decision Erickson should recommend, whether to develop a healthy Progresso soup line internally, or collaborating with Weight Watchers in the development. General Mills has been successful at developing other light foods, such as yogurt, so they could probably develop their own brand of light soups for the Progresso brand. However, collaborating with a well-known and respected brand such as Weight Watchers could allow them to be more creative and innovative with their soups, because Weight Watchers is a known brand, and they have developed their own successful line of Weight Watcher food items, so they have much more experience.
General Mills might choose to develop their light soups on their own, because they have their own development department with years of experience, and they have developed light products in the past that have become successful. Since Progresso is so successful, they might want to keep the makeup of the soup…...

Total eward Program
General Mills is a major food producer with a stable business selling packaged foods to supermarkets. The company earned $17.9 billion in revenue in 2014, and on that took home $1.8 billion in net income (MSN Moneycentral, 2015). According to its 2014 Annual eport, the company sees its strategy as "putting the consumer first." The company competes by connecting with consumers and developing "deep insight into what they like to eat, where they shop for food and how they approach cooking" (p.1). The company notes that the industry in the developed world is mature, with just 1.5% growth in the U.S., slower than overall industrial sales growth. Input costs, however, were up 4%, creating a challenging operating market (2014 Annual eport). The report's explanation of the company's business indicates that General Mills is primarily a marketing-driven company, developing products and utilizing channels suited to getting goods to the…...

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References

Business Week (2007). 2007 best places to launch a career. Business Week. Retrieved May 9, 2015 from  http://www.businessweek.com/careers/bplc/2007/20.htm 

General Mills 2014 Annual Report. Retrieved May 9, 2015 from  http://www.generalmills.com/News/~/media/660463DE7E344969A4F39771716E4E77.ashx 

General Mills (2015). Leadership. General Mills. Retrieved May 9, 2015 from  https://generalmills.com/Company/Leadership/LeadershipDetails/?Lid=f03b9f73-fb46-4afa-b4cc-efaf2008ca5b 

Glassdoor Inc. (2004). General Mills. Glassdoor Inc. Retrieved April 2, 2015 from  http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-General-Mills-EI_IE278.11,24.htm#WhyWorkForUsTab-8781

Discussion Unlike similar firms, General Mills offers a comprehensive statement of purpose rather than a traditional mission statement or statement of vision. General Mills’ statement of purpose is succinct, capturing the company’s core mission, values, and vision. “We serve the world by making food people love,” (“Purpose,” 2017). Unsurprisingly, the General Mills mission statement is remarkably similar to that of their competitor Kraft, which is “Helping people around the world to eat and live better,” (“Kraft Food’s Mission Statement,” 2011). The word “serve” suggests that General Mills wants to cultivate a consumer-focused approach to food-related businesses, while the “food people love” phrase connotes comfort food and food that is culturally appropriate.
General Mills also lists five main pursuits, including putting people first, building a culture of creating, making food with passion, earning people’s trust, and treating the world with care (“Purpose,” 2017). Each of these separate pursuits is addressed on the company…...

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References

“Kraft Food’s Mission Statement,” (2011). Kraft Foods.

Module 1 Background.

“Our Planet,” (2017). General Mills. https://www.generalmills.com/en/Responsibility/OurPlanet

“Purpose,” (2017). General Mills. https://www.generalmills.com/en/Company/purpose

http://kraftblogr.blogspot.com/2011/09/kraft-foods-mission-statement.html

Options include:

Investing 1 to 30% of your pay. General Mills will match a portion of your contribution with a potential additonal match based on the company's annual performance.

Choice of managed investment funds plus individual stocks, bonds and mutual funds outside the funds offered by the company.

loan feature is available before retirement.

Stock options and ownership

Employees can share in our successes by owning a portion of the company. The company match in the 401(k) is in company stock, and our voluntary stock purchase program allows another opportunity for ownership.

nnual stock option grants are available to some management-level employees.

Insurance

We offer life, long-term care, legal, auto and homeowners insurance, plus company-paid short- and long-term disability insurance.

We provide mortgage counseling and assistance for selling your house and purchasing a new home.

Educational assistance

Want to continue your education? We reimburse employees for job-related courses, and you'll find educational loans and scholarship opportunities for employees and family…...

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A bachelor's degree in MIS, computer science, or related discipline, is preferred.

Formerly, the baseline hiring requirements had not been as clearly defined, but now they are more sharply directed.

© 2011 General Mills Inc. All Rights Reserved | an Equal Opportunity Employer Contact usHomeFAQTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyCommunity RulesSite map

Diversity is increasingly becoming a serious H issue for companies in the 21st century marketplace. Organizations have been forced to develop strategies for increasing the representation of minority groups and making their workplaces more favorable for them. General Mills was recently named one of the most inclusive companies in the world. This text examines the company's diversity program with the aim of determining what it does differently from competitors and what the possible weak spots are.
General Mills: Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity is one of the major H issues that companies have been forced to deal with to gain competitive advantage. Companies with effective diversity and inclusion strategies are generally perceived as being more favorable workplaces than those with ineffective programs. General Mills was recently named one of the 50 most inclusive workplaces by DiversityInc. This text examines the company's diversity program with the aim of identifying what it does differently from…...

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References

Ahmad, M. (n.d.). Chronoligical Overview of the Cereal Industry. Academia. Retrieved from  http://www.academia.edu/9730918/Chronological_Overview_Of_The_Cereal_Industry 

Combs, G. & Nadkarni, S. (2005). The Tale of Two Cultures: Attitudes towards Affirmative Action in the United States and India. Management Department Faculty Publications (paper 51). Retrieved from  http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=managementfacpub 

Ferrell, O.C. & Fraedrich, J. (2012). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision-Making and Business (9th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Flamholtz, E. (1996). Effective Management Control: Theory and Practice. Norwell, MA: Springer

The Five Forces model provides a means of assessing the overall profitability of an industry. General Mills operates in the processed food industry, focusing on sales to grocery outlets. The bargaining power of buyers is often quite strong, because there are only a handful of major players in any one area. The industry is becoming increasingly concentrated. In fact, Wal-Mart now controls 21.5% of the US grocery market, giving it tremendous bargaining power over a supplier like General Mills (Daniels, 2017). Balancing this is the fact that as a major buyer of agricultural products, General Mills can exert pressure down the supply chain – but often times the suppliers have limited control over their costs so this tactic is risky and just ends up squeezing out farmers. Careful supply chain management is required to maintain the sustainability of the business (Church, 2015).
The economic environment is generally favorable at present, with…...

Week 1 The corporate level strategy of General Mills is the horizontal growth strategy. Imperatively, horizontal growth is accomplished by expanding its business operations into other geographic expanses or by expanding the range of products as well as services being offered in the prevailing market. In this regard, General Mills has expanded its business operations not just in the United States but also internationally and increasing its wide range of products retailed in its stores. The generic Porter strategy followed by General Mills is the differentiation focus strategy. This is in the sense that the company strives to accomplish differentiation in its target segment (Porter, 1985). This is largely owing to the fact that the company deals with different products within its segment including cereals, frozen vegetable, fruit, dry dinners, frozen pizza as well as pizza snacks, and an extensive range of organic products (Forbes, 2018). The strategic choices of General…...

Mills
Decisions about international business take into account a wide range of different factors, including political, economic and social environments, in addition to firm-specific issues such as where to produce, what the company makes and how easy it is to ship the company's product. In this report, the case of General Mills in Europe will be considered. General Mills is a major producer on consumer consumables, and the countries in question are going to be France and Greece. The paper is going to discuss the key issues with respect to each country, keeping in mind the General Mills context.

General Mills produces food under a number of common household brands -- Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Yoplait and Nature Valley. The company is based in Minneapolis and began in 1860 with two flour mills, hence the name. The company would change its name to Gold Medal Flour in…...

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Works Cited:

ABC. (2012). Brain drain: 120,000 professionals leave Greece amid crisis. Der Spiegel. Retrieved May 6, 2013 from  http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/unemployment-and-recession-in-greece-lead-to-brian-drain-a-893519.html 

General Mills.com (2013). History & brand heritage. General Mills. Retrieved May 6, 2013 from  http://www.generalmills.com/Company/History/Brand_heritage.aspx 

2012 General Mills Annual Report.

Hofstede, G. (2013). France. Retrieved May 6, 2013 from  http://geert-hofstede.com/france.html

SWOT Analysis

With that, some strengths and weaknesses of eneral Mills are the following from a SWOT analysis due to customer satisfaction.

Strengths

The net income was thirty percent higher in 2003 than previous years since it became seventy hundred sixty million

eneral Mills is one of the largest consumer foods companies in America in today's modern society

The company has a strong name brand

Consumer food is the biggest revenue that the company had to date

The company has a good marketing strategy by having events, direct mail with customers while advertising world wide

Weaknesses

Prices are high

Hard to obtain shares in European countries

eneral Mills has not been able to get into the market in India, which one of the biggest markets

Required production is not being met on schedule, analyzing future for the company

Strength/Opportunity

Strength/Threat Weakness/Opportunity

Weakness/Threat

SO Strategy

ST Strategy

WO Strategy

WT Strategy

Expand production to countries

Increase strength in name brand

Improve employee relations

Expand production in Canada

Market to younger customers

With the above SWOT analysis,…...

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General Mills did understand being an individual does not necessarily mean that you are of white, black, red, brown, or yellow complexion because they knew their customers came from all over the world. The term individual has no racial insinuations for virtually people trace their roots from distinct nationalities, races and ethnic groups and this complication alone can cause innumerable perplexed things. Therefore, it is recommended that the company should appeal to younger audiences especially those of difference races. The brands that they will make in the future should appeal to the younger generation by adapting the latest trends for that younger audience. General Mills needs to find the business, consumer, and international markets to produce what is needed to push it to the next level, which is to appeal to a younger audience and fan base of the company in order to gain customers to ensure their concept of customer intimacy that has been apart of their mission statement all along. From there, it is also recommended that in order to grab that younger audience's attention, they must conduct market research on what gets their attention the most in order to stay number one in the motorcycle industry.

(2010). Forbes places General Mills in top tier of 'world's most respected companies. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from  http://www.generalmills.ca/Gmi/NewsPage.aspx?NewsNumber=27 

General Mills, Inc. - SWOT Analysis. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from  http://www.just-food.com/store/product.aspx?id=58649

Mills Arguements
Intrinsic Value of Liberty

There can be very few doubts as to the importance of liberty to the philosophical espousing of John Stuart Mill, who even authored a treatise entitled On Liberty to underscore the amount of emphasis he placed on this particular concept. What is most interesting about the many different notions the author has in relation to freedom is the circumscriptions that are routinely placed upon it in what is the age-old conflict between the individual and the group -- the latter of which routinely takes the form of government or some other determining mechanism of society. Not surprisingly, Mill presents a number of viewpoints that contradict the notion that the morality of the state should influence the personal opinions and actions of the individual, especially when the effects of those actions only resonate within the individual himself. The two most eminent of these arguments, of course, revolve…...

To cultivate genius when it does appear, a society must be free for all, not just the recognized geniuses. or, as Mill more eloquently puts it, "it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they [geniuses] grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom...If from timidity they consent to be forced into one of these moulds [of conformity]...society will be little the better for their genius" (on Liberty, 9). Mill uses the extreme example of genius to illustrate the general principle he has devoted this entire book to; namely, that individual liberty is essential for the progress of a society. In this particular facet of his argument, he uses the archetypal vision of the genius to add a concrete incarnation of what otherwise might be an abstract and abstruse concept. Instead, Mill's view of liberty is rendered strikingly clear by his use of logic and…...

Courage, intelligence for example could be used for wrong purposes and hence it was important pre-requisite to have good will if an action was to be termed moral.
Intelligence, wit, judgment, and the other talents of the mind, however they be named, or courage, resoluteness, and perseverance as qualities of temperament, are doubtless in many respects good and desirable. But they can become extremely bad and harmful if the will, which is to make use of these gifts of nature and which in its special constitution is called character, is not good. (Kant 2: p 9)

John Stuart Mill on the other hand proposed a different theory of morality which stated that an action is right if it promotes happiness of the greatest number of people. In other words, if an action maximizes general happiness then it can be deemed moral. Mill felt that maximization of general happiness was the pre-requisite…...

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Works Cited

Kolak, Daniel. The Mayfield Anthology of Western Philosophy. Mountain View:

Mayfield Publishing Company, 1998.

McCloskey, H.J. John Stuart Mill: A Critical Study. London: Macmillan & Co.

Ltd., 1971.

For him, it is also important to know that liberty, while dependent on the individual's decision alone, should also take into account the consequences that will come out upon the accomplishment of an action. That is, it is vital that the individual think of the 'bigger picture': will the action benefit the common good, or will it benefit my personal interests only? Positive liberty, hence, becomes more vital when it goes beyond thinking and speaking, and the individual engages in doing a particular activity, knowing that s/he has the freedom to do so. Mill posits on this issue, "The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people...It is desirable, in short, that in things which do not primarily concern others, individuality should assert itself. Where, not the person's own character, but the traditions or customs of other people…...

Mill talked of ethical freedom in terms of all areas wherein individual and society interacts and become involved with each other; Marx utilized the same viewpoint, although specified it in terms of proletarian-bourgeoisie relations.
For Marx, ethical freedom is self-realization within the individual, and primary in this realization was the acknowledgment that one needs to be economically independent in order for modern individuals, and society in general, to function progressively. Ethical freedom is said to have been achieved if there will develop a new social order, identified as the "industrial proletariat," described to be the modern individuals, belonging to the previously identified proletariat class, who embodies "fresh moral and political idea, but one rooted in the world of material reality" (Morgan, 2005:392). In concrete Marxian terms, self-realization is an event that will occur only once the following elements have been abolished, as cited in "The Communist Manifesto": "representative government, bourgeois…...

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Bibliography

Barnett, V. (2005). "The Soviet economy -- an experiment that was bound to fail?" History Review.

Brennan, J. (2005). "Choice and excellence: a defense of Millian individualism." Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 31, No. 4.

Lovell, D. (2004). "Marx's utopian legacy." The European Legacy, Vol. 9, No. 5.

Marx, K. E-text of "The Communist Manifesto." Project Gutenberg E-texts.

Do you consider Utilitarianism to be the way we ought to determine right and wrong? Why or why not?

I disagree with Utilitariasnim as moral instrument on the grounds that Utilitarianism may, paradoxically, be harmful in that it focuses on the influence of pleasure or pain to the greatest amount of people. In that way, it strikes me as being an incomplete measure for ethics, since (using a hypothetical situation) the majority of people of a specific nation may have pleasure from seeing a minority, who happen to be mentally disabled, annihilated, on the grounds that the majority may have to pay taxes to support this minority. According to Utilitarianism, the majority wins and the minority is annihilated.

Pleasure also assumes various formats including immediate vs. mediate pleasure. Oftentimes, the more immediate types of pleasure are deferred for the longer-term categories (such as saving for the future) that are seen to possess…...

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References

Rosen, Frederick. Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill. USA: Routledge, 2003.