Q1.

MISSION STATEMENT OF KB` DIARY COMPANY LIMITED Vision dictates Mission which determines Strategy, which surfaces Goals that frame Objectives which in turn drives the Tactics that tell an organization what Resources, Infrastructure and Processes are needed to support a certainty of execution. (Mike Myatt, 1988).

A vision statement describes what the company is to become in the long-term future (J.L Thompson, 2001, p77). - A mental picture of the future situation.

A corporate mission is a document that defines: a) The purpose of an organizations existence reason de entre. b) What market(s) it intends serving c) What products or services it intends producing d) What business philosophy or core values it intends observing e) What behavioural, moral or ethical standards it wants to maintain. f) Defines what an organization is, what it does, what it aspires to be or achieve.

Objectives are the desired end results of planned actions. Objectives should be stated as action verbs and specified exactly what is to be accomplished within specific time period. The achievement of corporate objectives should result in the fulfillment of a companys mission. The acronym SMART provides a guideline for setting objectives Objectives must be: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound (long-term, mid-term, short-term)

MISSION The Companys mission statement reflects our core values: KB Diary helps the entire family live healthier by enjoying our nutritious and delicious food and beverage products every day throughout their lives.

VISION KB Diary is to grow from small- scale dairy products to a multi-national food company.

-To seize the opportunity of tomorrow and create a future that will make us an ever positive company. -To continue to improve the quality of life of our employee and the communities we serve. -To revitalize the core business for a sustainable future. -To venture into new businesses that will own the share of our future. -To uphold the spirit and value of KB Diary towards nation building. Q2.THE MAIN ENVIROMENTAL INFLUENCE ON KB` DIARY COMPANY LIMITED PESTEL analysis of the macro environment. There are many factors in the macro-environment that will affect the decisions of the managers of any organisation. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyse these factors managers can categorise them using the PESTEL model. This classification distinguishes between Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal.

Political environment refers to all those things pertaining to and perpetrated by the government that affect the economy and business scenario in general. Government regulations and policies that impact the business environment the most may include trade and labor laws, tax policies, environmental laws and regulations, trade restrictions, commercial tariffs, infrastructure and development policies, etc. The degree of political stability also has a huge impact upon business environment and the economy in general.

Economic environment refers mostly to the macroeconomic factors as these factors may have a high impact upon the business environment but a firm does not have any control over them. The most it can do is modifying its business strategies and various commercial and financial policies accordingly to make the most of the economic situation at hand. These economic factors may include the currency exchange rate, interest rate, economic growth rate, rate of inflation, etc. Economic factors. These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates. As you will see throughout the "Foundations of Economics" book economic change can have a major impact on a firm's behaviour. For example; Higher interest rates may deter investment because it costs more to borrow ,

A strong currency may make exporting more difficult because it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency. Inflation may provoke higher wage demands from employees and raise costs.

Higher national income growth may boost demand for a firm's products. The growth of China and India, for example, have had massive effects on many organisations. Firms can relocate production there to benefit from lower costs; these emerging markets are also providing enormous markets for firms to aim their products at. With a population of over 1 billion, for example, the Chinese market is not one you would want to ignore; at the same time Chinese producers should not be ignored either. However, the relative importance of economic factors. Social environment refers to the social, religious and cultural aspects of the business environment that may be affected by, and may react to, the firm's transitional strategies either positively or negatively. These may include demographic aspects like age distribution, population growth rate, employment and income statistics, education and career trends, religious beliefs and social

stigmas, overall general attitude (conservative or liberal), etc. These factors may have a huge impact upon the firm's operations within the business environment as any action by the firm which goes against or threatens the societal norms may face criticism, negative publicity and protests.

Technological environment refers to the technical aspects of the business environment and may include the level of automation available in the current times, technical facilities and infrastructure, rate of technological progress and research and development activities. These factors may assume decisive proportions and may impact the cost, quality and scope of innovation for a product, service or commercial utility.

Later, two more categories were added to the above - Environmental (as in ecological factors) and Legal - turning PEST into PESTLE. Environmental factors include climate, weather, ecological balance, level of pollution, wildlife conservation, tourism, farming, etc. Legal environment includes various laws and legislation pertaining to consumers, discrimination, employment, competition, public health and safety.

Competitive position; define how the customer perceives a product in comparison to products offered by other competitors. Once the targeted segments have been selected, the product or service must be positioned in order to create a clearly defined image in the minds of customers. The key positioning aim for are to position product or service such that they are perceived differently compare to competing products and services. Positioning requires a company to understand; how customers think about

Competitive forces: the five forces framework Competitive forces are factors that influence the competitive position of a company in an industry or market. Competitive forces include bargaining power of the buyers and suppliers, threat of new entrants, force of substitute products and rivalry among existing companies.

The challenge in crafting a winning competitive strategy is how to gain an edge over rivals. The big complication is that the success of anyone firms strategy hinges on what strategies its rivals employ and the resources rivals are willing and able to put behind their strategies. The best strategy for one firm in its maneuvering for competitive advantage depends on the competitive strength and competitive strategies of rival companies. And whenever a firm makes a strategic move, rivals may retaliate with offensive or defensive counter moves. Competitive battles among rivals sellers can assume many forms and shades of intensity. The weapons used include price, quality, performance features offered, service offered, warranties and guarantees, advertising, better network of wholesale distributors and retail dealers, ability to innovate and so no. The use of these weapons can change over time as emphasis shifted from one competitive weapon to another and as competitors make various offensive and defensive moves. Rivalry is thus dynamic. The jockeying for position among competitors unfolds in round after round of the moves and counter moves. The strategists job is to identify the current weapon of competitive rivalry, to stay on top of how the game is being played and to judge how much pressure competitive rivalry is going to put on profitability. Chronic use of cutthroats competitive tactics among rival sellers tends to make an industry inherently in attractive.

The competitive force of potential entry: New entrants to the market bring new production capacity, the desire to establish a secure place on the market and sometimes substantial resources within to complete. Just how serious the competitive threat of entry is in a particular market depends on two classes of factors: barriers to entry and the expected reaction of incumbent firms to new entry. There are several major sources of entry barriers for a new comer to break into the market and /or the economics of the business. 1. The economics of scale important economic of scale deter entry because they force potential entrants to enter on a large scale basis or accept a cost disadvantage and consequently lower profitability. Existing firms are then pushed into aggressive retaliation (in the form of price cuts increased advertising and scale promotion, and similar steps) to maintain their position.

2. Inability to gain access to technology and specialized know how. Many businesses require technological capability and skills not readily available to a new entrant. Key patents can effectively bar entry as can lack of skilled personnel and lack of familiarity with certain technologies and complicated manufacturing techniques. 3. The existence of learning and experience curve effects- when achieving lower units costs is partly of mostly a function of experience in producing the product and other learning curve benefits, a new entrant is put at a disadvantage in competing with existing firms. 4. Brand preference and customer loyally- buyers usually have some attachment to existing brands. High brand loyalty means that a potential entrant must be prepared to spend enough money on advertising and sales promotion to overcome customer loyalty and build its own clientele. 5. Capital requirement the larger the total fund/investment needed to enter the market successfully, the more limited the pool of potential entrants. 6. Face the barrier of gaining adequate distribution access. Wholesale distributors may be reluctant to take on a product that lacks buyer recognition. 7. Cost disadvantages independent of size- the existing firms may have cost advantage not available to new entrants regardless of size The competitive force of substitute products: firm in one industry are, quite often, in close competition with firms in another industry because their respective products are good substitutes. The competitive force of closely related substitute products enters into play in several ways. First the presence of readily available and competitively priced substitutes places a ceiling on the prices an industry can afford to charge for its own product without giving customers an incentive to switch to substitutes and then suffering market erosion. Another determination of whether substitutes are a strong or weak competitive force is whether it is difficult or costly for the industrys customers to switch substitute products. If switching costs are high, sellers of substitutes must offer a major cost or performance benefits in order to steal the industries customers away. As a rule, the lower the price of substitute, the higher their quality and performance, and the lower the users switching costs, the more intense are the competitive pressures posed by substitute products. The best indicators of the competitive strength of substitute products are the

rate of their sales are growing and market in roads they are making. Other indicators are their plans for expansion of capacity and their profits.

The power of suppliers- whether the suppliers to an industry are a weak or strong competitive force depends on market conditions in the supplier industry and the significance of the item they supply. The whenever the items they provide is a standard commodity available on the open market from a large number of suppliers with ample capability to fill orders. On the other hand, powerful supplier can put an industry in a profit squeeze via price increase that increases that cannot fully be passed on to the industrys customers. Suppliers become a potentially strong competitive force in this regard when the item they provide makes up a sizable fraction of the costs of an industrys product, is crucial to the production process and/or significantly affects the industrys product. . The power of buyers- just as with suppliers, the competitive strength of buyers can range from strong to weak. Buyers have substantial bargaining leverage in a number of situations. The most obvious is when buyers are large and purchase a sizable percentage of the industrys output. The bigger buyers are and the larger the qualities they purchase, the more clout they have in negotiating with sellers. Often, larger are successful in using the leverage of their size and their volume purchases to obtain price concessions and other favorable terms. Buyers also gain power when their costs of switching to competing brand or to competing substitutes are relatively low. Any time buyers have the flexibility to fill their needs by sourcing from several sellers rather than having to use just one brand, they have added room to negotiate unit sellers.

The strategic implications Analysis of the competitive environment requires that the strength of each one of the 5 competitive forces be accessed. The collective impact of these forces determines what competition is likely in a given market. As a rule, the stronger competitive forces are, the lower is the collective profitability of participant firms. Brutal C situation occurs when the 5 forces combine to create pressures so oppressive subpar profitability or even losses for most firms occur.

Q3. CORPORATE STRATEGY THAT KB DIARY IS PERSUING.

In this instance, corporate headquarters must play the role of organizational parenting, in that it must deal with the various business units as children of a big family. Corporate strategy is concerned with decisions regarding the flow of financial and other resources within a companys portfolio of businesses, known as Strategic Business Units (SBUs).

Corporate strategy deals with three key issues facing the corporation as a whole: Directional Strategy is concerned with the firms overall orientation toward growth, stability, or retrenchment Portfolio Strategy deals with the industries or markets in which the firm competes through its products and business units Parenting Strategy is concerned with the manner in which management coordinates the firms activities and transfers resources and cultivates capabilities among business units and product lines. Every company must decide its orientation toward growth by asking the following questions: 1. Should we expand, cut back, or continue our operations unchanged? 2. Should we concentrate our activities within our current industry, or should we diversify into other industries? 3. If we want to grow and expand nationally and/or globally, should we do so through internal development or through external acquisitions, mergers, or strategic alliances? A company has three optional directional strategies: 1) Growth strategies: expand the companys revenue generation capacity 2) Stability strategies: make no change to the companys current activities 3) Retrenchment strategies: reduce or rationalize the companys level of operation

Q4. APPROACHES TO BUSINESS STRATEGIES KB DIARY IS PERSUING Business strategy is concerned with managing a business units product portfolio, and deciding how to compete or corporate successfully with other firms within its industry and markets.

Business strategy is concerned with decisions regarding the flow of financial and other resources to and from a subsidiary, division or SBUs product portfolio. Business strategies focus on improving a firms or business units competitive position within the specific industry or the product/market segment it serves. Business strategies take the form of: 1) Competitive strategy battling against competitors within the industry for advantage; and/or 2) Cooperative strategy working together with one or more competitors to gain advantage over stronger competitors within the industry. Business strategy asks the question which company (ies) should the firm compete with, and which company should it cooperate with? Michael Porter (1985) defines competitive strategy as the search for a favourable competitive position in an industry, the fundamental arena within which competition occurs. A firms competitive strategy aims at establishing a defensive and offensive competitive market position for sustainable, profitable growth in sales, market shares, and customer base - against the background of prevailing and anticipated environmental forces that determine industry dynamism. These strategies can be pursued by all forms of organizations, even not-for-profit organizations; 1) Lower-cost strategy is the ability of a firm or business unit to design, produce, and market a comparable product more efficiently than its competitors 2) Differentiation strategy is the ability of a company to provide unique and superior value to its customers in terms of product quality, special features, or after-sales service.

Within the context of these two generic strategies, a firm may attempt to gain competitive advantage, by pursuing any of the following strategies: 1) An overall Low-cost strategy appealing to a broad segment of the market by being an overall low-cost, low-price provider. 2) Product Differentiation strategy appealing to a broad segment of the market and differentiating the product or service from those of rivals on an attribute of value to customers. 3) A Focus (or niche) strategy based either on lower cost efficiency (lower pricing) or product differentiation. Cost leadership is a lower-cost competitive strategy that aims at the broad mass market. The pursuance of this strategy requires: a) Aggressive development of efficient-scale facilities b) Tight cost and overhead control c) Cost minimization in areas like R&D, sales force, advertising, after-sales service, and so on Because of its lower costs, the cost leader is able to charge a lower price for its products than its competitors, and still makes satisfactory profit KB Diary company should employ a strategy of Sustaining Low-Cost Leadership Gaining economies of scale in production, sales and distribution. Taking advantage of learning (experience) curve effects in managing cost and time efficiency in procurement, R&D and production. Utilizing Company or industry value-chain linkages. Synergy resulting from sharing of facilities within the organization, and among its business units. Gaining higher percentage of capacity utilization, relative to industry average.

Establishing a Low Cost Leadership Culture; the company should scrutinize each costcreating activity in the value chain, and determine what drives cost. The company should manage cost to ensure savings throughout the value chain. It should work diligently to create cost-conscious corporate culture that features broad employee participation in continuous cost-improvement efforts and limited perks and frills for executives. It operates with exceptionally small corporate staffs to keep administrative costs minimal.

It should benchmark costs against best-in-class performance of activity to keep close tabs on the cost control measures they use. It should invest in resources (e.g. state- of- the- art technology) and capabilities that promise to drive costs out of the business.

It should scrutinize each cost-creating activity in the value chain, and determine what drives cost. It should manage cost to ensure savings throughout the value chain. It should work diligently to create cost-conscious corporate culture that features broad employee participation in continuous cost-improvement efforts and limited perks and frills for executives. It should operate with exceptionally small corporate staffs to keep administrative costs minimal. It should benchmark costs against best-in-class performance of activity to keep close tabs on the cost control measures they use. It should invest in resources (e.g. state- of- the- art technology) and capabilities that promise to drive costs out of the business.

Differentiation Strategies: Differentiation is aimed at the broad mass market, and involves the creating, communicating and delivering a product or service that is perceived as unique, throughout the firms industry or market segment. When a firm is able to differentiate its products or services, it is able to attract premium prices i.e. prices higher than the industry average. The uniqueness can be associated with the design, brand image, technology, dealer network, customer service, speed of delivery, or some other factors that customers value most. Differentiation is a viable strategy for earning above-average returns in a specific business, because the resulting brand loyalty tends to lower customers sensitivity to price. Brand loyalty also serves as a barrier to new competitor entry.

A firm uses competitive strategies and tactics to gain competitive advantage within an industry by battling against other firms

COOPERATIVE STRATEGIES A company can also use cooperative strategies to gain competitive advantage within an industry by working with other firms There are three forms of such collaboration: 1) Collusion 2) Joint Ventures 3) Strategic Alliances Collusion is the active cooperation of firms within an industry to reduce output and raise prices in order to get around the normal economic law of supply and demand. Collusion may be: Explicit firms cooperate through direct communication and negotiation, or Tacit firms cooperate directly or indirectly through an informal system Explicit collusion is illegal in most countries, and in a number of regional trade associations, such as the European Union. Strategic Alliances (SAs) Strategic Alliances are another form of collaborative partnerships among firms. Strategic Alliances are distinguished from joint ventures, because the companies involved do not take equity position in one another. Strategic Alliances are partnerships that exist for a defined period during which partners contribute their skills and expertise to a cooperative project. E.g. one partner provides manufacturing capabilities, while the other partner provides the marketing expertise. Alliances are often undertaken because the partners want to learn from each other so as to be able to develop in-house capabilities to supplant the individual partners when the contractual agreement expires. Q5.KB Dairy company limited started from a small scale production of Dairy Milk product to become a national food conglomerate since 1979 to 1999. The economic and political environment is change fast, so does the competition. KB Dairy limited needs to expand into regions, nations, international, and globally, pursuing its objectives to have a production in every economy. The company should pursue further product development and diversification.

Production of drinks which is one of the most dynamic industry in Ghana can be added to its product portfolio. Further to the initial success of juices, different flavours, other brands of juices, nectars, juice based drinks must be added to target customers in both premium and lowmedium income segments. KB Dairy should develop customized juice and dairy umbrella brands aimed at children between the ages 5-9 years. This brand should be enriched with vitamins, which should be the core message in advertising. Products with higher added value such as mouses, fruit flavoured milk and kefir, puddings and fruit flavoured cottage cheese must be added to the extensive portfolio of traditional dairy products. This major strategic direction must be followed with the purpose of changing customer preferences, keeping competitive edge and improving operational efficiencies. A new line of health oriented enriched products including drinks, fruit and milk cock-tail enriched with vitamins and live bacteria. This new products should be priced higher above retail average and targeted consumers with high incomes. KB Dairy should also enter into the mineral water and cheese markets. Moreover KB Dairy should enter into a joint venture agreement with other companies producing similar products so that they can achieve synergy. The company should also think through of rapid growth acquisition or merger. This can be done by flotation of shares in the capital market, followed by investment in modernization, marketing, distribution and promotion. The main areas that should be identified for urgent restructuring is an in-depth review of all business units through the value chain. This should comprise the holding, marketing strategy, promotions, packaging, logistic, procurement, product portfolio and distribution functions.

The company should shift focus from selling to individual distributors to direct delivery to shops and supermarkets. Special attention should be devoted to cost reduction; reward and bonus system must be link to improvement in profitability. Consequently, there is not a single strategy that can be used but rather, the competing environment is dynamic so the company ought to choose a strategy that will best suit the prevailing market environment as elaborated above.

Q6.MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE

This is concerned with management activity involved in changing strategy. The major problem managers report in managing change is the tendency towards inertia and resistance to change; people will hold on to existing way of doing things. Roles in managing change; a change agent is the individual or groups that help effect strategic change in an organization. The change agent could be a middle manager or a consultant.

Strategic leadership is the process of influencing an organization in its effort towards achieving an aim or goal.

Style of managing change; the leader/ manager needs to consider the style of management they adopt.

Education; Management need to explain the reason for and need for strategic change. This is appropriate when the problem is due to misinformation or lack of information.

Participation in the change process is the involvement of those affected by the change agenda; for example, in the identification of strategic issues, the strategic decision making processes, the setting of priorities, the planning of strategic change or the drawing up of action plan. Such involvement can foster positive attitude toward change.

Intervention is the coordination of and authority over processes of change by a change agent who delegates elements of the change process.

Direction; involves the use of personal managerial authority to establish a clear strategy and how change will occur. It is a top-down management of strategic change with a clear vision.

Coercion; is direction and involve the imposition of change or issuing of edict about change. This is the explicit use of power and may be necessary when the organization is in crises.

Different style for different stages; style for managing change differ according to the stages in the change process. Clear direction is vital to motivate a desire or readiness to change. Participation or intervention can help in gaining a wider commitment across the organization and developing capabilities to identify blockage to change, plan and execute specific action programs.

Time and scope; participative style is most appropriate for incremental change within organizations, transformational style is required, directive approach may be more appropriate.

Power; in organization with hierarchical power structure, a directive approaches may be more appropriate and it will difficult to break away from it. Personality types; different styles suit different managers personality types. However, those with the greater capabilities to manage change may have the abilities to adopt different styles in different circumstance.

Style of managing change are mutually exclusive; for example clear directive on overall vision might aid a more collaborative approach to more detailed strategic development. Education and communication may be appropriate to some stakeholders, such as financial institutions; participation may be appropriate for groups in part of the organization where it is appropriate to build capabilities and readiness. If there are parts of the organization where change is to happen fast, timing may demand a more directive approach. Dont noodle Terry Lundgren, CEO of Federal Department stores said, I have always been a pretty good listener and am quick to admit that I do not have all the answers. So I am going to listen. But shortly after I listen, the second thing is to pull the trigger. Coach but dont coddle.

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executioncommunicate priority clearly, simply and frequently to a large extent our divisional leaders must define their future. I play the role of a coach; but coaching doesnt mean coddling. (Allan G. Laffley,)

Be dedicated Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco has overseen one of the biggest retail transformations in the world. His speech is serious and straight forward. Hes no showman.. you are not confronted with some huge presence.. He talks only about TESCO; .Its like meeting a religious leader reciting a creed. And strategically; he is a combination of the very smart- he is always seeing over the hillyou give him a problem and he will go off and work until he solves it. His co-workers respects him for his decisions- Everything is analysed, taken apart, discussed and put back togetherhe is gathered around him senior managers whove been with him and the group for years.

Managing change at Faslane We discovered that getting through the evolutionary change took longer than wed assumed, I suppose partly because wed over estimated the desire for change. Giving that a ten and half year contract, there are two major milestones for me. One is getting to the first five years having delivered against targets. We are now a year away from that but we will bit the target by some margin. The second is a more hazy 7-8 year time frame which is what the theorists say it takes to implement lasting cultural change: an organization thats had the non-value-adding bureaucracy stripped away, team leaders managing people not paperwork, teams starting to get more responsibility to manage themselves. So instead of having somebody manage allocation, people take responsibility in their own work teams to do that.

In conclusion, the above strategies can be adopted by considering the circumstances that need the change.

REFERENCES Capon, C. (2008), Understanding Strategic Management, Prentice Hall, Harlow, England.

Doyle, P. & Stern, S. (2006), Marketing Management and Strategy, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Harlow, England. Johnson, G. etal ( 2010), Exploring Corporate Strategy, Text &Cases, 8th Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Harlow, England.

Keller, L.A.(2008), Strategic Brand Management, Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, New Jersey, USA.

Slack, N. & Lewis, M. (2008), Operations strategy, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Harlow, England.

Thompson, A. A. and Strickland A. J. (1990), Strategy Management, Concept & Cases, Fifth Edition, Homewood, Boston.