Kudler Functional Area Relationships: Kudler Fine Foods

KUDLER

Functional Area Relationships: Kudler

Kudler Fine Foods

Mission, vision, values, and goals

Kudler Fine Foods has made a commitment to providing healthy products to its customers like fresh produce -- and fine, gourmet items as well. These products may span from the freshest cauliflower to imported cheeses. It is not an ostentatiously 'healthy' company with an organic mission, but it strives to offer customers who are concerned and interested in what they put on their table the products they want.

The company began as the brainchild of California entrepreneur Kathy Kudler as a single gourmet food shop that offered fresh ingredients and tools for the serious gourmet cook. Because of its climate and culture, California is often on the cutting edge of food trends in the United States. Kudler's vision was to offer one-stop shopping for produce, meats, cheeses, and wines, along with other products used and beloved by cooking enthusiasts. While not an explicitly 'organic' food store like Whole Foods, Kudler does stress the 'fresh' aspect of its offerings. It has an upwardly-mobile client base because this demographic has the time and money to be interested in food preparation.

Currently, the store has three locations: the original one in La Jolla, California, and the other branches in Del Mar and Encinitas. In all three stores, Kudler promotes both its high quality as well as its relatively low prices, given its wide range of gourmet offerings, suggesting that it is attempting to cast a wider net, in terms of the types of patrons it wishes to solicit. Additionally, given that customers may cut back on foods when the economy is uncertain, advertising reasonable prices as well as premium quality, and diversity as well as exclusivity in its product offerings is part of its overall marketing strategy.

Reason for the type of organizational structure employed by the organization: Key positions that support that organizational structure

Kudler currently has a relatively centralized organizational structure, given that it is based in a fairly concentrated regional area. Each store has a different manager, but the founder is still the 'brainchild' of the company and manages overall operations. Different departments manage specific areas, such as finance, human resources, and operations. Unlike a large, multinational company, each individual store does not have individual departments handling these concerns, although there are individual managers that deal with store and customer-specific issues in these various locations.

Kudler is still a small, emerging operation. Having additional functionaries assume control of these operations at a storewide level would be too unwieldy, and might even create dissent and disagreement between the organizational players. However, because every store has a different character because of its unique location and need to suit the specific, regional demographic, there is still the ability to manage the inventory of particular locations and respond to micro shifts in customer demand. For example, in one location there might be a higher demand for Mexican specialty goods, while in a different area there may be greater demand for imported cheeses or organic vegetables. The organizational structure enables Kudler to remain flexible, when needed.

Steps of the collaboration process among the functional areas that must be employed to achieve organizational goals

First and foremost, the vision of any company begins with its founder. CEO Kudler must create a company-wide vision for her organization. She must then consult with members of her management, marketing, advertising, and financial staff to create a 'branding' strategy that is financially feasible within the current market environment and distinguishes Kudler from its competitors.

Kudler might initially want to promote the international product line but it might be determined that there is insufficient demand for this particular base, because of a souring economy. Conversely, Kudler might want to promote the store's vegetarian, healthy, and local, fresh produce and grass-fed meats, but there may not be enough demand for such products, in terms of what customers really buy, to emphasize these exclusively. Kudler must craft an image for itself to distinguish its brand from its competitors (it is more international than Whole Foods, more up-market than Trader Joe's yet more affordable than Whole Foods) and establish its unique market 'niche' so that people will have a reason to select Kudler over other stores.

Once the overall store branding is achieved, then specific arrangements must be made with suppliers and shippers, to maximize value down the organizational supply chain. As the store begins to sell its products to the public, inventory, the demographics of the average customer and buying habits must all be monitored. Using shopper 'value cards,' whereby consumers swipe a card for discounts, while the store learns about their demographic profile and buying habits is a common way of determining who demands what and when.

Lateral collaboration and vertical collaboration

Vertical collaboration takes place between members of different levels of the organizational hierarchy. This type of collaboration can be especially valuable in a service-based organization like Kudler Fine Foods, given that lower-level employees can offer profound insights about customer buying patterns and desires. An important element of any action plan for Kudler should involve soliciting more suggestions from all employees, to improve customer's experiences. Also, employees often are ahead of standard polling in terms of observing how customers relate to the product, and what customers are lacking in terms of their experience. Simply because an employee is not a manager does not mean that he or she cannot help shape the successful development of the brand. Managers must also ensure that employees are rewarded in a manner that keeps them happy, and happy employees foster a high level of quality in terms of the customer experience.

Horizontal collaboration, in contrast, involves collaboration between organizational players of equal power. For example, the marketing department might collaborate with the IT department, to determine if IT can find a way to track consumer buying habits more effectively, to see what promotions generate more traffic. IT may work with members of operations to ensure that inventory is kept as low as possible to reduce spoilage, given that one of the most difficult aspects of the grocery industry is the fact that unsold merchandise cannot be sold, even at a steep discount, past a certain date.