Polish Water Ice is a leading manufacturer of the industry’s best soft serve water ice. We have invested much time and money to come up with a recipe that uses natural ingredients and flavoring. We have done this without minimizing our top of the line taste and high end packaging. We have chosen a road that requires excellence from us because we believe we are serving society’s most valuable asset, our youth. Adults enjoy our product, yet they are a secondary market to our target market of children 5 to 18 years of age. In a day and age when our country is struggling with obesity and many illnesses related to the hyper-consumption of sugar, we have created a product that appeases peoples’ sweet tooth by providing a low calorie dessert with high vitamin C content. We do this because our company is family focused, and we see our customers and associates as an extension of that family.
Knowing our demographic to be children and teenagers we have chosen to focus our sales and marketing to distributors who already share our target market and have existing channels in place. This strategy will allow us to reach a broader geographical market while we stay concentrated on producing a top quality water ice, and we will also be able to stay involved with charity and fundraising events that allow us to build relationships with other people and organizations.
After re-engineering our recipe we discovered the school systems to be a huge market that will allow us to stay profitable year round. There are four options provided in the school system, which are a la carte, meals, meal substitutes, and vending. We are confident this market combined with our summer season channels (i.e. Fun centers, beaches, YMCA’s, etc.) will provide a year long steady cash flow.
We have chosen to follow the wisdom of the single minded strategy. This decision focuses our attention strictly on manufacturing and provides us the ability to pursue and reach excellence. A perfect example of this was the pursuit, discovery, and implementation of a natural stabilizer so our product can be easily stored and shipped at industry accepted temperatures. This allowed our product to remain smooth and creamy, bursting with flavor!
We now invest our resources on our product and let the distributors use their expertise, combined with our clear guidelines, to get our product out to the people. There are many benefits resulting from this decision, flexibility, ease, service and organization, yet one of the biggest is our ability to increase the volume of water ices we provide. In turn we are able to function with higher cost efficiency providing distributors more potential for profit and families an affordable treat. This also allows us to focus more on our customers and less on in house demands.
Polish Water Ice will outsource any function of their business that does not line up with their strategic vision (i.e. distribution, freezer placement). We have and will consolidate or remove any unnecessary traditions of business. We do this in pursuit of our fulltime mission which is to develop people. We understand if we are creating work overloads or placing people in positions to fill a spot, we have violated our vision to build proprietors, not just employees. To facilitate our desire to partake in work that is fruitful we have and will implement strategies that integrate with our culture. We will increase efficiency so that smart work allows our hard work to advance much further. We believe these strategies, sound yet at times unconventional, to be significant to our development and sustainability. This creativity will allow us to re-invent the way business is done with our associates, products, programs and community development.
Monthly we build financial forecasts, budgets, and plans that allow us to make strategic decisions and establish controlled growth. These numbers give us greater accountability of our business and keep us from floating aimlessly in the winds of change. We believe with the right financial information we can make better decisions and be better prepared to quickly change when needed. We also know our numbers need to be current and accurate. Not only will we have increased accuracy, we can have greater leverage with our clients by providing them with actual numbers showing them their potential return on investment by adding our product to their outlets.
Another important area of data gathered and compiled on a monthly basis is from those with whom we do business. We will use customer and retail surveys to better our business to business and business to customer relationships. The means by which we will obtain this data is through our internal reps and website. We will then discuss this information at our appointed monthly meetings with the reps and executive team. We believe our best secrets are within our own team and these meetings will be the opportunities for us to find and reveal them, so then we can in turn integrate them into our business systems.
Our distributors and vendors are a valued part of our company's team. Expecting much from them, it is only apropos we exemplify the standard we require from those with whom we work.
In order to provide a high standard to our distributors we will be organized. We will keep accurate records of materials and finished product in our warehouse, so not to run out and cause delay. We will also use systems designed to integrate sales and production departments so we promise what we are able to produce and provide honest and concise answers should challenges arise. We will also focus on the relationships we have with them making sure as to their needs and how we can help foster a symbiotic bond.
The same is true for our vendors. We know they appreciate direct and honest information presented in a professional, yet personable style. They see themselves as partners in what we are doing and by continuing to keep our vision in front of them we earn their loyalty. Plus the consistency of how we function provides them greater level of ease, as it precipitates fewer issues arising in the shortage or mishandling of our water ice.
Employees that work at Polish Water Ice do not just work "at" Polish Water Ice, yet they work "in" Polish Water Ice as part of a team; an extended family. Employees are rewarded through compensation that is commensurate with their contribution to the growth of the organization and their skill level.
We see our employees as system builders. They not only perform the tactical work with excellence, yet also innovate how that work is done, documented, and measured. Our employees are able to deal with a variety of tasks in a systematic and professional manner.
Since Polish Water Ice seeks to foster a working culture that supports innovation and customer service, employees are encouraged to fulfill and express their personal calling and design as they develop their roles within the company. We do this by identifying, training, developing, and releasing their personal gifts. Polish Water Ice aspires to help our employees become who they have been designed to be. When we invest in our people, then our people will provide the best possible service to our clients. It is this way of working that ensures our work matters and the solutions we generate will not just solve today's opportunities, yet will position us to meet tomorrow's challenges with success.
Employees are required to take at least 10 minutes per day to strategically examine their projects and workflow. They are to use this time to document and look for ways to better estimate work/time management and how they can improve their performance in the future. Every week these notes are condensed into a future plan of action and presented to their manager. In this specific way our employees are building the process equity of our company and developing skills that apply in every area of life.
We look forward to those whom find alignment with our Strategic Vision joining our family. We also look forward to combining our efforts in changing our community one child at a time!