Strategic_Plan

Executive Summary Florida’s economy is heading straight towards recession. According to Lewis Goodkin President of Goodkin Consulting Corp. and Florida property appraiser for more than 30 years, “Florida is the epicenter for all the problems that exist in the housing industry…the problems we have now are unprecedented and a lot of people are going to get burnt, (Irvy, 2007, p. 1). Where does that leave companies that rely upon the housing and construction industries for survival' In response to the massive decline of the Florida construction and housing industries many companies have fallen victim to insolvency, others struggle with survival and a limited few some how manage to grow. When faced with such drastic changes to the industries, companies must decide whether to venture into other markets in hopes of growing, scale back in hopes of surviving or remain status quo and hope for the best. Regardless the choice, companies must put together a plan that focuses on the choices made and establishes objectives and priorities that lead to the company’s ultimate goal. Companies can survive and grow or succumb to defeat and join the masses of other companies that made wrong choices or simply chose the easy way out and close the doors. The following paper presents the strategic planning initiative for Gulf Tile Distributors (GTD) for 2008. The process begins with a brief description of the company, its mission, vision and commitment. Following the company information will be analyses of the environments, both internal and external, affecting the company’s performance. Focusing on the analyses results, long-term objectives will be developed and an implementation strategy will be put into action. The final sections will include financial analyses, critical success factors, controls and evaluation processes. The entire plan is designed for GTD’s survival and ultimate growth in the highly volatile Florida construction and housing industry. Company Background Gulf Tile Distributors (GTD), founded in 1960 by Mr. Frank L. Garcia, is Tampa Bay’s oldest and largest tile supplier. Today GTD, lead by Frank Garcia, Jr., is in its second generation of providing tile to builders and contractors. The culture of the company is customer oriented and relationship-driven. From the early days of the company under the leadership of Frank Sr. through today with Frank Jr. at the helm, GTD continues to strive for service unparalleled in the industry. Gulf Tile’s Mission Assessment of the market and how the company view’s its position in that market is how the company’s mission is formulated. As the State of Florida sees declining markets in a multitude of industries GTD remains persistent in developing programs designed to offer only the highest quality product delivered to the customer by the finest quality service staff. Not much has changed over the years. The original mission statement created by Frank Sr., “service is our most important product,” is clearly the basis on which the current mission statement, “we work hard to provide quality design products to our customers with unsurpassed service where together we can succeed,” is founded, (Company overview, 2007).