Mills in Order to Be

¶ … Mills

In order to be a strong leader, General Mills focused on customer satisfaction which made the company successful. Changes were incorporated, based on customer satisfaction surveys that have enabled General Mills to be leaders in the business for over 100 years. Customer satisfaction is a necessary component of any successful business and one that General Mills must need to keep going and further achieve. "General Mills is a leading producer of packaged consumer foods that operates exclusively in the consumer foods industry. The company operates in more than 100 countries. It is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and employs about 28,100 people. The company recorded revenues of $11,640 million during the fiscal year ended May 2006, an increase of 3.5% over 2005. The operating profit of the company was $1,966 million during fiscal year 2006, compared to $2,270 million in the fiscal 2005. The net profit was $1,090 million in fiscal year 2006, a decline of 12.1% over 2005" (General Mills, Inc. - SWOT Analysis). The company is always looking ahead towards the future. The inception of consumer foods has created a market for General Mills unlike any other available. Customers are looking at ways to save money and help the environment. General Mills listened and has focused many avenues on the environmental component. Safety is another feature General Mills has taken a leadership approach to and designed consumer foods with excellent ratings. Listening to the customers' requests and making changes, where appropriate, has helped the company.

Outlook

Furthermore, by benchmarking other companies Ford can improve their stock performance over the next one to three years. This will help to see how far customer satisfaction will grow over the next couple of years. Companies must research a program prior to implementation to ensure it will be successful and to determine any potential failures. Companies realize a successful process at another company does not guarantee the program will work in every business model. Research is a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories or applications. Benchmarking is a way to compare how one company does business to another in the same industry. Benchmarking occurs when a company wishes to develop new plans and ideas and wishes to see how other like companies has been successful. Benchmarking requires many hours of research to determine the risks associated with implementing the processes. Benchmarking removes the stigma of "it has always been done this way" and allows for a variation to problem solving. It utilizes a review of best practices and though costly, the benefits will outweigh the costs. By utilizing benchmarking practices, companies can implement new and improved business practices and develop plans which will help them succeed.

General Mills ranks as the fourth most reputable company in the United States -- and the 11th most reputable company in the world -- in 2008 reputation research published by Forbes. For the global rating of the "world's most reputable companies," more than 1,000 companies in 27 countries were evaluated based on what the Reputation Institute, Forbes' research partner, calls the seven dimensions of reputation: products and services, innovation, workplace, citizenship, governance, leadership and performance (Forbes places General Mills in top tier of 'world's most respected companies 2010).

SWOT Analysis

With that, some strengths and weaknesses of General Mills are the following from a SWOT analysis due to customer satisfaction.

Strengths

The net income was thirty percent higher in 2003 than previous years since it became seventy hundred sixty million

General Mills is one of the largest consumer foods companies in America in today's modern society

The company has a strong name brand

Consumer food is the biggest revenue that the company had to date

The company has a good marketing strategy by having events, direct mail with customers while advertising world wide

Weaknesses

Prices are high

Hard to obtain shares in European countries

General Mills has not been able to get into the market in India, which one of the biggest markets

Required production is not being met on schedule, analyzing future for the company

Strength/Opportunity

Strength/Threat Weakness/Opportunity

Weakness/Threat

SO Strategy

ST Strategy

WO Strategy

WT Strategy

Expand production to countries

Increase strength in name brand

Improve employee relations

Expand production in Canada

Market to younger customers

With the above SWOT analysis, it is apparent that General Mills's Value Proposition is about customer intimacy because they feel customers come first. General Mills knows their customers want something more than the normal merchandise. This is why they want to expand production in other countries in order to reach a broader audience. Therefore, they came up with a product strategy that will reach out to customers that are looking for General Mills products.

Conclusion