Essays on Turnaround

Evidently, there are two major organizational issues that affect the normal functioning of the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant. After having enjoyed success for years, the firm is facing profitability crisis due to the fact that the management is redesigning its production line so as to incorporate new technology (Beer & Collins, 2008). However, the transition is not smooth. Secondly and most importantly, the issue of employee motivation has proved to be a big challenge. Having been a successful entity, employees were entitled to the Scanlon bonus program that enhanced their hourly productivity level. Since the workers had been accustomed to ...

The story of Ducati brand is interesting and demonstrative from the perspective of business development, management and company’s growth, as well as innovative reform. This is the story of the Italian motorbike manufacturer, which has managed to become the world’s second most profitable maker despite its comparatively small scale. The secret of its success lies in its CEO’s approach to turnaround management. The fundamental logic of Federico Minoli’s consists in choosing the path of rebranding, or brand redevelopment, rather than expansion or investment in efficiency improvements. This strategy has proven its effectiveness as a result. ...

Introduction

The fast food industry is a multi-billion venture for companies operating in the United States and those that have a foothold in the global market. One of the successful American publicly traded franchises is McDonald's with food stores both in the United States and beyond. McDonald's has a net worth of about $110B, annual revenues of $25.36 B and a profit margin of $5.7B by close of the financial year in 2016. Besides, McDonald's has a strong history of acquisition spanning from the 90’s where it acquired Chipotle. Followed by Donato Pizza, KeyCorp, Essex Capital Markets Inc., Wallach ...

Business policy case study

Executive Summary The case summarizes the challenges that JC Penney faced in the 1990s and developments that it brought in 2000. JC Penny was a retailer on the front line in the U.S. thus, found it difficult to embrace changes in the late 1990s. The plans for growth became an obstacle to its effective operation in the 1990s, which later contributed to the company’s improvement. JC Penny relocated from a decentralized merchandising system to a consolidated merchandising system. The company linked its business goals with HR practices and put aside the Eckerd drugs store to pay attention to ...

Introduction

Growth is a primary objective of any organization as it ensures that a company is progressing. There are various growth strategies, and one of these strategies is the acquisition and merger strategies. It is an important strategy that takes tremendous amounts of critical thinking and analysis before the decision is made. The strategy is also a repositioning technique that a company can use in strategically placing itself and its products at a strategic position in the market that promises better profits. All in all, it is a means through which companies can use to maximize their profits provided the ...

Strategic Messages to Different Stakeholders

Key message to executive: Introducing a new CEO Objectives: Issues: According to Koyne & Koyne (2007), the executive should know that the new CEO and managing partners are likely to reorganize the company through layoffs and dismiss top management. However, the top management can tell the new leaders that they want to help them achieve implement the changes. Porter, Lorsch &Nohria (2004) established that CEOs should focus on managing the organizational structure and not on daily operations. Additionally, the CEO at BrightStar should understand that his position does not give him the right to lead or a guarantee that the ...

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The Coca-Cola Company has a long history of innovation and development. The company was founded in 1886 by a recipe concoction created by pharmacist John S. Pemberton (Coca-Cola, n.d.). The beverage enjoyed moderate success until Pemberton passed away, and several businessmen worked to ensure the trademark drink would become a world famous flavor. In the early 1900s the product expanded rapidly from its roots in the southeastern United States across the country, and the cause of all of this growth can be traced back to successful leadership in terms of management and innovation. The purpose ...

In the contemporary recent era, McDonalds has acknowledged the biggest food chain of hamburgers and related fast food items. McDonalds assert that above fifty-eight million individuals fond of junk foods show their presence in the outlet and consume burgers and fries. The historical background of the company initiated in 1940 when two brothers namely, Richard and Maurice McDonald, inaugurated a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. During the year 1948, the “Speedee Service System” was introduced, which was considered as the principles of modern food chain globally. However, the company remained small-scale for another half decade (McDonalds, 2016). In April ...

Xerox Case

What kind of strategic planning process (bottom-up or top-down) did Xerox follow for its turnaround? What inference can you make about the effectiveness of this approach? Needless to say that changing of the strategy in Xerox was paramount for the company’s further development or even survival in 2000-2002 (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p.492). There are different types of strategic planning to be adopted, and it must be based on the competitive advantages of the firm, its objectives and vision, and specific action plans to be followed. Top-down perspective of the strategic planning has been widely used for decades, ...

P&G has been experiencing success by providing its consumers with differentiated value by offering exceptional products at premium prices. Consumer trends were greatly influenced by the 2008 recession forcing consumers to look for lower prices in the market, a trend that has affected business at P&G negatively. P&G has also been experiencing frequent quality control problems over the past with various products experiencing product recalls in 2006. The company is also faced with the challenge of counterfeit goods which are damaging to the image of the brand. The company is known for its multiple billion and half-billion dollar brands ...

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Efficiency Improvements and Trade-off’s

Ghosn’s first act of efficiency was to minimize the time uncovering the problems hounding Nissan. He did this by creating 9 functional teams who would be looking for all possible faults. The Japanese avoid public finger-pointing and value face saving. This approach could have offended and demoralized many managers. Production capacity was reduced to match current demand levels. Factories were closed (Belson, 2002) causing a 14% reduction of the workforce. This was highly effective but it was more painful for the Japanese who trusted in life-time employment. That bond of trust was surely damaged. Sales ...

Context

A classical fashion company, J.Crew faces challenges from various directions, demanding it to keep innovate, offering fashionable models, while maintaining its conservative style and reasonable prices (Strickland & Lindsay 200). With a fierce competition, conducted by reputable brands, J.Crew requires a turnaround strategy for enhancing its competitiveness in a time wherein fast fashion and authentic, luxury clothing are in a paradoxical relationship of contradiction and completion (Joy et al. 274).

PESTEL The microenvironment plays an important part in J.Crew’s current business performance. The political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors (PESTEL) define the context that influences the company’ ...

Introduction . 2

Analysis .. 3 1) Structural Characteristics . 4 2) American Apparel mission statement 5 3) Organizational Structure .. 6 4) Porter’s Competitive Strategy . 7 5) The External Environment 8 6) Stages in the lifecycle, size, and control system .. 9

Recommendations and implementation plans 11

References . 12

1.Executive summary The issue that the American Apparel’s organization is facing is that they have a very unique strategy to run the business more effectively than its competitors; unfortunately, this strategy did not meet the external environment needs. Therefore, they had to lay off hundreds of workers and retooling its production process in ...

Executive Summary . 3-4

History .. 4-5

Strategic Elements 5-6

Critical Events .. 6-7

Leadership 7-8

Mission and Vision Statement . 8-9 External Assessment 9-13 Analysis of Competitive Position 13 Internal Assessment . 13-17 Current Strategy 18 SWOT Analysis 18-21 BCG Matrix . 21-23 IE Matrix .. 24-25

Possible Strategic Alternatives 25-26

Evaluation of Current Organizational Structure .. 25 Recommendation Changes .. 25-26

Situational Analysis . 26-29

New Turnaround Objective .. 29

Proposed Measures . 29-31

Funding this Turnaround Effort 32-33 Financial Projections 33-34 Conclusion 34

References 35-36

Sears Holdings Corporation Executive Summary Sears Holdings is a major brick-and-mortar retailer in both the United States and Canada. As such, it sells a wide variety of products, including appliances, consumer electronics, apparel, tools, sporting equipment and ...

Introduction

Business restructuring refers to the process of reorganizing or reshuffling the ownership, management, the operational, legal, administrative, technical, and financial structure of a company. The restructuring may stem from the need to enhance the profitability, competitiveness, and placement of the organization in a particular industry. Restructuring usually takes place before the sale, merger, and acquisition of the business but there are several other motives of restructuring. Competitive advantage and financial gains are the two most prominent causes of restructuring apart from mergers and acquisitions. Organizations have to plan in the context of restructuring and devise a grand strategic plan ...

Business Revitalization and Multicultural Environment

Business Revitalization and Market Viability Assessment The company needs a Market Turnaround Plan to conquer the competitors. For that, the enterprise needs to have a turnaround management team in place. The team will accurately assess the situation; provide short-term survivability for the firm as well as ensuring that the turnaround is long-term and profitable. Further, the XYZ Company needs to reposition itself in the market. That involves the reorganization of the entire company. Its leaders must be motivated and revitalized, as well as dedicated to winning back the market. It should focus on increasing the revenue accrued from business ...

Problem Identification

The given Ducati HBR case focuses on the remarkable strategic repositioning and turnaround of Ducati i.e. an Italian high-end sports bike manufacturer. The case describes the existing concerns of the company related to the growth prospects. In spite of the outstanding profitability and explosive growth of Ducati, the CEO & the strategic business mind - Federico Minoli was concerned about the future business as he knew that Ducati could not grow forever in its existing niche. Therefore, currently Minoli and Ducati’s tops management is struggling with crafting a strategy that overcomes such constraints. In order to do so, one ...

Most Dangerous Thing for Dell to Extrapolate

Dell has for a long time used trend extrapolation in focusing on historical data on technological requirements since its inception for projecting future trends. If they will assume that the demand for their computers will continue like in the past. This assumption to quantify any change in performance of computing technology based on either straight line trend extrapolation, that is, on the continuation of the past behavior oblivious of whether there might have ever had some regular rate of change in the past of functional capability. It is probable this trend can only be sustained for a limited period ( ...

1.0 Executive summary Ryanair has experienced tremendous growth and success over time. The low-cost company strategy has been quite effective for several years. The adoption of the strategy has contributed to the growth and the success that the airline currently enjoys (Barrett 2004, p.90). However, despite its success the company is faced with various challenges including but not limited to volatile fuel prices, increased competition among others. The strategy employed by the company has worked well in the past. However, there is the need to analyze the current market and develop appropriate strategies that will further increase the airline ...

Institutions:

Study Overview Dissertation title: Managing Safety from the Top: The Influence of Senior Managers’ Characteristics Purpose: Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen The description of senior managers by literature manager is that they are crucially influencing the safety of organization. Yet it has not been completely understood, their influence is contributed by. Thus, the thought was to investigating characteristics of senior managers with respect to their impact toward safety in management organizations in the air traffic. A safety literature review indicated that research in the area would gain from introduction of ...

An overview of the firm and its primary function

Southwest Airlines Co. is one of the major airline companies in the USA. Currently, it is the world's largest low-cost carrier. The company has its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Herb Kelleher established the firm in 1967 (Southwest, n.d). The name Southwest Airlines was adopted in 1971. By the end of the 2014/15 fiscal year, the company had approximately 50,000 employees. Furthermore, the firm operates over 3800 flights in a single day. The company carries most of the domestic airline passengers in the USA. By 2016, the airline company had scheduled services to at least 97 destinations including overseas ...

MacDonald’s earnings for the quarter of 2012 were beyond the expectation of many but the company was well aware that it will continue to face challenges in the coming years. In the year 2012, the world’s largest restaurant chain reported the greatest in nine years as a result of the turbulent global economy. This slide in performance was a big surprise to money investors who had keenly noted the firm’s robust performance for nine years from the year 2003 with the net effect being an increase in profitability as well as the stock price for the ...

One of the largest retail food organizations in the world, McDonald’s has a presence in more than 100 nations at about 36,000 places. The strategic change analysis of McDonald’s is crucial because it has survived through a series of strategic changes. The competitive advantage set by McDonald’s is being the operationally efficient player in the industry. Founded by Ray Kroc, the organization caused a revolution in the fast food sector in its native nation of US. The secret was the use of discipline and complicated production processes and an effective delivery system. The operations regularity ...