Stacey Tile Company case

1) a. Is Mr. Gilbert a good manager? Why?
b. Please analyze the case using one of the theoretical frameworks/tools discussed during the class.

This case is about a tile company which is threatened with foreclosure and Mr. Gilbert, a manager, who decided to take control over the Stacey Company and tried to make a profitable one.
The main issue is to reestablish the company by increasing production on high quality and concentrate sales on tile setters who do not seek quantity discounts and favor a low-pricing strategy instead of wholesalers who, as he said, “always try to obtain larger discounts”. His plans go for the full modernization of the company, for having it operating efficiently, resulting in selling high-quality products.
When he took control over the company he set as goals to increase the operational capacity from 2% to 100%, to increase the number of employees from 20 to 400, replace and repair the obsolete equipment and make a monthly cash flow in order to maintain under control the expenses.
To achieve his goals Mr. Gilbert concentrated initially on hiring competent workers and managers to improve the quality. He was thinking on a long run strategy and accordingly he hired more people than he needed in order to train them in advance. He also avoided accumulating inventory by buying raw materials on a day-to-day basis and tying money up in receivables. That’s why he negotiated with clients a 2% discount if they paid within 15 days.
The main strengths of the company were the position of the location which represented 60% of the U.S. market for wall and floor tile, a good production manager with over 10 years experience in the company and a cheaply purchase of its raw materials than its competitors. Mr. Gilbert speculated an opportunity for the company - that by the summer of 1987 will be a strong demand on wall tile market due to building construction increase.
Some of the weaknesses which Mr. Gilbert has faced were the factory wooden floor, no fans installed, no improvements of the building, high level of payables especially the mortgage in amount of $607.500. Regarding the tile market, for the floor tile were relatively low entry barriers but the prices were rather low. On the other hand, the wall tile market was less easy to enter but needed more investments (workforce with expertise and experience, more expensive equipment).

SWOT analysis for Mr. Gilbert
Strengths:
- 16 years experience in the industry – this helped him focus the company on the right way and be his employees guide;
- dedication – he has an exhausting daily program; spent most of his time in the factory helping the foremen improve the efficiency of their departments;
- decision-maker – he decided to produce wall tiles instead of floor tiles even if the factory hadn’t fully the necessary equipment and trained workforce;
- risk-taker – when sales dropped as a result of his absence he puts his savings ($206.000) on the line in order to cover the expenditure for machinery and equipment.
- good organizer – he intends to eliminate the dust in the air, to reduce production errors by better training of the workforce, and eliminate the debris organizing the existing kilns and buying the used replacing machines
Weaknesses:
- not the best visionary - he did not calculated well the money he needed for investments, that’s why he asks for $400.000 to the company’s board of directors
- too much control – his manner of control is exaggerate, he spends too much time for controlling and supervising very close the activity of his employees (in the morning he makes suggestions to the foremen and then, in the second part of the day, he checks if his suggestions are applied)
- not the best resource allocator – he did not train enough his staff and he didn’t hire enough experienced people
Opportunities: (external factors)
- increasing market for wall tile – strong demand
- higher entry barrier for wall tile – this means higher margins
Threats: (external factors)
- high competition on floor tile market
- low price for floor tile
- low entry barrier for floor tiles
Taken into account the above mentioned I find Mr. Gilbert not a very good manager but more an entrepreneur. He was good in establishing a right direction for the Stacey Company, saved it from bankruptcy. He was not the best inasmuch he didn’t allocate efficiently the money (instead of buying a new tunnel kiln the wasted the money for the periodic kilns). Also his managerial task should be to ensure the basic work system is in place and to program staff overloads - what to do and by whom.
Looking over the financial data, we see that receivables increased from December 1986 to March 1987 to $ 427.620, four times more, providing that he didn’t succeed to cash his money on the planned payment term.

2) Please pick a manager that you worked with (or worked for). Using Mintzberg’s roles, please describe how he/she fulfilled these roles.
Figurehead
My manager is an experienced person in the treasury field, he is an example for the employees regarding his knowledge.

Liaison
Our department has connections with other functional departments as accounting, reporting and finance department. Not always my manager succeeds in having good relations with these departments largely because is not seen as a quite good manager.
Leader
As a leader, my manager coordinates all his subordinates and makes suggestions in order to increase the efficiency of his people work. He oversees and asks every day about our tasks. He made his own team with people who trust and have the required expertise.
Monitor
He seeks/receives information from his employees to evaluate the department performance.
Disseminator
He has delays in communicate to his employees the steps they have to follow in order to achieve the goals settled. I also don’t think he meets this role as he not always communicates to his superior the concerns and needs of his mployees.
Spokesman
He’s not fulfill this role completely.
Improver/changer
Sometimes he has good ideas in implementing a new project. The last was to implement a new cash report in our IT system.
Disturbance handler
He is not good at dealing with conflicts between subordinates. Sometimes he creates conflict between employees.
Resource allocator
My manager is not quite good in scheduling his own time and programming his work.
Negotiator
He fulfills this role. He always try to defend his departments interests.

3) Please perform a brief SWOT analysis of the organization you currently work for.

The company I work for provides complex integrated solutions related to security, communications and information technology and civil engineering projects, in favor of a wide range of customers, covering almost every market area. It has four specialized divisions: Security and Defense Systems, Information Technology and Communications, Installations and Constructions, Facility Management. It’s a large corporation with about 2500 employees.
SWOT analysis1
Strengths:
- main competitor on the market
- provides complex services
- its staff with expertise and with experience in company for 10-15 years
- a strong brand
- his own culture and identity
- emphasis on innovation and change – ability in anticipating the future evolution and preparation for changes
- best quality products and services
- good bargaining power of suppliers
Weaknesses:
- has a heavy and complex structure – many companies within the group – this makes it difficult in becoming a public company
- internal bureaucracy
- has many contracts with the state – has difficulties in collecting the receivables
- poor communication from the top towards the base

Opportunities:
- penetration of external markets - given that in the country has a good reputation
- development of own products at low costs – this will enhance the profitability of the company
- partnerships with other companies to develop new projects
Threats:
- fierce competition - low barriers to entry on the market – new entrants on the market companies with lower prices
- decrease in the number of contracts due to the economical situation