in a better position to be more aggressive toward strategic moves and help differentiate them from their competitors. They do have a very good distribution system that uses vertical integration and is sound economically and will provide them with the ability to grow sales. See Appendix M. Internal Analysis Alignment When the firm was started in the late 1800’s, Charles Rogers instilled a set of values in the company that are still practiced by employees at the firm today. The strategy of the company is focused on meeting customer’s expectations and continuing to produce the high quality chocolate products customers have come to love. The organizational structure of the firm facilitates communication between departments within the firm as well as assisting with the execution of the strategy. Rogers’ has applied multiple systems to assist with operations, with demand forecasting the most important of these. The culture at Rogers’ has been the same for many decades now, with employees displaying a high level of commitment and passion toward the company. Lastly, the skills required for Rogers’ to succeed are minimal, but could be greatly improved and shortened time-wise by improving the technology used in production. See Appendix N. Balanced Scoreboard Rogers’ has failed to meet either of the goals for stockholders, though the growth goal is a work in progress. Under internal stakeholders, the firm successfully excels in manufacturing and acquiring low-cost materials, but has failed to increase production. To please customers, Rogers’ is sure to concentrate on making only high-quality chocolate and getting orders accurate and delivered on time. The firm does an excellent job of focusing on their main product, chocolate, while it continues to plan a new manufacturing facility. See Appendix O. Resources and Capabilities For Rogers’ to be able to expand as planned by the new owners they will have to remain and concentrate on the high end chocolate industry counting on their strong vertical integration. They need to address the outdated manufacturing problem because of high costs associated with older equipment. Rogers’ will need to be able to expand in the future through the use of technology to automate production to reduce costs and increase capabilities. This will enable them to remain competitive and continue to have a high profit margin. See Appendix P. Creating Value The firm’s value chain activities include location, operations, finance, distribution, product development, sales marketing, and service. Combining Rogers’ Chocolates resources with their capabilities creates the specific activity that achieves each value. In turn, each value chain activity adds value to the customer’s overall experience. The operations portion can add value to the technology part of the PESTLE analysis. The distribution value chain activity will add value to the sociocultural/demographic and the economic part of the PESTLE analysis. See Appendix Q. Competitive Strength Assessment The premium chocolate industry is characterized by a high level of consolidation and fierce competition amongst the companies on all levels of the value chain. This competition has resulted in erosion of prices and margins for all concerned. Rogers’ Chocolates has a slight net competitive advantage based on quality against its closest rival, Bernard Callebaut. The scores suggest that the firms are very similar and share the same strengths or weaknesses. See Appendix R. Summarizing Internal Analysis Rogers’ Chocolates has many strengths and weaknesses that the firm is confronted with that are directly related to their critical issues. The most important strength that correlates to the critical issue of the firm is the production of high quality chocolate products. Customers are familiar with and love the delicious unique chocolate products Rogers’ offers. Without their high end chocolates Rogers’ would not be unique and would not be able to hold onto their customer loyalty. Ensuring that the consumers receive accurate orders maintains and increases customer satisfaction. The use of vertical integration has helped the company to prosper because they are able to sell their own products in store they own which creates much larger profit margins. The most influential weakness the firm suffers is a time consuming and labor-intensive production process. They need to take advantage of newer technologies in order to maintain a competitive advantage and increase efficiency. Another area of concern is the decreasing profitability ratio if the company fails to expand and thus considered an important weakness. Rogers’ has little to no control over the demand for chocolate and must really on popular advertisement and clever marketing during the changing seasons throughout the years. See Appendix S. Plan of Action SWOT/TOWS Analysis The top three critical issues for Rogers’ Chocolates are a health conscious market, lack of expansion, and long and costly research and development. The recommended strategy for a health conscious market is the power play strategy which will allow the company to use their strong brand image and loyal customer base to reach out to the new and growing market. The strategy recommended for lack of expansion is also the power play strategy. The firm must use their strong brand image and loyal customer base to expand into new markets and demographics. To address the critical issue of a long and costly RD the firm must use a maximum exposure strategy consisting of developing new technologies and manufacturing processes to develop a new product line geared toward the shifting social trends of the new and younger demographics. See Appendix T. Recommendations This was based on what we are able to control. The primary focus of the firm should be expanding into new markets especially into the organic and health conscious market. This will allow the firm to penetrate a new customer demographic while also working on their need for expansion. Expanding to new regions something that we are capable to address and will benefit the company the most by increasing customer satisfaction and sales immediately. This is critical for our company to succeed and will help with several of the other areas. In order to effectively expand into these new areas, the company will need to restructure their resources and operations to be more efficient while maintaining their levels of quality. The order of implementing the recommendations would be: 1. 2. Lack of Expansion 2. 3. Time and Money RD 3. 1. Organic health conscious See Appendix U. Implementations and Execution In this appendix is Rogers’ Chocolates top three critical issues restated in-depth along with each recommendation. Each recommendation has an implementation and execution plan that consists of a time frame for when certain tasks need to be carried out. Followed by, a pro-forma balanced scorecard for each critical issue and the corresponding recommendation. The balanced scorecard displays the stakeholders (stockholders, employees, customers, learning and growth) goals and expected outcomes they will see from each recommendation. Finally, the stakeholders’ impact summary for each recommendation concludes this appendix. See Appendix V. Works Cited Parker, P. (n. d. ). INSTEAD. Retrieved 2012, from The World Outlook for Chocolate and Chocolate Type Confectionery: http://www. market-research. com/,February 20,2007 Servis, D. 2012, October). Common Knowledge. (D. Servis, Interviewer) APPENDIX A: Areas of Operations Section: 5Team #: Black 6: Network Kings Dara Servis- Individual APPLE Analysis *A I. Identify the Task: Where? i. Rogers’ Chocolates ii. Rogers’ iii. Specializes in the manufacturing and sales of unique, high quality chocolates and operates a Delicatessen business. iv. Candy Industry and Food Service v. R etail, wholesale, online/mail order sales, and Sam’s Deli. II. Areas of Operation: vi. Segment Assessments (Operating and Geographic): Operating segmenting areas: 1. Retail – Selling chocolate and ice cream products through company owned stores. 2. Wholesaling – Distribution of chocolate products through wholesale accounts. 3. Online/Mail order sales – Chocolate products. 4. Sam’s Deli- Full service delicatessen products. Geographic: a. Canada 1. Alberta 2. BC 3. Manitoba 4. Newfoundland 5. New Brunswick 6. Nova Scotia 7. Ontario 8. Prince Edward Island 9. Quebec 10. Saskatchewan 11. Yukon 12. British Columbia * Victoria, Sidney, Oak Bay, Vancouver, and Whistler. b. USA 13. Arizona 14. Colorado 15. Illinois 16. Indiana 17. Michigan 18. Missouri 9. New York 20. Oregon 21. Texas 22. Washington 23. Virgin Islands Table 1 Operating Segment Sales, 2005-2007 for Rogers’ Chocolate| Segment| 2005 Sales| %| 2006 Sales| %| 2007Sales| %| Retail | 4,900,000. 00 | 52%| 5,440,000. 00 | 51%| 6,019,000. 00 | 51%| Wholesaling| 2,430,000. 00 | 26%| 2,890,000. 00 | 27%| 3,190,000. 00 | 27%| Online/Mail order sales | 892,471. 00 | 9%| 945,854. 00 | 9%| 1,045,854. 00 | 9%| Sam’s Deli| 1,188,000. 00 | 13%| 1,429,800. 00 | 13%| 1,598,000. 0 | 13%| TOTAL| 9,410,471| 100. 00%| 10,705,654| 100%| 11,852,854. 00 | 100%| The table above reflects the sales for Rogers’ Chocolate over a three year period. The income is divided by segment and shows what percent the segment contributed to the overall income. Table 2 | | | | Profitability| 2005| 2006| 2007| Gross Profit Margin| 55. 2%| 54. 6%| 53. 2%| OperatingProfit Margin| 58. 2%| 55. 9%| 54. 2%| Net Profit Margin| 8. 9%| 7. 5%| 7. 9%| Return on Total Assets| 13. 6%| 11. 7%| 12. 2%| Liquidity| | | Current Ratio| 1. 24| 1. 36| 1. 29| Leverage| | | Debt to Assets Ration| 43. 9%| 32. 4%| 29. %| Debt to Equity Ratio| 78. 2%| 48. 0%| 45. 2%| The Table above is the selected financial ratios for Rogers’ Chocolates 2005-2007 a. Rogers’ major products include high-quality chocolate, hand- wrapped chocolates that includes the premiere line, pure milk cho colate, dark chocolate and white chocolate bars. Other important products are Victoria Creams, nuts and chews, almond bark, nutcorn and various assortment specialties. The company differentiates their major chocolate lines by breaking their products into Chocolate Collections, Gift Collections, Business Gifts, Occasions and Tasting Club. Within these chocolate lines, products are organized by gourmet, organic and no sugar added to determine quality and ingredients. The company also offers the following specialty items truffles, chocolate dipped ice cream bars and ice cream, nuts, caramels, brittles, orange peel and baking and dessert sauces. b. The company purchased Sam’s Deli, a restaurant, in 2004 which is the only business venture outside their core business. Sam’s Deli also sells Rogers’ chocolate products. c. Rogers’ main office is located above its lead retail store in the Inner Harbor area of Victoria, British Columbia. They have one production plant located near Victoria, British Columbia. Planning , research and development are performed in the above two sites. The company distributes their products through a network of company owned stores, wholesale accounts and online and mail orders processed in main office. They own 9 retail stores located in western Canada. Rogers’ has 600 wholesale accounts that are broken into five categories mostly located in Canada with a handful of accounts in the United States: 1. independent gift/souvenir shops 2. large retail chains 3. ourist retailers, such as duty-free stores, airports or train station stores and hotel gift shops 4. corporate accounts that purchased Rogers’ products for gifts for customers or employees 5. specialty high-end food retailers * Thrifty Foods on Vancouver Island * Sobeys in Western Canada * Sunterra in Alberta * Whole Foods in Toronto, Oakville and Vancouver. d. The below Pie Chart shows Rogers’ Chocolates percentag e of Sales Revenue for 2007 operating segments: e. A seasonal industry pattern is what Rogers’ Chocolates can best rely on. They are aware that their customers buy certain products during different seasons. For instance, there was a greater demand for ice cream and souvenir items in the spring and summer. While the significant amount of the company’s core products were sold during the fall and Christmas season. I predict online sales to increase significantly in the future targeting new and younger customers. Additionally, sales will steadily climb through the accumulation of additional wholesale accounts. f. Rogers’ Chocolate is geographically segmented mainly in Canada and with a small presence in the United States. The majority of sales for Rogers’ Chocolate are from the retail stores located in tourist areas such as Victoria and other locations in Western Canada because of its strong regional base. By slowly introducing and marketing their brand as a premium chocolate they should be looking to increase their presence in niche areas in the United States. I would look to introduce retail stores in locations that resemble their Canadian stores and incorporate additional wholesalers in demographic areas of high income earners. g. One of the challenges Rogers’ faces is to expand their brand to other parts of Canada and into the United states. They have been successful around the Victoria area for over 125 years which in turn provides them with loyal customers that understand the brand and have grown up buying and eating Rogers’ chocolates. They will have to find an efficient way to market their brand to get new areas interested in Rogers’ verses the more widely known brands such as Purdy’s, Lindt and Godiva. Through careful expansion in the retail stores and the use of more wholesale accounts sales should slowly increase. Increase marketing strategies in order to gain market share in their Ice Cream products. Expand and modernize manufacturing in order to maximize production and distribution. h. Rogers’ is not a very complex firm in the sense that they have a limited product line and a simple value chain of activities. Based on that 50% of their sales are produced through their company owned stores and they only have one manufacturing plant. i. The limited amount of activities is appropriate for Roger’s based on the company’s size, sales figures and profit margins. With the use of these activities in place they will be able to expand a controlled rate into new geographic markets. It is a simple model that works and they are very familiar with. Online sales should steadily grow and benefit with any expansion in the other operating segment. Rogers’ will be able to reach sales projections and further familiarize their brand by using the internet as a vehicle to bring sales from customers worldwide. In this way, the customer base does not have to depend on a storefront for purchases. j. Rogers’ Chocolates will continue to expand targeting new geographic markets and increase consumer awareness of their products. Building on small but strong customer base, they should be able to increase business with the first- class, top of the line, premium chocolate experience Rogers’ provides. i. Key Value Chain Activities/Vertical Integration Picture 1 Service Service Distribution Processes Distribution Processes Main Factory Main Factory Wholesale Wholesale Retail Retail Online/Mail Orders Online/Mail Orders Raw Material Suppliers: ~West Africa ~China ~Canada Raw Material Suppliers: ~West Africa ~China ~Canada Sam’s Deli Sam’s Deli Picture shows Rogers’ Chocolate’s value chain. Picture shows Rogers’ Chocolate’s value chain. Rogers’ uses vertical integration by producing and selling their products through company owned stores. Rogers’ uses its main factory to produce their products and then sells wholesale to stores that carry their brand. * Rogers’ benefits from vertical integration because it attains 50% of its sales from their comp any owned retail stores. The retail stores are more profitable than the wholesale accounts because they make the entire profit from the sale. * The fact that the majority of their stores are located in one geographic area is a challenge that Rogers’ has to overcome in order to expand their business profitability. They demonstrate excellent regional branding and loyalty. Now they need to pursue new locations and advance their reputation to other geographic areas in order to successfully branch out to open new stores in other geographic markets. Rogers’ can take advantage of the chain wholesalers they have such as Whole Foods and Crab Tree and Evelyn, to implement their products in the United States. They can test new market areas through their numerous wholesale accounts to see if it would be profitable to open additional retail stores in targeted areas. They can also use kiosk sales in various malls during the holidays to determine profitability of geographic area. ii. Evolutionary Learning/Adjustments and Vehicles Used Table above shows a brief overview of the company’s development over time. (Website) k. Major milestones: Major Milestones for Rogers’ Chocolates includes Charles Rogers invention of the Victoria Cream and the opening of the first retail shop in Victoria. Another huge milestone was that the company remains open, continues to be successful and shows growth even after the death of Charles Rogers for over 120 years. l. Firm learned/gained: Rogers’ has correctly segmented the market for their products by shifting focus on the retail market by planning additional stores. This will increase their geographic area and introduce their products to a larger market. Rogers’ has expanded their product scope. They are also learning how to use the internet more effectively to increase sales and advertise their product lines. m. Firm lost/sacrificed: There are many areas where improvements could be developed. Geographic segmentation could be better defined and developed. Rogers’ has not challenged its competitor’s due to its slow development from its geographical area. Franchisee development along with better integration of wholesalers and retail chains could help Rogers’ gain a controlled entry into other geographic regions. n. Futures: Rogers’ Chocolates investors want sales to double or possibly triple within the next 10 years. The key marketing opportunity is to raise company brand awareness. They strived to become a leader in the premium chocolate market category. The company also hopes to increase manufacturer capability and brand recognition of their product lines. Focus on the health conscious organic and sugar free products to attract a growing population of conscientious consumers. I. Conclusion: Overall, Rogers’ Chocolate has many challenges but is in a good position to grow their business. The company’s profits and revenues are continuing to increase but they are not keeping up with the competitors of the industry. To be able to expand as planned, Rogers’ is going to have to modernize and implement an integrated production planning and operational control to decrease its cost of operation. Hand processed and wrapped chocolates need to become part of the past except for possibly putting that final touch on a premium product line. They need to streamline and automate their production in order to improve the efficiency of their plant before they expand. They will need to compete in price and have the production capability to mass produce the planned lower end chocolate product line. Additionally the company needs to look to lower cleaning costs and reduce set up times. Due to the company’s workplace culture, this will have to be implemented carefully. Rogers’ relies heavily on their British Columbia geographic segment which is where most of their retail stores are located. In the future Rogers’ Chocolate should consider branching out and testing other geographic areas for their retail stores. The wholesale business should be expanded though a selective process to acquire additional profitable wholesalers. The wholesale operational segment is an excellent vehicle to build sales without much capital expenditure. They will steadily increase Rogers’ sales and profits. An increase in sales and strong customer brand awareness will be created by the use of a well-executed web site design. This will serve as an asset to their loyal customers and attract potential younger customers. This firm has several critical stages on their value chain; suppliers, main factory, distribution processes, and finally service. They need to insure that they find more reliable providers of their tins and boxes so they are able to fill orders during the peak times. Rogers’ has very good control of their supply chain through company owned retail stores and wholesale distribution. APPENDIX B: Present Strategic Profile Section: 5Team #: Black 6: Network_Kings Dara Servis- Individual APPLE Analysis I. Present Strategic Profile: Why? i. Strategy Identification: International Strategies International Strategies The Strategic profile of a firm indicates why the firm is performing the activities it is involved in as well as why it is operating the way it is. The firm’s leadership typically develops strategies at different stages, as seen in Figure 1 below. * Figure 1 shows the Layers of Strategy in an Organization A. Corporate Level Strategy A corporate strategy describes why a firm is operating the way it is and what industries the firm is included in. There are five diversification strategies within corporate strategy, which are described in Table 1 below. Strategy Type| Degree of Diversification| Benefit (allows the firm to†¦):| Single Business| Over 95% of sales from a single industry| Focus all efforts and resources on a single industry| Dominant Business| 70 – 95% of sales from a single industry| Focus mainly on a single industry, but recognize significant sales from other industries – usually due to vertical integration efforts| Related Diversification| Less than 70% of sales from a single industry| Share resources and/or knowledge ; skills; realize synergistic economies of scope or scale; gain market power| Hybrid (Mixed) Diversification| Less than 70% of sales from a single industry| Realize economies of scale and/or scope across some divisions, but also competitive engagement across sectors for resource distribution and financial synergies| Unrelated Diversification| Less than 70% of sales from a single industry with no clear relationships/sharing across remaining industries| Benefit from corporate parenting and/or financial synergies| * Table 1 displays the Corporate Level Posture of a Strategic Profile a. Rogers’ Chocolate is a dominate Business corporate strategy type. b. Chocolate is the major product that produces 70 to 80 percent of Rogers’ sales. The restaurant, ice cream and specialty products account for the other percentage. c. Because they are not very diversified they are able to concentrate and take full advantage of their expertise of producing high quality chocolate. Because they are vertically integrated they and will be able to benefit from low transportation costs, have control over supply chain coordination and maintain the high profit margin from their retail stores. d. Rogers’ is unable to take full advantage of having one manufacturing plant to control and lower costs due to its outdated manufacturing technology. This would represent a significant advantage for Rogers’ in pricing when they are able to decrease production costs to produce a better ROI and provide the capability to expand in the future. e. It demands that they pay close attention to their suppliers in order to insure quantity and quality of raw ingredients. This is extremely important due to the seasonality of sales. They need to maintain early production scheduling for the wholesale business and a shorter schedule for the retail sales. B. Business Level Strategy The business level strategy identifies the firm’s generic competitive strategy, whether or not it seeks to redefine industry competition, how quickly it plans on expanding to new markets, and its overall approach to the marketplace. * Strategic Advantage Strategic Advantage Business Level Differentiation Differentiation Low-cost Low-cost Strategic Target Strategic Target Broad: (i. e. , industry wide) Broad: (i. e. , industry wide) Broad Differentiation Broad Differentiation Broad low-cost Leadership Broad low-cost Leadership Narrow: (i. e. , particular segment only) Narrow: (i. e. , particular segment only) Integrated Best Cost Provider Integrated Best Cost Provider Focused cost Leadership Focused cost Leadership Focused Differentiation Focused Differentiation * Above Figure 2 displays the Competitive Strategy Model 1. Generic Competitive Strategy a. Rogers’ strategy can be identified as a focused differentiation strategy because their strategic target is narrow. Rather than being a low-cost firm they use differentiation to gain a strategic advantage that helps distinguish their chocolates from the competitors’. b. The firm has a 127-year history of providing its customers with only the highest quality, most excellent and delectable chocolate products. This has created an exceptional amount of value for customers over the years. c. Generally Rogers’ Chocolates is considered a small firm, with just over 300 employees and only 11 retail stores, located mostly in Western Canada. However, the firm still had over $11 million in sales in 2006 and is one of the top premium chocolate brands in Canada. d. Rogers’ is able to stay competitive and ahead of competition by continuing to please and satisfy their current baby-boomer customers. They maintain loyal valued customers while also bringing in a younger crowd with their tourism and downtown locations. 2. Costs of Good Sold Table 2 Cost of Sales| 2005| 2006| Amortization of Property ; Equipment| 108,759| 135,358| Direct Labor| 1,677,247| 1,545,794| Direct Materials| 2,745,995| 1,770,603| Overhead| 846,186| 1,933,306| TOTALS| 5,378,187| 5,385,088| * Table 2 shows the cost of goods sold for Rogers’ Chocolates in the years 2005 ; 2006. Table 3 Cost of Materials ; Supplies ($ Billions)| YEAR| Cost of Materials ; Supplies| 2001| 0. 4| 2002| 0. 5| 2003| 0. 6| 2004| 0. 6| 2005| 0. 6| 2006| 0. 7| 2007| 0. 8| 2008| 0. | 2009| 1. 1| 2010| 1. 0| * Table 3 shows the cost of goods sold for companies in the chocolate industry in Canada (acquired from www. ic. gc. ca). In 2005, the average cost of goods sold per firm in Canada was $17,647,058 found by 600,000,000/ 34 (number of chocolate industry firms’ active in Canada). In 2006, the average cost of goods sold per firm in the chocolate industry in Canada was $20,588,235. Graph 1 * The graph above shows the cost of goods sold relationship between Rogers’ chocolates and the rest of the Canadian chocolate industry. a. Normally, a value below the industry’s average would signal a low-cost generic business strategy. With Rogers’ chocolates however, the firm uses only the finest ingredients during production, which are not the lowest costing materials. Rogers’ is much smaller than most of the industry’s firms, having only one production plant and still bringing in over $11 million in sales annually. b. Another good indicator that Rogers’ is following a differentiation strategy is the firms overall emphasis on quality, their high quality raw materials, the attractive labeling and packaging on all their products, and most of all the highly regarded brand name. 3. Geographic Scope a. Rogers’ participation in the market can be best described as both regional and global. All of the firm’s retail stores, Sam’s Deli, and most of the wholesalers that sell Rogers’ chocolates are located in Western Canada. The retail stores, wholesale accounts and Sam’s Deli account for 50%, 30%, and 10% respectively. The rest of the sales come from Online, phone, and mail orders. Rogers’ will ship their delicious products all around the world, helping bring a global aspect to the company. 4. Client Firm Type a. Out of the four typologies of strategic engagement, defenders, prospectors, analyzers, and reactors, Rogers’ chocolate is best described by the defenders role. Defenders are defined as the organizations that have very narrow product-market exposure, and they focus on limited adjustments to continue delivering value in these chosen markets. This fits Rogers’ because the firm focuses mainly on producing the best quality chocolate, and has changed their product very little over the years because of its high quality. C. Functional Level Strategy Supports the firm’s chosen strategies at the corporate and business levels and evaluate how the firm has delivered on these strategies. Table 4 Competitive Strategy| Functional Strategies| | Research ; Development| Production| Human Resource| Marketing| Differentiation*(every function is focused on creating quality and uniqueness)| * New ; frequent product development * Focus on quality| * High-quality inputs * Short, no defect production runs High grade, flashy wrappers for candy| * Highly skilled labor * Deals with wholesale accounts| * Target marketing * Promote special features * Marketing in local areas ; locations| * Above Table 4 shows the Functional Strategies a. The most critical of the functional strategies for Rogers’ chocolates would have to be thei r production. The high quality chocolate they produce is top of the line, and it comes from over 120 years of perfecting the recipe. Rogers’ has created a brand value that is remarkable and stems from the quality of production and quality of the finished product. D. International Strategy The ways in which a firm arranges which strategies it can implement to achieve international success. a. Rogers’ Chocolates brings in only 10% of their overall sales from online, phone, and mail orders. When considering not all of those orders are international sales, Rogers’ does a very small percentage of their sales internationally. The firm competes in markets all across the globe, but only has stores in Canada; so all international sales are orders that are shipped out from the production plant. Table 5 Pressures for Global Efficiencies Low High| Global Strategy * Firm views the world as a single marketplace and its primary goal is to create standardized goods and services to address the needs of customers worldwideHow: Build cost advantage through centralized global scale operations. Requires centralized and globally scaled resources and capabilities. Example: Merck ; HP give some of their subsidiaries worldwide mandates| Transnational Strategy * Firm attempts to combine the benefits of global scale efficiencies with local responsivenessHow: Develop global efficiency, flexibility, and worldwide learning with dispersed, interdependent and specialized capabilitiesExample: Nestle – move to single global culture and company tied to meeting those outcomes| | Home Replication/International Strategy * Firm uses the core competencies or firm-specific advantages it developed at home as its main competitive weapon in the foreign markets it entersHow: Exploit parent company knowledge and capabilities through orldwide diffusion, local marketing and adaptationExample: Wal-Mart to Germany, Brazil| Multidomestic Strategy * Firm views itself as a collection of relatively independent operating subsidiaries, each of which focused on a specific domestic marketHow: Build flexibility to respond to national differences through strong, resourcefu l national or regional operationsExample: MTV into international markets| | Pressures for Local Responsiveness and FlexibilityLow High| * Based on Table 5 above by Ghoshal and Nohria, Rogers’ chocolate would be described as a following a Home Replication/International Strategy. The reasoning behind that is Rogers’ does not change its’ recipe or strategy for international markets. They stick with what works for them and has gotten the firm to this point and it continues to work and help the firm grow. II. Conclusion: Rogers’ corporate strategy is to aggressively grow their business. They want to double or triple the size of the corporation. In order to accomplish this goal they should look to their strength retail marketing. This helps maintain control of the business and exploit Rogers’ premium brand while introducing new or existing products like ice cream. They should look to open stores in similar areas keeping the Rogers’ customer experience of free samples and first class treatment. If they are able to open 2 new stores a year it would add about 10% to Rogers’ top line. With the projected growth of 15% from existing retail stores Roger’s will have the cash flow to finance the growth in retail store and increase advertising for online business. They should also look to grow sales and geographic presence through the wholesale business. APPENDIX C: Performance Assessment Section: 5Team #: Black 6: Network_Kings Dara Servis- Individual APPLE Analysis *P I. Performance Assessment: How? i. Quantitative Performance Analysis Graph 1 * The graph above represents price and quality of Rogers’ Chocolates and their main competitors. 1. Purdy’s: Purdy’s has national brand awareness, with lower quality and pricing. Purdy’s positioning is the least similar to the image Rogers’ hopes to attain and likely appeals to a very different customer than Rogers’’ target consumers. Purdy’s may also be associated with Canadian heritage. 2. Lindt: Lindt has wide variety and mid-range quality with emphasis on immediate indulgence. There is less association with the sensory experience of eating chocolate and more on immediate gratification. 3. Godiva: Godiva commands a high-price point because customers think of the brand as sleek, modern, glitzy and high quality. Godiva’s positioning is the most similar to the image Rogers’ aims to attain and likely appeals to similar target consumers 4. Bernald Callebaut: Bernard Callebaut is seen as good quality, innovative, customizable, and premium priced. Bernard Callebaut’s brand is unknown outside of Western Canada. . ii. Horizontal Analysis of Balance Sheet A horizontal (trend) analysis is done to determine how a firm is performing on a year-to-year basis. For the balance sheet, subtracting the previous year’s net revenue from the current year’s net revenue, then dividing by last year’s revenue will compute the horizontal analysis. Table 1 ROGERS’ Chocolate| Horizontal Trend Analysis| | 2005| 2006| 2007| Net Revenue| 11,991,558| 11,850,480| 13,200,980| Change In Revenue| | -141,078| 1,350,500| Percent CHG| | -1%| 11%| * The table above shows the horizontal trend analysis of the balance sheet for Rogers’ Chocolate from the years 2005 and 2007. Based on this information, Rogers’ showed a decline of just over one percent in net revenue from 2005 to 2007. iii. Horizontal Analysis of Income Statement To perform a trend analysis of the income statement, subtracting the previous year’s net income from the current year’s net income, then dividing by last year’s net income will provide the percent change in net income. Table 2 ROGERS’ Chocolate| Horizontal Analysis Of Income Statement| | 2005| 2006| 2007| Net Income| 1,069,326| 891,082| 988,873| Change In Income| | -178,244| 97,791| Percent CHG| | -17%| 11%| * Table 2 above shows the horizontal trend analysis of the income statement from Rogers’ from the years 2005 to 2007. Based on this information, we can see that Rogers’ made almost 17% less in total income in 2006 than the firm did in 2005 and the rebounded to 11% in 2007. iv. Vertical Analysis of Balance Sheet A vertical (common size) analysis is performed to determine how stable the components of a firm’s income statement and balance sheet have been over the course of time. To determine the vertical analysis for the balance sheet, simply divide each asset category by the total amount of assets. The common size balance sheet analysis is shown below in Table 3. Table 3 Common Size Balance Sheet Analysis| | 2007| 2006| 2005| Assets|   |   |   | Property and equipment | 49. 99%| 51. 99%| 46. 04%| Goodwill| 10. 42%| 10. 92%| 10. 76%| Trademarks| 9. 53%| 9. 33%| 9. 20%| Cash| 2. 34%| 1. 34%| 8. 1%| Manufactured finished goods | 7. 96%| 7. 66%| 8. 13%| Packaging materials | 7. 39%| 7. 39%| 6. 76%| Receivables | 5. 28%| 4. 28%| 5. 42%| Raw Materials | 2. 10%| 2. 02%| 2. 10%| Investment s | 1. 15%| 1. 23%| 0. 90%| Work in progress| 1. 26%| 1. 06%| 0. 78%| Pre-paids| 0. 81%| 1. 01%| 0. 66%| Finished goods for resale| 0. 52%| 0. 26%| 0. 43%| Income tax receivables | 1. 26%| 1. 52%| 0. 00%| TOTAL ASSETS | 100%| 100%| 100%| * Based on the information provided in Table 3 above, we can tell that most of Rogers’ assets come from property and equipment. Also we can see that cash fell from 8. 81% of their assets in 2005 to just 2. 34% in 2007. a. Overall, property and equipment made the biggest jump in percentage of assets, going from 46. 04 to 49. 99%. With more property to sell products and better or more equipment to produce with property and equipment are becoming a larger part of the overall capitalization of the company. v. Vertical Analysis of Income Statement To perform a vertical analysis of the income statement, divide each element of the income statement by the total number of sales for the year. That will provide a percent, which can be described as the percentage of total revenues. Table 4 Years Ended Dec, 31 2007 and 2006| Revenues| 2007| 2006| 2007| 2006| Net Revenues| $ 13,200,980. 00 | $ 11,850,480. 00 | 100%| 100%| Cost f Goods Sold| | |   |   | Amortization of property and equipment| $ 5,353. 00 | $ 4,453. 00 | 1%| 1%| Direct Labor| $ 45,000. 00 | $ 39,483. 00 | 13%| 14%| Direct Materials| $ 720,398. 00 | $ 733,398. 00 | 15%| 23%| Overhead| $ 73,476. 00 | $ 34,421. 00 | 16%| 7%| |   |   |   |    | Gross Profit| | |   |   | Expenses| $ 145,674. 00 | $ 145,674. 00 | 5%| 7%| Interest on long term debt| $ 162,527. 00 | $ 139,527. 00 | 1%| 1%| Selling and administrative| $ 1,498,372. 00 | $ 1,398,672. 00 | 44%| 42%|   |   |   |   |   | Income taxes| $ 287,365. 00 | $ 287,365. 00 | 2%| 4%| Net earnings| $ 988,873. 00 | $ 891,082. 0 | 8%| 9%| * From Table 4 above, we can tell that amortization of property and equipment, interest on long term debt, and income taxes are the lowest costs to perform, totaling only four percent for the three of them in 2006. a. Also, we notice that the selling and administrative costs account for 44% of revenues, with overhead and direct materials far behind at 16% and 15%, respectively. b. Overall, Rogers’ Chocolates firm appears to be performing well, having eight and nine percent net earnings over the two years available. vi. Cash Flow Analysis Cash flow analysis examines the financial statements from the perception of cash that is entering and exiting the firm. Cash flows come from the follow three categories: operating, financing, and investing. Each category adds the cash inputs and subtracts the cash outputs to provide a total cash flow. Then all three category’s totals are added to provide the net change in cash for the years. That number is added to the cash from the beginning of the year to produce the ending cash for the year. Table 5 †¢Table 5 above displays Rogers; Chocolates Consolidated Statements of Cash Flow Table 6 Cash Flow Analysis| | 2005| 2006| 2007| Operating| | | | Total Inputs| $1,663,397| $1,223,436| $1,213,736| Total Outputs| $-| ($328,344)| ($348,144)| Net cash flow| $1,663,397| $895,092| $1,295,092| | | | | Financing| | | | Total Inputs| $661,806| $-| $-| Total Outputs| ($701,870)| ($349,168)| ($251,168)| Net cash flow| ($40,064)| ($349,168)| ($262,624)| | | | | Investing| | | | Total Inputs| $-| $-| $-| Total Outputs| ($1,617,807)| ($772,470)| ($721,570)| Net cash flow| ($1,617,807)| ($772,470)| ($631,470)| | | | | Net Change in cash| $5,526| ($226,546)| ($182,546)| Cash beg. Of year| $146,276| $151,802| $151,802| Ending Cash| $151,802| ($74,744)| ($67,353)| * Table 6 shows the cash flows for Rogers’ Chocolates in 2005 and 2007. The firm spent more cash in 2005 than 2007, but still came out in the positive in that year because their inputs were much larger. In 2006, Rogers’ had cash flows of -$182,546 and had their ending cash balance in the negative as well. vii. Ratio Analysis Ratio analysis is an evaluation of a firm’s strengths or weaknesses in its operations, and measures a firm’s liquidity, solvency, profitability, asset management, and market value. Table 7 Ratio Analysis| | 2005| 2006| 2007| NET COGS| 5378187| 5385088| 6185088| Total inventory| 1550631| 1543816| 1483816| Inventory turnover ratio| 3. 468| 3. 488| 3. 324| |   |   |   | Net Profit| 6613371| 6465392| 7463523| Net Sales| 11,991,558| 11,850,480| 13,200,980| Total Profitability| 55. 15%| 54. 56%| 56. 24%| |   |   |   | Total Current Assets| 2896842| 2330241| 2437611| Total Current Liabilities| 2326966| 1705132| 1632123| Current Ratio| 1. 25| 1. 37| 1. 23| |   |   |   | Total Current Assets| 2896842| 2330241| 21652413| Inventory | 1550631| 1543816| 1571232| Total Quick Assets| 1346211| 786425| 765836| Total Current Liabilities| 2326966| 1705132| 1876219| Quick Ratio| 0. 5785| 0. 4612| 0. 4971| * Table 7 above is a simple ratio analysis of Rogers’, measuring the inventory turnover rate, total profitability, current and quick ratios, return on assets, and the debt to equity ratio. Each of these ratios measures a different aspect of the company. The current and quick ratios are measures of liquidity; total profitability and return on assets are measures of profitability; and inventory turnover is an asset management ratio. II. Qualitative Performance Analysis Rogers’ Chocolates has a long history of providing the finest quality chocolate to their customers. A panel of European chefs named the Rogers’ assortment as â€Å"top-of-the-range-product† filled with â€Å"abundant and rich chocolate aromas. † a. CEO Steve Parkhill described his first experience investigating Rogers’: â€Å"I asked everyone I knew what they thought of the brand. I received one of two reactions. People either said, ‘I’ve never heard of it,’ or they said ‘Oooooh, Rogers’. That is the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted’. † b. In 2000, Rogers’ won the Retail Council of Canada’s Innovative Retailer of the Year award in the small business category for expressing â€Å"outstanding market leadership and innovative approaches to customer and employee relations. † c. In 2006, the company won the prestigious Superior Taste Award from the International Taste ; Quality Institute. d. Overall, Rogers’ is one of the most highly thought of chocolate manufacturers worldwide. Their delicious products, made from only the finest all natural ingredients, continue to impress new and old customers alike and keep them thriving in the competitive business with firms such as Godiva, Bernard Callebaut, Lindt, and Purdy’s. ) II. Conclusion For the small business that Rogers’ is, they appear to be doing quite well in their industry. Of course, not much can be determined about the overall direction the company is headed from just two years of data. However, with positive inventory turnover and a profitability ratio over 50% for both years, we can conclude that Rogers’ is holding their ground in the chocolate industry. A few areas of concern for the firm would be the negative figures for percent change in revenue and percent change in income from the horizontal analysis. The loss in revenue was only about two percent, but the loss in income was nearly 17%, which could be a concern if it continued. Again, we have to remember there are only two years of data and 2006 could have simply been an off year for the company and they did not perform up to their standards. APPENDIX D: Leadership ; Governance Section: 5Team #: Black 6: Network_Kings Dara Servis- Individual APPLE Analysis *L I. Leadership ; Governance: Who? i. Board of Directors The Board of Directors for Rogers’ firm over the last two decades has onsisted of a private group of two financial executives and partners with a Vancouver-based investment firm, an art dealer and private investor, and a former owner of Pacific Coach Lines. Figure 1 * Figure 1 displays an Organizational Chart of Rogers’ Chocolates a. Board Com How to cite Roger’s Chocolates Strategic Analysis, Essay examples

Critical Incident Pressure Area Near Miss free essay sample

Some key information missing in introduction conclusion. 3-5 Detailed and focused introduction conclusion. 6-8 Well developed introduction conclusion. 9-10 Very well developed comprehensive introduction conclusion. BODY0-2 Description of event lacked some major detail. 3-5 Descriptions of event mostly clear, but some detail lacking. -8 Clear description of event. 9-10 Very clear and succinct description of event. 0-4 Relevant legal and/ or ethical issues only briefly / not described. Critical analyses of issues poorly / not attempted. Arguments not/ inadequately supported by appropriate literature. 6-10 Relevant legal and/ or ethical issues described. Critical analyses of issues attempted. Arguments supported by appropriate literature. 12-16 Relevant legal and/ or ethical issues well described. Sound critical analyses of issues evident. Arguments well supported by appropriate literature. 18-20 Relevant legal and/ or ethical issues comprehensively described. In-depth critical analyses of issues evident Arguments well developed and thoroughly supported strengthened by appropriate literature. 0-4 Relevant ANMC or ACORN Competencies or standards only briefly / not described. Critical analyses poorly / not attempted. Arguments not/ inadequately supported by appropriate literature. 6-10 Relevant ANMC or ACORN Competencies or standards described. Critical analyses attempted. Arguments supported by appropriate literature. 12-16 Relevant ANMC or ACORN Competencies or standards well described. Sound critical analyses evident. Arguments well supported by appropriate literature. 18-20 Relevant ANMC or ACORN Competencies or standards comprehensively described. In-depth critical analyses evident. Arguments well developed and thoroughly supported strengthened by appropriate literature. 0-4 Recommendations not included/ only briefly described/not supported. 6-10 Recommendations included however more support or description needed. 12-16 Sound, relevant recommendations described. 18-20 Very clear description well argued support of relevant recommendations. Some (5-6) grammatical spelling errors. 6-8 Followed academic presentation requirements. Few (2-4) grammatical spelling errors. 9-10 Good structure and adherence of academic presentation requirements. No grammatical or spelling errors. Total: /100 /30% INTRODUCTION. In this assignment on critical analysis I will present a clinical incident and discuss and analyse a critical incident in detail utilising a critical incident tool (CIT). This incident I have chosen occurred during an operative procedure. I will discuss the incident as I proceed through the steps outlined in the critical analysis tool. I will present a brief overview of the incident before commencing my analysis. I will discuss the importance of a critical analysis and why they are important to nursing practice. I will also discuss the incident in terms of standards, guidelines and legislation. I will outline 4 recommendations for improvement to my practice. I will finish with a conclusion and a look forward to the future of pressure injury care in Australia. Incident The patient was a 12 year old male child undergoing and emergency open reduction and internal fixation of a right wrist fracture. The child was positioned in the supine position. The procedure was a difficult fixation and done by a registrar so was somewhat longer that the usual time taken to undertake this procedure. No names will be used to protect patient confidentiality. Due to the positioning the patient sustained a near miss pressure injury. The near miss and resultant tissue injury was not discovered until the procedure was completed. I will discuss this incident in full as I proceed through the critical analysis. Critical Analysis The purpose of undertaking this assignment is to look at this incident in more detail, and delve into the nursing obligations and duties owed to our patients. It has encouraged me to think more globally and think the issue through in depth. I have found I have had to consider the foundations that underpin my nursing practice. Critical analysis utilises a framework or a methodology to formally process and incident or significant event. The event does not have to be â€Å"critical† or even have a significant adverse outcome to be viewed as a critical incident. I have included the following definitions in relation to performing a critical analysis and what it hopes to achieve for the practitioner. Schluter, 2007), â€Å"The CIT is a practical methodology that allows researchers to understand complexities of the nursing role and function, and the interactions between nurses and other clinicians. † (p113). This is expanded in definition by (McClure ND) who defined reflective practice learning experience as follows, â€Å"To maximise learning through critical reflection we need to contextually locate ourselves within the experienc e and explore available theory, knowledge and experience to understand the experience in different ways. † (para 7). A critical incident is an event that is usually remembered by the participant as important or used as a learning tool for the purpose of reflection. (Daly, Speedman, Jackson,. 2010). The Australia Nursing Midwifery Council (ANMC) states the following about critical thinking and analysis, â€Å"This relates to self – appraisal, professional development, and the value of evidence and research for practice. Reflecting on practice, feelings and beliefs and the consequences of these for individuals/groups is an important professional benchmark. † (p. 2). Also under the ANMC competencies nurses have a duty of care to their patients to that complies within the current legislation governing nursing practice. I am using the following incident analysis from (Services, 2009) which is heavily based on work by Crisp, Green Lister and Dutton (2005) . 1. Account of the incident The incident I am going to discuss did not get discovered until we were taking down the drapes and getting ready to transfer the patient onto the bed. During the procedure I was the scout nurse in the theatre. Once the drapes were removed, I noticed the child’s left foot was crossed on top of his right foot. This resulted in the calcaneal part of his heel came to rest on the top part of the bony section of his right foot. I could immediately see a round red area on the top of his right foot that resulted from pressure from his heel. This was a direct result of the pressure of his foot over the duration of the procedure. The procedure was a difficult fixation and done by a registrar so was somewhat longer that the usual time taken to undertake this procedure. Once I discovered the incident my focus was to assess the injury and treat it appropriately. I pressed the skin involved and the red area from the pressure was blanchable, but slow to respond. I think had the pressure from his upper foot had been applied any longer this would have developed into a stage one pressure area. I rubbed the affected area to help restore circulation and checked the heel of the foot that was resting on the top of the right foot. I gave the patient a warm blanket to help achieve normothermia, reported and documented the injury. I also completed a prime incident report. 2. Initial responses to the incident When I discovered the incident, I felt a sense of failure that I had not noticed the crossed leg under the drape. I felt I had let our patient down whilst caring for him in the operating room. I also felt my colleague was unmindful of the ramifications of what a pressure injury that develops into a stage one pressure ulcer would involve for this patient. I felt we owed a duty of care to the patient to administer appropriate treatment, timely intervention and report the injury to the surgeons. I had assumed everyone would be of the same mind in relation to this incident. 3. Issues and dilemmas highlighted by this incident Under the ANMC competencies there is an ethical nursing framework that exists to govern ethical nursing practice. One area of ethical consideration during this incident was when I pointed out the scrub nurse this injury to the patient. She stated to me that the positioning was correct at the beginning of the case, so there was nothing that we could do about the injury occurring. Under the ANMC framework to â€Å"maintain an effective process of care when confronted by differing values, beliefs and biases. † I myself did not witness the patient position prior the draping, so I can’t say I noted the patient’s position. The staff member was very senior to me and have a forceful personality. I felt quite uncomfortable during the time that we discussed the patient injury. I felt the person who was with me felt as if there was blame being allocated, which for me was not the case at all. I wanted to notify her of the patient’s injury as I would like to be if I were in the same position. I also felt she was being dismissive of the patient’s injury. I notified the surgeon and documented this in the nursing notes. I also communicated the injury with the recovery staff. Under civil legislation we owe the client a duty of care in all aspects of the care we provide. 4. Outcome The patient was very fortunate not to develop a stage one pressure injury. Due to the state of the tissues when I found them I have no doubt that another 20 minutes or less would have resulted in a pressure injury for this patient. This is why I have used it as a critical incident. It was such a close call for a patient who was so young with no other co morbidities. Had he not been well nourished and in good health, I am certain this would have resulted in a pressure injury. Due to this incident I have changed how I practice in the surgical setting in regard to monitoring and correcting patients positioning. I feel I am more vigilant in regard to positioning. As I have processed this incident through critical analysis and reflective practice I think I have come to terms with the incident a little better. I have gained a better understanding of my role in this incident, and have developed as a practitioner to help other patients so they are better positioned to decrease the likelihood of developing a pressure injury. I have also increased my knowledge base about pressure injuries significantly, and continue to learn about them in the peri-operative environment. I think this incident served as an excellent learning experience to help prevent similar injuries in others. 5. Learning A recent survey has been collected and published by AORN, (Steelman, Grayling Perkhounkova 2013) found during a survey of peri-operative nurses that preventing pressure injuries was the 5th most important priority safety issue they were concerned about. When they divided it into settings, hospital based nurses rated it as the third most important safety issue. They also found there was no purpose built valid tool to conduct risk assessments on patients in the peri-operative environment. They also found limited resources to help nurses prevent pressure injuries. (Mahan, P. 2006) defines a pressure ulcer (now known as pressure injury) as â€Å"any lesion caused by unrelieved pressure resulting in damage of underlying tissue. Pressure ulcers are usually located over bony prominences and are graded or staged to classify the degree of tissue damage observed. † (p. . ). (Mahan, P 2006) stated in relation to pressure injuries, that â€Å"prompt and effective treatment can minimise the deleterious effects and speed recovery. † (p. 6) (Baron McFarlane 2009) identified that staff felt that pressure injuries were uncommon in the operative setting. However due to surgical techniques improving and becoming increasingly complex, op erating times were lengthening. They found that injuries could occur in a one to four hour time frame dependent of the patient’s condition. They also found due to specific environmental reasons the operative environment contributed to this risk. This was due to general anaesthesia, anaesthetic agents that decreased perfusional status and body temperature. When relaying incidents and other issues found postoperatively I will continue to maintain a calm, non judgmental response. I will be more forward when a staff members seems to find this confronting and discuss the issue with them at and appropriate time and find out why they reacted the way they did. I have found 4 recommendations for improvement that I can undertake to help prevent pressure injuries. 1)Educate staff on what a pressure injury is and how to prevent them. This would also highlight patient risk factors, important co morbidities and the importance of patient positioning. There are two online options for this education. These had the added benefit of accruing CDE points, and all staff can undertake the education when they are able. https://members. nursingquality. org/NDNQIPressureUlcerTraining/https://members. nursingquality. org/NDNQIPressureUlcerTraining/ http://www. health. vic. gov. au/pressureulcers/education. htm 2) Use a patient positioning time out prior to draping involving all team members. This does not have to be formal, and is a quick and easy check prior to draping to ensure the patient is correctly positioned prior to draping. It is important to involve other staff members from all disciplines as pressure injuries occurs both in the anesthetic and surgical arena. This also incorporates all elements of the ACORN standard on peri-operative positioning. Advocate for the use of pressure relieving devices on all patients, regardless of age, co morbidities or skin condition. Even young well people are at risk of pressure injures. Conduct and document a baseline skin assessment, and continue to monitor the status of the patients skin, documenting any issues. The Pan Pacific Clinical Practice Guideline for the Prevention and Management of Pressure Injury suggest a number of tools for the use in children, and there is good evidence to support the use of three of the tools 3)Ensure patient is warm and all warming devices are used appropriately. Pressure injuries can result from heavy blankets. So I would ensure the patient has one warm blanket and a forced air warmer insitu. There is good evidence to link pressure injury prevention and normothermia. If the patient is normothermic the risk of pressure injury is decreased. (Fred, Ford, Wagner VanBrackle, 2012) As a result of this incident I am more aware of the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses Standard (ACORN) on Patient Positioning. (ACORN 2012-2013) states, â€Å"Safe positioning for, and during, surgery and in the immediate postoperative period minimizes the risk and prevents unnecessary surgical complications. † and also â€Å"The positioning shall not compromise the patients respiratory and cardiovascular function, or cause damage to the nervous, muscular and integumentary systems. Future learning needs. I believe I need to educate myself on patient positioning for all types of surgery. I also need to maintain currency in the latest evidence based practice on pressure injuries and pressure relieving devices. Due to the governments policy on pressure injuries and the financial penalties health care facilities face, I think all nursed will need to make this a priority learning goal. I also need to learn more about anaesthetic agents in greater detail. It was not until I undertook this assignment that I realised the uge impact they have on a patient and there risk of a pressure injury. (Walton-Greer, P. 2009) discusses the impact anaesthesia has on the patient in relation to pressure injury. Due to pain receptors being blocked, depression of the autonomic nervous system and the vasodilatory effect of the anaesthetic agents the all have a cumulative affect on the risk of developing a pressure injury. She also found that patients having a spinal or epidural anaesthetic were more at risk. I am also going to complete the pressure injury education components as per recommendation one in this assignment. As a department we need to explore a risk assessment tool for use in the theatre for patients who do not have one already completed. The health care facility uses the Waterlow scoring system. It is part of the ACORN standard S12 criteria 1. 3. This standard also states that nurses â€Å"demonstrate a competent knowledge of the aetiology of pressure sores’ and (ACORN) statement 3, states that nurses â€Å"appropriately use a risk assessment tool and preventive screening positioning techniques based on evidenced based research† (p. 3). CONCLUSION In conclusion I think that pressure injuries are a priority area for nursing care and active preventative measure should be instituted in all surgical patients. Nursing staff should work as a team to ensure the patient is positioned well, and given appropriate follow up care. It should become standard practice to conduct a skin assessment on admission to a hospital facility, and if one has not been done, it should be conducted if practicable by the theatre nurse. At the end of my conclusion I will include a look forward for what in will mean to hospitals if patients acquire a pressure injury in their care. I personally will conduct a patient positioning time out prior to draping to ensure the patient is correctly positioned and had the correct pressure relieving devices in place. I will also explore my future learning needs as outlined in my assignment. All issues surrounding patients need to be communicated clearly and in a calm and non judgmental way, they also need to be documented as per hospital policy. Looking Forward. The Australian government has instituted a policy where Health Care Facilities will be fined under a punitive system on each pressure injury that occurs in a facility. This money will be taken from the operative budget of the ward/ unit in which the pressure injury occurred. I personally think this will have a detrimental affect on health care. There are other models in which you a financially rewarded for preventing pressure injuries. Injuries need to be documented within 6 hours of admission or otherwise a financial penalty will result whether the injury occurred within the facility or not. This will be important to theatre nursing staff who are treating trauma patients and critically ill patients who are admitted to their unit after presentation to the hospital.