Chapter 14 – Frito Lay Instructions The leadership of Frito-Lay’s sales organization believes that k

Chapter 14 – Frito Lay
Instructions
The leadership of Frito-Lay’s sales organization believesthat knowledge management is the key to success. Specifically, the dataconcerning best practices, customer information, and corporate details areessential. The challenge is that important information is captured in manydifferent places and systems. This can inhibit the sharing of knowledgeacross members of the sales organization. Best practices represent theoptimal way to deal with customer’s issues and problems. If sales teammembers in different areas are allowed to communicate their success storieswith other team members the entire company benefits. In addition, an effectinformation sharing system creates a place for brainstorming andcollaboration. Frito-Lay’s solution was to develop a knowledge managementportal on the company’s intranet. The portal provides a central point ofaccess to the database of information, like customer and internal corporateinformation. This access reduces the time an individual sale representativeneeds to find and share sales, analysis, and news. The goals for theFrito-Lay portal are to make knowledge that is more efficient, make use ofcustomer-specific data, and promote team collaboration. Each sales person isenabled to share the experiences of overcoming customer problems and developeffective sales presentations. In addition, by using employee profiles salesteam members are able to increase camaraderie and relationship buildingamongst themselves. During the mid 2000s, the salty snack market grew slowly andchanges in consumers’ eating habits might provide for an even slower future.This fact will increase the competitiveness amongst the different snack foodsales organizations. Sales people have to continue to develop customerloyalty as consumers experiment with new products to enhance the at-homeexperience.1. What is the decision facing Frito-Lay?2. What factors are important in understanding thisdecision situation?3. What are the alternatives?4. What decision(s) do you recommend?5. What are some ways to implement yourrecommendations?