Case Analyses – Required Format – MNGT 360 Organizational Behavior
To provide perspective, the methodology you will use in the three case analyses can be useful in many avenues you might undertake in your career. It can be helpful whether you are working for a corporation or a government agency. It can also be useful whether you are serving on a school board, a church council or managing your own entrepreneurial venture. I have used it successfully in all of my management positions with Caterpillar, Time Warner and U S WEST, as well as when serving in non-corporate functions.
Bottom line: Every organization runs into problems and the key to determining the right course of action towards a solution is to systematically evaluate alternatives.
You are expected to use the analysis format shown below in red. Again, I have used it repeatedly and successfully. Other written formats will not be acceptable in MNGT 360.
Please note that there is not necessarily a right, a correct answer regarding each case. The most important end product you can produce is one that shows you are following, step-by-step, a logical thought process.
Shown in red is how I require a case analysis be written.
Problem Identification
Analysis of Problem
Alternative Potential Solutions
Pros and Cons of each Potential Solution
Conclusion (optional)
Recommended Course of Action
Ethical and Social Responsibility
References
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Below are two sample case analyses to help you -Wild Oats and Proctor & Gamble. The above step-by-step procedure (in red) is used. Note that the Wild Oats and Proctor & Gamble scenarios focus on marketing challenges, and that the case analysis process works when evaluating any problem- whether in operations, human resources, management or, as shown here, marketing.
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Wild Oats Case Study
The Case
Problem Identification
Problem 1
Wild Oats Markets does not fully know and understand the internal and external environments that exist.
Problem 2
Wild Oats Markets lost focus on implementing a competitive strategy.
(Students: note that there may be one, two or more problems in any case)
Analysis of Problem(s)
Problem 1 Analysis
The management team must gain understanding of the internal and external environments that exist for an organization. With the proper use of strategic management tools, several analyses can reveal answers to the organization’s position. The analyses allow the organization to create strategies that will capitalize on strengths, take advantage of opportunities, neutralize threats and avoid weaknesses. The organizations’ goal is to overcome challenges to accomplish missions and visions. Wild Oats needs to review the current situation and gain an understanding of the internal and external environments. (Reference for Business, 2009)
Problem 2 Analysis
Organizations have several competitive strategies from to choose that range in approaches and styles. The five most generic competitive strategies are low cost provider, broad differentiation strategy, best cost provider, focused strategy based on low cost, and focused strategy based on differentiation. Wild Oats Market lost focus on implementing a competitive strategy. Wild Oats Markets launched several different strategies that provided varying results. (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2008). Implementing strategic plans requires organizations to lead by inspiration and coaching rather than command and control. The organization’s management team must provide a clear and consistent competitive strategy to the employees and stakeholders. The right competitive strategy uses the results from the strategic analyses and utilizes the available resources. (Reference for Business, 2009)
Alternative Solutions
Problem 1 Alternative 1
Wild Oats should perform an intense SWOT analysis.
Pros
1) The SWOT analysis will determine internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
2) The SWOT analysis will provide a foundation for developing strategies that will utilize an organization’s resources.
Cons
1) Management may not provide a clear objective or relevant information for the SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis would provide misleading results.
2) The classification of opportunities and threats are critical for current and future situations. Misclassification of results would provide misleading results.
(Reference for Business, 2009)
Problem 1 Alternative 2
Wild Oats should perform Porter’s five-force model analysis.
Pros
1) Porter’s five-force model analysis will analyze five distinct competitive forces to provide a foundation for determining strategy.
2) Porter’s five-force model analysis will aid in formulating goals and polices to increase competitiveness, market share, and profits.
Cons
1) Porter’s five-force model analysis is over 25 years old and needs to incorporate changes in technology and industrial shifts.
2) Porter’s five-force model analysis does not consider government regulation and antitrust violation.
(Reference for Business, 2009)
Problem 2 Alternative 1
Wild Oats should implement a low-cost provider strategy.
Pros
1) Achieve low cost leadership by providing products at prices below the competition.
2) Works extremely well with rival competition when products are similar and consumers are abundant.
Cons
1) Being too aggressive on low pricing would result in lower profits. The organization still has a responsibility to earn profits for the investor.
2) The organization ignores the consumer’s interests, sensitivity and changes by fixating on lower prices.
(Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2008)
Problem 2 Alternative 2
Wild Oats should implement a focused (or market niche) strategy.
Pros
1) The focused strategy avoids direct competition and allows profits to be at full potential.
2) The focused strategy creates customer goodwill and loyalty due to the catering by the producer.
Cons
1) The competition will find ways to provide similar products or services to offset the niche.
2) The focused strategy does not allow for potential consumer shifts.
(Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2008)
Recommended Action(s)
Problem 1 Recommended Course of Action
Wild Oats Market should perform an intense SWOT analysis, which ill reveal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist for Wild Oats Market. The analysis will provide the foundation that management needs in order to develop a solid strategy.
Problem 2 Recommended Course of Action
Wild Oats Market has Whole Foods as direct competition and would find that a focused (or market niche) strategy would not work. Wild Oats should implement a low-cost provider strategy to become, as the name implies, the low cost leader and gain market share. The low-cost provider strategy would slow the pace of the competitive expansion and increase competitors’ long-term debt obligations.
Ethical and Social Responsibility
Wild Oats Market must….
References
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Procter & Gamble Case Study
The Case
Problem Identification
At Procter and Gamble (P&G) back in 2000 the company was faced with a dilemma where it was no longer growing fast enough to support its needs. Only 15% of its innovations were meeting profit and revenue targets, which threatened the company of a potential split.
Analysis of Problem(s)
To solve this problem Procter and Gamble enlisted A.G. Lafley to refocus the entire business under the company. Lafley quickly declared that the company would begin selling off 100 of its minor brands so that it can focus on its 70 to 80 best-selling brands stating that P&G must unload brands that “don’t fit into the company’s core of beauty, fabric care and other businesses”. This move allowed P&G to be more agile and adaptable in the way it did business and allowed for the company to focus on innovation that would create the growth it was seeking. P&G leadership recognized that breakthrough innovations that created new markets were what they needed to focus their efforts on. Lafley gained a reputation for pushing innovation at P&G, telling employees “to get their ideas directly from consumers by observing them in their homes as they did household tasks”.
Also, Lafley tasked two 30-year P&G employees with designing a new growth factory whose intellectual foundations would follow Professor Clayton Christensen’s (Harvard Business School) disruptive-innovation theory. The concept of disruption is driving growth through new offerings that are simpler, more convenient, easier to access, or more affordable (HBR). Efforts on the new-growth factory required leadership to provide adequate resources, allow sufficient time and stay personally engaged throughout the entire process to ensure no issues rose.
Alternative Solutions
Alternative 1: Reduce the brands your company carries to a more manageable number
Pros-
- Easier to manage 20 companies vs 100 companies
- Reduces inventory at company level; companies with excess inventory are usually not cash positive
- Allows company to keep the companies based on performance. The companies that aren’t providing positive financial gains will be sold off.
Cons–
- Small change with one of those companies that gets sold off could propel it to positive financial status
- Tough to determine which companies to keep. Sometimes the best performing companies might not be the best to keep if it doesn’t meet the company values
Alternative 2: Ask the consumers what products they are looking for
Pros–
- Asking consumers directly what they are in the market for could create a new product that has never been made before, which could dominate all the market share
- Will receive many new ideas since you will have millions of people available to ask
Cons–
- Lots of effort to sort out good ideas from poor ones
- Expensive to collect thoughts/ideas from people off the street
Alternative 3: Create weekly recurring meeting with Senior Leadership to share ideas
Pros–
- Gets ideas to management who can then make the determination to implement and provide funding
- Creates environment for open communication between leadership and organization
- Ensures that everyone has time to share idea whereas if it were through emails or some database it could potentially be missed
Cons–
- Expensive to run meeting with everyone needing to be present
- Some meetings could be unproductive if ideas aren’t generated
Conclusion
Procter and Gamble under the leadership of A.G. Lafley decided that it was time to refocus the entire business as only 15% of its innovation efforts were meeting profit and revenue targets. Lafley decided that it was best to sell off 100 of its least profitable brands so it could focus on its core 70 or so. Which in turn allowed more time for employees to create new innovations that would revolutionize the market. Lafley also enlisted two veteran P&G employees to create a new growth factory, which looked at how things could be produced easier, faster and cheaper. Such innovations and upgrades have made P&G the company it is today, which is seeing record profits. The message at P&G is that each innovation “improves peoples lives” and with said mantra 50% of its innovation efforts are meeting profit and revenue targets.
Recommended Action
The recommendation would be option 1 to further reduce the number of companies that P&G are responsible for. Doing this would enable P&G to spend more of its time on new innovations and work on making the products easier, cheaper and faster.
Ethical and Social Responsibility
My recommendation should have no impact to any ethical or social responsibility, as it does not require any job relocation, job loss or create negative press for the company.
References
–Lauren Coleman-Lochner and Carol Hymowitz (2013), P&G Says A.G. Lafley Rejoins as Chairman, CEO; https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-23/procter-gamble-says-a-g-lafley-rejoins-as-chairman-and-ceo
–Bruce Brown and Scott Anthony (2011), How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate
–Alexander Coolidge, The Cincinnati Enquirer (2014), P&G to shed more than half its brands; http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/08/01/procter-gamble-sheds-brands/13475151/
–Harvard Business School (2016), The Procter & Gamble Company; https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/content/57094773
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