IntroductionMr Cory's Cookies is a start-up bakery founded by 13-year-old entrepreneur Cory Nieves and his single mother Lisa Howard in 2009. At the age of 6, Cory started his small business to raise money to buy his mother a car after getting tired of traveling on public transportation. He started selling hot chocolate and lemonade on the streets of New Jersey, then moved on to cookies. Not wanting her son to take on the burden of buying her a car, Lisa encouraged Cory to continue selling cookies to save for his college education. The duo then focused on perfecting the recipe with all organic ingredients and ventured into other cookie flavors such as Double Dark and Sugar. Mr. Cory's cookies are marketed through pop-up shops at car dealerships and local businesses. Their cookies became so popular that they were featured on the Ellen Show and given a car to service the business. With that publicity and exposure from the show, there was high demand for the all-natural cookie from the public and large companies like Target, American Airline, QVC (Quality Value Convenience), Walmart, and Whole Foods. Regardless of their popularity, Mr Cory's Cookies couldn't reach their full potential without the infrastructure and foundation to run a business. Lisa's insecurity about her education allowed many opportunities for advancement to pass her by. Furthermore, her ignorance of contingent factors affecting businesses allowed her to sign a contract with a competitor without understanding the fine print. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayMarcus Lemonis, the brainchild of CSNBC series The Profit, offers the cookie cutter duo the chance to partner with him to grow their company as an e-commerce business. This change of direction from a regular store is due to the cookie's 2-day shelf life and the licensing agreement Lisa signed with Clever Cookie because she was eager to release the product, no matter if it's not her product. He made no contingency plan and didn't involve the right people. Marcus was concerned about founder Cory not knowing the fundamentals of running a business, namely knowing his sales numbers and unavailability of the product online. Marcus reviews individual and company goals and plans, but while he is impressed, none were specific to the company. He looked at the financial statements for a 4-year period and was impressed that they had records showing profits and losses over the years. Lisa reveals to Marcus that she doesn't trust easily as she has been let down in the past, which has led to the company's suffering. Marcus offers Lisa and Cory a 100,000 deal for 40% of the company. The money is to assist with packaging design, website reconstruction, product development, brochure creation and product launch. Marcus also helps Lisa find a loophole in her licensing agreement with her co-packager Clever Cookies. The deal was made when Lisa got tired of waiting for Mr Cory's Cookies to be in stores. Her desperation and lack of education had forced her into the contract. Lisa is introduced to other small business owners for support and to an Amazon team to manage the online arena of their rebranded business. The episode ends with Marcus showing Lisa and Cory their new office and complete rebrandingof the product. This according to Lemonis will allow Lisa to focus on things that are easy to execute and will allow Cory to be the face of the company but still have time for his education. Tell Lisa that she needs to have confidence in herself as a leader and tell her story to show other entrepreneurs that success is possible with the right resources. The purpose of this assignment was to apply what we have learned in theory and compare it by analyzing Mr. Cory's Cookie Business representing a practical situation. It is a way of testing what we have learned from the lessons by applying it to the situation. It helps us examine a situation, identify positives and negatives, and make recommendations based on what we've learned. According to the literature, “objectives provide direction for all management decisions and actions and are the criterion against which actual results are measured. Everything that organizational members do should be oriented towards achieving goals. “I think goals would play an important role in planning the change in direction of the company. A big part of any business plan is identifying your goals and detailing how you intend to achieve them. If you know where you want your business to go, you will be in a strong position to know whether or not you have reached your goal. In the case of Cory and Lisa, while they set general goals, they had no plans to achieve them. This contributed to frustration in responding to the lack of an office, high demand for their product, and selling an organic product. When you set goals ahead of time and continually monitor your business against those goals, you can change course mid-year or as needed. For example, in the case of Cory and Lisa, no planning was done before venturing into the business. They simply started selling hot chocolate and cookies and made do with the little they earned. They did not evaluate their resources. There are so many elements that go into selling an edible product from home. Some include special permits and separate tools. The bottom line is that not having a goal is like building a house without a plan. Making your goals specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) ensures you not only know what you will do, but also how you will do it. We can see how Lisa, using a single goal in terms of distributing cookies in stores, led her to sign a contract that, according to Lemonis, took away “all of her rights, all of her intellectual property, her recipe, the its brand, its brand across all retail categories” for a minimal fee just to have the biscuit on the shelves regardless of quality. Marcus was shown a list of 10 goals written on a piece of paper in Cory's room. The objectives listed had perhaps 2 of the six characteristics of well-written objectives that are well-written in terms of outcome, measurable and quantifiable, clear as to time frame, challenging but achievable, written and communicated to all members of the organization who need to know them. Although they were written, none of them were clear about the time period. Furthermore, they were not written in terms of outcomes as none of the objectives were linked to each other. For example, one of the goals was to have a shop and kitchen, but it did not specify what having a shop and kitchen would accomplish. Management by objectives would have been a more efficient and effective way for Lisa to plan. In Lisa's case, it is important for her to know that setting goals will not necessarily guarantee the success of her business. If she had taken itsome time to look at Mr. Cory's cookies from a broader perspective would have given her more confidence in what lies ahead and in her ability to handle it. Lisa and Cory have created a popular product, and the company's potential is what attracted Marcus Lemonis to invest. However, it was important for them to at least have product goals. Some goals might include: Create 4 new cookie flavors within a year to generate increased sales during special dates such as Valentine's Day, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day. Acquire 3 repeat customers for Mr Cory's Cookies within 3 months by asking for referrals and launching a social media marketing campaign. This will enable business growth and increased revenue. Plan and execute 10 pop-up stores this year with 20+ customers per event and a satisfied or very satisfied response of 80% or higher on cookie flavor. In an industry like this there is a need to have both long and short term objectives. Goals for the business itself and goals for everyone involved in running the business, from the owner on down, all make a big difference when trying to get the most out of a solid business plan. Plans for small businesses like Mr Cory's Cookies need to be flexible. Management plans would be a good choice as they are flexible and establish general guidelines. In each area, carefully developed goals should give Lisa better control of the work. Lisa should set one or two goals in each of the following categories: regular work goals, problem-solving goals, innovation goals, and development goals. Development goals and plans will allow Lisa to recognize the importance of acquiring new skills. There should be a long-term plan for continued growth as an employee and as a manager. Lisa and Cory should have short-term plans when they want to create new cookie flavors to improve sales, as mentioned in the previous question. Short term plans would be ideal in case it is not a popular flavor or garners bad reviews, they can always change the flavor or tweak it to make it better. Other short-term plans attend a business class. Yes, the biggest sales are due to the chocolate chip cookie, but you have to make choices. To compete with the changing market, they must have plans to revise their product and plans if necessary. Mr Cory's Cookies will need to use innovative approaches to make its business competitive in a rapidly changing national and international business environment. Specific plans are clearly defined and leave no room for interpretation. They should have a plan for the next 6-12 months, as well as a 3-5 year plan that includes specific growth goals. If your plan doesn't include ways to manage your company's growth, you need to revisit and rewrite it. They should have specific plans about the new direction of the company. What do they want from online business? One of Lisa's goals was to hire 70% of single mothers, while Cory's goal was for the cookie to be nationwide or worldwide. These are good goals but can be more specific. They can plan for these challenges by continuing to listen to the needs and desires of their customers. They should also pay close attention to how the market is changing and imagine how their business will adapt to those changes. I believe all these types of plans are important because a company should always be goal oriented and have the future in mind and be as prepared as possible for any outcome or change. Having goals gives more meaning to daily activities and clarifies the reasons behind thembasis of business decisions. The importance of these plans is fundamental to allocating resources and achieving objectives. Knowing where you want to go and how to get there is why plans are necessary. We can look at a plan as a way to solve problems. While your business is about you and what you like to do, it is first and foremost about your customers and what they would like from you and how you can solve their problems effectively. According to the literature, contingency factors that influence planning include the manager level of the organization, the degree of environmental uncertainty, and the duration of future commitments. It doesn't matter if you run an online store or a brick-and-mortar store, there are some small business challenges that every owner faces. The factors that influence planning depend on the process you intend to protect. According to Webster's dictionary, contingency means “factors that may happen in the future, but the chances of that happening are beyond your control.” Have a contingency plan that addresses the “what ifs” of the business. What if Marcus Lemonis decides not to invest? What would Lisa's next step be? As an e-commerce cookie company, one contingency factor could be internet disruption. With Mr Cory's biscuits we can also see that the level of the manager in an organization is crucial. Cory and Lisa have the roles reversed. We can admit that Cory started the business, but Lisa is the one who makes all the decisions related to the business. Managers at all levels must make decisions on behalf of a company. But what happens when the manager doesn't know or understand the impact of the decisions made? Lisa's lack of training and education is a contingency factor. They had no idea what selling cookies on the streets of New Jersey would entail. There was no planning for the question, especially working in a commercial kitchen. Lack of Resources Environmental uncertainty is the degree to which an organization lacks factual information or competent information regarding the organization's internal and external operating environment. This basically means the unknown in the organization and business field relevant to the company's business. With a limited educational background for Lisa, it was difficult for her to see the importance of networking, listening and receiving advice. The contingency factor that influences planning in terms of the length of future commitments for Mr Cory's Cookies would be the contract with Clever Cookies that they may have to fulfill even in the event of an emergency. If you take all of these contingency factors into consideration when making a business decision for a small business, there are likely to be some that will involve too much risk to carry, meaning that contingency factors can greatly influence your planning. The point is that managers can plan effectively in today's dynamic environment by using specific but flexible plans. Entrepreneurs are the driving force behind the creation and growth of new businesses. Many times it is also the people who hold them back. In the case of Mr Cory's biscuits it was Lisa in terms of skills and aptitude. The skills that help you start your business are usually not the same as those that help you grow. He needed training to learn the skills and attitudes required by someone leading a growing company. Learning to listen and accept advice was a challenge for Lisa, but it was essential to making the most of her opportunities with Marcus. The literature states that it is important to continue planning even when the environment is highly uncertain. Rather than leaving the informal meeting with the vice presidents of.