Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business

Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business

Carolina Mendoza

BUS/475 Integrated Business

June 5, 2012

Michael Kinnen

Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business

A strategic plan is the process of developing strategies to give businesses a general direction. The majority of leading businesses understand the importance of strategic planning. Strategic planning is vital to any organizations competitive advantage and future success.

In this first phase of the strategic plan I, will explain the importance of my business’s vision, mission, and values in shaping the business strategic direction. Will develop a mission statement stating the product and create a vision which will clearly demonstrate the direction of the business. As a final point I will define the values taking into consideration culture, social responsibility, and ethics.

350 degrees bakery is located on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, a bakery with a well-built community participation who provides customers with the highest quality in various delicious cakes and cupcakes which are accompany with fresh juices, great imported coffee and espresso beverages. Also 350 degrees sells a variety of merchandise chapped of cupcakes and cakes or with cupcakes and cakes images on it.

350 degrees bakery is an equally owned and managed by its two partners, Marco and Carolina Mendoza. Together Carolina and Marco started their business from home as their satisfied customers demanded more and more of their delicious custom cakes and cupcakes they decided to meet their customers’ needs. On January 2012, 350 degrees opened its doors to supply its customers with a great experience and high quality cakes, cupcakes drinks and merchandise.

350 degrees has six employees who are passionate about our high values and our promise to keep all our customers happy and exceed customer expectations, as a result acquire greater customer loyalty. Here at 350 degrees we believe it is very important to treat every person; customers, employees, suppliers and vendors with respect, honesty and politeness.

At 350 degrees customers will find cakes and cupcakes which are made by hand from scratch with the highest quality ingredients. We have various cake and cupcake flavors such as one of our most popular pineapple, carrot, tres leches, double chocolate and more chocolate, red velvet, regular white and pink champagne. We offer various delicious frosting flavors which may include fresh fruits such as: strawberry, pineapple, raspberry, peaches, lemon and banana. We also have the old-fashioned frosting make with confections sugar, butter and milk which is completely delicious. If you don’t like icing and would like instead fondant, our cake and cupcake fondant is made from scratch only at 350 degrees this gives a competitive advantage to other bakery because most bakery buy their fondant and it not as tasty as ours. We have cakes and cupcakes for all occasions including Birthdays, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, graduations or any special occasion.

At 350 degrees you can also enjoy various fresh juices such as the fresh daily squeezed orange or carrot juice. Our coffee and espresso beverages are made from imported beans from Brazil which can be enjoyed cold or hot.

350 degrees also has a section full of various merchandise such as aprons, kitchen towels, mats, table runners, rings, necklaces and earrings chapped or with images of cakes or cupcakes on it. When we first opened we were a bit concern about selling the merchandise but so far it has been a success. As bakeries become more popular as a result of televisions programs such as the Cake Boss and Cupcake Wars our 350 degrees bakery continues on attracting new cake and cupcakes fans which not only want to enjoy cakes or cupcake but also will like to buy the cute merchandise we offer. The merchandise has also gave us a competitive advantage over other bakeries.

Mission statement – it is the vision of 350 degrees bakery to provide the community from the City of Pasadena, California and neighbors with high quality, stunning delicious cakes and cupcakes to be enjoyed with fresh juices, delicious hot or cold coffee and espresso beverages. We strive to provide our customers with constant and delicious cakes and cupcakes by providing customers with outstanding professional customer service. Employees are the heart of the success of any business therefore our employees are treated with the maximum respect and pride.

We are a business who is conscious of the social and environmental impacts we have. 350 degrees reminds you to always look for the sweet side of life.

350 degrees bakery is about more than just baking beautiful delicious cakes and cakes. We created encouraging values such as building and maintaining relationships based on trust, respect, and a collaborative approach to place the fundamentals for the future. We make every effort to be a superior role model, as a business and bakery. The establishment on which our company is based is the belief that we should be a business who cares about the people, the environment and the world. 350 degrees bakery takes its social responsibility extremely seriously and enthusiastically works to make certain constructive and sustainable environmental and social improvement. We want all customer, employee, suppliers and vendors to take on board the values we build collectively. Our goal is to always operate in a socially responsible way, so that our Pasadena citizen and their children and their children’s children, can delight themselves with delicious cakes and cupcakes for future years. Because as everybody knows, we build our own future with our actions today, this is why it’s essential that each and every one make social responsibilities one of their main priorities.

Consistent with our mission and values, it is important for all employees to be fully aware of the rules, which govern our conduct and behavior. In order to work as a team and maintain in order, productive and positive working environment everyone must conform to standards of reasonable conduct and policies of the bakery. An employee at 350 degree Bakery who is involved in any of the following conduct may result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination without a written warning: Invalid work authorization, providing bogus or misleading information to the bakery, as well as information at the time of application for employment, leave of absence or sick pay, not showing up for a shift without notifying your manager, use of bad and disrespectful language, disorderly or indecent conduct, theft of customer, employee or any bakery property including items found in the bakery premises and engaging in harassment of any kind toward another employee or customer.

At 350 degrees bakery our vision, mission, and values will guide our business strategic direction. We will strive to grow keeping in mind the evolutions that take place in our culture and will promise to be social responsible. “There is one and only one social responsibility of business- to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say engage in free and open competition, without deception or fraud” (Thompson, Gamble, & Strickland, 2005). As the world evolves and 350 degrees bakery grows we will adjust and incorporate new strategies to our strategic plan as needed for our business to succeed.

Reference

Thompson, A. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland, A. J. (2005). Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace: Core Concepts, Analytical Tools, Cases (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.