Writing Samples
Writing Sample .01
Masters Level Finance Class Discussion Post
In my previous position, I was the program manager of event manager for a mid-sized catering company. I was brought on as they expanded and were going into the busy season. Although there were plans for growth, I was the only event manager when I was hired. During my time at the company, I established a system for each event to go through to streamline the process. I focused a lot of time on the lifecycle establishment and building out the SOPs. For the post-event success measurement, I created a worksheet for the team to go through the event and grade its success of it - noting issues and their corresponding department (warehouse, kitchen, staffing, on-site management, client representative), grading the event from 1 to 10 in terms of success, noting profit/loss and any liability issues, and other measurements.
Every Tuesday, we would sit down and review the events, grading them and making changes. This helped us highlight the quality of team members, find pain points, build the framework for hiring a staffing director, and debrief from the events - noting the good and bad and translating them in terms of growth points for the company.
I didn’t know this yet, but I had essentially created a hybrid of a balanced scorecard. We reviewed our business processes to find a better way to remove human error pain points - nothing is more fun than finding a store in wine country that sells rolls when you’re two hours away from the kitchen and no one checked the rolls. We tackled points for learning and growth - we added more training for new team members and gave them a coach which helped with timeliness and turnover. We improved customer success and financial strategy - one time, we had a client invite thirty extra guests! We had enough food, but we were short ten place settings. The resolution was to add in a reconfirmation email three days prior to reconfirming everything and stress over points like the guest count, timing, and menu. We also added a note to bring 20% of the guest count in extra disposable place settings and to have a day of point of contact for additional balances.
I think in events, strategy, streamlining, and consistency are key. Balanced scorecards are actually really beneficial given the nature of the work. A medium-sized full-service catering company that does $15 million in revenue (in a non-pandemic year) will do about 500 to 600 events with about an average of 150 guests each. That’s a lot of people to feed, things to celebrate - and if you don’t have consistency, one client could have an amazing, fantastic experience whereas another could have a really terrible one. When you use something like a balanced scorecard and a strategy map, you have a path to reflect, grow, and ensure that the product you are producing is consistent.
- Any experience you have with utilizing the balanced scorecard and strategy map
- Ways in which you may be able to utilize managerial accounting and the balanced scorecard or strategy map in your field
Writing Sample .02
Masters Level Marketing Class Essay Prompt
Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to identify how Porter’s Five Forces model applies to Disney World Theme Park’s strategy and outlook. Porter’s Five Forces model consists of five different attributes that identify the position a particular company or brand is within its relative market. The five forces that make up the model are Competition in the Industry, Potential of New Entrants into the Industry, Power of Suppliers, Power of Consumers, and the Threat of Substitute Products. Each of these five forces has a different influence on the marketing decisions that Disney makes.
Competition in the Industry
The first force of Porter’s Five Forces is regarding competition in the industry. Disney World Theme Park is a global brand within the theme park industry, and as such has a high number of competitors. When consumers are looking for somewhere to take their families, they can find countless articles on the internet comparing Disney against its competitors, opening families up to the idea of visiting other theme parks that might provide a similar experience for a different cost or at a different location. One particular example of the articles inquiring consumers might find is one by Hello Travel (Hello Travel, n.d.). Hello, Travel details three competitors in the United States that consumers might find a better option: Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio; Camp Jellystone in multiple locations across the US and Canada; and Hershey Park in Pennsylvania.
The number of competitive rivals and the quality of those rivals likely influence Disney to be progressive about their parks and the activities, characters, and themes that are in the parks. Disney is constantly working to acquire new brands, build new attractions, and update their current selection - all of which are likely influenced by the competition in the industry. Due to the volume of rivals, this force is a high-level force that Disney must pay close attention to.
Potential of New Entrants in the Industry
The second force of Porter’s Five Forces is also regarding competition in the industry but focuses more on new entrants into the industry. The theme park industry is an incredibly difficult industry to break into. When building a theme park, there is a very high initial investment: you must purchase a significant amount of land, spend exorbitant amounts of money on a diverse selection of rides, create attractions and fringe items like mini-games and food stands, ensure that significant safety measures are taken and approved by governmental agencies, and spend a significant amount of money on name recognition and creating public trust. As no one wants to visit an unsafe theme park, your first years must be close to accident-free. This industry is incredibly difficult to break into, and it is rare to see a new brand of theme park come up because of this. Given these factors, this force is a low-level force.
Power of Suppliers
The third force of Porter’s Five Forces is the power of suppliers. What this centers around is the influence that the suppliers have on the brand. In this case, suppliers are companies that
provide things like food, beverages, and merchandise. One particular example of this is Dole, a production company that provides ingredients for some very popular dishes at the Disney parks. It is important to Disney that consistently high-quality providers are chosen, as they further the Disney brand and influence consumer choices to spend money at the parks beyond the cost of the ticket. In this same vein, suppliers are highly influenced to work with Disney, as Disney is globally one of the most well-known and respected brands in many industries. This particular force is a medium-level force due to the give and takes between the power of the suppliers and the power of the Disney brand.
Power of Consumers
The fourth force of Porter’s Five Forces is the power of consumers. This force is all about the power that a consumer has over the brand. As consumers are specifically what Disney caters to, this is a very influential force. As the Disney consumer demographics change, Disney must alter how it caters to the consumer. That being said, Disney has a very large customer base, with a 70% return rate for first-time visitors (Ogino, n.d.).This shows that while the consumers do hold power, the Disney brand has such a large and profitable consumer base that it tends to be able to naturally attract rather than significantly work to appeal to and repair relationships with its consumer. Because of this, I would say that this force is a medium-to-low-level force.
The Threat of Substitute Products
The fifth and final force of Porter’s Five Forces is the threat of substitute products. This force is looked at as when a consumer, rather than choosing the brand or one of its competitors, chooses an alternative. In this case, it would be if a consumer, rather than choosing to plan a family vacation to Disney World or one of its competitors, such as Hershey Park, chose instead to take their family on a cruise or to visit a national park. As with the first force, competition in the industry, there are numerous articles on the internet giving consumers ideas on alternatives to going to a theme park. One website, Goofy’s Golf Getaway, mentions activities like hot air balloon rides, helicopter tours, iFly Orlando - an indoor skydiving facility, and the Orlando Science Center (Goofy’s Golf Getaway, n.d.). To combat this, Disney’s marketing needs to be strong enough to attract consumers that might be looking outside of the theme park industry. Given the difficulties of this, I would say this force is a medium-to-high-level force.
Conclusion
The Porter’s Five Forces model does a good job of allowing marketers and brand analyzers to establish a brand’s position within their industry. For each force, you can put them in ranking order for which particular force is most important, progressing downwards until you discern which particular force is least important. For Disney, the forces, when ranked in order of most important to least important: Competition in the Industry, Threat of Substitute Products, Power of Suppliers, Power of Consumers, and Potential of New Entrants into the Industry.