Your Decide- Willy's Candy Company

Willy’s Candy Company- Current Strategy

Willy’s Candy Company is currently facing a strategic dilemma. The company offers two specific products: Willy’s Yummy Chews and Willy’s Sour Straws. With this information, one can begin to diagnose Willy’s Candy Company’s competitive strategy. Part of the diagnosis analyzes whether or not the strategy has a broad or narrow focus. The other factor to consider is whether the company utilizes a low cost strategy or a differentiation strategy (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble & Strickland, 2014).

Based on the general information provided in conjunction with the research regarding competitive strategies, Willy’s Candy Company fosters a focused, low-cost strategy. This is evident by the fact that the company only has two products. Logically, it would be difficult to determine that Willy’s Candy company uses a broad based strategy if it only supplies two products. Instead, with only two products, Willy’s Candy Company is focused on a narrow segment of the market. Additionally, the company uses aggressive pricing models and trade incentives to secure sales. Because the sales have been flat, it can logically be assumed that the aggressive pricing means it is aggressively low.

Willy’s Candy Company- Executive Team Strategic Perspectives

The four members of the executive team each has a different perspective of how the team should operate. The CEO, Chester Wonka, seems to be at his rope’s end with trying to design a strategy for the company to grow its operations and increase its profit. He feels the company has only been able to maintain its market share by offering special pricing. It is Mr. Wonka’s position that the company be sold to a Swiss multination corporation that has the financial means to not only keep Willy’s Candy Company afloat but also to expand its’ geographical borders and open a new market for them.

The CFO, Swifty Miller agrees that there needs to be a change in the company’s...