Thesis (Master in Management) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, April 2018

Forest Lake Development Inc. (FLDI) is a premiere themed memorial park developer which started in in 1997 with its first memorial park project in Zamboanga City. It was incorporated and registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 28, 1997. It is primarily engaged in the acquisition, development, sale and operation of real estate for burial purposes, and other necessary care for the remains of the dead. FLDI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alexcy Corporation beginning August 25, 2010, when Landco Pacific Corporation (LPC) sold all of FLDI's shares it held to Alexcy Corp. As of December 2017, it has 25 memorial park projects in 18 cities and municipalities nationwide. It is continuously expanding because it aims to be the number one death care provider in the country. Forest Lake is the leading memorial developer in Davao City. It believes that Davao City still has a need for additional memorial parks. However, it encounters difficulty in opening new project in this City for the past years because of the high land values in the target locations and the strict government regulations. The objective of this strategic paper is to aid Forest lake in evaluating its current acquisition policy, to identify the factors that affect it expansion program and to determine the necessary and appropriate strategies that will enable it to expand more projects in Davao City. The conceptual framework used for this strategic paper is adapted from the framework of Fred R. David (David, 2011). In this framework, it emphasizes that the mission, vision and goals of the company should be clear to guide the management and the employees as to what direction the company wants to take. The external and internal environment are analyzed to determine its positive and negative impact to the business. The external environment factors such as the economic, political/legal, socio-cultural, technological and the industry are assessed to identify the opportunities and threats surrounding the company. The internal environment that covers the four (4) major functional areas in the organization namely the organization and human resources, marketing, finance and operations are analyzed to determine its strengths and weaknesses that the impact in the success of the business. Based on the external and internal analyses, strategies are formulated using SWOT matrix taking into consideration the specific goals that Forest Lake wants to attain. The Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) is used to evaluate and determine which among the alternative strategies can be best applied to Forest Lake. There are (two) strategies identified which are the market development and the related diversification between the two (2) strategies, market development is a better strategy for Forest Lake. The market development strategies involve establishing land acquisition guidelines with price range and term options based on the size and location of the land and the market potential of the area to make the purchase offer appealing to the landowners with the aim of Forest Lake to be the leading death care provider in the Philippines, Forest Lake can also consider the related diversification strategies that involve expanding its business considering their huge memorial park customers who can be their captured market for their ancillary businesses. Based on the chosen strategies, the implementation plan for 2018-2022 is crafted which covers the action plans to be undertaken by all the departments involved to attain the company's objectives. Key results Areas (KRA) and the Performance Indicators are used to monitor to progress of the implementation of the action plans and evaluate if the strategies formulated are effective in meeting the goals of the organization.