...Failure Analysis/Change Strategy Learning Team A LDR/531 Organizational Leadership October 21, 2014 Dr. Nancy Atkins Failure and Change Strategy for a Business Circuit City was one of the top selling electronic retailers in the United States. The company was based out of Richmond, Virginia started by Samuel S. Wurtzel in 1949. Some say bad real estate deals, lack of focus on being the low cost seller, mistakes with its sales force and straying from its core led to their demise in 2009. The success of Amazon has much to do with Jeff Bezos, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). His unique combination of character traits and business strategy has driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world. In 2011, Amazon.com was posting revenues of nearly $50 billion per year (Price III, 2013). Part 1: Business Failure/Success Analysis Circuit City Objective (Carolyn Whitaker) Circuit City is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service which is done with the highest respect. With a highly praised customer service and satisfaction, it will improve our sales performance. For Circuit City to effectively sell products to customers, sales representatives will try to understand and fulfil the customers’ needs. With a highly trained team of associates, Circuit City will be successful in the long run. Circuit City Vision/Mission Statement (Carolyn Whitaker) Respect - “Our Associates are our greatest assets. We expect every Associate to demonstrate that they...
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...embracing change and innovation. Likewise, it is essential that organizations employ leaders that possess expert strategic management skills. Lack of leadership is detrimental to the success of an organization as was that of Circuit City. In November 2008, the 60 year old company filed for bankruptcy protection because of a shift in consumer buying patterns from retail stores to the internet. Organizational leaders’ failure to predict the future and re-act in a timely manner, left the company crippled and insolvent. “Leaders must be ready and able to make necessary changes when conditions warrant such actions. Successful implementation of strategic change can re-energize a business while failure can lead to disastrous results” (Lussier, et, 2013, p 411). In an article written by Barry Shore, Ph.D., entitled What Unplugged Circuit City?, Shore explains that while W. Alan McCollough, Chairman of the Board made changes, it was too late. “Not that management didn’t try…But it was too little and too late. The turnaround project failed.” Furthermore, the Shore states, “For Circuit City it was clearly too late for continuous improvement or making the kinds of changes that would count” (Shore, 2009, p 1). Major changes takes time to complete. Circuit City may have been successful if its leaders would have identified and analyzed the need for change sooner than later. Highly competitive markets warrants...
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...In todays business its very i development there are a lot of companies facing business failures such as stores that were likely known to many shoppers. Circuit City is one of the stores that saw its demise for many reasons within the bad economy at the time of their existence, and decreased consumers spending and companies poor management. Lack of customer’s support, recognition and bad management lead to the companies threat of opportunities to strategize when the economy changed after Circuit City failed in innovating strategies of improving their competitive advantage. Best buy gained a competitive advantage over Circuit City non-existence by external factors of customer taking advantage of Circuit City no longer being in existence. The decisions of leaders can determine Organizational change played a huge role between vital areas of change and potential areas of both companies as in the strengths and weaknesses of the two. There were plenty of opportunities of growth for Circuit City. Lack of Internet presence was a major factor when it came to Circuit City demise, during a time where Internet use and shopping were gaining more popularity. If the company had taken advantage of the growth of the Internet that had developed over time then maybe the outcome would have been drastically different (Yukl, 2013). Best Buy on the other hand took advantage of the online shopping experience, as well as many other critical areas in which Circuit City failed to deliver. In this p ...
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...Circuit City Circuit City The Circuit City story began in 1949 when entrepreneur Sam Wurtzel opened a small store in Richmond, VA, after he learned that the south’s first television station was going on the air. Over the next 20 years, Sam grew his company into a 100 store chain. His son, Alan became CEO in 1972 and created the ground-breaking superstore format that evolved into Circuit City. When Alan retired from the board in 2000, Circuit City was a fortune 500 company with more than 600 stores and 60,000 employees. Circuit City was a shining example of exceptional management practices in a 2001 best- selling book “Good to Great.” However, cracks were beginning to show in the company’s foundation. Circuit City’s rise and fall revealed leadership lessons and emphasizes the critical strategic role that training and development play in a company’s continued success. For its first 50 years, Circuit City (originally called Wards TV) was a pioneer in the rapidly changing consumer electronics industry. The following are what made the company great. Things that made the company great THE FIRST BIG BOX SUPERSTORE In 1975, Alan Wurtzel transformed the retail landscape in America by creating the first big-box superstore with a focus on Savings, Selection, Service, and Satisfaction. His “4 S’s” were captured in policies and processes that were easily understood by the customer and easily executed by his employees. Circuit City offered a low price guarantee, a 30 day satisfaction...
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...There are ways companies can influence how an employee acts in their position. The corporate culture and how they partake in business makes employees act a certain way. If a corporate conducts itself in a strict manner the employees will act the same because they have met the expectations of the place they are working at. The goal of most managers or CEOs is to have effective and efficient workers as this would make the company profit. Also the company moral and the business environment are important because it sets the tone for the structure of how things will be done. If you have a laid back atmosphere most employees will take their time to do the work which wouldn’t be beneficial for the end result. Apple and Circuit City are two companies that have different structures and therefore illustrate to us how good or bad the culture will make the organization a success or a failure. Apple has a different way of doing business and I think this is the main reason why it is a major success in the technology industry. Some ways they differ is that they have an application that assists in evaluating how an employee is doing. The Electronic Campus is used to assist in the work processes and helps them exchange information about the company. (Laabs, 1993) This application is divided into sections called “Domains” and it helps the employees access information according to similar practices as wells as needs. Another item that Apple established to make the work atmosphere better is the...
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...Circuit City opened their doors with the mark of a new beginning of the electronic superstore. Once they became the leading specialty retailer for brand name electronics, the company growth and profits were increased more with launch of new innovative electronic products. At this point, Circuit City had 113 stores operating, and was steadily expanding to larger number of superstores. In 2000, Circuit City’s CEO Akan McCollough made the decision to eliminate the appliance line because he believes appliances didn’t have the same demand/growth potential as electronics. This resulted to six distribution centers closing, and eliminated over 1000 jobs. McCollough needed to expand else where once the appliance were shifted out. Circuit City put the focus in to expanding their imaging and entertainment products. In with the elimination of appliances, came with the restructure which resulted in Circuit City failure to secure prime real estate they opted for low cost leases areas that inconvenienced consumers. Best Buy, one of their major competitors aggressively pursued quality locations with promising lease negotiations which in turned allowed Best Buy to have better real-estate that consumers appreciated. Best Buy opened their doors in an attempt to capture a share of the Twin Cities’ home and car stereo retail market. Richard M Schulze quickly realized there was not future in that market with customers with limited resources. His next step was to expand and offer appliances and...
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...Nibblins Introduction to Business 100 Professor Paige Baltzan Week 3 Assignment Abstract There are many Barriers and Factors to overcome and consider when entering the retail apparel industry. This report will address three barriers and why they are barriers and three factors that the upstart business person should be aware of to have a successful enterprise. This report will also give three examples of popular retailers who have understood their market and have been successful as well as three examples of retailers that who have misjudged their market and have failed. When a new entrant decides to enter the retail apparel industry they are likely to experience several barriers. A barrier is defines as “anything that restrains or obstructs progress” (www.dictionary.references.com). One barrier that a new entrant could likely encounter is gathering “Capital” (Funds needed to create and operate a business enterprise). The process for gathering capital can prove to be difficult unless one is already independently wealthy, according the National Federation of Independent Business, personal resources, not loans, are the most important sources of money. There are other avenues for gathering capital such as applying for loans through banks, grants through government agencies, to even borrowing money from friends and family. When it comes to starting a new business, a “Business Plan” (A document in which the entrepreneur summarizes his or her business strategy for the proposed...
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...BUSINESS ANALYTICS Business analytics (BA) is the practice of iterative, methodical exploration of an organization’s data with emphasis on statistical analysis. Business analytics is used by companies committed to data-driven decision making. BA is used to gain insights that inform business decisions and can be used to automate and optimize business processes. Data-driven companies treat their data as a corporate asset and leverage it for competitive advantage. Successful business analytics depends on data quality, skilled analysts who understand the technologies and the business and an organizational commitment to data-driven decision making. Examples of BA uses include: * Exploring data to find new patterns and relationships (data mining) * Explaining why a certain result occurred (statistical analysis, quantitative analysis) * Experimenting to test previous decisions (A/B testing, multivariate testing) * Forecasting future results (predictive modeling, predictive analytics) * FUNCTIONS OF A BUSINESS ANALYST At a high level, a Business Analyst acts as a liaison between business people who have business problems and technology people who know how to create automated solutions. A Business Analyst serves the mission-critical function of understanding specific business needs, determining and documenting accurate requirements from business units and presenting those requirements in a manner that is agreeable, measurable and flexible enough to meet project...
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...Title A Research Paper presented to Mr. Ghio Magtibay Reyes Canossa Academy Lipa City In partial fulfillment of the requirements in English IV Aeron Glenold R. Almoite Aldreah Krisol P. Dinglasan Christian Paolo R. Dumlao Cleo O. Vergara December 2013 Chapter I Introduction It took a power outage for me to see the light Of what it is I am really like To hear the words that you said without the noise I could listen close, without distraction of toys I saw the darkness of how I felt surround me The candle that you lit, so profound within me Safety, security, as well as desire Lit so lovingly by that fire “Power outage” a poem by Deanna Repose (September 23, 2009 (blog.deannarepose.com) Electricity is an imperative necessity and essential to modern life; one basically depends on the use of electricity with almost every task. People suppose that it will be present when they need it to power the engines and systems which on the other hand are also involved in practically everything we do. In Lipa City, the residents expect their power supply to be always ready and available every time considering that theirs are busy and rushed lives. In exchange, they compensate for that power, depending on how much they use. That's about as much as most of us think about in the process. Unfortunately, BATELEC does not always meet the expectations for minimized power outage in most places of Lipa. In order to meet the problems in power shortages, there...
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...Title A Research Paper presented to Mr. Ghio Magtibay Reyes Canossa Academy Lipa City In partial fulfillment of the requirements in English IV Aeron Glenold R. Almoite Aldreah Krisol P. Dinglasan Christian Paolo R. Dumlao Cleo O. Vergara December 2013 Chapter I Introduction It took a power outage for me to see the light Of what it is I am really like To hear the words that you said without the noise I could listen close, without distraction of toys I saw the darkness of how I felt surround me The candle that you lit, so profound within me Safety, security, as well as desire Lit so lovingly by that fire “Power outage” a poem by Deanna Repose (September 23, 2009 (blog.deannarepose.com) Electricity is an imperative necessity and essential to modern life; one basically depends on the use of electricity with almost every task. People suppose that it will be present when they need it to power the engines and systems which on the other hand are also involved in practically everything we do. In Lipa City, the residents expect their power supply to be always ready and available every time considering that theirs are busy and rushed lives. In exchange, they compensate for that power, depending on how much they use. That's about as much as most of us think about in the process. Unfortunately, BATELEC does not always meet the expectations for minimized power outage in most places of Lipa. In order to meet the problems in power shortages, there...
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...Georgina Martin MAN 240 October 23, 2014 Dr. Richard Maybury Case Study: CarMax The Used Car Superstore: Smooth Ride or a Rocky Road? Case Study CarMax CarMax is one of the largest used car dealers in the United States of America formed by Circuit City during the 1990’s. Its intended goal was to create growth of the organization in a different market. The company survived the day in 2002 when t gained its independence but as for Circuit City they reached economic failure and discharged all assets in 2008. CarMax offered a new experience for its car buying customer’s it consisted of four key supports for customers. “CarMax has carved out a solid niche with its used-car superstores that feature no-haggle pricing and financing, a five-day money-back guarantee, and a national database of cars that can be delivered anywhere” (McCuddy, Morgal, & Morgal,[8]). They also brought use cars from people that didn’t purchase from them. Money manager Doug Schaller stated that he believes that there was a rock-solid business model, and few competitors would challenge CarMax on a national scale because of its business model and sales-data trends(sold 345,465 used vehicles), that create entry barriers. Operations were challenging during the first seven years and caused financial loss. They overpowered their impediments and their future seems to look promising. CarMax strategic goal was to expand its superstores at a rate of 15-20% each year; this growth rate proved to be great...
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...Head: Organization Change Managing Organizational Change: Circuit City & Linens-n-Things Kara Burke Keller Graduate School of Management Managing Organizational Change: Circuit City & Linens-n-Things Diagnostic tools are applied to organizations to assist in managing change. Diagnostic tools guide how we think about situations (Palmer, 2008), as well as if and how we should go about change within that situation, and also the implications of those changes. The use of diagnostic tools depends on the role of the manager (i.e. director, coach, navigator, etc.). The Congruence Model is one of the diagnostic tools that will be spoken about extensively in this paper in regards to the two companies being assessed, Circuit City and Linens-n-Things. The Congruence Model assumes that a company is most effective when its elements are compatible and work together in a fluid manner. The elements that comprise the model are tasks (the specific duties carried out, people (the skills, knowledge and individuals who comprise the organization, formal organizational arrangement (structures, processes, and policies,), and culture (the unstated beliefs and values of the organization). The model is best explained as an input of strategy and an output of performance (Mind Tools Ltd., 2012) ensuring that the four elements work together within that process. I chose to use the congruence model to analyze both Circuit City and Linens-n-Things because this model‘s best fit is for companies...
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...Critical Thinking Mary Peeraer MGT 350 July 24 2012 Professor Duplessis Critical Thinking According to Paul and Elder (2001) critical thinking is the ‘mode’ of thinking, on any subject, content, or problem where the thinker improves the quality of their thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structure inherent to thinking and imposing ‘standards’ upon them. Critical thinking is the basis of ‘universal intellectual’ that transforms subject matter into divisions; accuracy, clarity, relevance, sound evidence, depth, consistency, fairness, and good reasoning and has three elements; evaluative, analytical, and creative components. A critical thinker routinely examine, assess, and improve themselves a method uses intellectual standards, integrity that will create a well- reasoned answer because of the demanding process. Create the understanding that thinking does not always need to be accepted at face values. Problems occur when someone persist of people whom, without knowing lack intellectuals will often portraits displays of an undisciplined mind. This creates unconscious belief of what is more comfortable to believe, puts us into the ‘best’ light’, or serves selfish needs, thus, inability to function as rational person. According to William G. Summer (1906) depicted strong sense critical thinker cannot be rushed, are slow to believe, hold things as possible, or probable within every degrees, without...
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...An Organizational Failure: Blockbuster Rana Fawad 1. Describe and discuss how the organization’s culture facilitated the failure. Philips (2011) believes that success or failure of any great company depends on “Events, internal and external” (p. 3). Blockbuster also appears to be a victim of certain events at internal as well as external level. Based in McKinney, Texas, Blockbuster and founded in 1985 (Blockbuster Corporate, 2012) and it ushered in a new era as far as video rental retail industry was concerned. The company gave birth to video rental places that had significant amount of movies under one roof (the first store had 8,000 movies) and were not associated with bad movies or bad neighborhoods (Greenberg, 2008). Initially, the company’s strategy was to expand aggressively and the leadership defined Blockbuster’s vision to become McDonald’s of the video rental business. Referring to the company leadership’s ambitious goals, Greenberg writes: The Blockbuster strategy was simple – pump as much money as possible into buying local and regional chains while keeping centralized control over the look and feel of the individual stores. By the VSDA convention the following year, Blockbuster had acquired two other chains and its more than 250 stores dotted the country. At the convention, Huizenga’s marketing executive Tom Gruber outlined vision for the future of the company, and it was expansive. Gruber had spent eighteen years working for McDonald’s before...
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