Ken Melrose: Making the Grass Greener on Your Side Francesca Maria Fernandez Florida International University Abstract Faced with a major financial burden in the 1980's that threatened the success and overall survival of the organization, the Toro company, was becoming more and more accustomed to lawsuits due to inherent hazards associated with using their machinery. In 1983, Kendrick B. Melrose took over as CEO and was able to overcome his company's financial plummet by turning to empathy for an answer. He developed an approach called “Alternate Dispute Resolution” to deal with the accidents or serious injuries associated to their products. The new approach suggested that the company would now show empathy by personally talking to the customers affected by their products to understand what happened, instead of going straight to the legal process. Ken Melrose believed that if there was a situation where someone was ready for a fight and you looked them in the eye and genuinely said, “I am very sorry this happened,” it almost instantly takes the animosity out of the equation.
DEVELOPING PROFITABLE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP. It is a challenging time for most business leaders today. Leaders are demanding their company’s grow and so marketers are continually focused on driving their products and services into the hands of new customers. Unfortunately this intense focus on attracting new customers has taken attention away from established or past customers. It is measurably more expensive to attract a new customer than to retain an existing customer.
Morgan Stanley: becoming “one-Firm Firm” 1. What are the challenges facing Morgan Stanley as John Mack assumes a new leadership role? John Mack faced a barrage of challenges as he took the leadership role in Morgan Stanley. The most significant challenges he faced includes: (a) Division and rivalry between two powerful leaders namely Fisher and Greenhill. They both were diverse in their management style; Fisher trying to instill a new culture into the newly created division of Sales and Marketing whereas Greenhill leading the investment banking division in his old and conservative style, (b) The company was expanding rapidly and was split into ten divisions with each division focusing only on the divisional goals and profit rather than unified goals and profit motives for the entire organization, (c) Rapid growth and globalization of the company with lack of adequate managerial personnel placed unavoidable stress on the existing managers., (d) changes in working culture especially in the top level management was very tough.
Diagnosis C&S wholesale grocers grew from a small company in 1918, to a multimillion dollar business through innovation and attention to customer service. Through this strategy they acquired large supermarket accounts, such as Big D and then later A&P. However the new accounts, put a lot of pressure on the business structure, and made Rick Cohen, the CEO, asses this business structure. Rick Cohen faced a dilemma of whether or not to restructure the company and adopt a new model of self managed teams. Cohen was also faced with the decision to adopt the model now with the holiday season approaching the busiest time for C&S or to wait after the holidays.
As a result, minor firms could not handle the pressure and compete as effectively as larger companies and thus, gaining shelf space amongst the different stores had become a huge struggle for them. Ultimately, manufactures to enhance strength and gain power in the retail market were forced to form alliances and partnerships with other consumer brand companies. Apparently, other channels such as internet and direct to consumer sales had not proven to be valuable alternate means as retailers would immediately retaliate by de-listing products and goods of those manufactures who dared going in this direction. Therefore, due to the established relationships larger firms had with retailers, had led smaller corporations to turn into more
In the early 2000’s, the MSCC, became the most powerful advocacy organization for the business community under the new leadership of President Jack Wallingford. As the growing demands of members and employees were increasing, the MidSouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) has decided to update its computing systems. The management then decided to consolidate their systems to AS/400 based system called UNITRAK. Ted Vassici has supported the systems for a significant period before Simon Kovecki was hired by MidSouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC). Simon Kovecki was in charge of implementing this new system, but he ended up with failure that left MidSouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) with lost data on the old systems, and an inoperable UNITRAK system.
Case Study 2 Hudson Shoe Company Hudson Shoe Company John Hudson, president of Hudson Shoe Company has been faced with a terrible dilemma. Hudson Shoe Company, started many years ago by John Hudson’s father was built on quality and intergrity and has had continual growth as so. However, after recent pursuit of entering the foreign market John Hudson has been pressured into sacrificing the integrity and loyalty towards smaller local customers who helped build the company from the beginning to meet the demands of the larger international business that has proved to be extremely profitable. However, after making many adjustments, changes, and sacrifices John has lost many of his smaller local business and is on the verge of losing his major domestic mail-in chain in the United States. You see, with the continual growth and sales within his foreign market John not had the man power, time, or financial means to satisfy his smaller local businesses.
Weaknesses Opportunities: Growth of markets in developed and third world countries. IBM is a strongly competitive industry with very well-known companies like HP and Dell who also cater to large organizations for almost similar purposes. Weaknesses: Because of IBM’s size and considering how long it’s been in business, the company will find it very challenging to make big changes such as a total change from their current commodity-based business to customizable businesses. Threats: Shifting from a commodity-based to customizable businesses will be very challenging IBM will consider different trends such as: customer trends were the desire for customers to stay updated and connected across technologies and the desire for customers to work more
The large volume of excess plant capacity, which has resulted in, depressed prices, losses for many producers, and bankruptcy status for many U.S. Producers. With so many firms either in bankruptcy or on the brink of bankruptcy the industry is ripe for consolidation. * Tough industry conditions do not hit all competitors equally hard as one of the industry’s low cost producers; Nucor is in a good position not only to survive but to gain sales and market share at the expense of the high cost producers and the financially troubled firms that may be forced to exit the market. * Tough industry conditions for some mean opportunities. * Given the resources and strength and competitive capabilities Nucor should consider expanding at a time when the industry conditions look grim again.
Pablo is considered to be one of the most successful CEO-s in the history of Inditex. He made lot of changes within the firm, but the competitors are still vigilant. Several booming brands, huge product lines, successful campaigns... What will be the next step? How can Inditex further grow on the market? History The Inditex was established by Amancio