Dynamic Process
Customer & Department Growth
When discussing Wakefern Food Corp.’s dynamic process one can utilize several aspects including collaboration, social media, or analytics. Even though these processes may be more flexible, it “does not mean, however, that they are unstructured” as they are organized but “often created on the fly, the activities are fluid and frequently changed and intermingled with other processes, and they often include a lot of backtracking and repetition (McKinney, 2022, p.175). Utilizing these aspects can allow us to expand the scope of our firm and reach more consumers. For this report we have chosen to report on a collaborative process.
The Wholesale division has been tasked to grow their current business from $200M in annual sales to $1B in annual sales within the next five years. There are two ways to increase sales: grow existing customer accounts or find new customers. Both methods have their own intricacies because in order to grow existing business, the current customer needs to have the desire to provide more business to Wakefern and Wakefern must have the ability to provide the services or products that the customer desires.
When looking at growing new accounts today, the Wholesale leadership team, made up of the Department Manager and Business Managers, run data through MicroStrategy to review specific sales for departments during specific time periods. Once the data is run, it is downloaded into Excel and manually evaluated using formulas and pivot tables. Once data has been reviewed, the leadership team meets with the customer to discuss the state of their current business and talks about other areas for opportunity. Not all sales opportunities come in the form of products, it may be services such as store remodels or indirect procurement purchases. If the customer provides specific items or categories or interest, the team will manually review customer models (orderable products), contracts and other areas, such as markups, to determine viability of the expansion.
When looking to onboard new accounts, customers either reach out directly to the division or the division calls on them. When determining who to call on, they look at customers within the trade area, customers we may have had past relationships with or have other connections with. The team schedules meetings, either in person or virtually to discuss the Wakefern portfolio of products and services, including labels such as National Brand product and Private Label. If there is mutual interest, the customer will designate a target category for an initial review. Generally a file will be provided of specific UPCs they currently carry. The team will manually review the file and determine item matches. For items that do not match, they will review the brand and offer suggestions for alternative items.
If Wakefern implements a strong dynamic process it can cultivate a successful collaborative effort. For this to occur, they will need to have adequate hardware that can support the amount of information and software needed. Installation of the proper software is crucial as it must be compatible with their needs and be able to track and itemize inventory. Both project data, and metadata should be represented, accounted for, and backed up regularly to avoid any laps in informational flow. Wakefern’s processes should be comprehensive and clearly defined so that it is easily understandable. Finally, the employees who will be a part of the process should be properly trained and have comparable skills to match the field in which they are assigned. If Wakefern follows the essential steps they should install and run a successful dynamic process.
Five-Component Framework
Hardware: HP Laptop (company provided)
Software: MicroStrategy, Microsoft Excel, Rapid
Data: Data is run through MicroStrategy and based on specified criteria for existing customers. There is no data for new customers to be matched against in Wakefern’s systems so like-customers models are used as a starting point.
People: Customers, Department Manager, Business Managers
Procedures: Growth for existing customers focuses on reviewing their current portfolio, sales year to date and determining where growth is likely to occur. After holding a meeting with the customer to review their thoughts, the Business Manager works on offering new departments or service opportunities to the customer.
Courting new customers can prove to be challenging as each customer’s needs are different. Generally new customers will provide a list of targeted items or departments that the Wakefern team will use to provide buying options. Because it takes many weeks to set a new customer up in the Wakefern system, a like customer is generally used for data.
Dynamic Process "As Is" BPMN Diagram
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