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

Funos Cotabato Federation of Cooperatives was organized and duly registered with the Cooperative Development Authority on April 1, 2008. It was organized primarily to provide cooperative members with a funeral care service that is affordable, decent, caring and responsive to the needs of Filipino families and to introduce a paradigm shift in funeral services from an ominous tragic event to a solemn and joyful celebration of a life well-lived. The Federation espouses the realization that death is a memorable journey towards eternal life. Funos? general reserves have plummeted to a negative level which in effect depletes the fund of Federation. This strategic paper attempts to address the depleting funds of Fonus Cotabato Funeral Homes by suggesting strategies that would first, increase the patronage of the member cooperatives of the services offered by the entity to 70% on the first year of implementation of strategies, and 80% thereafter, and second, increase revenues by 20%. The Model of Strategic Management Process by Fred David (2011) was used in this paper and the methods used in collecting relevant data were interviews of the management staff, informal interview of competitors, and gathering information from minutes of meetings and annual reports of the Federation. PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) was used to assess the external analysis of Fonus to identify opportunities and threats. The results are consolidated using the External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix. The focus of the assessment of the internal environment is the areas of Human Resources, Marketing, and Finance in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix was used to further analyze the internal its condition. Among the key issues that were identified in the conduct of this study are the lack of marketing strategy to promote the Fonus as the choice of funeral services, building relationship with customer that would go after service has been rendered and the lack of personnel who will manage the business operation. The process of data gathering for this study was made through the conduct of key informant interviews (KII) with personnel within and outside the organization such as manager, operations, administrative personnel and current and previous customers. A focus group discussion was also done to validate and counter check accuracy of data gathered from the interviews conducted. Research from various private and government agencies such as City Civil Registrar, City Planning and Development Office, Philippine National Police and clinics that can be associated with organization business line was made to gather data that are relevant to the study conducted. Competitors such as Woodhaven Memorial Chapel and Fantonial Funeral Homes was also among those that were visited and interviewed for this study. The strategies to be taken are focused on three key result areas which are promotion and marketing, organization and human resources, and sales and it is all the board who is responsible for the implementation of such. First on promotion and marketing, the business of Fonus should e integrated in the agenda of the cooperatives during their general assembly. The members must be kept aware that they own the funeral home and that they must help it grow by patronizing its services when the time comes, or by simply referring other clients to go to Fonus. Second, LGUs and informal people?s organizations in the barangays. Commonly known as ?dayong? must be tapped and come up with a Memorandum of Agreement with them, with special arrangements. And third, hiring of a full-time manager must be prioritized.