Presented to the Information Technology Department

De La Salle University

Term 3, A.Y. 2020-2021

In partial fulfillment of the course

In ITISORG S11

The Bread Market: A Business Case Study

Submitted by:

Abad, Angela

Capua, Patrick

Co, Keith

Lin, Jonathan

Matienzo, Aedan

Submitted to:

Mr. Renato Jose Ma V. Molano

September 13, 2021

 Chapter 1

Background of the Organization

1.1 Company Background and History:

Gardenia started in 1978 as an in-store bakery in Singapore, it started it’s humble

beginnings and around 1983-1996, it became the first commercial bakery at Pandan Loop,
Singapore. Wherein it expanded its operations to different Asian countries including Malaysia,
Thailand, and the Philippines. The company entered the Philippine bread market in 1997
wherein it established its factory and started its operations in International Industrial Park
(LIIP), Binan, Laguna. Gardenia Philippines started operations with its first state-of-the-art
factory rated as one of the largest and most modern bread manufacturing facilities in the
country. In 1999-2001, various goods including the High Fiber Wheat Bread Loaf, Flavored Loaf
which included the California Raisin and Chocolate Chip Loaves, and their own version of the
Filipino-favorite PanDeSal we’re all launched which added variation to the company’s goods.
This also marked the start of Gardenia’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs wherein the
company highlighted and advocated the importance of healthy eating and by starting the day
right with a well-balanced breakfast through its Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP). Gardenia
also received the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Points (HACCP) certifications in 2003 and was accorded Superbrands status by
Superbrands Ltd., an independent authority and arbiter on branding in 2004 which further
stabilized the company’s position in the market. The company continued to release various
products including the Muffin-tastic line, Amazing Flavored Loaf line, and the Cream Roll line in
the market in 2006-2007. To further improve their products, Gardenia formed a G-Wellness
Team (formerly known as Nutrition and Wellness Team) in 2008. The team was especially
established to promote good nutrition and help Filipinos achieve a healthy lifestyle. The famous
Gardenia field trip was conducted by the G-Wellness Team. Not only did the G-Wellness team
conduct field trips but they also had various activities such as: campaigns, camps, event
sponsorships, and counselling. In 2010, Gardenia further expanded their advocacy on healthy
eating by developing an innovative health product with their already existing High Fiber Whole
Wheat Bread. The release of the High Fiber Wheat Raisin Loaf was a combination of high fiber
content from whole wheat flour and California raisins. In 2010, Gardenia invested in a bread
plant in Cebu wherein the company bagged three Program Achievement awards from the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Gardenia further conducted the first ever Happy Bread
Day in the country, in line with the celebration of it’s own World Bread Day. In 2016, Gardenia
further expanded operations and invested in another sophisticated and world class 6K plant
with a capacity of 6,000 loaves per hour. In the present day, Gardenia continues to expand its
operations in the bread market which are all in line with their promotion for healthy eating
through their own Corporate Social Responsibility programs.

1.2 Organizational Structure:

Gardenia is headed by a President followed by Vice Presidents for each of the

company’s organizational functions. The President oversees the company as a whole wherein
different Vice Presidents are the heads in their own respective functions.

1.3. Products/Services

Gardenia offers a wide array of products from white breads, healthy breads, flavored
breads, pandesals, buns, and sandwiches in accommodating the bread market (See Table 1.1).

Classic White Bread -
Regular Slice 600g
High Fiber Whole
Wheat Bread 600g
High Fiber Wheat
White Breads
Classic White Bread - Classic White Bread -
Thick Slice 600g Regular Slice 400g
Health Breads
High Fiber Whole Wheat Cranberry Loaf 370g
Wheat Bread 400g
High Fiber Wheat
 Raisin Loaf 600g
California Raisin Loaf 400g
Double Delights Strawberry and
Blueberry Loaf 400g
Premium Pandesal 350g
Cheese Bun 250g
Butter Sugar Cream Roll
Choco Strawberry Cream Roll
Ube Fun Bun
Pocket Sandwich Cheese
Pocket Sandwich Chocolate
Raisin Loaf 400g
Flavored Breads
Chocolate Chip Loaf 400g Double Delights Ube & Cheese
Loaf 400g
Amazing Black Forest Loaf 400g Amazing Butterscotch Loaf 400g
Pandesal and Buns
Soft-Delight Pandesal 300g Whole Wheat Pandesal 350g
Dinner Rolls 250g Gardenia Clustered Pandesal 255g
Filled Buns
Chocolate Cream Roll Cookies N’ Cream Roll
Rocky Road Cream Roll Chocolate Fun Bun
Mini Fun Bun Custard Cream
Pocket Sandwich
Pocket Sandwich White Pocket Sandwich Raspberry
Chocolate and Blueberry and Peanut Butter

Table 1.1: Products of Gardenia Bakeries

1.4. Mission/Vision

Mission

To provide an assortment of best quality, great tasting, nutritious, and enjoyable bakery
and food products that are within sight, within reach, and within the hearts of consumers;
produced using world class manufacturing facilities and processes utilizing quality and safe
ingredients, thereby creating values beneficial to stakeholders, including employees, suppliers,
trade partners, financial institutions, investors, and the community.

Vision

To be the premier company in the baking and food industry that provides best quality
products enjoyed, valued, and loved by consumers.

1.5. Objectives/Strategies
 The hallmark of Gardenia breads have always been quality, innovative, and safe
products. Gardenia answers the demands of the consumers when it comes to high quality
bakery products that would cater the ever changing taste preferences of Pinoys, their main
consumers. Aside from making quality products known for their freshness, good taste, and
nutritive value. One of Gardenia’s objectives is to advocate bringing social change and giving
back to society by contributing the company’s resources for the welfare and development of
Filipinos to uplift their quality of life.

1.6. Culture/Planning Approach/Leadership Style

Gardenia Bakeries makes use of a functional organizational chart where the company is
headed by a President followed by Vice Presidents for each organizational function, which are
VP for Finance, VP for Sales Marketing, VP for Manufacturing, and VP for Administration. The
President oversees the company as a whole which are then headed by the Vice Presidents in
different departments, this provides clarity on where the authority and responsibility is which
would overall increase the efficiency of the company as it makes communication and decision
making more systemized and convenient.

Gardenia’s planning approach consists of both long and short term goals which are
anchored through the management’s mission and vision. The company conducts SWOT analysis
on the social, economic, political, and environmental factors that affect the goal of the
company which helps in formulating the company’s long-term goals. Gardenia’s long-term goal
is then broken down into milestones that act as their short-term goals which serves as a
performance indicator for the company.

1.7 Resource Person and Other Details on the Company

Company Name: Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Incorporated

Contact Person: Pamela Theresa V. Dimayuga

Position: Financial Controller (VP Finance)

Chapter 2
 Problems and Issues Identified

2.1. Brief Description

As a manager in a well-known company. It is one’s job to ensure the utmost quality the
company has to offer not only to its consumers, but also within the workspace of his/her
employees. The manager has encountered some challenges and issues which can affect the
company as a whole.

Desiree who has been working for the company for over 15 years is an employee that
has been working in the administration department where she is good and proud of her job.
But because of the pandemic the company has decided to cut some people in the company.
Because she was a loyal employee, the company has decided to offer her a job at the finance
department. She accepted the offer but didn't do well with her performance and showed hardly
any motivation to improve due to the technical approach of the department. As a manager,
how can one handle this situation?

Additionally, Kyla is a hardworking employee who was recently accepted by the

company. She is known for being frank, committed, and diligent in her work. Kyla remains late
one evening at work with her colleague John in order to finish an important presentation. John
offers to buy Kyla dinner and then drop her off at her house because they both had a busy day.
John invites Kyla to stay the night with him after supper. Kyla politely but firmly rejects the offer
and returns home. However, John makes his request again the next evening, and when Kyla
refuses, he threatens to inform everyone that she made a pass at him if she doesn't give in.
John threatens Kyla that if she does not respond to his "request" for a sexual favor, he will ruin
her reputation at work as someone who wants to take advantage of sexual favors. Kyla has then
reported this behavior to the manager. As a manager, how does one assess and determine the
best course of action in this scenario?
 Lastly, Breadtastic, a company that has been known for manufacturing goods and
pastries is now becoming a leading competitor within the bread market. It has been seeing its
rise in demand among consumers in the past few weeks. They recently introduced a sugar-free
bread variety, which has a 20% market share in the wheat and health bread category. As a
manager, what plan of action can the company do in order to top Breadtastic’s rising
popularity?

2.2. Reasons why the study group considers it/these a problem or issue

One of the reasons as to why the group considered Desiree’s situation is due to the
ongoing pandemic the country is still currently facing. Numerous companies and corporations
are downsizing their employees due to the circumstances that the pandemic has brought to the
economy. Six months after the March lockdown last 2020, the Philippine economy has moved
to the recovery stage, but micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are continuing
to face a sharp drop in demand and revenue (Shinozaki & Rao, 2021). The decline of the
country’s economy has affected businesses similar to the group’s business case scenario which
in return also affected the employees of the said company.

Moreover, Kyla’s situation was considered to prove that a business should conduct the
appropriate and right action for circumstances that negatively affect its employees. A company
would not function well if there are circumstances within the workplace that makes one
uncomfortable or unmotivated to do their duties and responsibilities for the company. A
healthy workplace is one where workers and managers collaborate to continually improve the
health, safety, and wellbeing of all workers and by doing this, sustain the productivity of the
business (World Health Organization, 2010). Having a healthy work environment for all
employees can ensure the productivity of the business which can overall lead to the success of
the company.

Lastly, the group also considered having a rivalry with another company as another
scenario since the trends within the generation today are rapidly changing. Since the
generation today is in a technological era, people have more access to information and ideas
than ever. One way of how a business can grow is to keep up to date with industry trends and
developments. According to John C. Maxwell, “Change is inevitable, but growth is optional”.
One cannot stop the momentum of change like the growth of technology, but a person can take
steps to grow in tandem with those changes (Demand Jump, 2020). With these emerging trends
most especially when other companies within the same industry and market adapt to it,
challenges would occur and one should be able to adapt to those changes as well in order to
gain the competitive advantage.

Chapter 3

Assessment and Solution

3.1. Assessment of the Organization’s Management

As stated in Chapter 1.2 (Organizational Structure) of Gardenia, the company was able
to implement an organized assignment of tasks. But before assigning tasks, the managers must
make sure that employees manifest the right knowledge, skills, and amount of training. Training
their employees ensures quality results/products because they are more likely to induce fewer
accidents (Juneja, 2015). This means that employees are entitled to work on their own without
much supervision. Nonetheless, this would amount to more productivity all around the
organization because every employee has their own assigned task and the managers would be
able to focus on a task subsequently that is aligned to their position. However, this will surface
a problem that is parallel to Kyla’s situation. Because of the lessened supervision, things that
are going on or attitudes within the workspace are not sought after. Problems that are not
sorted out right away results in a lingering unmotivated employee and less efficiency and
effectiveness of the company (Harris, 2021).

Within the issues and matters identified above (Chapter 2), the organization’s resource
allocation is well within standard. Because of the pandemic, the company decided to layoff
employees. They are laid off because having them amidst the pandemic would have their costs
be more than their return. Hence, there are only a number of employees in the company which
in return would lessen the efficiency of creating their products. However, this aligns to the
demand during the pandemic. They have maximized their resources to the brim but, it would
also create a number of problems within the company which is stated in the Chapter above.
Leadership and motivation is crucial to identifying the success of the company (Heryati,
n.d). The company’s decision of moving Desiree to a different department makes her very
unmotivated because her skills would not fit the required amount of skills to be able to provide
a desired performance. This makes an employee anxious of the fact that because of bad
performance, her pay would be less and might eventually lead to her leaving or being fired by
the company (Jones, 2017). As per Kyla’s situation, in terms of leadership and motivation, this
would inevitably affect her and her performance within the company. It’s common knowledge
that having someone in your workplace with that certain attitude makes things difficult. With all
this, the assessment of the organization’s management in terms of their leadership and
motivation is questionable -- specifically the portion in relation to motivation.

3.2. Group’s recommended non-IS Solutions vis-à-vis Management Concepts learned in Class

In coming up with a solution for the case of Desiree, as a manager, one should come up
with a way to properly assess her performance as this would determine if she truly would be fit
for the job. Regular evaluations help employees better understand what’s expected of them,
this can improve communication between the management and employees (FreshBooks, n.d.).
Knowing that Desiree likes her job, as a manager, one way of helping employees like Desiree is
to provide proper training for their employees. Employees who are not well-trained should be
given time to have additional training to ensure their competence in their assigned tasks with
minimal supervision. These activities would help employees gain the opportunity to acquire and
improve job-related skills. Since Desiree was suddenly shifted to a different department, she
should receive proper training beforehand with regards to how the department she is in
operates. Employee training includes workshops and seminars that would help increase
Desiree’s job satisfaction, motivation, and capacity to adapt new methods which would
ultimately be beneficial not only for her, but also to the company (McNamara, n.d.).
Additionally, as a manager, the concept of human resource management is vital as this will
develop Desiree’s quality performance in a workplace (Schermerhorn, 2018). Since Desiree has
been a part of the company for over 15 years, it is already within her interest to pursue what
she does. As a strategic solution, the management can provide benefits to their employees
including performance appraisal and incentives, financial incentives, or even hosting company
events that would help boost the management’s fellowship and bond with one another which
can overall boost the performance and promote a healthy working environment (Gunn, 2019).

Seeing the rise of a competitor like Breadtastic, as a manager of the company, one
should come up with a counter-attack or a solution through the use of planning tools and
techniques in order to assess the current status of the company. One of the ways of planning is
through the concept of Benchmarking, it is the use of external comparisons to better evaluate
the company’s current performance and identify possible modes of actions for the future
(Schermerhorn, 2018). Benchmarking is the competitive edge that allows organizations to
adapt, grow, and thrive through change (Harper, 2019). Thorough research is needed as to why
a company should be adaptive with the market trends. Adaptive companies drive decision
making down to the front lines, allowing the people most likely to detect changes in the
environment to respond quickly and proactively (Reeves & Deimler, 2011). Through assessing
the competitor’s advantage, the key point of growth that can be identified was through the
introduction of a new variety of an existing product. As the manager, this would then mark the
starting point. The company would then think of more innovative goods that can cater the
bread market and be able to surpass Breadtastic’s product. Seeing as the company already has
a variety of products in the bread market, a well thought out marketing plan should be created
as this would introduce the existing or new product to the target market. The Marketing Mix 5
P's (Place, Price, Product, Promotion and People) is a significant tool that can help a company
select and create the right marketing strategies for their business. It forces one to think about
which areas of the business one can change or improve on, help meet the needs of the target
market, and differentiate the company’s products or services from its competitors (In House
Marketing, n.d.). Understanding the external environment, defining the target market,
determining the competitive advantage, and developing a marketing mix would overall help the
company’s strategic counter-attack to its competitors like Breadtastic (BC Faculty. n.d.).
 Regarding Kyla's situation, a manager can't take the time to consider whether to believe
Kyla’s complaint or not, so as a manager, one should have to take her word for it. If a manager
hears rumors that an act of sexual harassment is occurring, a manager must investigate the
potential harassment the same as if they had received a formal complaint with their products
from the consumers. Before a complaint is filed, a manager must ensure that all employees are
informed of the organization’s policy relative to sexual harassment. The policy should include
clear instructions on how to report, and provide options for who the victim can report to, an
example would be to the manager or to another person in a higher position. It should state that
every complaint will be thoroughly investigated, and possibly name an outside consultant to
bring in to ensure that the investigation will remain impartial (PowerDMS, 2020). There should
be different ways in which an employee can make a formal charge or complaint. Moreover,
employees like Kyla should be informed about any retaliation, purported retaliation, or ongoing
harassment they experience. Based on all of the documentation and advice from colleagues
and the attorney, as the manager, he/she would make the overall decision on the suited mode
of action for John or employees who did not abide by the company’s enacted policies. Upon
proving that John committed such actions, he should be dismissed from his position within the
company as his actions not only provided negative consequences to Kyla, but to the whole
company as well. Lastly, assure that no further incidents occur by following up with other
employees and Kyla who made the original harassment claim. If however, employees who are
unhappy with the results of the investigation, additional legal action can take place to ensure
unbiasedness and fairness of the situation. (Heathfield, 2021).

3.3. Group’s recommended IS Solutions vis-à-vis Management Concepts learned in Class

In relation to Desiree’s situation, another solution would be having online seminars and
training in relation to the field of her new work. Since she was transferred to the finance
department, having adequate knowledge of the latest technologies can give her the proper
motivation in doing her work. Her co-workers can also aid her through the utilization of
software products such as Asana and G suite. Conference calls and Voice over Internet Protocol
(VOIP) softwares allows employees to interact with each other from any part of the world. It
improves efficiency within the business as well as promotes better work-life balance (The Ame
Group, 2021). As a manager, one should ensure that the company’s enterprise agility is at par
with other competitors and that the company shows constant improvement. Enterprise agility
refers to an organization's ability to adapt to current and novel situations in a way that enables
them to outcompete and outperform their prior selves and/or competitors (Cheprasov, n.d.).
Since the finance department might be too technical for Desiree at the start, giving her on the
job training on the technicalities of the department can provide remedy to the problem which
would overall help not only Desiree, but also how the company’s ability to adapt to change.

With the help of technology, assessing the situation and the scale of competition gives
the company leverage against other competitors. It provides accurate projections of the
company’s standing in the short and long term (Leunendonk, 2017). With all the data collected
through the years the company may utilize that information through the computing power of
technology. Technology can also be used to cut the costs of production. In any stage of the
value chain, information technology can change a company's costs. The impact of technology
on cost in the past was limited to activities involving a lot of repetitive information processing.
These boundaries, however, are no longer in place (Lee & Cha & Park , 2016). Even operations
that primarily involve physical processing, such as innovating, now include a significant amount
of information processing. Another solution is to gather client requests or comments that are
required for progressive product innovation (Ranford, 2018). Companies have the ability to
improve their current product. Ideological product innovation, on the other hand, involves
effectively integrating customer knowledge into the innovation process. Companies can
develop a new and unique product when they encounter a customer's idea and have the
necessary technological competence and methods to actualize and actively accept the
customer's innovative and creative thoughts (Lee & Cha & Park , 2016). With this, the company
would be able to keep up with their competitors such as Breadtastic and gain their competitive
advantage.
 Chapter 4

Conclusion and Recommendation

Employees are regarded as one of the company's most significant assets. They are the
driving force behind the success of the company. As a result, employee happiness is
unquestionably important in motivating the organization to achieve its objectives and reap the
advantages. Now comes the question of whether or not satisfied human resources lead to
happy customers. The answer is certainly yes. The company's public face is represented by its
personnel. Employees connect with consumers and clients on a regular basis, not the
company's leaders. Hence, a positive work atmosphere is one of the most important aspects of
job motivation. It can be defined, in terms of workers, as a place of work that meets their
various expectations, allowing them to feel happy and satisfied about coming to work every day
and not considering quitting. An unhappy employee has the potential to sabotage the
customer's brand experience. According to studies, people who are surrounded by happy
people are more likely to be happy themselves. So, while good emotions are contagious, the
same may be said for negative moods. As a result, it is essential to create a pleasant and
cheerful work atmosphere for employees so that they can give their all at work. As a manager,
one should ensure the satisfaction of his/her employees like Desiree and Kyla and address their
problems and concerns in a practical and effective manner that would not only benefit their
satisfaction, but also the company as a whole. Having a healthy work environment for the
employees can boost the company’s business capability as a whole which can overall have a
competitive advantage towards its competitors within the market because every person can
use their skills and strengths to their full advantage.
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