Mrs Fields Cookies - Case Study Example

Name Instructor’s Name Course Date of Submission: Mrs. Fields’ Cookies Debby had started baking cookies since she was a teenager. She used to enjoy the task of making chocolate cookies for her family. Refining her recipe further, she began to work during her teens, firstly for Oakland A’s baseball club and then for a local department store. Considering her enthusiasm and love for work, she would have gone onto fulfill her creative and adventurous dreams related to baking. On the other hand, Randy was a Stanford University graduate and a seasoned economist at a young age of 29. Taking into account his resume, he would have most probably made a name for himself in the corporate world. After marrying Randy, Debby used to bake cookies for her husband’s clients who admired her proficiency. In my opinion, it was Debby’s confidence in her ability supported by the appreciation from Randy’s clients that enabled her to convince Randy that she should open a cookie business, no longer than a year after getting married. In this manner, she was able to open her first store, Mrs. Fields’ Chocolate Chippery in California. I suppose that Debby was quite clear in her goals as she wanted to relish baking wonderful cookies, not creating profits. On the other hand, I believe that Randy was more oriented towards money making. Debby never treated her business of cookies as a money yielding medium. She believed that opening a second store would merely signify profit making. Moreover, she did not believe in passing on authority. However, she was ultimately convinced to open the second store sacrificing her viewpoint. Debbi’s management style could be seen as a traditional top down one in which delegation of authority does not hold any importance. However, Debbi’s rationale behind this style was not strict control but her desire to be involved in the business all the time, which was certainly not possible. Yet the rapid growth which took place after opening of the second store demonstrates that authority delegation results in business growth. While Debby crafted the business, Randy was the person behind the development of a potent management information system (MIS) in the company which was integrated with the overall strategy and business processes of the Mrs. Field’s. He brought in technology into the organization as he always believed in freeing the employees of the routine tasks which could be performed by machines. Apart from the technological applications which he infused into the company, he also assisted Debby at each and every step of decision making, particularly in meetings with representatives and heads of other companies. Upon analyzing the exhibit on the Fields information systems, I believe that the development of such a system in Mrs. Fields is a very distinctive and sophisticated measure for such a business. In my opinion, the in-store systems tend to be extremely resourceful as they quicken the entire chain of processes from manufacturing to sales. In Fields, the in-store systems, on the basis of mathematical models, keep the store managers updated with regard to the number of cookies that must be made in every hour and the forecasted sales for every hour, thus improving the efficiency of the business. As discussed in class, the two types of systems, in-store and corporate, differ from each other in more than one ways. The in-store systems involve applications such as Electronic mail, Day planner, Skills test, Interview, Time clock and Labor scheduler which facilitate the store manager in ensuring that batches are mixed in the correct amounts and daily operations are met in a proficient manner. On the other hand, corporate systems accumulate the data from all the stores into one database, consequently, generating reports on daily performances which help the Headquarters to take decisions with respect to each of the stores. Although the basic skills of a Fields store manager would be similar to that of a typical manager at McDonalds, but the resume of a Fields store manager would be more striking because of his or her special skills in relation to manufacturing, sales and technology; infused through the dynamic culture and sophisticated information system tools of Fields. A Fields store manager is engrossed in the daily operations to such an extent that he might also be able to detect the cookies which were baked by his store even when such cookies are mixed by those made by other stores, thus, exhibiting his level of commitment, skills and intelligence. A Field Store Manager’s sheer involvement in the MIS is more than enough to add splendor to his resume. The store manager turnover in Fields is an astonishing 100%. This is supposed to be seen as a bad sign for the company as it implies that the store managers spend a very short span of time in Fields. This can be detrimental for the company as trained workers continuously come and leave the company. However, in the context of Fields, this is not a bad sign as most of its employees are young college students who are very enthusiastic about their work and aim at delivering their best in limited time. Likewise, it is also good for the employees as after their tenure at Fields, they can return to their college, meanwhile, having earned quite a good amount of money. Debby and Randy abhor franchising as it goes against their principles of business. In their view, franchising is done with the sole purpose of making profits; in contrast, their philosophy aims at maintaining control over their product and keeping good relations with the customer. Consequently, franchising does not relate to the business strategy of Fields. However, most organizations of this type would embrace franchising as it assimilates with their policies, yielding greater returns and enhanced publicity. The two most common ways in which organizations finance themselves are through debt and equity. Debt financing involves borrowing money usually from banks and other credible private and government institutions. On the other hand, Equity financing involves making an offering in which company issues shares to public and accumulates capital. In the case of Debt financing, the company is required to pay the interest along with the principal amount to the bank on time. Whereas in Equity Financing, the company must pay dividends to shareholders regularly who become the actual owners of the organization. Hence, there are tradeoffs in both the scenarios and it is up to the company to select the mode of financing which it considers most apposite for itself. Fields has always relied on financing through borrowing and cash inflows. Though in 1986, it attempted a public offering in the London Exchange, but met with bad fate as the English purchasers did not place confidence in the stock of Fields, primarily because it had only a single store in London and also the fact that the company did not believe in franchising. Since then, the company has formally announced that further financing would be done only through liabilities and revenues. This also complements the management style of the company as it does not deem money making as its objective. In my view, the organizational structure of the Fields seems to be a very flat and flexible one. Since the Fields do not place trust in hierarchy, it implies that their organization does not have a top-down structure with strict control and command authority. Instead, their organization believes in less people and effective communication, indicating the existence of dynamic and interactive culture with a short but efficient chain of command which appears to be the reason for the company’s tremendous success rate over the years (Mrs. Fields Cookies 1-17). Works Cited "Mrs. Fields’ Cookies." Harvard Business School (1993): 1-17. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. Read More