A Marketing View on Two Top Strategic Objectives in the Portable Electric Power Tools (PEPT)

Able Corporation is an old family owned American Manufacturer of a full range of portable electric power tools (PEPT). Over the past couple of years, there has been virtually no investment in Able Corporation, which makes many of their products lines out and outdated and under the current operations, they are inefficient and costly.

As the new Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis my top two priorities over the next year will be to 1. Analyze current operations, location and manufacturing process and 2. Ensure proper funds are put into research and development.

1. In order to minimize operating costs we will consider several different factors. First, how we are purchasing raw materials and look into a Just in Time inventory control system. We will also need to consider our work in process stations, and address any staffing issues that can occur from products either sitting around waiting on staffing or staffing waiting on additional parts and/or raw materials to keep the process going. A quality control system will need to be developed to minimize product waste due to malfunctions or product returns.

2. The development of new and improved product lines along with the raise in technology of the battery life, we will need to invest in research and development of these products. As the technology of power tools continues to grow and change, especially in the cordless power tool market, we can expect the market to be unstable and will need to grow and adapt as a corporation to these changes. Able Corporation must rapidly adept to these changes in the market. Another issue that Able Corporation must concern themselves with is the growth of large retailers that offer both industrial and consumer power tools to the masses. Having these large retailers with established distribution channels to keep the cost of professional power tools down to the everyday consumers will allow for the consumer market to grow into more professional type power tools. The industrial channels are declining at a rate of 5% per year where as the consumer channels are experiencing tremendous grown at a rate of 20% per year. In order to implement our strategic objectives we will need to be sure that company resources are set aside to include proper research and development and design for the cordless power tool market. Considering that the cordless power drill segment is the faster growing at a rate of 10% versus only a 3% growth rate for the corded power tool market. Furthermore, as the battery technology becomes more efficient and smaller we can continue to improve the design of our cordless power tools.

During the continuing process of strategic management process, we will need to isolate each step individually in order to study the effectiveness of the process. It will be an ongoing process whereby we have the formulation, implementation and evaluation. It will be a constant growing evolution process to ensure the future of Able Corporation.

References:

Coulter M.K., (2005) Strategic Management - In Action, Third Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., Pearson Pretense Hall.

CTU, Phase 1 Business Strategy, http://www.campus.ctuonline.edu