Principles of Management at Barnes & Noble Incorporated - Research Paper Example

? Principles of Management A Research Study on Barnes & Noble Incorporated Importance of Management in the Organization’s Success A lot of management literature is focused on the quality and effective management and how to maximize the company’s potential to achieve success with good management style. This is because an effective management plays a very importance role in an organization’s overall success. Planning, controlling, decision making, coordination, organizing and motivating individuals of the organization are all vital to effective management. A company’s long term success depends on how good it is managing its affairs at present and how well it is prepared for the future. If adequate planning is not carried out, a decline will inevitably set in. Therefore planning and making changes for the future before the decline sets in is the key to an organization’s long term success. The way in which company’s decides to make these changes for the future are all defined in the company’s strategic planning. This process often involves making changes with respect to the organization’s environment and the overall quality management plays an essential role in promoting these changes within the organization. Furthermore the allocation and utilization of human and financial resources to their best possible areas is also very important. The leadership of the organization plays a very important role in driving the organizational values and motivating its individuals to superior performance. Once individuals in an organization are propelled to do their job with full commitment, the organization is moving towards its success. This can be observed in the real life cases where organizations mature, move towards success, and sometimes if effective management is not taken care of the decline sets in and the organization loses its market share, shareholders’ trust and consequently losses may result. This is because the financial well-being and success of a company is totally dependent on the responsive, proactive and effective management. It should also be noted that employees who are well managed and motivated are able to overlook many shortcomings and grievances provided by the organization. Recent studies have shown that the employers who believe they have excellent managers are five times more likely to be highly engaged in organizational activities and its overall success than those employees who rate their managers and supervisors as poor. The following graph clearly depicts this relation (The Advisory Board Company, 2011). Therefore it is often said that the managers can either make or break an organization. Therefore it is also very critical to evaluate the management performance timely and regularly and reward the best managers who perform their roles in an effective and efficient manner. The importance of leadership in the success of an organization Often an incapable captain or the ruler of a country is responsible for its downfall. Even though it may be argued that since almost every one of us takes a few if not all the decisions on our own, it makes us a natural leader. While many regard a leader to be the engine of a train and the others are mere followers, understanding who a great is and what makes him stand out from the rest is of great importance. Is a leader only responsible to make the right calls or the horizon that he/she entails is much beyond that? Be it from the political standpoint of a flourishing economy or from the leaders of the big fortune 500 global companies, a strong leadership has played a critical role in driving its success (Davis, 2010). Many argue that having leadership traits is more of an inborn trait rather than instilled into someone’s personality, the point of discussion then shifts to the set of attributes that must be present in an individual to transform into a great leader. Analysis of Barnes & Noble Company Barnes & Nobles is a books retailer selling all types of books through its chain of bookstores. The company is highly known for its large size retail outlets and its concern for their customers’ satisfaction. The main products of Barnes & Noble include books, magazines, newspapers, articles, graphic novels, comic books, games and music. Although the company also serves the Starbucks coffee at its outlets. The company operates 689 stores in all the states of America and 667 college bookshops serving the local students of the colleges. Over years, Barnes & Noble has been one of the most successful retail businesses in US. In 2012 their revenue was $7 billion despite suffering huge losses. Barnes & Noble has gone from a highly profitable business concern to suffering losses. Here I will evaluate what led to Barnes & Noble’s success, how company capitalized its resources and why they are on the brink of going bankrupt at this point in time. I will also point at some strategies that can be put in place to thrive the business and give it a competitive advantage over other business engaged in the same industry. Mission values, code of conduct and ethics When Barnes & Noble was first established it was, with no doubt, its objective to become one of the top-sellers, the largest bookstore chain in the country and the only brick and mortar bookseller in the US. However the mission statement of Barnes and Noble doesn’t reflect the aim for high profits and huge market share, it is rather focused on attitude. The mission statement of the company reads as, “As booksellers we are determined to be the very best in our business, regardless of the size, pedigree or inclinations of our competitors. We will continue to bring our industry nuances of style and approaches to bookselling which are consistent with our evolving aspirations.” It is therefore clear the main concern of the business is quality and service to its customer. They actually want to cover the idea that they are engaged and always at their service. The mission statement also defines the future state of the company and industry in which it operate. This mission statement also reflects the attitudes that motivate the individuals working within the company and help to foster an environment that champions the success of the organization. Leadership Style at the Barnes & Noble Incorporated The key management personnel at Barnes and Noble include William J. Lynch Jr. and Steve Riggio. Lynch is the current Chief Executive Office at Barnes and Noble. He presented a great accomplishment with brand management at the Seagram Universal and Guinness. Lynch has also remained the GM of HSNi and vice president of its marketing department. Lynch has also remained in the key management positions of gift.com as its co-founder and CEO. :ynch had previously managed the Barnes and Noble’s online business as its president. He was appointed as the CEO of Barnes and Noble in March 2010. TO quote the words of Barnes and Noble’s Vice Chairperson, Steve Riggio, “William (Lynch) brings a broad array of skills to Barnes & Noble. He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations” (Shetty, 9). With years of experience in the field of management Mr. Lynch has been able to manage the business affairs of the company really good. According to some people Lynch’s appointment as CEO highlights the importance of electronic books and online business in the future world of booksellers (USA Today, 2010). How Barnes & Noble’s Business Strategy helped in its Success Barnes & Noble emphasized on inexpensive books to gain the significant market share. They took advantage of customer demand in the market for inexpensive books and focused on a strategy that aimed at the best-selling books that were being sold at a relatively higher price in the market. Through their research program and extensive market study Barnes & Nobles found that the customers were, in fact, more inclined to buy less expensive books; and that the best-selling costly titles didn’t served much to their profits. Like this they were looking forward to get the lion’s share in the already shrinking market. Consequently the customers purchasing hard-cover books sharply declined. It was the in-depth market analysis and an intellectual insight of the customer demands that created this core competency of the organization. The above mentioned strategy was in fact a cost leadership strategy that focused on publishing inexpensive books that customers were more inclined to draw attention to, and buy. The allocation of resources to the areas most likely to generate the most return is also prevalent in this theory. It was obvious that a good Pareto analysis was conducted by the leaders of the company when they decided to shift their attention outside the best-selling titles which accounted for only 3% of their total revenue. And this strategy didn’t affected their sales of best-selling books, but it, in effect, increased it by attracting the attention of customer visiting their stores to the best-selling books. They published those books that were out of print, classics, atlases, illustrated books and other less expensive books. This raised their share price and market share. The strategy of cost leadership and relocation of resources led Barnes & Noble to succeed. Soon enough Barnes & Noble started to bringing in the changes in the publishing industry. Major Challenges of Barnes & Noble for the future Currently Barnes and Noble is suffering huge losses. It has been suggested that the company has been on the brink of going bankrupt. The reason for this is inability to maintain the market share due to emergence of new competitors in the form of brick and mortar stores. Barnes & Nobles is trying hard to regain its market share by focusing on the electronic books and Kidle versions of the books. A detailed strategy based on the current market trends and customer demands should be conducted in order to devise a new strategy for the company to gain a competitive advantage over other book stores. References The Advisory Board Company. (21, Aug 2011). How important is an effective manager? . Retrieved from http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2011/08/31/How-important-is-an-effective-manager Shetty, N. (9, May 2011). Leadership style at barnes & noble. Retrieved from http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/foundation-human-skills-f-h-s/221453-leadership-style-barnes-noble.html USA Today. (2010, Mar 18). Barnes & noble names website head william lynch as ceo . USA Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-03-18- barnes-and-noble-execs_N.htm Read More