The Importance of Ethics in Business - Kinky Boots Analysis - Movie Review Example

Analysis: Kinky Boots 2005 by Kinky boots was a film based on a true story and was directed by Julian Jarrold in the year 2005. The film tells the tale of Charlie Price who allegedly inherits his father’s traditional Northampton shoe factory. As he sets up to start managing the business, due to his father’s untimely death, he discovers that the family business is in a lot of trouble and is falling apart. The shoe factory was known as Price & Sons factory and was four generation old (Thesource 2014). . The employees had an advantage over their competitors due to their vast experience and knowledge in the making of excellent top quality shoes but their market shares was negatively affected by the high price tag they placed on their shoes. Due to the economic crisis England was facing then, the shoes, although durable, were not affordable. The factory was greatly being threatened by the East-European shoe factories that were making less durable, cheaper, and low quality shoes. The East-European factories had a boost to their market as the people were in need of cheaper shoes. One night while Charlie was in London, he meet a drag queen by the name of Lola who, due to her weight, had to bear with wearing high-heel broken shoes. Once they met, Lola proposed on the creation of high-heeled shoes for the niche market of cross-dressers (Boots, Jarrold, Deane, Firth, Ejiofor, Edgerton & Potts 2014). . The film revealed a lot of business phases in its course. Charlie as the main character is used to portray this phases thorough the decision he makes in his venture to grow the family business. The factory implemented the idea and entered into the phase of idea generation since Charlie got the new idea of producing and marketing a new type of shoe. The film then progressed to the second phase of product concept and development screening where Charlie and Lola discovered the best method of creating high-heeled shoes with a steel structure to support the men’s weight. The employees got down to the production of the shoes to get the factory back to the business of designing quality shoes (Boots, Jarrold, Deane, Firth, Ejiofor, Edgerton & Potts 2014). After the incident, Charlie then had to develop a new marketing strategy to market the new shoes. He had to examine and fragment the market and to target the potential clients, the drag queens. The film portrayed the management strategies that aid in the development and prosperity of a new business or a failing business through efficient market analysis and segmentation, decision-making and problem -solving, influence and persuasion in the context of interactive leadership and communication models. Good leadership, managerial skills and problem solving skills are well demonstrated by Charlie as he implemented a new strategy to the company after it started dropping in sales. He initiated the making of high-heeled shoes for cross dressers that presented itself as an original approach to the remarketing of Price & Sons shoe factory. He exercised his managerial skill buy risking going into a new business that had never before been exploited. Charlie understood that by taking risks, the business might grow to be much bigger and much better than it was before (Boots, et al., 2014). Charlie was a quick thinker and presented himself to be business oriented when he screened the idea that was proposed by Lola where he developed knowledge on the production costs of the shoes, the target market of the shoes and how beneficial the idea could be to the company compared to the previous ones. By taking this step, he proved that he possesses influence and persuasion in this context of interactive leadership (Boots, et al., 2014. Due to Lola educating Charlie concerning Milan and how the cross dresser shoes were doing there, she provided Charlie with feedback concerning the new product that he wanted to invest in. this portrayed the testing and development phase of a business in the product development period. This helped the company acquire adequate information and ideas of whether the product they are about to invest in may prove to be fruitful or whether the consequences of their actions would result in more damage to the company. The fact that in the film, the market size is identified shows that there existed a business analysis phase proving that the stage is relevant in any business venture to ensure that a business prospers. The shoes had an already sorted market size since Milan proved to be a viable market. Other evidences exist in the film such as the large media coverage in Milan. The marketing of a product once it is released into the market is evident in this film proving that advertisement of products is essential for a business that had the need to grow bigger. The shoe company, Price & Sons concentrated on the product and marketing mix development phase with the goal of changing its brand image, which in this case is the cross dressers shoes’. The product’s image and how the general public would view it is also put into consideration. This is evident in the film when Lola strongly advised Charlie that Milan is the best market place to target the product to due to the significantly large media coverage present in the country. By doing this Lola offered Charlie an opportunity to market his products through advertising and letting the public decide for themselves whether to purchase the product or not. Lola picked the best time to launch the cross dressers’ high-heeled shoes while in Milan. Lola chose to launch the product during the Fashion Week while in Milan. The event proved to be successful since they were adorned with full media coverage resulting in the advertisement and publicity of the product in Milan as the product was displayed to all the audiences that were watching the event and also the people who were actually present in the event. This demonstrated to be the marketing testing phase of the Price & Sons shoe company’s product, high-heeled shoes for the cross dresser community. Charlie Price was now in a position to conclude on the product’s success therefore he started the brand imaging and creation of a new market niche of Price and Sons shoe company during the launching of the cross dresser shoes in Milan. Lola and Charlie’s co-workers proved to be of great help in understanding the new market and offering the products that had tapped into the new line of consumers. This enabled the expansion of the company and the excellence in overall sales of the company thereby proving the existence and importance of the commercialization phase in the implementation of the development phases. The new niche adopted by Price & Sons Shoes Company provoked the use of a marketing mix after the product was developed and released to the public. Lola’s decision to launch the product during the Fashion Week in Milan provided an open and larger market share for the new product. By doing this, she ensured that the product had increased publicity to the targeted and anticipated market share. This move enabled the remarketing of the products in a new locality, Milan, as opposed to the original market, which was based in New Hampshire. This move proved to be significantly helpful as the business began to thrive even better. The company, which was later renamed to Kinky Boots, found its niche in the local and overseas market. The company looked for for vendors with the same cultures, ideas and values as it upholds since this set up a feeling of mutual interest and understanding that made a very successful relationship. Although this practice may not be available or possible at all time due to the cost cutting and availability of employees over opinions and connections based on culture. Charlie portrayed ethical dimensions of leadership, challenges for leadership in contemporary organizational context, decision-making and problem solving; sustainable business practices through the efforts that he shows in his strive to save the deploring Price and Sons Shoe Company. He portrayed this due to the fact that he had to switch his line of business from his hometown to the Milan where his other company was situated. This brought ethical questions to the local people’s minds such as “why is Charlie changing the brand name and brand image of his company?” and “why is Charlie not willing to carry out his business with the local people as before?” (Mindtools.com 2014).  The socio-cultural problems that Charlie had to cope with are evident in the film in a few incidences. One of these incidences is proximately when Charlie started managing his fathers company. Shoe orders started to be negated and this got Charlie very stressed. This showed the attitude that the clients had concerning the new management. These customers preferred to work with the dealer/retailer who they were used to other than the new management of Charlie (Thesource 2014). This was one major reason why the company experienced great losses after the death of Charlie’s father, and Charlie taking over. Charlie had to rethink and come up with an idea that would make the business grow strong again. That is why he attempted to try a new line of business products. The other incidence is when Charlie Price had to sequence his new product line to another location since the locals would not accept his management (Thesource 2014). This in turn caused the locals to develop an undesirable attitude concerning the new product and it affected the sales of the new product in his hometown, New Hampshire. The accomplishments of the company and other knowledge based organizations like kinky boots depend on the Information systems. This is portrayed in the film through Charlie when he listened to Lola’s ideas and the also when they used media coverage to promote the new products in Milan. Globalization is mandatory for any successful business in its path to prosperity. Globalization increases the target market and the product reaches more people. This is evident in the film as Charlie Price sets out to promote his new products in Milan instead of just relaying on his motherland New Hampshire (Thesource 2014). By doing this he portrayed management and entrepreneurial qualities such as understanding the human dynamics of leadership and management, influence and persuasion in the context of interactive leadership and communication models (Mindtools.com 2014). . The benefits of globalizing that are commonly noted are. The control and coordination of the promotional and marketing programs should be simplified. The globalization of a company had numerous advantages such as making the company universal and promoting the brand name and the company’s image. The kinky boots company provided a good example of how a company should develop a successful market strategy (Thesource 2014). The problems that most companies face today are fast changing and drastically demanding world in which they operate in. For instance, traditional businesses demand more workers than the current quality standards in this current time. From the information stated above kinky boots faced structural and technological issues, human process issues, human resource issues, and strategic issues (Mindtools.com 2014).  Human resource administration issues: the operative leadership and management qualities and virtuous decision making approaches for the company change through to discover the significance of the capabilities required to head the company and to accomplish its objectives and aims (Thesource 2014). Strategic issues: the radical integrated premeditated change from the administration of kinky boots pronounced, (Mindtools.com 2014) how premeditated change could build a best assessment added involvement to premeditated management. This matter also demonstrates about the company’s learning (proficiency to improve a new comprehension) and realization management (solicitation of the comprehension to improve association productivity) (Thesource 2014). Human procedure issue: kinky boots Company did not surface any disagreements in amid the workers but the alteration process and modernization from the improved the efficiency of the people and structural processes. Today there is a severe change in the commercial and financial environment, by which the companies are required to be inventive in the way they accomplish their occupational and to disappoint or discover more (Thesource 2014). The key influences for the organizations for their existence are Modernization and innovativeness. Connections between Exploration and Development, promotion activities and a companys manufacturing policy are made as the fragment of association strategy, in demand to assess the innovation-related concerns by coupling them with the companies (Thesource 2014; Mindtools.com 2014). The modernization issues from the argument of organizational perceptions have been illuminated recently. For example, one of the best methods to create reasonable advantages is to erect a company, which is based on constant learning and improvement. Many aspects of a company, which incorporates even the industrialized events, are also manipulated by structural learning (Mindtools.com 2014). The Company Kinky boots paid its responsiveness towards the promotion events by significantly understanding the customer’s wants and based on the findings they preferred their manufacturing plan and comparatively it also engrossed on the improvement activities via innovation (Mindtools.com 2014).  Bibliography Boots, K., Jarrold, J., Deane, G., Firth, T., Ejiofor, C., Edgerton, J. & Potts, S. (2014). Kinky Boots (2005). [online] Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434124/ [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Businesscasestudies.co.uk. (2014). The importance of ethics in business - Ethical business practices - Cadbury Schweppes | Cadbury Schweppes case studies and information | The Times 100. [online] Retrieved from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/cadbury-schweppes/ethical-business-practices/the-importance-of-ethics-in-business.html#axzz2wQWSR2j3 [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Fairpriceessays.com. (2014). An essay to the analysis on Product Development in the Film Kinky Boots | Custom Term Papers And Essays | Research Essay Writing | Dissertation Thesis Writing | College Essays Help. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.fairpriceessays.com/marketing/an-essay-to-the-analysis-on-product-development-in-the-film-kinky-boots/ [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Mindtools.com. (2014). Entrepreneurial Skills: The Skills You Need to Build a Great Business. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_76.htm [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Stasio, M. (2013). Legit Review: Kinky Boots. [online] Retrieved from: http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/legit-review-kinky-boots-1200333293/ [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Thesource, A. A. (2014). Literature Review On Organizational Issues Management Essay. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.thesource.com/dissertation/literature-review/literature-review-on-organizational-issues.php [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014]. Read More