Answer

Mondelēz International Corporate Strategy and Management

1. Mondelez International pursues the growth corporate strategy. In particular, it seeks to accelerate its consumer-centric growth across local and global brands. Mondelēz International’s has focused on growth strategy since its corporate restructuring in 2007. In pursuit of this strategy, it has acquired new brands and increased its brand portfolio while also venturing into new local and global markets. For instance, they acquired Enjoy Life Foods in 2015 thus adding to the gluten free and allergen free products. Mondelēz International also increased its expenditure on sales and marketing mostly in emerging markets.
2. Mondelēz International’s internal resources include experienced workforce managed through a dedicated human resource department, financial endowment, and information technology solutions. Information technology is considered the most significant internal resource owned by this organization since it facilitates communication and other activities such as leadership. External resources include having international partnerships with food business incubators. This helps in attracting new ideas and resources to support the business. The internal and external resources available to Mondelēz International are supportive of its growth corporate strategy. For instance, the Information Technology Solutions ((ITS) has the mission of empowering growth by connecting the organization to its stakeholders including employees, consumers, customers, suppliers and shareholders. The resources therefore provide competitive solutions that support sustainable growth.
3. Mondelēz International has a sustainable competitive strength. This is evident in the annual revenues harnessed from its portfolios of million dollar brands, namely; Chips Ahoy, Belvita, Oreo, Ritz, Nabisco, LU, Triscuit, Milka, Barny and Peek Freans, Club Scial, Cote d’ Or, Cadbury, Toblerone, Freia, Fry’s, Lacta, Marabou, Trident, Chiclets, Halls, Stride, and Dentyne among others. Currently, the organization reports annual revenues of $26 billion across 160 countries. This informs its good position at number 117 in the Fortune 500 list. Bbb further notes that Mondelēz is a strong rival and this ensures that it gets shelf space for its products in discount shops, convenience stores, supermarkets, retail food locations and drug stores. The success of its Kraft’s business segment has been attributed to its differentiation and strong promotions and advertisements which has enabled this business unit to compete against store-branded products and low-priced brands.

Figure 1: Mondelēz 9-cell Industry Attractiveness/Business Strength Matrix

This matrix shows that the firm should invest its resources into supporting the growth corporate strategy. A key focus should be directed at developing markets since they rank highly on the matrix.

4. The portfolio of Mondelēz International exhibits a good strategic fit to both the external competitive situation and internal resources. This is evident with the seamless collaboration between the different business units acquired by Mondelēz. Those that fail to coordinate properly are divested. An example was the acquisition of Cadbury’s which has since aligned its operations with Mondelēz’s. In return, the new business unit helped create revenue synergies for product development and marketing innovation. Similarly, the portfolios present opportunities for transfer of skills, knowledge management, cost sharing and shared branding. These factors have collectively contributed towards a stronger brand equity and brand value. The large size of the organization, arising from its diversified portfolio leverages its operations in the event that one unit is adversely affected by low sales margins and revenue. Similarly, the firm markets its brands collectively thus saves on marketing costs through the joint advertising campaigns. This strategy helps in lowering costs. These factors contribute to value chain match-ups at different stages ranging from the primary and secondary activities. This presents opportunities for match-up of inbound and outbound logistics, operations, sales and marketing, firm infrastructure, human resource, technology and procurement activities.
5. The 2012 restructuring bid by Kraft Foods led to a split of the company giving rise to Mondelēz International and Kraft Food Group. Because of the spinoff, Kraft is able to focus on the domestic North American grocery business while Mondelēz serve international customers with global brands. This move perfectly supported the firm’s growth strategy where it seeks to expand its reach and influence across international markets. Because of the spinoff, it is certain that the business registered high-growth both locally and globally thus higher returns on investment for the shareholders. Similarly, the highly industry leading growth reported by Mondelēz International raises prospects that the shareholders are benefiting from the company’s grocery business in North America. A look at the financial statement of the company also shows that since 2012, the firm’s price per share has increased from $23.06 in 2012 to $42.46 in 2017.
6. Mondelēz International faces a number of strategic issues ranging from the uncertainty on how to sustain and promote further growth, addressing the issue of slowing revenue growth, poor corporate governance and questionable non-GAAP metrics (Trainer 2016; Trainer 2019). Out of these issues, uncertainty on how to promote sustainable growth merits the most attention from the management. This is because this issue directly affects the growth corporate goals by the organization. As a result, it deserves the most attention. Additionally, focusing on addressing this issue will help the organization identify and solve all the other issues since they deter the firm from achieving sustainable growth.
7. It is recommended that Mondelēz International continues using the acquisition strategy to target and acquire other firms. This strategy is justified because it has contributed towards the growth of the firm. Similarly, it helps in diversifying the firm’s portfolio thus important in supporting the realization of the growth business strategy. Second, it is recommended that Mondelēz International aligns its business operations in a manner that facilitates collaboration. This way, the firm will benefit from economies of larges scale operations. This will be important in achieving the cost saving objective.