PART A.
Weight Watchers is facing some tough decisions about its future. The following are the problems facing weight watchers and the analysis by use of appropriate tools.
Weight watchers have experienced a drop in their profits scale. From the headlines of news in 2011, there was an applaud that there would be a prediction that the profits would grow from 15 percent to 20 percent. It later developed into a multi-billion weight loss within a span of 4 decades (Eisner, 2011). To counter the challenge weight watchers had to reinvest itself a fresh and introduced a new points plus systems.
Increased competition from other firms. Weight watchers had experienced growth in weight-loss products and also, the levels of obesity were as well on the rise which made the company more attractive to many firms. However, there came a very stiff competition from other companies especially the Nutrisystem Inc (Rynecki & McQuiling, 2004). this factor made the weight watchers to increase their value for their customers and find other new target markets for their clients which were a tedious and expensive exercise for them.
Another challenge that faced weight watchers was creating a focused plan for a diet that was relevant to the 21st century as well as repositioning itself for the 21st century while at the same time sticking to the mission and vision that was initially set during its establishment. The major question was on how to retain market power while at the same time trying to remain relevant to its line of operations. There was supposed to be an expansion of the company and making the effort to introduce new models of services and maintaining the core values of the service.
There was also the problem of continued innovations and expansions which raised a lot of concerns about whether the innovations were going too far away from the core mission of the company. This development was triggered by the need to reinvest the company by introducing marketing and product innovation in both within the boundaries of the united states or abroad. Another issue of the challenge was if the expansion would succeed in attracting new members without losing the existing ones.
The alternatives and recommendations of the company include the following:
The company should simplify food selection process radically by assigning each food to diet a particular point value that helps to get rid of tallying calories (Eisner, 2011). The company should improve the activities of organizing more food plans which are a well-known competency obtained from them. It should also foster the initiative of fighting hunger in both local and international boundaries by conducting awareness of the matter and helping in providing healthy food products to the affected parties.
The company should as well create an awareness of fighting with obesity and its related effects. They should use individual like the award winning personalities in passing the relevant information to individuals. The other recommendation I would make for the company is to capitalize their efforts on creation and innovation so that they can sustain themselves in the most competitive market and have the power to control the majority of the target market.
The action plan to implement on my solution is making the company reinvest itself but making sure that they continue to pay attention to the moves of their competitors. Competition is an essential element to take into consideration in any business related activities. Therefore, weight watchers should observe the movements of the competitors keenly and make relevant strategies of countering with the expected moves.
PART B.
The business functions that would primarily be involved in implementing my recommendation include planning. Planning is paramount in Every Company that is wishing to apply new ideas in their system. Implementing of strategies to be incorporated in the company require a lot of planning activities for it to run well and succeed in integrating new ideas into the organization. The weight watchers should plan and strategize on the ideas that are beneficial to them and in countering the stiff competition they are facing in the market.
Other business functions that are involved include producing and marketing of quality products. To implement the recommendations made in the company weight watchers should provide the quality foodstuff and market them well to the target markets as part of implementing the recommendations suggested to them (Rynecki & McQuiling, 2004, p.138). They should also simplify on their menu selection process and assign each food diet a point value that will implement the strategy of replacing the tallying of calories.
All the business functions should have to coordinate to execute the recommendations successfully by ensuring that all the parts of the implementation are well taken care of. Planning will ensure the smooth running of the plans throughout the application process until the set targets are achieved (Eisner, 2011). It will ensure production of quality foodstuffs is made and providing them to the destination market promptly. Weight watchers will be able to assign proper diets to the clients and get a positive impact on the services they offer to the individual target markets.
References
Eisner, B., & Korn, J.K. (2011).Weight Watchers International Inc.
Rynecki, D., & McQuiling, A. (2004). Keep an eye on Weight Watchers International Inc. Fortune, February 9:138.
