The Campbell Soup Company

The current trends in the global markets are presenting particularly challenging moments to many business organizations. This is because it has become difficult to predict any future events given the fact that the environment is so dynamic and is changing rapidly. Many organizations have devised a number of approaches to enable them remain relevant and active within the competitive and changing business arena. In other words, organizations have come up with various strategic initiatives with an attempt to secure themselves a relatively competitive position as compared to their competitors. This means that the organizational and operational strategies are being adjusted in order to match these changes, and at the same time sustain business. The Campbell Soup Company, the largest manufacturing and marketing business house of canned soups and other related products in the USA, has equally been affected by these changes. With its vast global operational base, the company is exposed to different risks of the market changes, hence the reason why it has come up with several strategies to immunize its systems against any uncertainties. This paper seeks to highlight a number of issues concerning the strategic initiatives already taken and to be taken by the company to adjust to the changing market conditions.

Competition Related Strategies

The Campbell Soup Company is faced by fierce competition from a number of worthwhile competitors. This means that robust strategic approaches are necessary if the company has to survive. Companies, such as Heinz, General Mills, and Kraft foods, are among the main competitors whose presence in the market cannot be ignored. According to Brache & Bodley-Scott (2006), a company should be well aware of the competition parameters surrounding its operations. This implies that a company should develop enough muscle to deal with any unfamiliar circumstances that result from the competition. Therefore, intent to adopt the most appropriate mechanism to compete is a necessary strategic step. One of the most appropriate steps that the Campbell Soup Company ought to consider is competing by doing something quite different and new. This means that the company should employ different approaches compared to its rival, and at the same time preserve the principal characters that make the company distinct from the rest.

Innovation is a powerful tool that most companies use to attain a distinct character in a dynamic market. This is, perhaps, singularly appropriated for the Campbell Soup Company since its challengers, like Nestle, are among the world’s leading innovators in the food and beverage industry. Although innovation is critical in a changing global arena, it comes with challenges that may prove to be insurmountable if not tackled properly. The brand portfolio challenge is particularly common, and threatens the longevity of an innovation (McLoughlin, Aaker, 2009). Therefore, a company should ensure that its innovations are long-lived and not the flash market blips. The Campbell Soup Company strives to succeed in coming up with different products with an aim of satisfying its customers. This approach is most probably applied for the company to compete with its rivals, and at the same time maximize its profits. When achieved, the two goals are highly critical for the company since it grows at admirably high and rapid rates. For instance, the company increased the number of its employees significantly, and registered reasonable profits.

Technology is the most responsible factor to drive innovation. In this regard, most if not all reputable business organizations are striving to achieve excellence as far as the use of technology is concerned. This should also not be an option for the Campbell Soup Company, since it has a large presence on the United States market. According to a Cisco networks (2009), a business whose model is based on technology is remarkably swift, and thus helps in scaling faster than their competitors. This means that such businesses can identify, analyze, and strategize on how to venture into the new market territories. This implies that an organization will beat its competitors and outpace them in venturing into new market territories. Because of the trends being witnessed in terms of globalization, it is extremely essential that every company consider using technology in their strategizing. The world is becoming a global village, meaning that things happen too fast. Inappropriate technological applications may as well demean a company’s presence in the market and result in subsequent capsizing. Technology can be used to enhance manufacturing, and at the same time can be used to conduct market research and analysis. This helps in coming up with the most appropriate strategies. Although globalization has brought a challenge of competition to the Campbell Soup Company, it has provided a large window of opportunity whereby the company has devised ways to be different from others.

Using Communication as a Tool for Strategy

The world’s leading economies have been affected by frequent recessions and credit crisis. This has made it so difficult to do business, especially at a global stage. According to insights from Forbes, a renowned business publication, many corporations have adopted different strategic plans to enable them survive these economic adversities. A study performed in 2009 revealed that resilient corporations are remarkably proficient in strategic management, especially when preparing for the unknown (Neil, & Neville, 2010). This means that such companies have a continuous reconstruction strategy or plan of transformation that works. Such companies realign their resources to their strategies by ensuring that they have realistic ambitions rather than setting ambiguous rivalry goals. In this regard, a company needs not to stretch its financial muscles beyond their elastic limits in the name of competitions. Therefore, a company should ensure that its targets are achievable and healthy to the company. The research revealed the fact that one of the most critical factors to consider in fir it to realize this in communication. In any organizational structure, the need for effective communication cannot be overemphasized. This means that an organization should ensure that all stakeholders are actively involved in forging the way forward for an organization’s success.

As the global market player, the Campbell Soup Company should ensure that it involves its associates at the global level when strategizing on how to face the dynamic global economic conditions. This is because the company is international, and is operating in the United States and other parts of the world. In addition, more commitment should be put in the local market given the fact that it is affected most by other global economic events. For instance, the credit meltdown forced many companies to shut down in the recent economic downturn simply because such companies were insensitive to cutting down expenses within the United States market. This means that communication as an insulator was not utilized properly, hence a lot of misinformation about crucial economic trends emerged. Using communication as a tool to remain committed to growth strategies is known as a useful mean to overcome any economic crisis and help an organization to sail (Neil, & Neville, 2010). Besides, 88 percent of strategists believe that communication is a perfect tool for success of a strategy at any level. Therefore, it is of a greater importance for the Campbell Soup Company to use communication to update its strategic approaches in a global perspective.

Resource Based Approaches

For any company to remain stable in a turbulent, changing, and unpredictable environment, it must commit a considerable management of its resources in accordance to such events. This means that an organization should ensure that sufficient and correct resources are allocated to different survival and growth projects. Monetary requirements can be highly instrumental in sustaining an organization. This implies that allocating money for growth is vital. One notable attachment to such a strategy is a save-to-invest model (Cisco, 2009). This includes handling money flow properly for positioning for expansion. However, the Campbell Soup Company seems to have a number of challenges when it comes to using this strategy. The company has a balance sheet tainted with outstanding revenues that are probably slowing down its growth.

Improper handling of either internal or external resources may inhibit an organization ability to grow in a rapidly changing business environment. According to the concept of dynamic capabilities developed by Teece in 1997, an organization should be able to integrate, configure, and use both internal and external assets properly in order to adapt to any rapidly changing market conditions (Özbilgin, 2006). This improves the dynamic capabilities of an organization, hence making it more competitive than the rest. Therefore, it is recommendable to the Campbell Soup Company to ensure that its financial resources are managed well in order to place itself in a competitive position. In other words, the company should put enough money into production of quality products and take care of other financial obligations too. This can only happen successfully if its balance sheet is avoided. Although the company has registered higher profits because of reduced costs, it means that the rate at which it is expanding is being limited by inadequate commitment of funds into expansion.

Cost Reduction

Chances that an organization will survive the current market challenges are heavily depending on the manner in which it cuts down costs and allocates funds for expansion. The use of technology has been identified as a major way, in which an organization can achieve this. Use of technology reduces the cost of labor since a few people will be required to operate the business. This is extremely suitable for manufacturing companies, which rely on human labor to drive the entire production process (Dawson, 2003). This results in immense spending, in the form of salaries and wages. Therefore, the use of technological innovations, such as machines and technologies, is critical in cutting down the expenses of the company. In addition, embracing of such strategies helps in improving how existing resources are used, making operations more productive. In effect, a company’s market position is improved, hence, improving competition abilities. This is because the company’s production capacity is improved and at the same time it is made less costly. Therefore, the Campbell Soup Company should ensure that its running costs are reduced to reasonable levels to avoid adverse economic conditions, like credit crunches, such as the one experienced by the companies worldwide in the recent past.

In conclusion, the current market dynamics have forced many business organizations to redesign their organizational strategies in order to survive. The environment is also experiencing stiff competition contests among different organizations; hence, the need to come up with superb strategic initiatives is crucial. The use of technology has been applied widely, with many organizations striking the best opportunities this way. Similarly, the use of effective communication as an organizational behavior tool is also helping many firms to conduct market research and come up with the best strategies to face the markets. Unless resource-based approaches are applied, expansion may prove to be fruitless, since it strongly depends on this factor. In addition, this also affects the entire organization’s system by hindering crucial engagements, such as innovations. Therefore, an organization should ensure that spending is in line with the set of goals, and at the same time, it is sensitive to the existing global or local market conditions. Otherwise, the concept of cost reduction may not be put into action if resource based interventions are not applied keenly. Although the Campbell Soup Company is applying some of these tools in positioning itself for competition, more should be done to boost its performance.