Strategic Plan: Combining Papers (week 2, week 3, and week 4 papers are attached)   The final individual assignment requires the merging of all your already delivered papers (without their individua

Strategic Plan Part I: Proposal of New Division

Deidra Daniel

University of Phoenix

June 18, 2018

Strategic Plan Part I: Proposal of New Division

Companies form multiple new divisions in order to market different products and services. Whereas some business organizations and or corporations create new divisions due to geographic location, types of products and services they are dealing with, and market demographics, majority create autonomous business divisions with an aim to have a competitive advantage over their rivals. As Keefer notes, adding a separate division in an existing company allows an enterprise to grow without significantly having to transform its existing corporate structure (2018). Sweet Beverages Limited is a soft drink company whose contribution to environmental conservation in the past has not been substantial. As a result, the company has experienced decline in the beverage industry especially with the entry of competitors who are keen on maintaining a clean environment. In this respect, SB needs to form a new division in order to reshape its approach to package its beverage products. The goal of the new division is to help the company to collect and recycle 100 percent of all of its packaging by 2025. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new division for the SB Ltd and explain the significance of the division’s environmental-oriented vision, mission and values while determining the business model for the new section.

The new division at the Sweet Beverages Ltd should be known as the Waste Free Planet and is intended to spearhead an organizational effort to ensure a clean environment, a world free from waste. Most company’s in the soft drink business use plastic containers to package their soft drink products (Hopewell, Dvorak, & Kosior, 2009). This means, the environment is bound to be affected particularly when customers dispose the cans haphazardly after drinking their favorite contents. Evidently, a sizeable number of people care less about their surroundings and will often clutter the environment with waste even when clear disposal measures have been put in place by the local authorities (Ferreira, Cabral, da Cruz, Simoes, & Margues, 2016). Such people are valuable customers for the SB and it is upon the company to come up with a strategy to help them rid their surroundings off waste. Besides, the fact that the environment in most parts of the world is cluttered with used SB-branded plastic packaging cans has enormously affected the company thus decreasing sales over the time. This is because SB is viewed as an environmentally insensitive beverage dealer.

As mentioned above, the mission of the Waste Free Planet section, thus, should be to drive an effort to ensure a clean environment and a waste-free world in general. The service for the WFP subdivision of the wider SB Company is waste recycling. Specifically, the department should encourage its customers to drop used cans in SB-branded waste collection bins placed in strategic points in various urban centers across the world. The division will, then, collect and ferry the plastic cans to the company’s manufacturing sites for recycling and packaging. The recycled packaging service will be one of its kind in the SB business. It is worth of note that such should begin with the understanding that beverage as well as food containers are an essential part of people’s contemporary living (Aamio & Hamalaien, 2008). Nevertheless, something ought to be done so that packaging waste can be reduced on a global scale (Business Wire, 2018). One of the SB’s most worthy competitors, the Coca-Cola, has already started a similar program to reduce waste (Business Wire, 2018). In this respect, SB should also recognize that the world has packaging challenges and every firm has a responsibility to help in finding innovative solutions for the problems such as the environmental one. WFP is therefore an innovative customer-focused division that will help the SB to play such a role efficiently.

As mentioned earlier, companies form new divisions in order to have competitive advantage. For any company desiring to get a competitive edge in the market, it must ensure that it has satisfactorily addressed customer needs. The WFP division ought to aim at the same thing. Basically, cans and or bottles, whether plastic or glass, should not harm the planet. Beverage consumers around the world care more about the planet and that is one of the needs that business companies ought to acknowledge and meet (Ferreira et al, 2016). In this regard, the WFT section intends to demonstrate to the consumers that Sweet Beverages also cares for the planet, specifically their (customers) environment. The division will achieve this goal by demonstrating to the consumers that a litter-free planet is possible in line with their expectations (Business Wire, 2018). Another customer need that matches with the WFP’s core objective is related to health and wellbeing. Many people expect to buy and consume beverages and food in a serene environment. This is in recognition that contaminated settings pose health risks to individuals particularly when they take their drinks or food in them. By recycling packaging containers, the WFP division will have provided a serene environment for its consumers to buy and drink, freely, the SB’s products anywhere without the fear of health risks.

Encouraging consumers on the need to recycle packaging will not only meet consumer needs but also help the company to achieve competitive advantage (Hopewell et al, 2009). As usual, not many companies have invested in recycled packaging. Bearing in mind many soft drink enterprises have not embraced such a sustainable method of packaging their products, the SB will have an added advantage in the market. Foremost, it is important to note that recycled packaging is cheaper than making new packaging containers (Hopewell et al, 2009). This means, the company will maximize on profits unlike its competitors who will still be manufacturing new packaging containers for their products. Cheaper recycled packaging will translate in reduced prices on the Sweet Beverages products. In consequence, this will attract more customers towards the company due to the discounted prices. As the demand for affordable and quality beverages packaged in better built recycled cans soars, the SB Company will make more sales and rake in profits than majority of its competitors in the market.

The division’s overall vision is to invest in packaging as well as in the planet. By investing in recycled packaging, the company will aim to achieve its packaging goal which is to collect and recycle 100 percent of its recyclable containers by 2025. Evidently, the company will develop better and attractive bottles, either by recycling or through plant-based resin (Hopewell et al, 2009). In the end, the SB Company will, by 2025, set a new world standard for beverage packaging since most of its packaging containers are recyclable. Meanwhile, the SB’s effort to invest in the planet will guarantee a safe and liter-free planet. Specifically, the soft drink maker should invest both resources and skills towards the 100 percent collection and recycling target. Specifically, money and expertise in marketing will be needed to aid consumers in understanding what is to be recycled, how and where to do it (Business Wire, 2018). The WFP section must support collection of cans for recycling throughout the industry. This is to say, even packaging for the SB’s competitors should be collected and recycled.

The Sweet Beverages’ Waste Free Planet division will be a major step for the company’s overall efforts in environmental sustainability. Actually, this initiative aligns not only with the SB’s business mission but also its sustainability concerns. The company aims to serve its customers in an exceptional way, meeting their beverage-drinking needs always and anywhere throughout the world. Ecologically, the SB purposes to create a clean environmental that ensures all people, both loyal and potential customers, lead healthy lives, their localities notwithstanding. Similarly, the WFP business objective is to serve SB’s customers and meet their daily soft drink needs in a sustainable way. Already, the company has achieved most of its sustainable goals and objectives. For instance, the SB has accomplished and long surpassed its water replenishment objectives ahead of time. Recycled packaging will add on to the company’s wider strategy to expand by playing a significant role in ensuring the planet is clean.

Summing up, the Sweet Beverages Ltd must work with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure the success of the Waste Free Planet’s tasks. Nonetheless, it is the division itself that ought to be at the forefront in ensuring its mission as well as its vision and values are in the context of culture, social corporate responsibility and ethics within the communities where the company conducts its business operations. Obviously, the division must work with the local communities and involve them fully in every bit of the program. That way the WFP department will be in a position to learn about communities’ cultures and practices and align its responsibilities with them. Besides, the new section must work closely with partners, customers and other stakeholders in order to address and promote CSR and uphold ethical principles in its business obligations.

References

Aamio, T., & Hamalainen, A. (2008). Challenges in packaging waste management in the fast food industry. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 52(4), 612-621.

Business Wire. (2018). The Coca-Cola company announces new global vision to help create a world without waste. Retrieved from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180119005104/en/Coca-Cola-Company- Announces-New-Global-Vision-Create

Ferreira, S., Cabral, M., da Cruz, N. F., Simoes, P., & Marques, R. C. (2016). The costs and benefits of packaging waste management systems in Europe: The perspective of local a thorities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 60(5), 336-7.

Hopewell, J., Dvorak, R., & Kosior, E. (2009). Plastic recycling: Challenges and opportunities. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 364(1526), 2115-2126.

Keefer, A. (2018). Adding a division to a business. Retrieved from smallbusi- ness.chron.com/adding-division-business-36250.html