Mmpbl 550 - Best Snacks Problem Solution

Best Snacks Problem Solution

MMPBL/550

June 4, 2011

Best Snacks Problem Solution

Best Snacks, Inc. has been the reigning industry leader for over 100 years. The snack food industry has become increasingly competitive, and over the past few years Best Snacks has been faced with a decline in sales, profitability, and market share. Best Snacks has since fallen from the snack food industry pedestal. A new CEO has taken seat of Best Snack, Inc.; Elizabeth Fairchild takes her place with the organization with a new vision of change in creativity and innovation design. Fairchild has identified several issues which must be addressed in order to drive Best Snacks to success once again.

Innovation is not an overnight occurrence, as it must be initiated, encouraged and fostered within an organization. Best Snacks has encountered complacency and loss in motivation and creativity. The following content will identify issues within the organization and provide opportunities and solutions which will change the current culture to a creative and healthy culture.

Describe the Situation

Issue and Opportunity Identification

The snack food industry is ever changing and evolving and Best Snacks has slowly begun to lose competitive edge due to lack in innovation and creativity. This organization had enjoyed success for such a long period of time, now the previous innovations, management practices, and culture is no longer effective and there is a need for rapid change. Best Snacks has seen a decline in revenue and profitability. There is a need to redefine mission and vision in regard to its products and build an effective innovation system which is aligned with the new organizational goals. Best Snacks has lost its drive, lost excitement and commitment necessary to move forward with continued success.

Stakeholder Perspectives and Ethical Dilemmas

Investors could lose faith in an organization, even with the tenure and success Best Snacks has had. Investors have one interest, the bottom line, and with this being said, there is no resolve in changing the ethical dilemma shown in Table 2. Leadership teams value the health of an organization as well as complying with the needs of the investor. Although, any ethical dilemma are addressed and resolved, as there is a start of a mutual respect for the staff, trust for leadership, this creating a trickling effect to effective communication, reward systems, performance management, and continued learning

Frame the Right Problem

Best Snacks, Inc. will once again hold of the competitive edge by inspiring all stakeholders to become a learning organization. By becoming a learning organization, all stakeholders will adapt to the ever changing industry environment. Empowering staff to openly innovate and generate creativity will allow for the changes needed to reach the desired success.

Describe the End-State Vision

A new vision of creativity and encouragement will be implemented, all teams will work cohesively, a culture of continued learning will be instilled, commitment and accountability will enable Best Snacks to be a healthy internal organization driven by passion and commitment, striving to better the organization each and every day.

Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation

During the benchmarking exercise, IBM was identified as a relevant example of a successful innovative organization. As stated in the Generic Benchmarking Worksheet "IBM believes that the mastery of innovation is vital to an organization's long-term well-being. For employee Incentives and Metrics--Recognizing talent and an ability to measure the entire creative process are key differentiating capabilities of innovative organizations within IBM. Source: Innovation: Putting Ideas into Action IBM Case Study, 2006, p91-119, 29p" Best Snacks internal stakeholders have become too comfortable, lost desire to be innovative, leadership has failed to support the culture, there are no risks taken. Innovations have not changed for many years and the organization is suffering for it.

A climate assessment will open the forum for honest feedback on leadership technique, the need for change, thoughts on the decline in revenue, and feedback to detect resistance to change (if any). Leadership is an essential piece of a creative culture. Training will be necessary to refresh and instill these goals and implement the initiative effectively. Leadership will need to encourage, foster, lead by example, and support the new changes in culture.

Evaluate the Alternatives

In ranking specific goals, generating a creative climate was ranked a five for level of importance. This is the most important of goals, as the culture of an organization sets the tone for progress and innovation. The new climate will create cohesive teams whom will work together can break through barriers, new views and ideas are brought to the surface, passion will be the driving force behind Best Snacks. Also ranking five was implementing performance management. Employees are one of the lifelines of an organization, without employee engagement and commitment and employee will not perform to their highest potential. A strong performance management system includes effective performance reviews, training and coaching, development plans, succession plans, and reward system. Without an effective performance system, the generation of a creative climate may not remain successful.

Narrowed List of Alternatives

Assess the current culture with staff and management feedback is first on the list of alternatives. Assessment will be completed by survey, face to face interaction, and open forum. The feedback allows for a "snap shot" per say of the overall feel of the situation at hand. In this case, the situation is the current culture, the employees feel of the decline in sales, loss in productivity, lack of creativity and risk taking, the understanding of the mission and new goals, and feedback of how the organization can grow and succeed. With this feedback, it will allow for development of an effective strategy.

Second alternative is noted as producing a financial analysis to determine available resources for new initiatives. Rational for this alternative is that any initiative may incur cost. In the case of Best Snacks, cost will be seen in communication mediums to share the new goals and vision of the organization, marketing initiatives, leadership training,