I.

INTRODUCTION
A.

RATIONALE

Congrande Furniture is now on its third year in the industry of making

modernized furnitures. It has been tough for the business to surpass the first two years
considering some problems in financing the business and other issues faced by a newlyestablished businesses. Simple yet sophisticated designs and outstanding customer
service are two of the contributing factors why the business was able to withstand the
challenges of a starting business and even becoming one of the flourishing businesses
in Bicol in the field of furniture making.
Since Congrande is a growing business, a strategic plan will be very helpful to
give the business a clearer view of the path it is taking. It is an essentilal tool to know
the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It also helps in setting
direction and priorities for the business as well as simplifying decisions. In short,
strategic planning will be the overall guide for the business to turn goals into reality.

B.

COMPANY PROFILE
1.

History

Before Guaves family used the name Congrande Furniture, their family has been
involved in the furniture industry since 1980s. Mr. Cleto Guaves, father of the
partners, was once a managing partner of Guaves Furniture, a well-known
furniture shop in Naga City, which was located near Concepcion Grande.
However, Guaves Furniture had experienced financial contraints which lead
Guaves Furniture to close its doors and remained silent until older sibling of Mr.
Cleto took over and restructure the management of Guaves Furniture.
In July 2012, Maricon Deres and Evangelyn Guaves opened another
furniture shop located in National Highway, Concepcion Grande, Naga City,
under the business name of Congrande Furniture. This furniture shop offers
customized-designed made-to-order furniture to the public especially to the
Bicolanos.
2.

Mission
Congrande Furniture strives for design excellence in all its furniture and

aims to continuously introduce exciting collections of individual customized

products. We aim to employ highly skilled committed and motivated people with
a passion for wood furniture and ability to interpret and satisfy our customers.
3.

Vision
At Congrande we believe the design and manufacture of truly original,

high-quality furniture is the result if passion, care, design integrity, experience

craftsmanship and unfaltering dedication to quality. This commitment could not
be realized without fully integrating the design and manufacturing processes. At
our workshops, we start the process with trees and finish with beautifully crafted
wood furniture.

4.

Corporate Goals
Currently continuing its operations on its third year, Congrande Furniture

aim to be more established in the industry and be known throughout the region.
Its objective is to improve its operation and maintain products that they cater to
their clients. It also wants to continuously grow in the business industry. Its shortterm goal is to expand a new branch in Pili, Camarines Sur.
As Congrande Furniture became stable in the industry, it aims to engage
in the following activities:

5.

To be able to invest in machineries and equipment, this would be a

means to increase the productivity of the business.

To be engaged in exporting their products.
Nature of Business
Congrande Furniture is involved in furniture manufacturing industry

which focuses more on modern designs of furniture. It accepts to job orders to

make furniture. Each ordered furniture has different specification that is made for
each customer. Clients may inquire through Congrandes social media accounts
or visit their Congrandes office at Concepcion Grande. They can look for other
designs in the internet using the LED screen at the office and discuss their
desired specifications for their orders.
The companys target market includes the following:

Government Offices
Private institutions

Residential houses/apartments

Individual

C.

Organizational Structure
Congrande Furniture observes the basic organizational structure as shown in the
figure below.

Managers/ Partners
Maricon Deres & Evangelyn
Guaves

Secretary
and
Bookkeepe
rChristian
Guaves
Supervisor
Cleto
Guaves

carpenters

painters

utilities

Managers
The managers are the overall officer-in-charge in the business organization. Their duties and
responsibilities include overall management by organizing and coordinating companys operation
and procedures to ensure organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Being in-charge of the
overall management they perform planning, directing and monitoring. Their planning involves
establishing strategic goals, identifying and evaluating trends and options, choosing a course of
action and identifying objectives. They accomplish this by:

preparing an annual budget;

scheduling expenditures;
analyzing variances
Meanwhile, Congrande Furnitures management direct the members of organization by

coaching, counselling and disciplining laborers, as well as developing, coordinating, and

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enforcing systems, procedures and productivity standards. They also enforce quality and
customer service standards to maintain quality service by:

analyzing and resolving quality and customer service problems

identifying trends
recommending system improvements.

Also, the managers have the responsibility to maintain professional and technical
knowledge about the industry. They take the opportunity to gain more knowledge and new ideas
by attending educational workshops and reviewing professional publications. They establish
personal networks to gain new ideas for products to be developed.
Lastly, the managers are the ones to market their products. As they market the products,
they see to it that the office would be appropriate and presentable for the customers. They deal
with customer inquiries about making orders and settle the price with the customers. They accept
job orders with the specifications required by the client and forward the details to the production
supervisor.
Secretary
The secretary is in-charge of office administration and provides clerical services
which include bookkeeping and maintaining records. As part of office administration, he
plans and implements office systems, layouts and procurement of equipment. In the
absence of the managers, he accepts job orders from the clients.
Aside from office management, he is also in-charge of inventory management.
His responsibility on inventory management includes checking the stocks to determine
inventory level, replenishing the inventory by placing order of needed materials and
verifying the receipt of ordered materials.
Supervisor
The supervisor is responsible for the effectiveness and efficiency of production. He sets
priorities and monitor the progress of production. He prepares production plan by scheduling and
assigning tasks to the workers. He also provides manufacturing information by compiling,
initiating, sorting and analyzing productions and data. He creates and revises systems and

procedures by analyzing operating practices, record-keeping systems, forms of controls, and

budgetary and personnel requirements.

Directing the production staff, he orients the workers of the policies and procedures, and
tasks that they are assigned to do. He initiate and foster a spirit of cooperation among the
workers. He sees to it that good working relationship is maintained between the management
and the workers. Also, he make sure that quality service is maintained by establishing and
enforcing organization standards. During production, he make sure that safe and clean work
environment is maintained by educating and directing personnel on the use of all control points,
equipment, and resources and observe if they work in compliance with established policies and
procedures.
He monitors the flow of production by observing how the workers do their job, checking
the efficiency of the equipment. If the equipment do not operate properly, he calls for mechanical
repair services. He also evaluates if the company needs to invest in a new equipment and
implement new techniques. As much as possible, he implements cost reduction. In case there is
an error in the production, he revise schedule and facilitate corrections to malfunctions within
process control points.
Carpenters
They are responsible for putting and assembling the materials together to build the
furniture. After building the furniture, they sand the surface of the furniture before it is forwarded
to the finishers/ painters.
Painters/ Finishers
The responsibilities of the painters/ finishers are to check if there are still rough surfaces
on the furniture and make sure to polish the rough areas, to check if the joints of the furniture are
glued properly or if there are still gaps between the wood are filled properly, and to apply paint
on the furniture. They should make sure that the wood is already dry before applying the
chemical for treating the wood to avoid immediate occurrence of cracks and damages on the

furniture. They mix the paints to achieve the color indicated in the job order and apply the paint
on the furniture once it is dried.
Helper
The helpers are usually all-around. They assist in making the furniture or painting the
furniture. They also run errands to buy snacks for the workers, or to contact the repairman.

II.

Internal Factors
a. Policy/ Strategies
The Congrande Furnitures key strength includes the wide experience and knowledge

about the business. It can be seen by how the company controls, innovative approaches,
information system has improved and transcended throughout the years resulting to more
empowered employees, satisfied customers and becoming one of the flourishing businesses in
Bicol in the field of furniture-making business. Congrandes control function entails a detailed
process in carrying out its problem in the company and a critical analysis in formulating solution
to problems and taking corrective actions. This strategy of Congrande paves the way to
determining what aspect/s of the business need/s improvement or changes. In terms of design,
the business shifted from classical to modern offering products unique among other furniture
business. Designs are simple yet sophisticated and function is not compensated. There is also a
good relationship between the manager and the workers. The informal type of relationship inside
the working place provides for a two-way feedback as easy as possible resulting to an effective
communication. Compensation is not even a problem because the management has a systematic
way of providing for initial and full payments. Incentives are also given to notable workers. In
this way, employees are motivated. Supervision is done regularly to make sure the job orders are
accomplished on time and required designs are met.
Despite the fact that Congrande has grown and improved significantly, there are still some noted
issues within the business including budgeting, lack of some important equipments and the small
working place. For some businesses, budgeting is a must and takes a major part of planning.
Congrande on the other hand, does not do budgeting ever since because they engage in a preorder system wherein purchasing of materials needed is done once payment (initial or full) are
received. However, problems may arise because there is no systematic way of allocating cost and
possible problems in operation may not be anticipated because budgeting has not been included
in the planning function. Aside from budgeting, Congrande also faces a problem sometimes
because of the absence of some equipments important in the operation. One is the Keen-drier
which keeps the surface of the material dry. The surface must be dry before applying chemicals
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to avoid early damages or cracks to the finished products. This process of drying is only done
when the customer ask for the process to be done. In order to have these materials dry, they pay
other furniture shops with keen drier to do it for them or to buy from their suppliers already dry
materials. The other important equipment is the generator. During power interruption, the
operation also stops because all machines used to make furnitures are power generated. Another
problem of the business is the capacity of the place to store for the equipments and house the
finished products. The nature of the business calls for a larger space however, because the place
is too small, some tasks are stopped to give way to other undertakings (e.g the process of sanding
is stopped to avoid the dust in sticking to the finished furniture). Congrande considers the
regularity in making a decision whether to buy an equipment or not but since keen drying is at
the customers discretion only and power interruption does not happen regularly, Congrande
choose not to prioritize buying these equipments.
b. Evaluation/ Recommendation
Among the strengths of the business mentioned, issue may arise on the relationship between
manager and the workers. The informal relationship might be good in terms of effective
communication and a friendly manager will not intimidate workers however, a too passive
manager might be abused by the workers and be underestimated by them leading to a mediocre
work as a result because they might think that they will not be charged for a work not done right.
However, it is still recommended to maintain such relationship most especially if by experience,
it has been found healthy for the business. The innovative approach of adhering to modern
design is also recommended for it suits the interest of the people in this era. Hiring more creative
staffs is advised. In terms of budgeting which has been considered to be a weakness, Congrande
may consider to practice budgeting in the operations to be able to allocate funds for planned
projects and investments. Budgeting can help maximize resources as well. Regarding the issue of
some important equipments lacking, Congrande has a point in not prioritizing its purchase
because operation still continues despite the absence of the aforementioned equipments. Another
recommendation for the business, to aid the problem of insufficient room for the finished
products, is to deliver the furnitures on time to maximize the space for production. In total

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evaluation, Congrande is doing well so far and issues mentioned within the business are
manageable.

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III.

External Factors
a. Policy/ Strategies

There are factors coming from outside that may affect the Congrande's Furniture. These factors
can affect the organization positively or negatively. It could be an opportunity for Congrande or a
threat that needs to be solved. Power Shortage, Calamities, new Entrants, Suppliers Bargaining
Power, Government tight implementation of Acts, Internet availability, trend or age of modern
designs are some of the external factors Congrande's Furniture is facing in.
The power shortage greatly affects the Congrande for it cause an interruption in the production of
the furniture. Congrande is dependent on electricity for all of their equipment and machines are
electric generated. If a power interruption is announced, they will take overtime on their work
the night before the said interruption. Once a brownout occurs the production is being stopped.
This interruption of production results to losses that make the power shortage a threat on the part
of Congrande. The organization knew about the solution but due to lack of money to buy the P2,
000,000.00 worth generator, threat still exist. Congrande saves every month to have the money
needed to buy the generator. Once they have the generator, no interruption and losses will occur.
Another big factor to consider is the calamity. Calamity like storms that creates flood basically
affects Congrandes business. Since the area where furniture and materials put on are in an open
area, water in times of storm comes in. This destroys the good condition of the materials, the
work-in-process and finished furniture.
Since this is the age of modernization, it is the trend modern designs. Congrandes furniture
designer is fully equipped of seminars, trainings in DTI that gives the organization the edge
against their competitors. Congrande is known for the modern design and it becomes an
opportunity on their side. Modern design is the only design Congrande caters. Since the designer
specializes in modern designs, Congrande's product becomes limited to it. It would be better to
also enter in the classic design.

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Also, the opening of the Pongs Furniture threatened the business. As the time goes by,
the entering of Pong Furniture does not affect the Congrande because of the loyalty of their
costumer and the quality of product they produce. Congrande has an edge for it exists for many
years while Pongs furniture just open just a year ago. Congrande has built its foundation, its
name, and its goodwill.
Suppliers bargaining power controls the Congrandes materials. Materials price as well as
quality. This makes the suppliers a threat on the part of Congrande for it gives a negative effect
on the business. Congrande cannot avoid this kind of situation due to limited suppliers to be
buying in. But if Congrande make a good relationship its suppliers there is this privilege that can
be granted. Privilege like manipulate the price or sort of bigger discounts, or the quality of
materials is better than what is expected. But this situation thought the manager of Congrande
how to deal in hard situations like this. The manager use to develop the charm to be used to get
the trust of the suppliers
The tightening of the Government on implementation on acts about illegal logging may
also affect the Congrandes Furniture. In some cases, Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) tightens their inspection of logs/woods that are being transported. This is
because of the implementation of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act of 2012. Thats why, the
business needs to comply with these and sometimes they are forced to buy logs that have high
cost because some of their suppliers that have lower price are being restricted by the DENR. But
when DENR is done with the inspection, they can buy from the suppliers with lower prices.
Internet availability (especially social media) would be a great opportunity for the
Congrandes. Congrandes posts pictures of their products in their accounts in social media like
Facebook and Instagram. Though the pictures are posted, pricing of the products are sent through
private message.

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a. Evaluation/ Recommendation
For the said external factors, we have decided and thought of recommendations for the
Congrandes Furniture. These recommendations may help them cope up with the threats around
them or to teach them how to grab and use effectively the opportunities that they have.
For the power shortage, their strategy of having overtime is okay but it is more costly.
Since overtime has additional pay for the laborers, this means that the business will have more
expense for the wage of these workers. So it is more efficient if they would just buy a generator.
They should continue in saving money for the generator so that they could invest on it. If they
would have a generator, they can continue their work even with power interruption. It will
benefit them especially in a long-term business because they will not have more expenses for the
overtime of the workers and they can still work during the said power shortages.
Another threat to that should be considered is the calamities. Since it is inevitable, they should
have preventive actions for these. They can construct walls in the area to prevent the coming of
water. Also, they can put something in the furniture so that it can be strong and cant be easily
destroyed by water. They can also make their place higher so that the flood cant come easily. In
this way, they can prevent destruction of some, if not all, of their furniture.
Even though at first, Pongs Furniture (which is just beside Congrandes Furniture) is a threat for
the business, the business did not take them as a competitor for a long time because even though
they both produce furniture, their designs are different. Pongs focused on the classic designs on
their furniture while Congrandes is on modern designs. So we recommend that instead of
looking at them as a threat, they should take this as an opportunity because they can easily
compare their products with the Pongs and if the customers wants modern designs, they can
easily get those customers than the other furniture business.
Another threat is the tightening of implementation of laws about illegal logging by DENR. As
discussed above, they are forced to buy logs/woods with higher cost. We suggest that they should
comply with these laws so that there will be no future problems to be faced by the business and
also the integrity of the business will not be questioned. They should also see this as an
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opportunity because their business will be known for complying in such laws. Also it will be
easy for them to get permits for buying woods.
Now we have the trend of modern designs. Since the business is focused on modern
designs, it is a great opportunity for them to innovate new designs. Also, they can easily adjust to
the new trends in the furniture business. This may create more opportunities because some
people nowadays like new designs for their furniture. Some designs may be provided by the
customers. In this way, they can satisfy the wants of the customers and can also establish good
relationship with them and hopefully gain loyalty from these customers.
Lastly, internet availability (especially social media) would be a great opportunity for the
Congrandes. Nowadays, it will be a great advantage for a business if they have a website or
social media accounts for the business. Aside from it is an easy advertisement for the business,
more customers will know about their products and can easily contact them through the social
media. Also, feedbacks from customers may be easy especially if they have a website that has a
comment/suggestion box that customers may write on. But the risk of fraud is also high so the
Congrandes must also be very careful into entering into transactions from random customers
online.

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