Business Proposal on "Business Plan Funeral Services Business Problem Proposal"

Business Proposal 4 pages (1140 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Business Plan Funeral Services

Business Problem Proposal: Funeral Services Organizational Recommendations

The proposal which is to follow will concern an often unconsidered but fully essential set of services related to funeral arrangements and burial. As the economy changes, so too does this age old business. To my personal experience, as the field alters, so too must its practitioners. With smaller organizations such as the one with which I am affiliated, for instance, the discussion hereafter will speak to a pressing need to rethink business strategy and market approach in order to remain above water.

The funeral services industry has traditionally been founded on family-oriented enterprises. Funeral homes have typically been owned and operated by succeeding generations within one family, helping to stimulate a close relationship between such establishments and their communities. Due to the sensitive nature of the funeral service trade, its practices differ in many ways from those of other profitable businesses. Particularly, price-based competition is rarely employed as a business model. Another unspoken rule of decorum which governs the business is the general abstention from advertising which most funeral service enterprises will abide.

Since the 1980s, the funeral service industry has taken on a new form. The abstention from competition and the perpetual need for the services provided in all communities created a circumstance in which many funeral homes were operating beneath their potential and while simultaneously many were stretched thin by an over-saturation of business. This atmosphere prompted an industry move toward the consolidation of ownership, with large funeral service corporations assuming a dominant role in attempting to coordinate the world's funeral service industry under certain standards of cost effectiveness.

Such is the environment that begat the "John Doe" funeral services corporation. Its central core of leadership initiated a business strategy for the corporation in the mid-80's that centered around acquisition and expansion rather than traditional local market orientation, with the corporation spending the next decade expanding its operations to hold funeral homes and cemeteries all over the world. My interest in the business orientation of the field is especially served well by this model, which demonstrates a clear path outside of those traditional single-location family owned operations. The capacity for operational consistency would here be apparent.

Indeed, John Doe's growth would be rapid and its success in meeting its original vision of constant expansion appeared to be assured. However, there is evidence that the company grew too fast to maintain a constructive path of augmentation. A view at its closest competitor, Anonymous Funeral Services, reveals a fundamental error on the part of John Doe's leadership. The rapid increase of the company's holdings recognized only the potential for great profitability in such expansion. It did not tailor its strategy of acquisition to integrate new holdings into a broader corporate culture, instead leaving them as disparate and decentralized strands of the company. This fell short of the industry-directed impetus on coordinating acquisitions to meet standards of cost-effectiveness.

Another issue, which shareholders expressed succinctly when they forced a change in leadership in the late 1990s, was that of the company's public image, which some insiders believe did not recover from a mid-nineties public image snafu. This public image crisis delivered an impression of John Doe as conducting unfair business practices and using ethnic and racial identifiers to maintain a selective demographic. This was especially damaging to the corporation's standing in many local communities.

This speaks to the largest issue… READ MORE

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