Subject area:                Corporate Strategy for New Market Expansion

Region:                          New England, United States

Industry:                      Transportation Industry, White-Glove Moving Business

Company:                    J.N. Muldoon

Client                            John Good

Challenge:               

The COVID pandemic of 2020 and subsequent recession wreaked havoc on companies, and J.N. Muldoon, a white-glove moving business located in Stoughton, Massachusetts, was no different. A lockdown during the company’s traditionally business months and a clientele still uneasy with in-home services cases a backlog of inventory in Muldoon’s two warehouses in Stoughton, MA. As cases spiked during the winter of 2020 and customers were increasingly hesitant to schedule delivery, the President of Muldoon, John Good, knew that he would quickly run out of storage capacity to support the stalled installations necessitating the addition of a third warehouse. An investigation into the opportunities and threats posed from the various Northeast markets suggested that Connecticut and Maryland were the most profitable markets for expansion. Gaining input from the management team, he realized that he had two critical decisions to make:
1. Should Muldoon leverage this opportunity to expand the business to a new market in Connecticut or Maryland?
2. Which market should they choose, and how should they strategically structure that expansion?

Project Relevance/Our Team

Our team was able to leverage the unique and diverse backgrounds, both personal and professional, of our team members to develop a comprehensive analysis and recommendation for this case.

❏ Dennis Amblo: Drew upon ten years of supply chain knowledge from management and operations problem-solving.
❏ Jennie Chung: Applied and utilized knowledge of consulting methodologies to determine our client’s goals and priorities for optimal changes.
❏ David Good: Utilized industry and company knowledge to frame our challenge and help form a thorough analysis.
❏ Sthefano Piassa: Applied market and industry research skills to analyze the available data, and help to identify opportunities and threats within the case.
❏ Tatsiana Zhalniarkevich: Applied analytical and problem-solving skills to analyze the available data, and help identify the most suitable solution to the challenge.

Social Capital: Understanding the Realities of the Organization & Industry

To help John Good decide on a direction to go in, we have conducted a wide variety of market research through various frameworks such as SWOT and PESTLE, we determined that the best course of action for J.N. Muldoon would be to expand their business to the state of Connecticut. We also interviewed John Good on several occasions to solidify what his immediate needs were, their operational supply chain strategy, and what his vision was for his company. It was important for us to ensure we used frameworks as learned in class to provide recommendations that were based in supported logic.

Generated Value

A crucial element to this case, after a lengthy debate, was conducting the proper market research. Analysis through PESTLE, SWOT, and heat maps shaped the direction of the project and conversations. Allowing the data to drive gave the group the time to analyze, strategize, and formulate the best possible and most complete analysis possible for J.N.Muldoon to be successful and profitable quickly.

What’s Next and Project Utilization

❏ Dennis Amblo: Dennis has never experienced the setup of an expansion before and the experience in planning will be invaluable as he continues to grow and round out his portfolio within his supply chain career.

❏ Jennie Chung: Being able to be part of this project allowed her to further use her skill sets in marketing analysis and data collection to identify the ultimate solutions. She is looking forward to utilizing the knowledge gained from this project as a stepping stone in her professional ceer.

❏ David Good: The skills and frameworks used in our case will be invaluable tools in forming strategic responses to company and industry dilemmas.

❏ Sthefano Piassa: The strategies and frameworks learned and used in this real client consulting report will be great tools in building future strategy projects.

❏ Tatsiana Zhalniarkevich: completing a consulting report for a real client is a valuable experience. It provided a good understanding of how different challenges should be analyzed in order to identify the most suitable solution. Moreover, skills and knowledge acquired are easily transferable to any industry, not only the white-glove moving services, which will greatly help in professional life.