Mrs Fields Cookies - Coursework Example

 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Mrs. Fields Cookies 1 Introduction 1 Acquirement of La Petite Boulangerie 2 Mrs. Fields Cookies’ Information systems and La Petite Boulangerie 4 Future of the employees of La Petite Boulangerie 5 Conclusion 6 Works Cited 7 Mrs. Fields Cookies Introduction Mrs. Fields Cookies is a company that has prospered with the passage of time due to the continuous struggle and intelligent strategies designed by the owners of the firm: Debbi and Randy. Due to continuous expansion of the business, the company had 416 outlets, 122 La Petite Boulangerie stores and many others units, a factory, a college for the provision of training at the company’s stores, a processing plant and many other stores and outlets in various parts of the world (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). The company has also employed thousands of people at it’s widely spread stores, outlets and other working units. La Petite Boulangerie was owned by Fields in 1987. Initially Fields suffered some losses with La Petite Boulangerie but with the passage of time and due to good management, La Petite Boulangerie was able to prove itself a benefit for the company. Randy is a major participant of the success of the company as she contributed towards company’s success by her hard working nature and her skillful mind. Debbi inaugurated the business while Randy organized an assemblage of management structure and information systems (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). The major boost that helped the company in its further expansion is because of the information systems along with managerial structuring in form of MIS that connected all the stores with another through a computerized system. Paul Quinn was accountable for informing Randy Fields about each and every detailed proceedings of the stores, outlets and other working units. With the acquirement of La Petite Boulangerie, the company had some concerns, as the newly acquired French, bakery/sandwich chain was a huge sized stores chain containing 119 stores in its range (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). Acquirement of La Petite Boulangerie Mrs. Fields Cookies got hold of La Petite Boulangerie in 1987. After acquisition of the chain, the initial actions that were performed by the Fields were to reduce the subsidiary’s administrative staff from fifty-three to only three (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). According to the Fields, the administrative staff that was hired currently fifty three in number and was handling overhead functional activities such as accounting, finance, personnel, human resources, training and development, was not needed and was only a cause of increasing the expenses of the company. According to the Fields, they had all the required staff members in their own previous network that would handle the new-networked area as well without involvement of more people. However, three people were left in La Petite Boulangerie out of which, two people were kept in operations of the company and the remaining was kept in R & D (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). moreover, it was stated by Randy at one juncture that the company should have less employees to manage the company and to make decisions. According to her opinion, less number of people is able to make faster decisions and is able to work efficiently. According to Randy, with more people, more managerial procedures will be needed in order to manage the large layers of people (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). If I were in La Petite Boulangerie as a store manager, I would have been threatened about my own job, as the reduction of fifty members from administrative part of the organization is a huge step that was taken by the Fields. The owners of the company did, what appeared appropriate to them but to take away the employment of fifty people is not a negligible step. I would have worked more hard to inform the company’s management about my efficacy and my usability for the company. According to Debbi and Randy, the business of La Petite Boulangerie was similar to the business of Mrs. Fields Cookies in terms of products, customers, management challenges and other issues. This assumption was quite right because there were many similarities found in both the systems. Firstly, both were devoted to bakery products such as cookies although La Petite Boulangerie had also other varieties of baked products as well as soups and sandwiches but still due to their business in food items, they were equivalent in their business. Moreover, like La Petite Boulangerie, Mrs. Fields Cookies was also divided into stores and outlets, both the chains were managing different stores located in different places. Both the chains, Mrs. Fields Cookies and La Petite Boulangerie were looking for expansion of their business, which was another similarity between the two. The managements of both the chains were concerned about the expansion of the business and attracting more customers and this was regarded as a challenging task by the management. Initially, Mrs. Fields Cookies suffered a loss at acquiring La Petite Boulangerie but with the passage of time, this loss transformed into benefit. After undergoing from a loss, Randy was of the opinion that they had long term planning related to bakery business but they were in need of some time to overcome their problems concerning full domination of a large market. They were interested to open Mrs. Fields Bakeries and were expecting record revenues but they got record losses due to their strategy of combination stores (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). Mrs. Fields Cookies’ Information systems and La Petite Boulangerie Mrs. Fields Cookies had established a well-managed information system along with the assemblage of managerial structure in the form of MIS (Management Information System). This MIS connected the whole company procedures with one another by means of a network that was established between all the stores and the company’s management. Different kinds of reportage concerning to the schedules, financial transactions and food items, was delivered through the store managers to the director of MIS, who reported directly to Randy Fields (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). Mrs. Fields Cookies did not have implemented only the MIS but also DSS (Decision Support System), ES (Expert System) and TPS (Transaction Processing System), which helped the management and employees of the company in terms of transference of information. Every information system was developed for a specific task such as DSS was designed for helping the management in taking decisions; ES was designed for getting support in accounting procedures while TPS was designed for getting feedback concerning the store related tasks. After the acquisition of La Petite Boulangerie, the company had to take hold of the chain through its information systems that would be able to connect the chains’ transactions to the company. At La Petite Boulangerie, the information systems would be used to undergo the same tasks that were performed in various stores and outlets of Mrs. Fields Cookies. As La Petite Boulangerie was quite large with many outlets and stores, there should be an information system developed that should be integrated with the current working systems. After integration of the newly developed information system, the company would be able to assemble all the information needed by it. Because of similarities of business procedures and food products, the feature of portability of information system was quite applicable, as the system developer had to make minimum amendments to make the new information system work. All the information systems that the company had previously, would be employed in order to develop a new system that would be integrated and implemented with the current information systems and the working staff of La Petite Boulangerie would be allowed to take support of the information systems of the company. Future of the employees of La Petite Boulangerie As far as the future of La Petite Boulangerie is concerned, because of profitable strategies of the company, La Petite Boulangerie’s status will be enhanced but the company has to take into consideration the involvement of more people in terms of employment. According to Randy, to avoid large groups, a company had to limit its business growth or leverage its people (Cash and Ostrofsky 1993). After attaining La Petite Boulangerie, the company has to take care of the employees of La Petite Boulangerie as well as for La Petite Boulangerie itself. Because of business expansion, the information systems are needed to be more efficient. After judging the initial action taken by the Fields of taking away the employment of fifty people, it cannot be said that the career of employees working at La Petite Boulangerie is secure. After upgrading La Petite Boulangerie by means of introduction of a new information system that will work in collaboration with management structure, the store managers will be facilitated in terms of handling of the store tasks. It is stated that the employees at Mrs. Fields Cookies are offered good pays and flexible working by means of information systems. As the company of Mrs. Fields Cookies is interested in expanding their business and their number of stores and outlets, the employees of La Petite Boulangerie have a fair chance to prosper and flourish with the expansion of the company. In case of their hard work and their effort, they will be provided with training and will be offered managerial positions in new outlets and stores because of their hard work and continuous struggle. Therefore, the future of the staff members of La Petite Boulangerie is quite secure with Mrs. Fields Cookies. Conclusion After analyzing the company’s taking over of La Petite Boulangerie, it is clear that the information systems along with the managerial structures will help out the managers in their task performance. The company has to suffer a loss in the beginning due to their diversifying strategy but with the passage of time, they handled their procedures efficiently. Some of the steps taken by the company are considered wrong but overall because of good strategies and hard work, the company is able to gain its current status, which is commendable. The company’s information systems that are currently being employed by the employees and the management are efficient enough to handle the proceeding of the company. The company has employed a number of information systems like DSS, ES, TPS and MIS that are helpful to the managers and the employees of the company due to which, they are enable to handle their working procedures. The future of the employees of La Petite Boulangerie is quite safe with Mrs. Fields Cookies because the company is interested in its expansion and with company’s expansion, the employees of the company will get benefit also. Works Cited Cash, James I. Jr. and Ostrofsky, Keri. Mrs. Fields Cookies. Harvard: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1993: 1-17. Read More