Business Strategy

Running Head: CREATING A STRATEGY AT KUDLER FINE FOODS

Creating a Strategy at Kudler Fine Foods

University of Phoenix

Creating a Strategy at Kudler Fine Foods

Technology and Business Opportunities

Technology affects the way in which all firms do business. At Kudler Fine Foods, the use of the internet along with other forms of gathering information provides the organization with new insight into market conditions and potential opportunities. Internet sources have increased over the years to provide competitive intelligence in a fast and reliable manner (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2003, p. 14). In addition to monitoring the external market forces that affect KFF, the firm has developed several databases that gather information about the internal environment.

Competitive intelligence is very important to the success of KFF. Gathering information via the internet is any easy way to gain knowledge of what is happening with the competition. Strategic planning can then be coordinated to best suit the needs of the firm with regard to external market conditions. According to one researcher, the information found on the internet can be classified into two areas (Boncella, 2003, p. 229-230). Surface web pages are available at no cost to all people via an internet search engine. Those pages characterized as the deep web include proprietary information or those documents protected by copyright. Generally this area requires a subscription and can add a substantial cost to the business. To reduce overhead KFF can limit research to competitor’s websites, newsgroups and publicly held financial information. To expand on market knowledge, management can use their own internet site to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of product and service offerings (Turban et al. 2003).

Databases provide KFF with a wealth of information about consumer trends that can be used to enhance corporate strategy. Moreover, this knowledge can be used to provide changes to meet consumer...