CDO FOODSPHERE INC.

San Marino Corned Tuna

I.

Introduction

COMPANY PROFILE

Company Name:

CDO Foodsphere Inc.

Office Address:

560 West Service Road, Paso de Blas, Valenzuela City

Warehouse Address:

560 West Service Road, Paso de Blas, Valenzuela City

Telephone Numbers:

(+632) 588 59 00

COMPANY HISTORY
In the early 1970s, Corazon Ong found herself employed as a dietician in a hospital, preparing
diets for patients. This she did with passion and utmost care, knowing the importance of proper
diet to the well-being of patients and non-patients alike. She only gave up this job to offer herself
to motherhood, after marrying her husband Jose, a professor at the Ateneo de Manila University.
As a full-time mother, Mrs. Ong had to take care of the household, which now included two kids.
Her experience as a dietitian proved useful in preparing native snacks for the kids and baon for
husband Jose. At one point, she decided to experiment with a new filling for siopao, in addition
to the usual bola bola and asado.
She developed a skinless longaniza as palaman for homemade siopao. Little did she know that
her skinless longaniza would be such a hit, that everyone who tasted it would ask for more. News
of her little concoction spread across the neighborhood, and this was when she decided to
convert their dining table into a working area, because of piling orders from her neighbors and
friends. It was inevitable that Mrs. Ong's hobby turned into a business.
"We had to convert the back of our Valenzuela residence into a small processing area then," she
said. The demand for her products was so strong that she decided to establish on June 26, 1975 a
small meat processing company which she registered as CDO Food Products, carrying her
initials. With a seed capital of P60,000 borrowed from a local bank, CDO Food Products began
operation with longaniza and tocino as start-up products. The rest, as they say, is history.

In 1981, Foodsphere Inc. was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, while
the CDO was retained as the flagship brand of the company's food products. The next decade
marked the steady progression of the company, which invested in product innovation and
professionalization of its staff.
By 1990, her eldest son, Jerome, went aboard the now thriving family business, fresh from
college and armed with an Economics degree from the University of the Philippines. Jerome and
father Jose helped modernize the operation - from manufacturing processes, systems and
technology, human resources, sales and distribution and marketing. Foodsphere Inc. was
preparing for massive production to serve the whole nation.
It was in 1995 that the company's first television commercial went on air. This quickly gained
public attention, generated more sales, and put on the map the CDO brand of processed foods. It
was strengthened by the high quality of CDO products, at affordable price that has been well
loved by the masses.
In 2001, the company introduced reasonably priced 100-gram carne norte, which is another
innovation in the industry. CDO-Foodsphere has emerged as the top producer of carne norte in
the land.
CDO Foodsphere has built its success on five cornerstones, the first of which is strong
management team with open eyes and ears to every opportunity that is customer oriented. It also
has a passion for unending product innovation through research and product development. The
company thrives on very cost-competitive pricing that makes its products affordable to mass
market.
Moreover, the company has built marketing and distribution channels to bring its products to all
Filipino households. Finally, CDO Foodsphere knows how to communicate its message well,
such as the quality and benefits of its products, to the public at large by tapping efficient
communication tools.
Truly, CDO Foodsphere puts emphasis on continuous product innovation and diversification to
achieve Mrs. Ong's core vision that is to provide affordable food products to the most number
of Filipino households.
Today, the company has more than 300 product lines in about 14 categories. Its latest product is
San Marino Corned Tuna, the latest innovation in the canned tuna industry. The company hopes
to offer the people with more variants and product lines of marine-based food items. As a proof
of its commitment to ensure food safety and food security in the Philippines, CDO Foodsphere

has invested in a modern food processing complex in Malvar, Batangas.

With all the success it has met over the years, CDO Foodsphere gave back to the community by
establishing CDO-Odyssey Foundation in 2004 as the corporate social responsibility arm of the
family company. Already, some 6,000 previously undernourished children have been restored
back to health, through the foundation's supplemental feeding program in several
underprivileged communities in Metro Manila and parts of Luzon.
CDO-Foodsphere is now considered an important industry and government partner in ensuring
the availability of affordable food products in the market. For three consecutive years (19992001), the National Meat Inspection Commission, an attached agency of the Department of
Agriculture, has acknowledged CDO-Foodsphere as having the cleanest and best plant in the
Philippines.
For five consecutive years (1999-2003), the Consumers Union of the Philippines also voted
CDO-Foodsphere as the most outstanding meat processing company in the country. All these
awards would not have been possible, if not for the vision of Mrs. Ong. who herself has been
acknowledged by various organizations.
In 1996, Corazon has been acknowledged as the Most Outstanding Nutritionist of the Year and
Outstanding Medium-Scale Entrepreneur (Philippine Marketing Association Agora Awards). In
2006, she was cited as among the most outstanding women of Valenzuela City. The following
year, Corazon was voted the 2007 Entrepreneur Mom-Working Mom (Balance Award).
Most recently, Corazon was named the Woman Entrepreneur of 2009 for excelling in
entrepreneurship, leadership and community development making her a trailblazer in the
industry. She received the award during an awards banquet for the Entrepreneur of the Year
organized by Ernst & Young at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel on the night of October 15, 2009.
The award is acknowledged as the most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.
Under her leadership, CDO-Foodsphere Inc. has become a modern and leading food company
known for its product innovation that provides the best quality and affordable food products,
earning the trust of the Filipino people. Mrs. Ong is indeed a great inspiration to all Filipino
women and to all Filipino entrepreneurs.
Corazon Dayro Ong lives up to her dream to serve the Filipino consumers with affordable and
quality food products that can be enjoyed within the comforts of their homes. She promises to
continue to pursue this dream, the CDO way.

II.

Operations Strategy and Competitiveness

CDO Foodspheres Mission, Vision and Values

Our Vision

We exist to provide TOTAL SATISFACTION to the FILIPINO CONSUMERS through the

development, manufacturing, and marketing of HIGH QUALITY NUTRITIOUS FOOD
PRODUCTS at REASONABLE PRICES.
We are committed to do these at all times through CONTINUOUS PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT,
TECHNOLOGICAL
ADVANCEMENT,
ORGANIZATIONAL
EFFICIENCY, and EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE
Our Mission
We shall continue to be a LEADING and GROWING company whose products
shall be present in every household.
Competitive Priority
Cost and Quality
o
o

Promote the health benefits of the new product extension

Price strategy value for higher but reasonable prices

Target Market

Male and female

18-45 years old
Students, working professionals, housewives, health fitness conscious, physically active,
sports-oriented individual and purchase decision makers (mothers)

Macro-environmental factors
2 year tuna ban in the pacific is extended
Inflation rate is expected to remain at 4% LEVEL (2013-2016)
Increase in the demand for healthy food choices
E-commerce has shattered
56.45% of the total population is composed of ages 18-45

Swot Analysis

Opportunity:
1. Foreign Marketing Campaigns
Threats:
1. Price Fluctuation
2. Competitors
Competitors:
a) Century Direct Competitor.
b) Sea Quest
c) 555 Tuna
d) Blue Bay Tuna
e) Fresca Tuna

MARKET SHARE

III.

Product Design
Idea Generation

All product designs begin with an idea. The idea might come from a product manager who spends time
with customers and has a sense of what customers want, from an engineer with a flare for inventions, or
from anyone else in the company. To remain competitive, companies must be innovative and bring out
new products regularly. In some industries, the cycle of new product development is predictable.
The first step consists in gathering what archaeologists call artifacts of the case. Artifacts are basically
materials that you can analyze so that you can piece together what could have or even what should have
happened. In this case, those artifacts included San Marinos product literature, advertisements, Web
Page, the speech of the CDO president when she accepted the award for entrepreneur of the year,
corporate blogs, FB postings, talk-show interviews and the like.
At this point, its useful to distinguish this technique from the more popular reverse engineering method,
which is after duplicating the original product after tearing it apart and analyzing the functions of the parts.
Our technique is not after duplicating a product. Its after uncovering a process, the product-innovating
process.
The next step is to analyze those artifacts to answer these four questions.
First is: Who are the two or three behavioral market segments that the process was trying to
understand? Note that its plural, namely, segments and not one target segment. The end in view of the
segmentation analysis is that single target market segment. Also, note that its behavioral segments and
not demographic or socio-economic segments. In this case, by behavioral segments is meant the fisheating segment, the meat-eating segment and the veggie-eating segment.
Secondly, for the consumers of each of the two or three behavioral segments, ask: What did you use to
eat before or what were you fond of eating before? The most likely answers are predictable. For
example, the fish eater may say meat, and the meat eater may say beef but now pork alternating with
fish. The vegetarian may say grilled veggie but now fresh raw veggie.
The next question is asked to socio-demographically profile each of the two or three behavioral
segments. For example, the fish eater who said he used to eat meat before when asked about his
demographics may say that hes in his 50s, a hypertensive, and almost exclusively on a meat diet before.
Finally, the crucial question from whose answers can be harvested the product-innovation leads and
ideas with the right analysis. In the case of San Marino, that analysis yielded the product concept of
corned tuna.
The foregoing analysis technique has solid scientific grounding. It combines archaeology for its data (or
artifact) gathering with deconstruction and consumer insighting for its analysis.
Deconstruction is a semiotic analysis variant pioneered by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and
explained in his 1967 work, Of Grammatology.
Consumer insighting, is defined as an analytical technique for uncovering product innovations from
seeing what everyone has seen but thinking what nobody has thought.

Product Life Cycle

Intermittent and repetitive operations typically focus on producing products in different

stages of the product life cycle. Intermittent is best for early in product life; repetitive is better for
later when demand is more predictable.
In CDOs case, it uses repetitive operations since it is already in its maturity stage and the
demand for the product is more predictable.

Decision

What the company use

Product variety

Small

Degree of standardization

High

Organization of resources

Line flow

Path of product through facility

Line flow

Factor driving production

Forecast of future Demand

Critical resource

Capital-intensive

Throughput time

Shorter

Type of equipment

Specialized

Degree of automation

High

Work-in-process inventory

Less

Line processesare designed to produce a large volume of a standardized product for mass
production. They are also known as flow shops, flow lines, or assembly lines. With line processes the

product that is produced is made in high volume with little or no customization. Think of a typical
assembly line that produces everything from cars, computers, television sets, shoes, candy bars, even food
items.
PROCESS DESIGN
The company uses Make-to-stock strategy that means the company produces standard products and
services for immediate sale or delivery.