Assignment Title: Managing Creativity at Shanghai Tang Course Title: Creativity and Business Innovation Fall 2012 Instructor Name: Ali Farhoomand Student Name: Ahmed Waqas Student Id: 2010520840 Submission Date: 8th October 2012 Executive Summary Shanghai Tang, a luxury brand emerging from China faces a common problem, not just restricted to fashion industry, where creative aspirations and commercial imperatives collide. The key elements of the case study are creativity, leadership and organizational behavior. The conflict between the designers and business managers over the fact that the company’s creativity doesn’t serve the need of the market signifies the lack of leadership prowess on Le Masne’s part, which has led to tension between the designers and business managers. Moreover, to add fuel to fire in addition to global economic downturn, Joanne Ooi the creative director and the epicenter of creative direction of Shanghai Tang is leaving the company. The heavy dependence on retail stores leads to widespread availability of counterfeits which provides a unique challenge and directs towards the importance of having own-stores to ensure the legitimacy of the products.
Executive Summary Shanghai Tang, a luxury brand emerging from China faces a common problem, not just restricted to fashion industry, where creative aspirations and commercial imperatives collide. The key elements of the case study are creativity, leadership and organizational behavior. The conflict between the designers and business managers over the fact that the company’s creativity doesn’t serve the need of the market signifies the lack of leadership prowess on Le Masne’s part, which has led to tension between the designers and business managers. Moreover, to add fuel to fire in addition to global economic downturn, Joanne Ooi the creative director and the epicenter of creative direction of Shanghai Tang is leaving the company. The heavy dependence on retail stores leads to widespread availability of counterfeits which provides a unique challenge and directs towards the importance of having own-stores to ensure the legitimacy of the products.
If that wasn’t enough the companies long-time creative director, Joanne Ooi, is leaving the company creating a void in the leadership role of the company’s brand vision. To solve all of this the company can hire from the outside or promote from within but despite this decision they have to handle how they can defend their domestic market share, their international market share, and be able to move into new markets while not straying away from its fundamental values of being a sophisticated, individualistic, and ancient Chinese inspired luxury brand producer. To solve this problem the company should promote its current Chief of Clothing Design, Joseph Li to the role of creative director. This will help the designers feel respected by the management and help improve their work as they feel they are a better part of the process with one of their own running the process. Also, Joseph has international experience at various other companies and can help with the expansion into new markets and since he is Hong Kong-born Chinese he still has a connection to Chinese culture.
Explain your answer. Wal-Mart and Sears are unable to sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters because they mass produce there items and the clothes are often poorly made with low end quality material. They focus more on quantity instead of quality to meet the highest profitability. Urban Outfitters sell their merchandise for a higher price and sell a smaller amount of items to turn a profit; Sears and Wal-Mart must sell a significant amount more to make the same profitability. Also, Urban Outfitters makes sure they have the current trends, Sears and Wal-Mart stores are just behind the curve when it comes to fashion.
Issues in the case Through the case I was able to identify several issue between business and information technology. First being poor communication between the two. This problem was immediately made clear. On page 78 there was a good example of this when Paul Gutierez talks to Jenny about how the new technology meeting went. The IT team had the business team so confused during the meeting that they eventually just tuned out and IT never actually got to talking about how the new technology could be used for marketing and why it was a good idea.
-The project has been given a deadline of ten weeks, with Rankin and his 5-member team in charge of technical implementation. -Bob Finley had a confrontation with Lynn Johnston, resulting in the two avoiding each other during the middle of the project. -Midway through the project, Team member Sally Phillips left the company for better prospects. -Rankin manages his employees simply by telling them his expectations, and only tries justifies the long hours and lack of sleep by telling them that he expects no more of them than he does of himself. Assumptions • Mike Frazer wants the system implemented in 10 weeks because he views it as the answer to the company’s lackluster follow up sales.
• How is Shanzhai a unique product of Chinese culture and social attitudes? - Showcases the rebellious attitudes Chinese people have had through their history. - One that “ operates a business without observing the tradition rules or practices, often resulting innovative and unusual products or business models” - Value is important as opposed to simply brand - need for uniqueness or customization by the people • Why is Shanzhai process hard for westerners to understand? - The process involves a lot of trust in the supply chain while creating products. - Western developers spend a lot of time creating a prototype, where as Shanzai process is based on popular trends through theword of mouth - Proper legal channels are also important for westerners, an aspect disregarded by shanzai developers • What characteristics are critical to the success of Shanzhai handset companies?
Trouble arose in 1989 at the resigning of the general manager, due to “irreconcilable differences” (p. 574). An additional couple hired for replacement lacked “European hospitality practices” (p. 574), and financial as well as clientele deteriorated under their lead. Due to the adverse effect, new management was hired late in the same year. Vacancies and financial decline were the Inn’s confrontations. The reoccurring problems the new general manager, David Bart, was up against, were mainly due to front desk inadequacies, threatening their
A main problem Timbuk2 is dealing with is their customers being unsatisfied with their products being produced and manufactured in China rather than in the home manufacturing site of San Francisco. Loyal customers of Timbuk2 are concerned that the bags made in China will not be of the same quality as the bags made in San Francisco. With customers having concerns, this could reflect the quantity of bags being produced and profit. Another main problem Timbuk2 is dealing with is the complexity of the machinery that is going to be used; this means there will be an increase in labor costs as well as an increase on the purchasing price of the bags. Timbuk2 is handling the problem correctly by making sure that the bags are being made in China are up to the standard of the bags that are made in San Francisco.
Especially three main customers announced bankruptcy during this period. Moreover, the main supplier’s foam gave off bad smell after being incorporated in Simmons product. Finally, he employees lack team spirit, people skills and communication skills (both at a horizontal as well as vertical level). Since Charlie Eitel was hired as CEO, his goal is to make the company a place where people like to work and with whom customers like to deal with. He made effort on product innovation, reorganized the management, and focused on customers’ needs.