Problem Statement and Ends Vision

The first part of this assignment was identifying issues within the virtual organization of Kudler Fine Foods (KFF), a gourmet shop in La Jolla, established by Kathy Kudler in 1998 that became very successful enabling the opening of two more stores in Del Mar 2000 and Encinita 2003 still within the San Diego area. KFF hopes to expand to other geographical areas. The second part of the assignment is the creation of a problem statement and subsequent end vision by KFF management addressing and dealing with the identified issues in a satisfactory, timely and effective manner. The following are some of the issues identified:

1. Kathy does not delegate responsibilities although she has store managers she “hires new people, fires those not working out, finalizes the inventory numbers, places the weekly orders and controls the finance” University of Phoenix (UOP), 2003, p12. She has not trained her managers in any of the roles she performs.

2. KKF lacks an automated system for sales, orders, inventories, time keeping, payroll and accounting.

3. Del Mar failed probably due to its location within a population of only 4389. Marketing research was lacking in deciding this location.

4. KKF need to entice customers who shop at Jonathan’s market (JM) in La Jolla and realize JM as competition for both the La Jolla and Del Mar store. Kitchen Witch (KW) in Encinitas, sells a wider range of cooking utensils, holds cooking classes and has an e-commercial site making it a competition for all KFF stores.

5. KFF needs to embrace opportunities for expanding cooking classes, online and catering business. Catering not only provide 25% better profit margins than stores profit margins but it also presents unique opportunity for advertising as per UOP, 2003, p15 “... some of the attendees of the catered events have been coming into the stores as well.” KFF does not advertise in the San Diego area telephone directory, which could mean lost business for customers travelling to...