Thesis (Master in Management) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, April 2017

Healthy Sweets, Inc. is a family-owned company which specializes in producing organic coco sugar, a healthy and natural sweetener. The company aims at reinforcing the capacity of the community to generate higher income to improve the quality of life of the coconut farmers in Panabo City City, Davao del Norte and to contribute in creating a sustainable and ecologically-sound environment. HSMC?s products are currently sold in select local supermarket outlets such as Gaisano and Part n? Shop; specialty store in Davao City such as Echostore, Davao Dwellings in Abreeza Mall, Pasalubong Center, national outlets like SM Kultura; and products are mostly distributed for retail in Japan. This strategic plan is intended to define the company?s long-term objectives and provide organized strategic options to improve the present condition of the company. The framework which will be used to execute the strategic management plan is derived from Fred David?s Strategic Management Model, hence , the sequence of the discussions are based on the said framework. Currently, HSMC is faced with high market demand that the company is unable to respond due to limited source of raw materials and high production costs. The strategies presented on this paper will potentially enable the company to generate higher profits thus, directly benefitting the workers and farmers within the community. The results of the external analysis of this strategic plan show that HSMC has more than average ability in responding to the different forces around its environment and uses the opportunities available to lessen the impact of the threats which were identified. Internally, the company is in a strong position. The organization currently has effective policies, directions and strategies. Its strength lies on its external links with various agencies and private sectors which the company considers as an important factor for bringing in increases of product sales to the company. The data from the external and internal analyses were used in several matrices to formulate and identify the appropriate strategies. The results signify that backward integration strategies are found to be the best possible strategies for the next couple of years for HSMC. The proponent suggests that HSMC should take hold of its suppliers (i.e., coconut sap harvesters) through formulating reward and incentives system and improving he capacity building of these suppliers. Consequently, the strategies under backward integration will create a reaction contributing to the company?s leverage among its competitors. By creating a rewards and incentives scheme for the coconut sap harvesters and gratifying them with fair buying price the company will be able to fill the limited source of raw materials. The performance review shall be performed by year 2022 to assess the effectiveness of the strategies that were implemented. However, an annual monitoring will be performed to ensure that the company is in the right direction towards achieving the set objectives. A corresponding strategic plan timeframe is presented to assess the approaches during the implementation period. It will also aid in determining the specific factors which caused the actual results of implementation. Baseline measurements are also included to provide a solid support for stating the results of the evaluation. The actual results may vary and the variance may affect other areas of concern and shall consequently require revision of strategies.