Mrs. Fields Organization Issues - Case Study Example

Mrs. Fields cookies The success of businesses in modern market can be quite challenging, especially if having to manage business units in areas with different cultural and economic characteristics. The ability of leaders to align the aims of their organizations with the market’s needs is critical in order for the organizational performance to be secured, especially in the long term. On the other hand, each entrepreneur is expected to have his personal thoughts and concerns in regard to a market’s perspectives. The case of Mrs. Field’s cookies, a business that has been characterized by a continuous growth, verifies the high correlation between a leader’s capabilities and business performance. Mrs. Field’s cookies can be characterized as a quite successful organization. The growth of the organization in the US market should be related to the capabilities and the characteristics of its founders, Debbi Sivyer and Randy Fields. At the first instance, meaning the time when they met, the resumes of Debbi and Randy were different; Debbi was trying to explore her skills in cooking while Randy had graduated from a first class university, Stanford, aiming to develop his future in economics. From this point of view, the future of Debbi and Randy would be expected, then, to be different. There would be no expectations, then, that the above persons, with different background and skills, would cooperate in a business, such as Mrs. Field’s cookies. Instead, Randy would be expected to become a successful economist, while Debbi would be expected to continue working in different roles, possibly increasing her skills in baking. However, the marriage of Debbi and Randy can be considered as having an important role in the opening of their business. In accordance with the information provided through the case study, Debbi and Randy had different goals in regard to their business. Debbi aimed ‘to bake great cookies’ (case study, p.2) while Randy thought the specific initiative as a profitable investment, taking into consideration the market needs for products of the particular characteristics. Under these terms, it is assumed that Debbi and Randy supported the opening of the first store for promoting their own aims, as described above. The potential existence of common interest, referring to the family income that would be generated through the particular project, was also a critical reason that led to the support of this initiative both by Debbi and Randy. The opening of the second store resulted to an important dilemma for Debbi: Debbi should change her priorities in regard to the particular business. Debbi has supported the establishment of the organization aimed to promote her primary aim: to offer to the public cookies that were of exceptional quality. The suggestion made to Debbi in regard to the expansion of her business forced Debbi to re-consider her aims, as related to the particular business. It was made clear that Debbi should focus on profit rather than on quality. The opening of the second store could be regarded as an indication of Debbi’s intention to change her priorities in regard to her business. Reference should be made though to the efforts of Debbi’s employees in order to persuade her for the potential benefits of the opening of the second store; the intervention of the employees in the specific process can be characterized as critical in regard to the opening of the second store. The success of the business in the years that followed can be related to the management style of Debbi. More specifically, for Debbi sampling was quite important for the growth of the business, especially in markets where the development of the business was slow. At the same time, Debbi believed that having fun while working should be part of the business culture. Moreover, Debbi tried to visit the stores of her business worldwide often, as possible, and even ‘to sell cookies behind the counter’ (case study, p.4). Debbi’s management style, as described above, highly contributed in the growth of the business globally. Randy also had an important role in the development of the business. Randy had the responsibility for organizing the business in regard to practical issues, such as the daily process of orders, the communication between employees and the supervision of the stores internationally. Randy suggested the establishment of MIS in the organization; through these systems, the development of daily organizational tasks would become easier, while employees could focus on customer services, i.e. to sell cookies to the customers (case study, p.6). The in-store systems introduced in the organization’s stores can be characterized as simple, in terms of structure, but quite effective, in terms of their ability in responding to daily organizational tasks. Moreover, reference should be made to the following fact: MIS are organized in such way so that they can secure the control of the organization by its headquarters. Indeed, the organization’s central IT systems, established in the firm’s headquarters, constitute three databases in which records of personnel are stored; at the same time, files referring to the organization’s financial data, electronic mail and sales are stored in the organization’s central IT systems. As of the firm’s in-store systems, the following issue should be highlighted: these systems are unique, in terms of the volume of tasks handled. More specifically, the IT systems of the particular organization include a series of critical applications, such as a daily planner, a labor schedule and a form mail (case study p.17). These applications significantly support the organization’s daily tasks offering the chance for further growth. At that period, that is in late 1980s, the use of such systems in stores worldwide was not common; the innovative MIS incorporated in the organization’s units worldwide has become a key element of the organizational culture further support the growth of the organization in the context of the global market. The introduction of MIS system in Fields allowed the improvement of the management of information across the organization. In modern organizations, the management of information is classified as follows: ‘strategic, tactical, operational, transactional’ (Howarth, Stanton and Sinclair 18). In Fields, two are the key levels at which information is processed: transactional, i.e. the low level which is common for all stores, and the strategic, meaning the strategic organizational decisions developed by Debbi and Randy. There are no intermediate levels, such as tactical and operational, since in Fields there is no organizational chart. It should be noted that when referring to business systems, classification can be developed using different criteria (Fettke and Loos 244). The business system used in Fields has similarities with the semantic data model (Fettke and Loos 233), under the following restriction: in Fields products are not standardized, thus the use of specific criteria for evaluating the characteristics of the firm’s products would not be accepted. In accordance with the above, the resume of an ideal Fields store manager would be different compared to the resume of a typical manager. In Fields store emphasis is given on communication and cooperation rather than on the supervising of superiors. More specifically, due to the lack of organizational hierarchy, managers in Field were expected to have key communication and cooperation skills, being able to take initiatives and to organize their schedule of work without being limited by specific guidelines. In this context, a Fields manager would be differentiated from a typical manager in terms of his priorities, his ability to resolve problems but also to act independently, responding rapidly to the needs of his store. The lack of official organizational chart in Fields has helped towards the increase of cooperation between employees, i.e. the increase of the organizational performance. Of course, the organization’s daily tasks have to be monitored, so that failures are identified and measures are introduced early. The use of MIS has helped to the limitation of failures in daily organizational tasks. The value of MIS in monitoring organizational performance is verified through the following fact: MIS can support the storage of statistics in regard to the performance of store managers; in this way, the level of performance of the organization’s managers can be evaluated more effectively, using data referring to an extended period of time. As already noted above, in Fields there is no organizational chart, nor specific titles. Emphasis is given on cooperation and communication, as key elements of organizational success. The statistics on the performance of store managers would be a valuable means for controlling organizational performance, even indirectly, i.e. through the performance of store managers. The growth of the organization worldwide has been highly related to the organizational culture. As explained earlier, Debbi emphasized on the contact with customers, this is the key reason that she promoted the sampling of cookies in the organization’s stores globally. In any case, the growth of the firm worldwide has been achieved by choosing modes of operation that do not threaten the culture of the organization. Reference is made specifically to the avoidance of franchising, a method commonly used by firms in order to secure the financing of their activities. Debbi and Randy have been quite negative towards franchising perceiving the specific mode of financing as a threat in regard to the organization’s key philosophy; ‘make the customer happy’ (case study, p.5). At the same time, Debbi considered that franchising would lead to the ‘lack of control over the end product and the loss of touch with customer’ (case study, p.5). For the above reasons, Debbi and Randy have avoided franchising, even if through the years the financing needs of their organization have been increased, mostly because of the opening of new stores and the following increase of operational expenses. The avoidance of franchising, because of the issues discussed above, obliged Debbi and Randy to use between the following two methods of financing: public offering and debt. By going public, an organization can be highly benefited since it can accumulate significant amount of funds for covering all its needs; however, the success of such initiative is not guaranteed, especially in highly competitive markets. The failure of Debbi and Randy to accumulate sufficient funds through public offerings in the London Stock Exchange verifies the limitations of public offering as a tool of financing for modern businesses. The second, common, method of financing, debt, is also used extensively by entrepreneurs globally. The specific financing tool has the following advantage: the business founder keeps the control of his business, while in public offering the control of the business is lost, or else, conveyed through the shares. However, debt, as a mode of financing for businesses, has a significant disadvantage: the business needs to follow the deadlines set in regard to the repayment of the amount borrowed, otherwise the assets of the business, or even of the entrepreneur, are threatened. The fields approach to financing is aligned with their management style. Indeed, Fields are interested in keeping the control on their product and in protecting their contact with the customers. Public offering, as initiated through the participation of the firm in a public offering process in the London Stock Exchange, has been in opposition with the organization’s culture but also with the Fields management style, as analyzed above. In accordance with the issues discussed above, the success of Fields in the global market has been related to a series of factors. Of particular importance is the structure of the organization. As noted earlier, Fields have been opposed to the development of an organizational chart, emphasizing on the need for fun and contact with the customer. By avoiding hierarchy, Fields ensure that discrimination across organization is discouraged. Indeed, employees do not have titles, but they just share daily organizational tasks as needed, taking into consideration the volume of work and the complexity of the tasks involved. Within each store, employees cooperate and share their views in regard to their daily tasks. Under these terms, the organization can be characterized as having the structure of a network. In the context of such structure, all parts of the network are joined and can directly communicate for resolving daily organizational problems. The network organizational structure offers the following advantage: delays in executing daily tasks are avoided since each task is assigned to the member available at a particular point of time. The structure of Fields, along with its culture, can be considered as the key elements of the organization’s success in the global market. Works cited Fettke, Peter, and Loos, Peter. Reference modeling for business systems analysis. Hershey: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2007 1.http://books.google.gr/books?id=xODMuZaM82EC&pg=PA244&dq=classification+of+business+systems&hl=el&sa=X&ei=QEAvT4e8K-Sq0QX3zbCtCA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=semantic&f=false (Link leads directly to page 233, info used in this paper taken from the graph included in page 233 of the above book) 2.http://books.google.gr/books?id=xODMuZaM82EC&pg=PA244&dq=classification+of+business+systems&hl=el&sa=X&ei=QEAvT4e8K-Sq0QX3zbCtCA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=classification%20of%20business%20systems&f=false (Link leads directly to page 244, info used in this paper taken from the line 27 of page 244 of the above book) Howarth, Anne, Stanton, Barry, and Sinclair Margaret. Information Systems Management. Cambridge: Select Knowledge Limited, 2005. http://books.google.gr/books?id=eoJqOXvUj5UC&pg=PA18&dq=classification+of+information+systems&hl=el&sa=X&ei=xj0vT62xEufT0QWD2_WtCA&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=classification%20of%20information%20systems&f=false (Link leads directly to page 18, info used in this paper taken from the graph included in page 18 of the above book) Read More