General Mills Case Solution

Questions1. Do you think General Mills made the right decision and took the proper steps
immediately after the FDA's discovery? Why and why not?
2. What might be some barriers to rational decision making among those involved in determining
how to dispose of the tainted cereal?
3. Would group decision making be helpful in determining how to dispose of the tainted cereal?
Why or why not?

The Business Environment

The food industry has been enormous nowadays since it provides high quality foods to its
customers with different feature products.
The industry has been in its roots due to the technological innovations which have improve the
quality of food.
In this modern era, people are so busy that they cannot buy food in any store and they also do
not want to cook by themselves.
Many industries have decided to provide easy-to-cook foods to their valuable customers for their
satisfaction.
Globally, there is intense competition in the food industry where many emerging food
companies put more value in food in order to gain more customer satisfaction.
In this industry, General Mills has played a key role to provide high quality foods to its
customers and it has also engaged as a marketer in the industry.
The company has introduced new products to satisfy its customers’ needs and wants. General
Mills along with other industries believes that suppliers and retailers are the key players to run
the business.
The industry consists of comprises of numerous companies competing against each other and
this illustrates that every new company is facing difficulty to survive in this industry.
The analysis also shows that the growth can be very slow for emerging companies due to
monopolistic competitions between already established entities.
With so many players in these industries, it is need less to say that most of the new business
cannot survive.
 New products are being introduced day by day which also shows intense rivalry among food
companies.
General Mills is still struggling to provide better foods as compared to its competitors and its
vision clearly shows that customers are the main source of income and act as their future growth.
The industry analysis shows that the competition is still increasing and everyone operating in
this industry has to survive for their future growth.
Consumers are globally concerned regarding the productivity and reliability of foods. Most
consumers buy food from well-known brands because already provide quality products.
The key to increase the brand loyalty is to provide healthy food in low price. As price plays an
important part to attract the customers for their foods therefore, the study has revealed that
quality and price can be important factors for industry’s growth.
Moreover, technological innovation has made the companies introduce new kind of products to
satisfy their needs.
There is less political intervention for certified brands (Intervene non-certified companies for
product quality in case if uses to harm peoples). It indicates that political intervention is not
going to take place for the companies with less queries from their customers.

PEST(LE) Analysis
To understand the current situation of the company where it stands.
Using PEST, organization can assess major external factors that influence its operation in order
to become more competitive in the market.
It is an effective tool to analyse the importance of the company in the environment, as well as it
identifies the opportunities to avail in the future and to reduce the risk factors involved in
PESTLE(SWOT analysis).

The current performance in the environment where General Mills stands is assessed below: -

Political Factor
General Mills has manufacturing operations in 16 countries and this will be disadvantage for it to
supply its products in cheap price where it is operating locally.
In that case, political factor can negatively affect its brand loyalty, which indicates that if they
import raw material from foreign countries where import tariffs are high, then the prices will also
increase for the international customers.
The other factor could be the lack of product awareness in the country where it operates locally
such as regarding the market trends, where currency will be devalued due to inflation and as a
result the prices of food industry will also increase and due to that they will start producing low
quality products in the same price.
The country’s fiscal policy changes can also negatively affect the brand loyalty of the company
as if it increases sales tax then it can also negatively affect the company’s durability.