1. Robin Hood Case Final Report

8/10/2019 1. Robin Hood Case Final Report

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Commercial and Strategic Management

PRACTICAL CASE -ROBIN HOOD

Teacher: Teresa de Lemos

by

Pedro Soldado N 70184

Kathrin Beck N 80429

Matthijs Van der Linden N 80430

October 13, 2014


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Index

0. Executive Summary ........................................................................................ 2

1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 3

2. Market Definition / Market Segment ............................................................. 4

3. External Environment Analysis ....................................................................... 5

4. Internal Environment Analysis ........................................................................ 8

5. Organization Competitive Position Analysis ................................................... 9

6. SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................. 10

7. Conclusion / Answer to Questions ............................................................... 11


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1. Introduction

This first case study studies the story of Robin Hood and his group. Robin is the leader of the

group and, due to the increase on the groups numbers, a top -down management

organization was set in place. Robin delegates responsibilities to some of his trusted fellows,

still ruling supreme and making all the important decisions.

Its important to note that Robin Hoods company activity is illegal, so some standard methods

for strategic analysis might not be fully applied, or some decisions might need further analysis.

This reports purpose is to analyze this organization, by defining its market, analyzing the

external and internal environment, its competitive position, and ultimately map all the

obtained strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to conclude on what are the

recommended decisions that Robin Hood should take.


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2. Market Definition / Market Segment

In order to be able to define the market, and throughout the whole analysis, we will assume

the following aspects: Robin Hood is the leader (similar to a CEO), the suppliers are the

merchants and tax collectors that Hoods band collects loot from.

Clients:

In this case, Robin Hood and his Merrymen they are the organization and therefore the

taxpayers (the poor) who get their paid taxes returned to them are their clients.

A particular aspect of this case is that the service provided (loot converted to cash and othergoods) is free of charge.

Buying decision criteria:

Because the poor receive this service for free and they are not buying anything, there are no

buying decision criteria.


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3. External Environment Analysis

PESTL Analysis

From this analysis, the most important factors to have into account are:

- Possible conflict with Prince John: Making a decision against the Sheriff (killing him for

example) might lead to dangerous conflict against Prince John, a very powerful man.

- Negotiations with the Barons: This decision might be beneficial at first, but what potential

repercussions might it lead to?

- Potential trading restrictions: If Prince John forbids merchants and trade people from using

the forest route, Robin Hoods activities cease to exist immediately.

Factors

Political - Possible conflict with Prince John;

- Conflict with the Sheriff of Nottingham;

- Growing power of the Sheriff;

- Negotiations with the Barons;

- Potential trading restrictions (avoid forest

routes by order Prince Johns orders).

Economical - Increase in resource consumption (due toband growth);

Social & Demographic - People generally dislike Prince John;

- Some of the Barons dispute Prince John

claim to the throne.

Technological No technological factors.

Legal - Robin Hoods activity is illegal.


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5 Forces of Porter

In order to evaluate the industry attractiveness on this particular case, the Porters Five Forces

analysis was used. First, it was needed to provide an appropriate scale to quantify each force.

The following scale was used:

Scale Threat Size

1 Very Low

2 Low

3 Medium

4 High

5 Very High

Table 1 - Mapping between threat and scale used on chart

Figure 1 - Five Forces of Porter for Robin Hood Case

The rivalrybetween Robin Hood and both the Sheriff and Prince John pose the biggest threat

to his activities, as they are powerful people, and have also powerful friends.

The suppliers(the people who have their goods confiscated by Robin Hoods men) pose a big

threattoo, because if every one of them starts avoiding the forest, no supplies will be available

for Robins endeavors (and no suppliers available to substitute this loss).

1

2

3

4

5

Threat of New Entrants

Threat of SubstituteProducts

Buyer Bargaining PowerSupplier Bargaining Power

Competitive Rivalry

Forces of Porter


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4. Internal Environment Analysis

SUPPORT

ACTIVITES

INFRASTRUCTURE- Robin Hood acts as the CEO, with trusted people responsible for each main area

FINANCES- Manage the goods acquired

- Loot to cash conversion

HUMAN RESOURCES- Recruit and train new additions to the group

- Manage potential internal conflicts and promote discipline on the group

PRIMARY

ACTIVITIES

INBOUND

LOGISTICS- Resources

gathered, and

acquired on

outlying villages

OPERATIONS- Ambush and

confiscate goods

from merchants

and tax collectors

OUTBOUND

LOGISTICS- Find hiding

places for the

surplus loot

- Distribute

money to poor

people

MARKETING- The bands motto acts a

powerful, free marketing

tool


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5. Organization Competitive Position Analysis

Key Success Factors

There are several critical success factors that Robin Hood and his band achieve in order to

guarantee their organizations success. They are:

1. Robin Hood is a great leader, started the organization all by himself, and promoted

it until many others started following him and helping him in his activities;

2. Another key factor is the resources available. Robin needs to make some changes

on its organization mainly because the resources are dwindling as the band grows.

3. The bands motto (Rob from the rich and give to the poor) acts as a powerful

marketing and recruiting tool, and has the bonus of being free and only using word-of-mouth advertising. This is the main factor that lead to the growth of the band.

4. Robin decided to delegate responsibilities. This leads to the formation of work

groups, focused and specialized on each task.

5. An efficient and organized way of collecting information about both the Sheriff and

his mens actions and merchants travelling plans is a key success factor, as without

this, the organization would surely fail.

Benchmarking

Bearing all those factors in mind, we can analyze the competitive position of Robin Hoods

organization against its main competitor, the Sheriff.

Factor Weight (%) Robin Hood Sheriff of Nottingham

1 30 4 3

2 25 3 5

3 20 5 2

4 15 3 3

5 10 3 4100 3,7 3,4

With this analysis we conclude that Robin Hoods organization still has some competitive

capabilities, mostly due to its excellent public image (good guy vs bad guy i.e. the Sheriff),

and to the great leader Hood is.

Still, this analysis is subjective and prone to errors, so special caution while reading from its

conclusions is advised.


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6. SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS

Strong leadership;

Plenty of human

resources (possible

powerful military power);

Efficient division of

responsibilities;

Expertise on the business(archery and robbing).

WEAKNESSES

Illegal business;

Fast dwindling of

resources;

Hard to maintain order

and discipline;

No organized recruiting

program;

OPPORTUNITIES

Barons want Robin Hood

to help them bring King

Richard back.

Bands motto still attracts

many new recruit

opportunities;

Accept Baronsproposal

and start recruiting more to

prepare for future conflicts.

Increase efficiency on

resource consumption

(might involve new task

delegation);

Implement a stricter and

organized recruitment

program;

THREATS

Sheriff is getting stronger

and organized;

Sheriff is well connected,

and has powerful friends;

Merchants started

avoiding the forest

(shortage of goods).

Kill the Sheriff, before he

gets too powerful and

organized.

Abandon the cause;

Explore new options and

places for suppliers

ambush.


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7. Conclusion / Answer to Questions

The conclusion is summarized on the answers to the assignment questions.

1. What problems does Robin Hood have, and what issues need to be addressed?

One of the strongest points on Robin Hood s Organization is the powerful advertising it gts

with his motto and accomplishments. But this popularity let to the growth of the band, which

causes multiple problems:

Vigilance is getting in decline;

Harder to maintain discipline across all the band;

There is not enough food in the forest, game is getting scarce, high costs of buying extra

food from suppliers;

Lack of communication on the band, especially with Robin Hood (no direct relation with

all of them);

Another problem is that the travelers (main suppliers for Robins activity) are starting to avoid

the forest, so they wont get robbed.

Finally, Robin Hoods main enemy, the Sheriff, is getting stronger both resource and power-

wise.

Robin Hood needs to make decisions to regulate the growth problem, to account for the loss

of suppliers, and for the growing threat that the Sheriff poses.

2. Do Robin Hood and the Merrymen need a new mission, new objectives, a new strategy?

New mission: The mission stays the same.

New objectives: The objectives dont have to change.

New strategy: The strategy definitely needs to be altered. To reach their objectives according

to the mission, Robin Hood and his Merrymen need to make adaptations to the strategy. Due

to higher numbers of people they need to either lower these numbers or scale up their

supplies. Since this seems to be hard, less men would be a better option. This would make

discipline easier to enforce and would restore the balance of available resources and financial

surpluses.


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3. What strategic options does Robin Hood have? Is continuing with the present strategy an

option or is the present strategy obsolete?

Robin has several options:

The option of charging the farmers and townspeople taxes;

Robin can try to kill the Sheriff, although the chances of success are very low, and might

make Prince John (and a possible new Sheriff) a bigger threat;

The option of joining the Baronsconspiracy against the current regent to release King

Richard from jail in return for future amnesty;

The option of dismissing band members and continuing with a smaller group of people,

as the current group is far too big;

Enforcing a stricter and organized recruitment program, to control band growth.

The present strategy seems to be obsolete, as the Sheriff is getting stronger and stronger and

Robin and his band are getting weaker and weaker.

4. Why not try to end the campaign by killing the Sheriff?

This would only satisfy Robin Hoods personal feelings of revenge against the Sheriff but would

not improve the general situation. Another Sheriff would come in place and would continue

to be the same problem, and Prince John might come into play as a bigger threat (empoweringthe new Sheriff or its subordinates). The system itself is the problem and not a single person.

5. What are the pros and cons of accepting the offer of the barons to assist in securing King

Richard's release from prison?

This decision is surrounded by several pros and cons:

Pros:

If this endeavor succeeded, the current regent, Prince John, would be replaced by King

Richard. If this were to happen the Sheriff would lose a powerful friend and therefore

lose power himself;

King Richard would possibly even completely end all corruption and restore balance;

Robin would receive amnesty if King Richard returned to the throne;

Cons:

If the endeavor failed, the punishment for being a traitor to the King would be heavyand could result in complete band annihilation;


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Prince John has got spies everywhere so Robin would risk getting punished.

6. What action plan would you recommend to Robin?

In order to solve Robin Hoods current problems we would advise to scale down the number

of men joining the cause under the current ruling system due to the fact that there are not

enough supplies. This is the law of increasing and diminishing returns.

The problem of declining ability to enforce discipline could be solved by naming a few men

assistants of Little John. But this would only solve the discipline issue, not the issue of supplies.

Also the fact that travelers are avoiding the forest is a clear sign of that the organization s

activities are getting noticed. The solution would be scaling down. First letting no new men

join the cause in that particular forest and secondly shift tasks for some of the existing men

that are in the forest already.

Another place of activities (forest or appropriate place) should be sought and a sub-delegation

(close to and trained by Robin Hood) should be stationed there. This leads to the following

action plan:

Stick to the mission;

No new recruitments;

Scaling up supervision

o Make 5 (arbitrary number) Little Johns assistants;

Create sub delegation and send them to another place to conduct the same mission (if

possible, directly to the routes that suppliers are starting to travel by now).

7. How should Robin implement the recommended plan, and what steps will need to be

taken to make the recommended strategy work successfully?

Robin should not implement the recommended plan overnight, as the members of the band

might not agree with the new ideas and plans. Therefore it is important to implement the new

ideas gradually so the men can get used to the new policy and have time to adjust to it.

For the new strategy to be deployed successfully we recommend Robin to follow the following

steps:

1. Dont accept any new recruiters;

2. Explain the new strategy to all the lieutenants , so they can adjust to the new ideas and

get their men aligned with the new strategy;


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3. Start an organized recruitment program with Little John for recruiting additional

supervisors;

4. Train the new supervisors;

5.

Look in to the opportunity of creating another base at a different forest or appropriateplace;

6. If building another base is possible, select a person to be in charge in the new base and

move the sub delegation there.

Documents

1. Robin Hood Case Final Report