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

Rubio Memorial Services (RMS) is a micro-scale funeral services provider located at Macario P. Bermudez St., Visayan Village, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. The firm has been operating for 24 years offering customizable packages to suit the needs of the bereaved family. Despite increasing assets, RMS still has a potential for growth in the inelastic nature of the funeral industry. RMS is yet to fully tap into the entire market, segment losing some of its share to competitors. This paper aims to formulate a strategic plan for RMS that will help boost their competitive advantage. This paper adapts Wheelen & Hunger?s strategic management framework to guide RMS?s strategic plans. This strategic plan make use of four integrative levels: environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and evaluation & control. For the first part, RMS?s external and internal environments were scanned. This paper looked at economic, sociocultural, political and technological factors, as well as a funeral industry analysis. These factors were summarized into opportunities and threats that were later quantified using an EFE matrix. This paper?s internal analysis looked into RMS?s structure, culture, and resources. These factors were then summarized into RMS?s strengths and weaknesses, that were also later quantified using IFE matrix. This strategic paper also proposed changes to the vision and mission statements of RMS. The proposed statements were identified to be more aligned with the current and future position of RMS. Together with the aforementioned environmental analysis, particular goals and objectives were set for RMS. SWOT matrix and SPACE matrix were strategic management tools utilized as a strategic matching mechanism ? detailing possible strategic options based on different factors/variables. SWOT matrix presents four strategic options: Market penetration, streamlining, product development, and market expansion. SPACE matrix analysis indicates that RMS?s should favor conservative strategies such as, but not limited to, market penetration, market development, product development and related diversification. QSPM was used to quantify these strategic priorities based on the prior environmental analysis. QSPM result show that market penetration and streamlining are high priority strategies with true aggregate of 4.975 and 4.35, respectively. Different strategic activities were then proposed. This paper proposed changes to the current RMS organizational structure, operational flow, and marketing efforts. RMS's ?Pakigdait? program was restructured to be more parallel with the goals of RMS and the trends in the environment. Additional market penetrating activities were also identified, like the proposed ?Darong? program that targets specific areas in the market for potential stable sales. Also, a solution regarding the problem with the hears was proposed. Income projections shows a continually increasing revenue ? up to a minimum increase of 37% by 2022.