...The Case of Dick Spencer The Case of Dick Spencer This case study is about Dick Spencer, Vice President of a large manufacturing firm, Tri-American Corporation. He was also a plant manager of Modrow company, the Canadian branch of the corporation. Tri-American is mainly focused on the production of aluminum and other aluminum related operations. The company has wholly-owned subsidiaries in five United States locations as well as foreign affiliates in fifteen different countries. Tri-American was governed by a board of directors who set policy, which was then applied separately by the various plant managers, including Dick Spencer at the Modrow company. The company operates under a decentralized structure where each plant manager has considerable autonomy. This structure encourages a sense of competition among plants within the company; however, it also increased the pressure to perform and increase profitability. Dick’s Rise to the Top Dick Spencer started his career at the Tri-American Corporation as salesman. As a salesman, Dick excelled and was admired by fellow colleague for his charm and his great success in sales. Dick was well educated in Business Administration and had an MBA from a well-known university. As a salesman, Dick’s charm, salesmanship, and ability to communicate effectively and relate to the customers provided him with much success. Dick enjoyed his success; however, the constant travel that came with job began to take a toll on his personal life and...
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...Case Analysis of Dick Spencer Dick Spencer hit the ground running after successfully finishing his Master’s degree in Business Administration at the very young age of twenty-two. He started work with the Tri-American company shortly after and had many successful years with them both as a salesman and in management. He was very successful during the time that he did sales and thought that he would try out management after he realized it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to anymore. During his management career with Tri-American he had to overcome many hurtles and struggled a bit during this time of his career. This case analysis will focus on his success in sales as well as his failures in management and also look at what he could have done to be more successful in his management roles. Success Spencer was very successful as a salesman very early on his career for a number of contributing factors. According to other salesman within the company they attribute a lot of his success due to being charming, looking good and meeting with high authorities within the company on the golf course. It seems that Spencer was able to grasp some of the big concepts of sales by being a people person and being outgoing which in return helped him be successful and land those big accounts early on and in his first year as sales. According to Cronin (1999), “Success in sales or any profession is as basic as A, B, SC – Attitude, Behavior and Commitment” (The ABC’s of Success in Sales, para 1). It takes...
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...* Dick Spencer Case Study Introduction In this report, I mention about a case study to highlight the managerial issues faced by an organization. Spencer was a plant manager of Modrow Company, a Canadian branch of Tri-American Company. Dick did his MBA and served this company for 14 years. He started his career as a salesman. With time he continued to work successfully on different contracts and finally he was spoken of as “boy of watch”. Later he wanted to move on different career domain, so he finally transferred to the home office of organization. He was nominated as an assistant to senior vice president of production. In the following sections, we will cover the managerial issues faced by dick and his organization. We also try to provide some recommendations about managerial issues identified, researched and evaluated. Managerial Issues We identified the following managerial issues. Micromanagement According to the Wikipedia, micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes or controls the work of subordinates or employees. Micromanagement generally has a negative connotation. (Wikipedia) Rather than giving general instructions on smaller tasks and then devoting time to supervising larger concerns, the micromanager monitors and assesses every step of a business process and avoids delegation of decisions. (Wikipedia) According to the journal, “Micromanagers read your proposals, tell you to develop your prototype, and then insist on telling you...
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...Quality in Different Countries The history of the quality movement and ethics reform go hand in hand in creating better Strategic Quality Management. In the U.S. the history of quality thinkers and contributors starts chapter 2 in our text; ‘Strategic Quality Management’. In 1987 Dr. Deming received the ‘National Medal of Technology’, for his impact on quality in the U.S. The Deming Prize for quality was started in Japan in 1951, and the U.S. in 1980. A little slow on the up take considering most of the innovators in the early years were American. There are so many quality thinkers besides Dr. Deming, in the U.S. researching and writing book about continuous quality improvement and on personal and business ethics during the 1970s and 1980s I will only name a few. Dr. Joseph Juran had a plan he called the Quality Trilogy; quality planning, control, and improvement. He used a disciplined approach project by project. For Dr. Juran it was an ethics issue to meet customers’ needs with a quality product or service. Philip Crosby believed in measuring the cost of nonconformance or poor quality and building a companywide philosophical for quality, personal, and organization improvement (Pryor, White, & Toombs, 2007). All these quality processes requires ‘doing the right thing the right way the first time and every time’. In 1996 Brown identified four ethical approaches used in making judgments as to what is the right thing to do. #1: What is right is determined by an absolute, widely...
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...Many people remember Princess Diana for her very fragile and loving nature, however during an interview with BBC, she often remarks “I am a very strong person,” an ironic statement for someone whose life was full of challenges and disappointments (Elliot& Pederson, 1995, p.62). Beginning with her birth on July 1, 1961 to aristocratic parents Viscount and Viscountess Johnnie and Frances Althorp, Princess Diana (then Diana Frances Spencer) believed she was a disappointment to her parents because she was not born a baby boy, the desired heir to the Spencer estate. Feelings of disappointment continued for Diana during her parent’s divorce at the age of six and her father’s second marriage to Raine (a woman she despised) when she was 16. Shortly after her father’s marriage to Raine, Diana failed her “O-levels” (or college placement tests), and was sent to a Swiss finishing school to develop her passion for skiing rather than focus on academics. It was based on this new sense of freedom that caused Diana to exhibit problematic behaviors, such as relentless stubbornness and lying, as well as early symptoms of an eating disorder (Elliot & Pederson, 1995). Thus, it is the purpose of this paper to examine how the events of Diana’s life in conjunction with psychological components contributed to her development of bulimia nervosa. Biological Component Eating disorders like bulimia are a significant public health problem for individuals across the lifespan (American Psychological Association...
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...tell them all the information for Marks and Spencer such as Financial Highlights, share price, figures and Facts. Marks and Spencer are a company which have done outstanding and their figures have shown that their plan A has been successful. Procedure I completed research online to find financial statistics of Marks and Spencer, this information was found on the internet in the annual report of Marks and Spencer. I viewed the statistics to analyse the findings such as group revenue, profit before tax and final dividend. Findings This data shows that group revenue, group operating profit, profit before tax, earnings per share and final dividend. Group revenue shows that it has rose by 2.0% in 7 moths which is a great achievement and also it’s 9.9 billion, which is a lot for 7 months. Also this year financial highlights have been amazing the group revenue at the end of 53 weeks the percentage went up by 4.2%. Due to the really good results from group revenue the group profit before tax meant down by 15.7% which means they didn’t get much of profit in those few months. As you can see that the underlying earnings per share is 34.9p, it also has upgraded 0.3% which means that they have improved quite greatly. It makes sense to say that the final divined came up to 17.0p in 52 weeks which is a good achievement bearing in mind that they didn’t make much profit before tax and when down by 1.2%. As you can see above Marks and Spencers operating profit is £746.50 which is really...
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...The latest results from Marks & Spencer and Primark paint a very different picture of the high street. While M&S’s like-for-like sales of general merchandise, which is primarily clothing, have fallen 1.5pc over the last six months, Primark has reported a 5pc increase in like-for-like sales and a 22pc uptick in total sales. Marc Bolland, the chief executive of M&S, says the 129-year-old retailer’s clothing business is on a “journey” after the leadership team and style was revamped. “The most important [factor] is to choose the right direction,” he said on Tuesday. The new-look M&S womenswear collection has won strong reviews from the fashion press. It shows the company has listened to criticism from customers by stepping up the quality and introducing sleeves to dresses, which was a particular sore point. Mr Bolland said there has been a “gradual improvement” in the performance of M&S’s clothing business. The company “sold through” 80pc of the clothing advertised in its high-profile 'Leading Ladies’ campaign within six weeks. However, if M&S is to put its clothing arm on a permanently firmer footing, it could still learn lessons from the extraordinary success of its upstart rival Primark. The discount retailer Primark only arrived in the UK in 1973, 89 years after M&S, but if present trends continue then it will have as many clothing customers as M&S within two years. The first lesson from Primark is that price really matters. This sounds obvious, but...
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...Manuel Lira Case Analysis Ciscos Systems Uses its culture for competetive Advantage The observable artifacts, spoused values and assumptions associated with Cisco. Explain Ciscos observable artifact in the reading is that in order to explain how the organization web dreamed up by CEO John Chambers it would take them fifteen minutes and a white board to fully explain. However Manny Rivelo says that in three words it is “speed, skill, and flexibility". Throughout the reading he talks about the development it took for the company to go under after they had a loss of 2.2 billion. The espoused values that helped the company move forward were that Ciscos began to group executives into cross-functional teams. This made everybody uncomfortable and it was bumpy down the years but it finally paid off with success. This is very important because in a business a manager or CEO must know when it’s time for change and must apply change. For example my dad runs a soccer shop which started out from our basement. He sold stuff from home to people in the local soccer leagues and was recognized as the man to go to for any soccer apparel. After about ten years he finally decided it was time to open up a shop so he started out with a small local business. This was helping our business grow but only to a certain extent because people were coming in and seeing our products but the store was really small that they would only be in there for a little bit then they saw their way out. This was showing...
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...SWOT ANALYSIS A SWOT analysis or SWOT matrix is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. Some authors credit SWOT to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. However, Humphrey himself does not claim the creation of SWOT, so the origin remains obscure. SWOT Analysis includes:- * Strengths: Characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others. * Weaknesses: Characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others * Opportunities: Elements that the project could exploit to its advantage * Threats: Elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective. We are doing SWOT analysis of brand ZARA. ZARA SWOT ANALYSIS | STRENGTHS | * Have about 2000+ stores located in leading cities across 88 countries * Part of one of the biggest Spanish retailers in the world * Needs just two weeks...
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...Marks&Spencers The three different retail outlets I am covering are Marks and Spencers, Tesco’s and Volkswagen. Marks and Spencers is a department store Tesco’s is a supermarket and Volkswagen is a Specialty store. Marks and Spencers display techniques are interesting because in the Hereford store they have the woman's clothing downstairs split into different sections so certain items are easy to find. They then have the food and drink department next door, to get to it you have to go towards the back of the store and there is a big open are you can walk through to enter the food department which is also allied off into sections. The men’s and children’s department is then upstairs along with electrical appliances and the cafe. The stock facing used by Marks and Spencers is very simple the stock that is on sale and is new into the store is usually pushed to the front of the rack in its certain section and the stock that has been out for a long time and isn’t selling well will either be pushed onto the sale rack or pushed to the back of the store. The shelf layout is very similar to all clothes stores and electrical appliances stores, it’s aisled off into sections so it makes it easy for customers to find the products they want, the newer stuff on the shelf is generally pushed forward and the older products are usually pushed towards the back. Marks and Spencers usually have a display in the shop window to entice people to dome in the store; the newer stock is generally...
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...Political According to "BBC News 30th January 2006" Marks & Spencer would be the first retailer to go down the Fair-trade route on both clothing and food. The fair-trade policy, include cut salt and fat in M&S foods, recycled packaging and animal welfare protection. Marks & Spencer Chief Stuart Rose noted, "Customers want good value, but they care more than ever how food and clothing products are made" (BBC, 2006). Economic: Current economic position of the company is very uncertain. The UK retail market showed a low growth of 1.2%, third lowest in the past 40 years (SAS, 2012) M&S have recently closed a number of stores and have cut the jobs on 2% of their 70,000 staff. M&S have tried to change the way market sees themselves to try and stay ahead of the recession. They had 20% discounts in the run-up to Christmas AND 20% of all Wine and Champagne to keep up with their competitors. Social: "Consumer purchases are influenced by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics. Marketers cannot control such factors, but they must take them into account". (Armstrong and Kotler, 2008) In the Guardian (2006), Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer Stuart Rose wanted to stretch the company brand, for example he considered selling food online to become a multi-channel retailer, to keep up with the competitive market such as Asda. Asda and Marks & Spencer appeal to different markets in terms of social class and other demographics; so it influences...
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...Arianne Dyball MAIN Geography Miss Green Issue I Will be looking into Exploitation of workers. Wages and Hours? Child Labour? How are employees treated? Safety and exposure to toxins and lack of trade unions and equal rights for disabled e.t.c.? Global issues, how is waste disposed? Are any resources being polluted? Carbon footprints? Primark Evidence found underpaying workers and not paying overtime. Evidence found child labour being used. Evidence found of lack of regard for workers’ rights and lack of safety. Marks and Spencer's Evidence found fair pay for workers. Evidence found of use of child labour early on. Evidence found helping to assist workers to be shown how to how to do job properly. Evidence found changing to more ecofriendly recycled bags. Evidence found helping environment with ‘Plan A’. Evidence of Social Responsibility for Primark. This shows that Primark takes into account all social issues relating to the customers and stake holders. Evidence 1. This is an opinion of a stake holder (Primark’s owner). Primark's code of Conduct Primark’s code of Conduct: • Employment is freely chosen collective bargaining are respected • Working conditions are safe and hygienic • Child labour shall not be used • Living wages are paid • Working hours are not excessive • No discrimination is practised • Regular employment is provided • No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed. • Freedom of association and the right to A limitation is that...
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...Marks and Spencer: Plan A Issues There are many companies who are taking different steps as per as the Corporate social responsibility is concern. In this case various steps that the Stuart Rose proposed to company that could be adopt to recognize their customer with their environment friendly existence. These will help to realizing their customers on which basis M&S products are different from the others and what they are doing for them and environment. * Misunderstanding about the direction from the “Plan A” and which pillar from that can be more suitable and sustainable for the M&S in future. * Inconsistency within the sales of M&S during different time periods as it is described in case the business which is working on such large scales have to face various downfalls in their sales i.e. during the 1998 while the company has the recorded sales of 16.2billion but the market share and the profits of company dropped. * Prices that charged by the M&S are not justifiable to providing value to its customers. * Variation among the supply cycle and high costs then competitors. Analysis M&S has various opportunities to get there “plan A” implemented on different directions which involve all those five pillars that described case one by one. Which could be the stage of the climate change in which the company focuses on the reduction of the usages of the carbon dioxide for which the M&S has to do various efforts that are linked with the customers...
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...Maisy Marsh Assignment Three Corporate communications is how a business keeps their message, with everybody. It isn't just how the company speaks to the marketplace, which is known as branding, or how the company deals with the media, which is called public relations. Corporate communications involves, the market, media, communities and the staff itself, through training sessions and messaging that always reinforces the mission and vision of the company. The worker in the department of corporate communication will often report directly to a company’s chief executive and serve as advisers in managing the company’s reputation. They help leaders prepare for media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest new initiatives to keep the company on cutting edge with the communication to their stakeholders. MEDIA RELATIONS This may be the function for which corporate communication managers will be best known for. Media relations work includes many things such as writing and distributing new releases and responding to media inquiries. Corporate communications will be in charge of various news conferences, which may include selecting the site for an event, or preparing packets of information to distribute to the media and prepare executives to speak at these news conferences. Media relations also involves arranging for spokespersons to appear on local television and radio programs. Corporate communicators monitor newspapers, television...
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...ASSIGNMENT 4 CASE STUDY MARKS AND SPENCER In this assignment, I will be explaining the strengths and weaknesses of Marks and Spencer and will be discussing to which extent I regard leadership, corporate culture and corporate governance as key factors in accounting for Marks and Spencer’s underperformance over the last twenty years. Section A Identify and explain five strengths and five weaknesses of Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a British retailer which was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks. It became known as Marks and Spencer after getting into partnership with Thomas Spencer. They started off with a single penny market stall, then gradually expanding them into stores, and are now international retailers with currently 718 locations across 34 countries. Strengths Marks and Spencer has many strengths which help the business grow. 1) Marks and Spencer has a long term relation and works close with suppliers to ensure high standard quality and reliable brands to its clients. They emphasise on promoting quality goods and are committed to customer satisfaction. 2) Profitable company and large market shares in retail sectors. Marks and Spencer has stores all over high streets in London, totalling in 718 locations across 34 countries. A large number of stores result in increased sales, due to the wide range of quality products that Marks and Spencer stock. 3) Marks and Spencer is known for having an excellent relation with employees...
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