Discussion: Strategic Choices
General Mills company is one of the leading firms globally dealing with Processed and Packed goods. It has redefined the ways of manufacturing consumer goods to gain a competitive advantage. The company at the corporate level has utilized the Business growth strategy. The business growth strategy has helped the company to expand to other geographic locations and introducing new products in the market. Growth strategies aim at growing revenues from the sale of its products through a horizontal strategy. General Mills does not operate only in America but also internationally. A horizontal growth strategy has helped the company expand to other countries globally to create new markets; hence, generating more revenues, sales, and increased profitability.
Furthermore, General Mills Company has adopted a business diversification strategy where it has increased the number of products it produces. The technique has helped the company to get more customers through the production of various products such as cereals, pasta, spices, baking products, yogurt, snacks, and many others. Both business growth and Business diversification strategies have led to an increase in the company’s sales, revenues, and profitability for many years.
The generic Porter strategies followed by the company is cost leadership and differentiation strategies. Cost leadership strategy is vital because the company offers essential food products processed for distribution. With this strategy, the company targets broader markets both locally and internationally; hence, producing in large quantities at a lower cost and penetrating new markets quickly. Differentiation strategy helps to deal with competition in the market by providing a variety of goods and services. The approach helps to gain a competitive advantage in the flooded with many competitors by producing a range of products and collaborating with other small companies such as Haagen Dazs and Yoplait.
General Mills’ strategic choices are aligned with the Porter generic strategies of cost leadership and differentiation. The top executives of the company focus on increasing their product brands but not one product. They put considerable effort into improving the quality of the products and creating brand loyalty to sustain the competitive advantage. Producing a variety of products to serve all the markets both locally and internationally has helped increase their market share, customers, and revenues by targeting a broader market.