Paper

RUNNING HEAD: PERDUE INCORPORATED

Management

Kathi Martinez

MGT/521

March 17, 2014

Kevin Wihelmsen

Running Head: Perdue Incorporated

Perdue Incorporated

Perdue Inc. was founded in 1920 by Arthur W. Perdue (Perdue, 2014), and its main focus has always been on quality. Arthur saw this early on in his career so he bought Leghorn breeding stock form a Texas supplier and mixed in his own breed. He realized in 1940 that selling the chicken, as opposed to the eggs, would bring in more profits (Perdue, 2014). His son, Frank, took over leadership in 1950 and introduced the process of vertical integration. In 1968 Perdue purchased its first processing plant and continued on its success in the 1970’s with branding its product to distinguish itself over the competition. Quality was of extreme important to Perdue, which was shown through its decision to use selective breeding and refusal to ship products frozen. Product offerings were expanded to turkey and fully cooked chicken in the 1980’s and international distribution began in the 1990’s (Southern United States Trade Association, 2011). Throughout the 1990’s Perdue built a state-of-the-art information system and continued building distribution centers. During it’s almost 100 years of operations, Perdue Inc. has devised and achieved both strategic and operational goals that have allowed them to continue their success in the marketplace.

Operational Goals/Plans:

According to Business Dictionary.com (2014), an operational plan is, “a short-term, highly detailed plan formulated by management to achieve tactical objectives” (Operational Plan). Based on the SWOT analysis conducted for Perdue Incorporated, an operational plan that can be devised is to expand operations internationally. Currently Perdue is exporting products to over 70 countries across all channels: retail, food service, institutional and wholesale products (Southern United States Trade Association, 2011). Perdue can look to expand its...