Based on the materials, Quaker gave me this impression that its strategic planning overall is inconsistent throughout the years, and too ambiguous to guide the company’s development direction.
From its start in the domestic ready-to-eat cereal market, Quaker grew an appetite for diversification, snapping up pet food, grocery stores, toy businesses, even clothing fashion areas. Besides diversification, Quaker company also made huge efforts on expanding world widely.
Diversity is necessary to secure the whole company’s survival of businesses, it reflected the flexibility of Quaker’s strategic planning. However, seeking the right opportunities rather than massive expansion, using the correct and diversified management team and strategies to guarantee the new investments profitable are also essential. The purchase of Gatorade in 1983 catapulted Quaker to the top of an untouched beverage market segment, and it was a long-term success for the company. Their correct strategic plan played a key role in helping Quaker target on the merger opportunity as well as closely controlling over the management process. However, I feel Quaker company overlooked this point in their recent years’ business operation and huge losses incurred when some of the massive expansions failed so that Quaker had to go back on their core products.
When it comes to their strategies of the acquisition and managing of Snapple business, I disagree even more, I think it was a big mistake made by the top management of Quaker company.
Quaker’s initial plan was to exploit the seemingly straightforward synergies between new age cornerstone Snapple and sporting drink dominator Gatorade. However, in terms of brand identity the two drinks couldn’t have been further apa ...