What might be the causes of the quality problems at Tokyo Jane (TJ)?
Tokyo Jane had a long standing quality inspection system that had worked well for what they needed. Alex Grut would personally oversee quality and make sure everything was in order as it was shipped in. The problem with quality now is that inspection has gone from being inspected by a company co-founder to a member of the sales department. In order to assure the best quality possible, co-founders Alex Grut and Michel Pfeiffer should have hired a Quality Assurance Manager, or some position that fell under that certain type of expertise. In addition to creating a new position, the company needs to train and identify exactly what needs to be done to make sure everything is on track with quality.
Mr. Johnsson, the employee working in sales failed in accepting deliveries; during that time he was under the impression that he was only making sure bracelets were not necklaces and was never instructed to check the quality of each bracelet and lock. He also had a different vision of what the company was, which was demonstrated when he said, “After all, we sell cheap fashion jewelry, not precious luxury goods, right?” He did not share the vision of the founders which was: their product should be of top quality, affordable jewelry but instead, Johnsson thought products should be cheap and not necessarily have high quality.
Another cause of quality problems is Tokyo Jane used several independent producers. Each producer will use different materials and processes to produce the ordered jewelry, so TJ even had to make sure finished products were uniformed both in quality and appearances. Quality checks did happen in China, but probably not as frequently as they should have been.
TJ considered hiring a Swiss inspection company to continually monitor product quality, and would probably be in a better position if they had gone through with that hiring.

How does TJ define the TJ brand? Is there a problem with the definition of the brand? Why is proper brand definition important?
Their slogan is “luxury for less”. There is a problem with this definition. Although TJ is making inexpensive jewelry that looks expensive, they have done things to differentiate themselves from competitors, such as: making all items with special robust locks, using real leather instead of faux leather, using natural stones, intricate details, etc. Referring to the slogan and current brand definition, TJ’s lead designer said, “A lot of brands have something similar; it is not outstanding.”
Proper brand definition is important for its ability to let consumers distinguish products and services from competitive firms. A brand is more than just a logo or slogan. It needs to generate a story so when consumers see the brand, they immediately understand who they are and what they do. You want the consumer to think your brand is superior in comparison. This shapes the way a consumer perceives your company and products. The slogan, “luxury for less” almost puts up a red flag in a consumer’s mind that the products are going to be not only cheap in price, but cheap in product design and quality. Tokyo Jane might quickly lose its consumers and eventually go out of business. Therefore, it is necessary to send a proper brand definition to the consumer market, especially now that the fashion jewelry industry is growing exponentially.
To differentiate themselves they produce fashion jewelry that costs DKK 4,000, but costs only DKK 400. At Tokyo Jane it’s important that the products are affordable, but also of high quality. To exemplify how low quality and low price can damage consumer’s impression of a brand we will look at the clothing company H&M. H&M is a famous Swedish multinational retail-clothing company which was established 1946. As one of the top companies in fast fashion industry, H&M is famous for different kinds of design, and spend large amounts of money on supermodels or celebrities to be featured in their commercials and promotional advertisements. However, a big problem that has been shadowing H&M for a long time is the low quality of products. Consumers will usually have to go back frequently to return items and or buy more items to replace their original purchases.
This is why making a clear and concise brand image and definition is extremely valuable across all different companies. Big companies such as Nike, Apple, and Google set a good example of this. Their branding is apparent to their audience that they set themselves apart from their competitors. The high quality of the service or products reflects their brand positively which creates loyal recurring customers. What makes an entrepreneur successful? What is not happening here that should be?
Entrepreneurs in the accessible fashion jewelry industry face a couple of challenges in order to be successful. First, they have to find cheaper sources of supply to keep cost levels low. Tokyo Jane accomplishes this by outsourcing from several independent producers. However, because all producers are different, they have to increase their need for quality management. For example, what Producer A manufactures may differ from what Producer B makes, but because they are both going to be under the Tokyo Jane brand, they both have to have the same level of quality, along with similar characteristics of what is expected from TJ. This can be an even bigger challenge if your company doesn’t have a strong mission statement that translates well across different countries. Again, Tokyo Jane currently faces the problem of having a weak company message; this creates issues in regards to what are acceptable quality products and what are not. The company is having these problems at home base, which can also spread into their foreign affairs. The issue at home must be resolved before further consideration into foreign production can be established. This can be accomplished by having the co-founders sit down with their top management and explaining what they are trying to do as a company, and making sure that everyone else understands this as well.
Another way to increase their success as entrepreneurs is by adding more value to their products through enhancements in design and quality. The company attempts this by offering different jewelry collections which are categorized and tend to focus on a particular look. These collections offer variations of looks and price levels. However, collections do tend to be pricier than the regular Tokyo Jane product lineup. These collection items were designed by Jeanne Rye Nielsen, who was brought in 2011 for her design experience. She explains that working at Tokyo Jane was a confusing experience, because she did not know what the brand was supposed to be representing. Once again the issue of having a weak brand representation affects many aspects of the company. Here it’s shown to conflict with design decisions, which in turn also affect the quality of the product. It becomes clear that establishing a strong mission statement that translates well across the company, and internationally should become their main priority.
Lastly, Mr. Grut and Mr. Pfeiffer have experience in the exporting business, they consider themselves shipping experts and find it their passion. Likewise, they need to find someone who is passionate about jewelry, someone that can bring innovation to their product line with the same level of enthusiasm that they have for the exporting business. However, prior to any of this, they must first establish a strong company mission statement, without it they are likely to be out of business.

Do they have the right people on Board? If they don't, what should they do?
At Tokyo Jane, the employees form a strong team, but they need to increase the number of employees if they wish to continue good practices in the future. Evaluating the operational processes, the first thing they should invest in is an inspection company for quality requirements.
They have mentioned earlier that when they hire interns, they sometimes need to “develop the position for the person.” Having a employee that has insight on their cultural generation can help boost the company’s opportunity for growth, however in future hiring events, they should hire someone based on their ability to complete the tasks under a specific job, rather than just hiring based off of their resume. To make their stance even clearer, creating a comprehensible list of objectives and expectations they have of interns will help interns have an idea of what they are expected to do while in the company. Seeing that Jorgensen, Nielsen, and Johnsson were the only permanent employees at Tokyo Jane, the company needs to expand their employment opportunities for full time positions. Tokyo Jane is growing globally and they need to find more people they can depend on. Instead of flying in China from time to time to check up on the shipment quality, they should hire a reliable person to stay in the area permanently.

Formulate a plan of action for Grut and Pfeiffer.
First, Grut and Pfeiffer need to hire more permanent employees to aid them in their responsibilities. Looking at Frederik Johnsson’s incident where he didn’t check upon the quality of the shipment shows that their current employees are struggling with balancing all of their daily responsibilities. In the beginning, Johnsson only had to handle exports to Scandinavia, but due to the company’s expansive growth, he now had to oversee exportation to the entire European Union and Canada. Next, the daily job responsibilities that both Grut and Pfeiffer currently handle can be overseen by another person. For example, instead of Pfeiffer taking care of bookkeeping for Tokyo Jane, have someone who is an accounting specialist look after it; this makes it easier for Pfeiffer to focus on other things such as managing relationships and supplier problems. This also applies to the design team of Tokyo. Seeing that Grut and Pfeiffer don’t always agree on the designs of their products, they should hire someone who is a fashion expert. This will not only aid Nielsen in her work, but also help the company stay on top of jewelry trends. Staying on top of consumer trends and season fashion is really important because the life cycles of jewelry are really short. Having more people specialize in areas they lack expertize in will further help Tokyo Jane grow as a company. In addition, adding more people to the company means that new employees should realize and understand what Tokyo Jane’s core motto is all about. They should understand their company’s goal for the future and how by completing their objectives can help them achieve those goals. When Nielsen came on board she was really confused; next time, there should be an established guideline for new coming employees so they understand the company and what they should be doing. This is where having a strong mission statement that translates well across the company and internationally would greatly benefit Tokyo Jane.