SDI
... (SDI)SDI was founded by Bo Haeberle, Glen Thomas and Ed Welsh in October 1998. ... Problem IdentificationThe obvious problem facing SDI and its management they are not making money. ... In the past six months, delinquent orders were accumulating and SDI had been unable to fulfilled the increasing orders. ... SDI was only responsible to assemble the parts. ... „X The industry average for total expenses over revenue in the furniture industry was about 27%„X Unit cost of SDI bird feeder was high. ... Bird feeders from other rivals were much more cheaper compared with SDI. The high cost of SDI products was mainly due to its low production volume. ... Lack business knowledge in business and financial management„X SDI was unable to produce a marketing plan and a business plan for potential investor. ... This can be seen when SDI has to sub-contract the production to ease the demand without prior planning. ... Inefficient production execution and distribution„X SDI could not meet customer demand and had to intentionally slowed sales to allow production to catch up with demand. ... „X SDI does not have a good purchasing and quality control procedure to control quality of incoming raw materials. ... Ineffective marketing„X Ambiguous maker positioning - The solar feeder was positioned as a high end/upscale product, however SDI would like to position it lower to compete with competitor product to generate more sales. There was no clear market positioning in SDI for the solar feeder. ... SDI observer a seasonal pattern in the demand, where orders came in peak around Jan to March, and gradually reduce between April and December, orders will become less. ... There are investors with sufficient capital interested in investing in SDI. ... There are a number of groups, including much of SDI¡¦s target market, that are sensitive to how animals (including squirrels) are treated. ... With $59,963 in fixed costs, SDI needs to sell 1,875 feeders per year to break even. ... SDI needs additional outside investors. ... SDI should develop a business plan, conduct market research, and create a mission/vision for the company. This will provides direction to a directionless SDI. It will also satisfy potential investors¡¦ desire for business plan, thereby increasing capital available to finance business to ease SDI financial conditions. SDI would need to get external help, as the management team does not have the business knowledge to accomplish the task. While acquiring external help, SDI should take this opportunity to educate them on business knowledge in which they are lacking. ... In the long term, SDI should achieve earnings to allow owners to devote full time to the business within 5 years and to provide a dividend/ROI to outside investors by the time.