Thesis, Graduate (Master in Management)--University of the Philippines Mindanao, December 2007.

Liberty Banana Growers Multipurpose Cooperative (LBGMPC) was formed and was registered last November 16, 1995 with Registration No. 4059-DVO at the Cooperative Development Authority XI. The saying, "Liberty from bondage of oppression and poverty", is the inspiration that paved the way for the birth of the cooperative. Burning with the strong desire to gain independence, the founders, along with their families, committed themselves to hard labor and to the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills in the spirit of cooperation. The rapid globalization of the world economy, rise of the multi-national corporations, formation of trade blocks, development in information technology and integration of world capital markets are some of the challenges faced by the cooperatives and forced cooperative leaders to devise ways to strengthen their flanks. LBGMPC faces the same challenges and felt the need to review and evaluate its business processes to sustain its profitability over the years.It is in this milieu that LBGMPC chose the strategic planning process as a tool to define its objectives, assess both its internal and external environments, and formulate, implement and monitor strategies. This plan serves as a guide of LBGMPC in accomplishing its stated objectives. From the evaluation of the company?s internal environment, it has identified significant strengths and weaknesses as well as threats and opportunities present in its external environment. Combining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and considering the Vision, Mission, and Goals of the organization resulted in the identification of two strategic proposals, namely; market development and production efficiency improvement. Market development involves seeking for increased sales volumes and revenues in the marketing of Cavendish bananas while improving production efficiency involves increasing the productivity of the farms and its hectarage. To operationalize these strategies, the following objectives and plans were subsequently mapped out for each of the major functional areas: Marketing has set a goal of selling 1.26 Million boxes of Cavendish bananas in 2008, increasing by an average of 22% a year for the next four years. Production has set goals of 3,300 boxes per hectare in 2008, 3600 boxes per hectare by 2012 and to increase farm hectarage by 100 hectares a year. Finance department has set a goal to effectively manage its working capital through releasing financial reports on the 3rd week of the month and the daily cash position report at 8 o?clock in the morning. Human Resources has set a goal of maximizing manpower utilization. To monitor the implementation of the strategy, two control systems are being proposed. These are: (1) production control system, and (2) account receivable management system to determine the gap in attaining the intended goals of LBGMPC.