Pepsiamericas-Building a Techsavy Company
Introduction
In 2000, PepsiAmericas merged with Whiteman Corporation and together they served 17 states in USA, 4 countries in Central Europe and several in Caribbean, which grew significantly by 2009. Its revenue too grew despite the economic challenges. They were in a good position technologically and financially. However, reaching there was not easy. Starting from 2001, PepsiAmericas started a process of significant IT enabled change initiatives in the organization at the same time building strong IT Business relationship. These changes led to the evolution of PepsiAmericas from a low tech regional business that shipped just drinks to customers, to an information savvy enterprise that delivered hundreds of SKU’s as required by the retailers. IT related business changes brought about by PepsiAmericas eventually helped them respond to the market changes quickly without disrupting their supply chain management and improve their services altogether.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: PepsiAmericas merger with Whiteman Corporation, Spread demographically, reliable products (Pepsi, Mountain Dew), growth in their product line.
Weakness: Truck drivers operating as a salesperson (conventional route sales), organization’s regional structure and strong entrepreneurial culture, resistance to change the line of authority, less importance/lower value given to the IT unit, unfamiliarity with IT.
Opportunities: Growth of Information Technology (IT), Global market availability
Threat: Changing market demands, strong beverage competitors like Cola, powerful national retailers, and environmental concerns of consumers, coping up with the growth in IT.
From SWOT Analysis we see that, PepsiAmericas had more weakness and threats than strengths and opportunities. Nonetheless, they boldly targeted their weakness one by one in phases and built a strong IT business infrastructure that helped them prosper.
Building a Path towards a TechSavvy Company (IT and non IT steps)
Overcoming
In 2000, PepsiAmericas merged with Whiteman Corporation and together they served 17 states in USA, 4 countries in Central Europe and several in Caribbean, which grew significantly by 2009. Its revenue too grew despite the economic challenges. They were in a good position technologically and financially. However, reaching there was not easy. Starting from 2001, PepsiAmericas started a process of significant IT enabled change initiatives in the organization at the same time building strong IT Business relationship. These changes led to the evolution of PepsiAmericas from a low tech regional business that shipped just drinks to customers, to an information savvy enterprise that delivered hundreds of SKU’s as required by the retailers. IT related business changes brought about by PepsiAmericas eventually helped them respond to the market changes quickly without disrupting their supply chain management and improve their services altogether.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: PepsiAmericas merger with Whiteman Corporation, Spread demographically, reliable products (Pepsi, Mountain Dew), growth in their product line.
Weakness: Truck drivers operating as a salesperson (conventional route sales), organization’s regional structure and strong entrepreneurial culture, resistance to change the line of authority, less importance/lower value given to the IT unit, unfamiliarity with IT.
Opportunities: Growth of Information Technology (IT), Global market availability
Threat: Changing market demands, strong beverage competitors like Cola, powerful national retailers, and environmental concerns of consumers, coping up with the growth in IT.
From SWOT Analysis we see that, PepsiAmericas had more weakness and threats than strengths and opportunities. Nonetheless, they boldly targeted their weakness one by one in phases and built a strong IT business infrastructure that helped them prosper.
Building a Path towards a TechSavvy Company (IT and non IT steps)
Overcoming