Strengths and weaknesses of food and beverage company Kraft Foods

Strengths and weaknesses of food and beverage company Kraft Foods INTRODUCTION Kraft Foods Inc. is the largest foods and beverage company in US and the world second largest industry which is after Nestle. Kraft had been offered consumers delicious and wholesome foods for more than 100 years. Kraft Foods headquarter is in North America. Kraft Foods has many of the best-known brands in the world with operations in 72 countries and sales in 155 countries. Kraft Foods has 140,000 diverse employees around the world and this is one of the reasons why they can succeed. Kraft Foods Inc. is a company which has different roots and founders. The three most successful food entrepreneurs are J.L. Kraft, who started his Chinese business in 1930; C.W. Post, who founded Postum Cereal Company in 1895; and Oscar Mayer, who began his meat business in 1883. Kraft Foods Malaysia was established in the year of 1959 in Malaysia and started with Tyre Hong Biscuit and Confectionary factory. Kraft Foods manufacturing in Malaysia and the factories located at Johor Bahru and Penang. VISION, MISSION AND GOAL Krafts company vision is to lend a helping hand to the people all around the world in order to have a better life and a healthy life-style. Krafts vision is satisfy consumer needs and making healthier foods. Kraft deliver the message to the customers that they concern about the health and wellness of everyone and wanted to provide high quality food and services. Kraft mission is to remain successful in the long-run. Constantly re-strategize the products categories to satisfy the needs of consumers is necessary for Kraft to operate in the future. Seize the opportunity to exploit sales capabilities by coming up with different marketng strategies Krafts corporate goals is to ensure that the products are innovative, high-quality, safe to consume, respectful to environmental needs, and the openness and integrity which seek to commit to the consumers TYPE OF PRODUCT Krafts products are divided into five categories which are grocery, beverages, cheese dairy, snacks cereals, and convenient meals. The well known brands that Kraft have in Malaysia includes Oreo, Jacobs, Chipsmore, Twisties and so on. MARKET SEGMENTATION Every consumer might have different taste and preferences. Hence, using a same marketing segmentation, which is also known as mass marketing by offering a single marketing mix to all consumers are not able to fulfill the needs and wants of all customers. In addition, the global market are becoming competitive and high customers requirements which is very dificult to satisfy. Therefore, Krafts seperate the operation in two main segments: Kraft North America Commercial and Kraft International Commercial. Besides, Kraft target to the customer who concern with their health and wellness. For example, most of the teenagers do not meet the recommended daily intake for calcium. Kraft then shift out the not-so-healthy snacks advertisement such as Oreo cookies and change to the products which meet new nutritional criteria. Kraft will also add the Sensible Solution label on products in order to transfer the message to all parents that the goods are meeting the nutrition criteria and save to consume. Kraft also doubled the calcium in traditional favourites such as Kraft Singles and Kraft Macaroni Cheese. Krafts business was launched internationally and realised that the consumer behaviour are depends on the local eating and social behaviour due to the particular countrys cultures, practices and traditions. Thus, Kraft always shown respect for different cultures, for example, selling HALAL food in Muslim Countries. Furthermore, in the nuts business, Kraft have more of a skew towards men versus other brands that may have more of a skew toward women. Kraft spend a lot of time to understand all the consumers attitudes, beliefs, etc. For example, Kraft focus on the Hispanic consumer as one of the core consumers of the brands. Hispanic consumer preference the brands like Oreo and Chips Ahoy. Kraft marketing will be customized around the insights for the different consumers. STRENGTHS Kraft is a multinational company and having the capability to attract consumer all over the world compare to the local companies. Besides of high market share and financial power, Kraft also has greater financial capability in altering existing products in terms of packaging, the formula of the particular product and others or creating new products, as well as to adapt or upgrade latest information system technology in manufacturing, order processing and other related fields in order to sustain their competitive advantage by delivering lower cost of goods and services than their competitors in this dynamic environment. Secondly, Kraft has an effective strategic marketing capability. For example, Kraft products such as Oreo cookies have built a strong and stable patent in many countries. Although Oreo has many competitors such as Cream-O, whereas the strong advertisements have indoctrinated most of the people that Krafts Oreo is the products of origin. Kraft iconic heritage brands are loved by the consumers worldwide. Around 80 percent of these heritage brands holding number one or two positions in the respective categories and are household names. Besides, Kraft also has great leadership attributes. The management team such as the top executives, branch managers, and others are responsible for the day-to-day operations and success of the company. The management group has extensive food industry experience and management depth. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Kraft Food company faces serious problem in the production sector. Kraft is not able to control the supply of the production. This is due to a sudden and unexpected increased in demand, which will cause extreme supply shortages for commodities that will result in major price increases. For instance, bad weather and natural disasters have always been an issue affecting incoming raw materials. The main problem is the shortage of raw material, Cocoa. Cocoa is a major ingredient for Kraft. Cocoa always used in the production of chocolates, cookies, desserts and others. Because of the importantly of cocoa, therefore, consistency of supply, in terms of price, quality and volume is the main consideration for Kraft. Kraft wants to improve the welfare of cocoa farmers and farm communities in order to maintain the long-term stability of the cocoa supply chain. West Africa is the country that produces seventy percent of cocoa among the world. Unfortunately, farmers face many challenges because of poverty. They do not have adequate infrastructure, lack of the educational opportunities and have only little investment in cocoa farming. These challenges are so complex, requiring the coordinated effort from the local government, industry and other organizations. In addition, this will cause Kraft to encounter a great loss due to the inaccuracy of supply because the farmers could not produce the actual quality and quantity of cocoa. In orders to resolve this problem, Kraft Foods is working as part of the coordinated effort to help to maintain the supply of cocoa. Kraft believes that to improve farmers income can solve these problems and also promoting efficiency effectiveness in the supply chain, quality and productivity. Kraft also works with the non-governmental organizations and industry partners in order to help cocoa farmers and their families. Krafts reaching out to governments and supports the programs that giving education to farmers and promote responsible farm practices. Kraft primary focus is in West Africa, while Kraft also is a member of cocoa sustainability programs in Latin America. Kraft wanted to empower cocoa farmers, their families and communities in order to build better lives for themselves while this can make sure that Kraft is able to maintain an adequate supply of quality cocoa for the generations to come. RECOMMENDATIONS There are some suggestion which can be considered by Kraft to solve the problem of inconsistency and shortage of raw materials. Firstly, Kraft can increase the safety stock level. Safety stock is the quantity of stock which can be used to satisfy unexpectedly high requirements in the stock out period. The purpose of the safety stock is to prevent the occurred of material shortage whereas usually will not be used in production. Therefore, Kraft might need to increase the safety stock in order to avoid the risk of shortage or back order which may incur higher costs. Safety stock can also help to lower down the customer turnover rate. In order to determine the accurate safety stock level, Krafts manufacturing department can implement the Manufacturing Require Planning II (MRP-II) system. MRP-II is an integrated information system used by businesses to centralize, integrate and process information for effective decision making. The function of MRP-II includes business planning, productio n planning and scheduling, order processing, and performance measurement and so on. With the help of MRP-II, Kraft can improve the production process by reduced the inventory level, improved the used of manufacturing facilities, response faster in changing conditions and so on. This will increase the competitive advantage of Kraft to compete with the competitor. Besides, Kraft can engage with multiple suppliers or dealers in particular region, so they could acquire inventories from multiple dealers, which will definitely decrease the risk of shortage due to incontrollable situation. Other than that, mutual trust and strong relationship with all the dealers are needed in order to increase the flexibility of material supply management, as well as to enhance the bargaining power of Kraft. Lastly, Kraft should also refer to the demand and purchase planning on last couple of years of sales to forecast current year of demand and supply. CONCLUSION Contributing towards a better and healthier society are the cocernstone of Kraft Foods business values and philosophy. In addition, Kraft also study about the consumers needs from time to time and satisfy the consumers as much as possible. Krafts strengths such as high financial power, effective strategic marketing capability and great leadership attributes have helped them through the obstacles. In order to achieve the goal, Kraft might need to solve the problem of the production.

Peirce, Thirdness and Pedagogy :: Philosophy Education Teaching Learning Papers

Peirce, Thirdness and Pedagogy It is well known that the word pedagogy comes from the Greek paidagogos (teacher, pedagogue) which has the same root as paideia, usually translated "culture." The theme of this congress highlights the hope of many teachers of philosophy, that their teaching and writing has some impact on the culture. In this paper I want to show a connection between a Peircean understanding of persons (as interpreted by Royce) and its implications for how we go about conducting classes in philosophy. This connection is very recent with me, and it has changed my approach to teaching, especially at the "introductory" level. Our line of thought will have three major phases: 1) the Peircean understanding of persons as members of a community of interpretation; 2) its implications for a theory of pedagogy which emphasizes "induction into" more than "introduction to" the subject; and 3) the specific techniques that I have adopted in introductory classes to enact this theory of pedagogy. At the outset I should say that at least half of my teaching is at the introductory level, with classes ranging from 30 to 50 students each. It is these students, most of whom will not take any more philosophy, that I am most concerned about in this paper. How can their one exposure to academic philosophy convince them that it is a vital part of their heritage and a cultural resource that is absolutely necessary to a healthy society? Especially if a course is historically oriented, as ours is by catalogue description, it is easy for students to feel that philosophy is the irrelevant meanderings of dead white males! Good teaching can overcome this in some measure, but I believe that a Peircean understanding of persons can lead us to a theory of pedagogy that directs us towards the kind of classroom practices that will make the experience of philosophy more vital and significant for our students. I. Peirce, Thirdness, and Personhood Every philosophy of education in informed, at least implicitly, by a notion of personhood. Peirce focused more explicitly on epistemological understandings than personhood, but his epistemological writings supplied perspectives which were used by Josiah Royce in his last major work, The Problem of Christianity, to formulate a notion of the self as a member of a "community of interpretation." In his discussion of this concept, Royce was explicit about his debt to Peirce, especially Peirce’s notion of "thirdness.

Catcher in the Rye :: essays research papers

The Struggling Boy The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl. In the novel one distinctive type is the loner; the character type which Holden Caufield portrayed. Holden's loneliness and confusion puts him in a depression that he can't escape. Holden thinks to himself "It made you depressed, and every once in a while you got goose flesh. It didn't seem at all like Christmas was coming soon. It didn't seem like anything was coming."(pg.118) Another trait that was portrayed throughout the novel was peculiarity. The teenage boy Ackley who lives across the hall from Holden is very strange and has few friends. Ackley was very dirty, never brushed his teeth, and almost always stayed alone in his room. Holden says " His teeth were always mossy- looking, and he was dirty as hell, but he always had clean fingernails."(pg.22) Innocence and kindheartedness is displayed in the novel through Holden's young sister, Phoebe. Whenever Holden is depressed about being alone he thinks of memories with his younger sister Phoebe and feels completely better. Phoebe is always there for her brother to listen to his stories and complaints.

Putting an End to School Violence †Is Zero Tolerance the Solution? :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Putting an End to School Violence – Is a Zero Tolerance Policy the Solution? There are very few people today who are unaware of the violence in schools. As college students we live in a world that is desperate to find prevention methods against violence. That makes this issue important to today's college students, considering the fact that we are the generation that could have been involved and directly effected by a school shooting like Columbine. Is this how we want our school systems to be when our children enroll? A school is defined as "an institution for teaching and learning". However, today's educational institutions include punishment, violence, and misbehavior. When we find ourselves glued to the television because of another school shooting, obviously something needs to be done about violence in schools. Unfortunately, the solution causes creates more problems. Schools around the world have recently adopted revolutionary solution and prevention methods. The controversy over school violence prevention is not "yes we should or, "no we shouldn't", because you will probably be hard pressed to find someone who thinks we shouldn't get involved. The debate lies in the method we use to prevent and solve school violence. The zero tolerance policy is one suggestion to implement punishment in schools. The zero tolerance policy is strict and devises rules for students and faculty alike. It is a policy that doesn't ask questions when a rule is broken which often results in suspension and expulsion. The policy also addresses the possession of weapons, drugs, and alcohol. Many schools have adopted this policy and have observed both positive and negative results. If the zero tolerance program is installed in the educational system, schools must decide when and how it should be enforced. This is a very complex issue and when open to debate you see three approaches to it. First, advocates of zero tolerance policies concentrate on positive changes in school security, ways of punishment, and change in student behavior. Those who oppose the policies argue that zero tolerance should be eliminated due to its lack of rationale and logic. Finally, the opposing viewpoint criticizes the zero tolerance policy for being too extreme and inappropriate for schools. The first group, those who favor the policy, dwell on school improvement due to zero tolerance. One positive change is reinstated safety in schools giving students, parents, teachers, and the community a breath of relief. Advocates of this positive change believe that schools should be a place of learning without safety concerns.

Functional Life Skills Approach

1. Educating children with special and/or behavioral needs effectively demands respect for individuals and for individuality. Not all persons with special needs have the same needs. The students come from a variety of backgrounds, demonstrate a variety of talents, strengths, and weaknesses, and must be assessed and worked with on an individual basis. Children with special needs should also be educated alongside their average-needs counterparts, to the benefit of both. When children with average needs are exposed to children with special needs, an atmosphere of tolerance, awareness, and compassion will be more likely to permeate the school environment. Children with special needs also benefit from integration, except in exceptional circumstances when behavioral problems require some degree of separation. Finally, children with special needs require patience and long-term attention. Ideally, children with special needs will work with the same team of specialists for a long period of time. 2. The most important issues to keep in mind when implementing a Functional Life Skills Curriculum Approach include attention to individuality. While the program principles: communication, personal management, social skills, career skills, and applied academics remain stable, these core principles will need to be addressed differently for each child. Moreover, the children's' needs will change over time and it is important for educators to adapt and to notice when their needs or abilities are changing and adapt the curriculum accordingly. 3. Family Support is ideally integral to the educational process. However, in many cases family support is insufficient or lacking entirely. Family support offers educators a wealth of information about each child. The child's background, his or her behaviors at home, and other crucial information can be gleaned only from parents and others who spend a lot of time with the child. The home environment might also offer educators clues as to which programs, services, or practices to offer the child. 4. Outside agencies, organizations, and the private sector have an impact on special education and on the educational process in general. School funding is often inadequate to meet the needs of exceptional students. At those times, educators need to become aware of external options and introduce those to the parents and the students.

The Dictator Next Door

Eric Paul Roorda’s The Dictator Next Door is an insightful and incisive work of diplomatic history, studying the United States’ dealings from 1930 to 1945 with Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, for years a foreign policy problem unto himself. It also demonstrates how the Good Neighbor Policy, which claimed to promote solidarity and peace among western hemisphere nations, came to allow dictators in Latin America â€Å"to run their countries however they pleased, so long as they maintained common enemies with the United States: first the fascists, then the communists† (1).The book is essentially a study of how the democratic United States tolerated and even supported military dictatorships in other nations, despite some diplomats’ desire to shun dictators and promote democracy abroad. Roorda’s main argument centers on how the despotic Trujillo presented the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations with problems, because he was no pliable puppet.Difficul t to control and a frequent embarrassment to the United States, Trujillo had few friends in the State Department, but the United States military and presidents backed him because he was neither fascist nor communist, and because the Good Neighbor policy called for supporting standing rulers, regardless of their methods. Roorda traces the history of Dominican-American relations and demonstrates how American influence on the region built for years before Trujillo’s rise.A former Spanish colony, the Dominican Republic was ruled by Haiti until its independence in 1844, after which the military assumed long-lasting control and foreign powers jockeyed for influence there. The United States’ influence increased steadily between 1860 and 1904, and culminated in the United States Marine Corps’ takeover in 1915. During this period, the American military trained Dominican men to serve in its constabulary and army, thus establishing a sort of school for dictators in which R afael Trujillo was its best student.Trujillo received training from the Marine Corps and earned an Army commission during this time, despite a history of criminal activity, including rape and extortion (for which he escaped punishment), and rose to the rank of general. Not the United States’ first choice as the Dominican Republic’s leader, he rallied the army to stage a coup in 1930, three years before the Good Neighbor policy was introduced, and was helped by the Hoover administration’s nonintervention policy, which preferred commerce over militarism as a means of promoting good will.Roorda explains the process in great detail in chapter two and does not spare the American government from sharp criticism. He maintains that Hoover’s desire to redeem the United States’ image in Latin America, as well as the administration’s unwillingness to back his ambassador (who distrusted Trujillo and refused to recognize him), helped Trujillo maintain hi s control.Wary of Theodore Roosevelt’s and Woodrow Wilson’s use of â€Å"gunboat diplomacy,† the Hoover administration recognized Trujillo because he seemed likely to protect American commercial interests and it was more politically expedient to recognize de facto regimes, dictatorships or otherwise. He even states plainly that the savvy Trujillo was able to play the American legation against the American military, which trained and obviously respected Trujillo. Clearly critical of American behavior in Latin America, Roorda states that â€Å"in the history of U. S.relations with its closest neighbors . . . the rhetoric of solidarity and protection against European aggression ran counter to the brutal logic and increasing momentum of U. S. territorial expansion and imperial ambitions† (23). He deems the policy paradoxical from the outset; while it promoted friendship with Latin America (which filtered into popular culture during the 1930s and ‘40s), Latin American intellectuals were less than enthusiastic because it relied on American authority and kept authoritarian regimes in power, Trujillo’s being the most egregious.During the Depression, Trujillo consolidated his power even further despite the Dominican economy’s near-collapse, receiving additional American economic aid, mainly because of his promises to protect American business interests. However, he soon became â€Å"the greatest source of instability in U. S. -Dominican relations. . . . As U. S. officials found out, the benefits of a ‘stabilizing’ dictatorship could be canceled out by an unreliable dictator† (87).Roorda maintains that the Good Neighbor policy itself was an empty, nebulous policy created by Franklin Roosevelt, whom he characterizes as â€Å"a master of innuendo, ambiguity, paradox, and the manipulation of disparate personalities† (91). In chapter four, Roorda characterizes Trujillo as a shrewd, image-conscious ma nipulator of public opinion on a par with FDR, but with total control of an intimidating military that crushed any opposition.Trujillo flouted his authority, renaming geographical features, parks, and even the capital city for himself, surrounding his rule with public spectacle, and assuming total control of the Dominican press in order to glorify his regime and even deify himself. One telling newspaper quote deemed him â€Å"so necessary that [the people] give him permanent power† and somehow dubbed his regime â€Å"super-democracy† (95).The American government, meanwhile, was aware of Trujillo’s transgressions yet played into his hands, even assisting his censorship campaign and public-relations efforts. While the United States was not fooled, Roorda implies, it played along in an effort to heed the Good Neighbor policy’s claim to support national sovereignty and thus allowed Trujillo a free hand. The entire book centers on a single recurring theme: the folly of a democracy supporting dictators.Roorda maintains that â€Å"the reliance on dictators to attain the traditional U. S. goals of stability and cooperation in Latin America meant having to ignore those instances when the strongmen themselves incited unrest and conflict† (147). The American military is partly to blame, since it trained Trujillo and treated him as a favored protà ©gà ©, while diplomats saw through the dictator’s pageantry and disapproved of his methods (Trujillo returned their disdain).Roorda casts a good deal of the blame at the Roosevelt administration, which, in its efforts to avoid heavy-handed intervention, allowed Trujillo to remain in power because he seemed to represent stability even while disrupting Dominican-American relations (with his conduct at home and his occasional bloody attacks against neighboring Haiti). In describing American logic vis-à  -vis Trujillo, â€Å"Dominican stability made him practical to deal with,† eve n if that meant turning a blind eye to the questionable ethics of backing brutal regimes that did not threaten American dominance or prosperity.At times, he argues, this meant that Trujillo was the proverbial tail wagging the American dog, getting his way because Roosevelt lacked the will or the political clout to intervene against him. The book uses ample detail and careful research in describing the United States’ paradoxical relationship with Trujillo, relying heavily on government documents, personal papers, the contemporary press, and a large number of secondary sources.While its assertions are not groundbreaking (recent diplomatic history is harshly critical of American support for brutal dictators), it is well-written, with concise prose and well-constructed arguments, on the whole an excellent diplomatic history. For scholars seeking an explanation of American relations with Latin America, and who do not mind its sharp criticisms of American foreign policy’s et hical lapses and oversights, The Dictator Next Door is well worth one’s while.

Two- Variable Inequalities

In Elementary Algebra we have learned how to solve systems of equations. The solution to a system of linear equations is the point where the graphs of the lines intersect. The solution to a system of linear inequalities is every point in a region of the graph where the inequalities overlap, rather than the point of intersection of the lines (Slavin, 2001).This week assignment required to solve problem 68 on page 539 (Dugopolski, 2012). I will be giving a detailed presentation on math required for the solution to this problem; the accompanying graph shows all of the possibilities for the number of refrigerators and the number of TVs that will fit into an 18-wheeler. The point-slope form of a linear equation to write the equation itself can now be used. These are the steps we take to solve our linear inequality. I will start with the point-slope form. Substitute slope form with (300, 0) for the x and y. Next we are going to use the distributive property and then add 330 to both sides a nd divided both sides by -3 and cancel out like terms.The graph has a solid line rather than a dashed line indicating that points on the line itself are part of the solution set. This will be true anytime the inequality symbol has the equal to bar.a) Write an inequality to describe this region.p = y1-y2 /x1-x2 = 330 – 0 / 0-110 = -3/1 the slope is -3/1 or -3 y – y1 = p(x – x1) y– 330 = – 3 / 1(x-0) y= – 3x/1 + 330 -3x/1 +330 = y expression switch by place the y on the right hand side -3x/-3 = y/-3 – 330/ -3 divide each equation by -3 and cancel out like terms -3y = 1x + 110 -3y + 1x < 110b) Will the truck hold 71 refrigerators and 118 TVs? In this problem I will be substituting 71 where the y is for refrigerators and 118 where the x is for TVs to determine if the truck will hold them.-3 (71) + 1 (118) < 110 -213 + 118 < 110 -95 < 110 Which means that the truck will not hold 71 refrigerators and 118 TVs.c) | Will the truck hold 51 refr igerators and 176 TVs? | This problem is similar to the previous one.-3 (51) + 1 (176) < 110 -153 +176 < 110 23 < 110 yes, the truck will hold at least 51 refrigerators and 176 TVsThe Burbank Buy More store is going to make an order which will include at most 60 refrigerators. What is the maximum number of TVs which could also be delivered on the same 18-wheeler? Describe the restrictions this would add to the existing graph. Solving for y1(60) + -3y < 110 -3y < -60 + 110 add 110 to -60 to get 50 -3y < 50 divide both terms by -3 -3y/-3 > 50/-3 signs flip y > -50/3 or y = 16There will be no added restriction because the maximum numbers of TVs   The next day, the Burbank Buy More decides they will have a television sale so they change their order to include at least 200 TVs. What is the maximum number of refrigerators which could also be delivered in the same truck? Describe the restrictions this would add to the original graph. 1x + -3 (200) < 110x < 600 + 100 x = < 710 If 200 TVs are ship.When graphing linear inequalities and they are greater than or less than you will use a dashed line. When the inequality is greater than or equal to or less than or equal to you will then use a solid line, which indicates that the points on the line are part of the solution set (Slavin, 2001). In this paper I have shown you a linear equation and broke down each step in solving the equation. I used the method of substitution for the variables and explained what the equations represent.