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

RD Fishing South Sea and Asia Pacific (RSA) Fishermen/Dependents Multipurpose Cooperative is an organization whose line of business is the production and marketing of garments primarily rags and seiner dye bags. It was a beneficiary of the Shared Service Facilities (SSF) Project of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which has enabled RSA to cater bulk orders for its products. However, the supply of manpower is limited compared to the number of machines turned over by DTI resulting to unutilized assets. There is also difficulty on obtaining enough direct materials for its garment production in the quest for acquiring inexpensive input supplies from secondhand garment stores of bakeshops. Nonetheless, its financial performance is constantly increasing since 2014 from a net earning from sales of 6% to 22 % in 2016 after a change of management. However, the previous administration left RSA with unpaid suppliers and outsourced sewers and unsatisfied members resulting to decrease in membership. RSA, under the new management continues to pay for the previous years? liabilities. It is also confronted with bloated receivables as a result of the customers delay in paying their accounts which affect the fund available for its operations, consequently its efficiency and productivity. This paper seeks to develop a strategic plan for RSA Fishermen Multipurpose Cooperative in pursuit of improving and sustaining its business operations. A modified cooperative framework is used as a guide in coming up with a strategic plan which includes analysis of the external and internal environment, assessment of the cooperative's vision and mission, strategy formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The external environment analysis includes assessment of the political environment, economic, social and technological (PEST) factors and the industry structure using Porter's five forces analysis which is summarized into threats and opportunities. RSA's receptiveness to the identified threats and opportunities is measured through the External Factor Evaluation (EFE). The internal environment analysis focuses on reviewing the four functional areas of the cooperative Organization and Human Resources, Operations, Marketing and Finance. The strengths and weaknesses of RSA are identified and subjected to Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) to determine the cooperative's responsiveness in mitigating its weaknesses and upholding its strengths. A Strength-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Matrix is used to identify strategic options which are further evaluated using Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) to come up with Strategic Choices. Four strategies are recommended to be prioritized to address the prevailing issues and problems of RSA namely: (1) Product/process development (2) Market Penetration (3) Increase production capacity and resources (4) Organizational development. The first strategy is about taking advantage of the external environment by introducing new and value-adding products or the school and office uniforms which are regularly demanded. RSA will also diversify its product/service offering in the long run. The second strategy is for RSA to actively promote and market its products through various schemes. The third strategy aims t utilize the unused assets and hasten the procurement process in order to increase the production capacity by at least 5% (conservative increase) each year. The fourth strategy is developing the organization as a whole through improving its business process primarily through internal controls which will be documented in the operations manual and human resource management to enable the members especially the women sewers to achieve their full potential. The implementing strategies will be monitored and evaluated using Key Results Areas (KRA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as a guide. The implementation of the action plans is expected to boost the financial performance of RSA by not less than 27% and increasing each year. Its financial position will be stable and not debt-dependent increasing the member's equity up to P5,925.65 in 2022.