Functional Area Interrelationships
Kudler Fine Foods is a neighbourhood upmarket specialty food store with the excellent domestic and imported fares. The company currently has three locations in the San Diego metropolitan area, La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas. The stores consist of about roughly 8,000 square feet of retail space in the most stylish of shopping centers. Their selection includes the finest cheese, wine, fresh produce, pastry products, meats, seafood, and condiments. By stating the primary reasons of the organization’s existence, this paper will analyze the reason for the type of organizational structure, identify and explain the steps of the collaboration process, provide an example of the use of lateral and vertical collaboration, and identify the key stakeholders and the collaborative interactions among them in order to achieve success.
Organization’s Existence
Kudler Fine Foods states that it is its mission to provide their customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparallel consumer environment (Apollo Group, Inc, 2009). After reviewing the company’s mission statement, it appears that the primary reason for the existence of Kudler Fine Foods is to offer a place for its customers to shop that has all the finest choices of food related items from all over the world in one convenient location. According to the company’s strategic marketing goals, it has a plan in place to increase revenue for the business and to lower the production costs as well. The last goal could possibly pose a problem, as it will be tricky to lower costs while still holding true to its mission statement of offering the highest quality in products.
Organizational Structure
Kudler’s Fine Foods is a successful company, founded by Kathy Kudler in June of 1998. Even though the company has been around for years and has managed to expand their locations, it is still considered a medium size organization. An organization can be structured in many different ways, depending on their objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs. Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the department, branch, team and individual. The type of organizational structure employed by this organization is a functional structure. Within a functional structure, employees of all departments of this organization perform a specialized set of tasks, which leads to operational efficiencies within each department.
The key positions that supports this organizational structure includes Administration, Marketing Department, Sales Department, Public Relations, Human Resources, Produce Department, Bakery Department, Meat and Seafood Department, Cheese and Dairy Department, Condiments and Package Department and the Wine Department.
Collaboration Process
According to Giesen (2007), "True collaboration is a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more individuals, groups, and organizations in order to achieve results they are more likely to achieve together than alone". The end goal in the collaboration process is not to just reach the preferred outcome, but to accomplish it efficiently and effectively. Two departments achieve this by paying close attention to how the departments work together as much as the each department pays attention to itself (Giesen, 2007).
Departmental collaboration must occur in order for Kudler Fine Foods to achieve its strategic marketing objectives of increasing revenue and decreasing costs. One example of departmental collaboration is Kudler's new cost cutting initiative. This initiative brings together the technology, purchasing, and training departments. These departments will work together to increase customer service while lower costs. By becoming more efficient with food orders, Kudler will carry less stock, which will reduce Kudler's expenses (Apollo Group, Inc, 2009).
Another example of collaboration between departments at Kudler Fine Foods is the new Frequent Shopper program. This initiative involves the purchasing, technology, training, and sales departments. These departments will work together to track customer purchases while offering loyalty points. After the purchasing department has purchased the new cash registers and the training department has trained employees, the sales department will review the data collected. Monitoring customer purchases will allow Kudler to refine its offerings and processes (Apollo Group, Inc, 2009).
Key Stakeholders Stakeholders are a “person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives, and policies” (Business Dictionary, 2011). In the case of Kudler Fine Foods, its key stakeholders would include its customers, employees, suppliers, owners, investors, and its local community. Each of these stakeholders, whether internal or external, plays a very important role in the achievement of organizational goals.
Customers – The customers of Kudler Fine Foods are upper middle and high-class customers. They enjoy the finest of foods and come to Kudler for just that. The customers are very loyal and are what ultimately causes the organization to succeed. Without these loyal customers, there would be no Kudler.
Employees – The employees of Kudler are highly selected and are extremely well informed and qualified at what they do. They are extremely helpful to customers and knowledgeable about all food products in the store. They are the backbone behind this impressive organization.
Suppliers – The suppliers come from all around the world and provide only the finest and freshest food.
Owners – Kathy Kudler is the owner of Kudler Fine Foods. Her vision of an upscale epicurean food shop became a reality on June 18, 1998. As the sole owner of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy will do everything and anything to achieve the organizational goals and make sure the company succeeds.
Investors – The investors of Kudler have taken a risk by investing their money into the company, which allowed Kathy Kudler to open Kudler Fine Foods. However, they did this with the expectation of receiving a return on their investment.
Local Community – The local community is the final stakeholder. They also play a very significant role to achieve the organizational goals. The local community provides complete support to Kudler Fine Foods, which helps them to gain new customers.
Stakeholders Collaborative Interactions
To help to strengthen Kudler Fine Foods ability to provide a fully functioning company there must be collaborative interactions between the stakeholders of the company. Each entity is different, and may have varying viewpoints but by collaborative interactions, they will improve the company and benefit greatly from working together. For example, the owner, Kathy Kudler can provide surveys to the customers. By conducting surveys, the company is able to find ways to help keep customers happy and find ways to improve the operation of the stores. Another example of collaborative interaction would be to hold shareholder meetings as well as quarterly announcements to the investors. This will keep the investors up to date with all store relations, which in turn will keep them happy and willing to invest more. Kudler should also hold weekly meetings with the employees. This will be a great opportunity for her to tell them what she thinks has been going wrong, great, and could be better, and vice versa. The important thing to keep in mind is to listen to the employees; their opinions are valuable and help in the success of the company. Reference

Apollo Group, Inc (2009). Kudler Fine Foods. Strategic plan. Retrieved February 2, 2011. BUS/475-Intergrated Business Topic. https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/
Business/Kudler2/intranet/ad/strategicPlan.htm
Giesen, G. (2007). Creating Collaboration: A Process that Works. Management Articles. Retrieved from http://www.managerwise.com/article.phtml?id=538