What would be three enhancement ideas for the company Nutmeg Enterprise Inc. ? why would be of value and how would it suggest they are built into the company ?

The Nutmeg Enterprise Inc.

The corporation suffered several business setbacks in the past three years (particularly in the Brewing Division) and had been downsizing and reducing staff. However, business now appears to be stabilized and with an upturn beginning to improve sales there are encouraging prospects ahead.

2005 was an encouraging year for the firm with improving, profitable results from all three divisions. Overall returns definitely need to be increased, but the gradual increase in market share in Nutmeg Brewing and Fountain Products augers well for the future.

The Board has been aware for some time that inefficiencies exist throughout the organization and now believes that the time is right to gain tighter control over the divisions by consolidating and updating operations. A strong push is to be made to streamline the business processes, standardize systems across the divisions and capitalize on the potential synergies that exist in marketing, branding, selling, public relations, procurement, logistics, distribution and financial management (it still takes nearly four weeks to close the corporate books at the end of each month).

The Board had already been discussing the implications of becoming a supplier of beverages to Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense (DoD), perhaps even at a global level, and this opportunity is to be explored with some urgency. Both Wal-Mart and the DoD had mandated in 2004 that all their major suppliers will have provide RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking capability with their products if they wish to continue doing business as suppliers and so a pilot RFID study was conducted in the Brewing Division. This clearly project has much wider implications for the other product divisions in the corporation. The Fountain Products and Nutrition Products divisions should therefore follow soon with projects of their own to introduce RFID inventory management practices and capabilities.

The Board also intends to aggressively investigate new product lines and markets, both at home and abroad. Serious consideration is to be given to acquisition, outsourcing and off-shoring.

Overall, with nearly thirty significant projects in progress, or about to be launched, across the company, it becomes clear why the board has stressed the urgent need for establishing a central Project Management Office to control and coordinate all project activity throughout the company.