Edmone Washington MGMT 3010Case #3 Assignment p.144 (Be the
Manager)
1. Analyze the major forces in the task environment of a retail
clothing store.
Task Environment The forces and conditions caused by suppliers,
distributors, customers, and competitors that influence the manager
and organization every day.
Distributor - organizations that help other organizations sell
their goods or services to customers.
Distributor crisis (Retail clothing store):1. Sales are down
30%2. Sales people rarely, if ever, make suggestions for changing
how the store operates 3. Ten purchasing managers are complacent
with current suppliers and are reluctant to change4. Sales people
dont respond to customer requests 5. The culture of the store has
become conservative and risk-averseCompetitor - organizations that
produce goods and services that are similar to a particular
organization's goods and services.
Competitor crisis:1. Two other major clothing store chains have
opened2. Steadily attracting customers away from storeCustomer -
individuals and groups that buy the goods and services that an
organization produces.
Customer crisis:1. Former customer surveys revealed:a. Not
keeping up with changing fashion trendsb. Not keeping up with new
forms of customer service Supplier - individuals and organizations
that provide an organization with the input resources that it needs
to produce goods and services.
Supplier crisis:1. Out dated fashion and accessories from
suppliers which equals 30% less in sales.
2. Devise a program that will help managers and employees to
better understand and respond to their store's task
environment.Since new competitors have already entered the market,
the store must try to tone down its conservative culture and pursue
a more innovative organizational culture in-order to regain its
competitive advantage in the marketplace. The reason why I say tone
down is because, according to our former customer surveys, 30% of
sales were lost due to new fashions and customers service issues.
However, the store is still enjoying 70% of sales from loyal
customers that still like the old products and culture. So, a
balance must be observed when selecting between old verses new
products, to ensure that the old customer base remains
satisfied.Possible ways to regain the competitive advantage:1. Find
out what new fashions and accessories the competition are selling
(e.g. check their web-sites, check or ask industry sources, and
etc). 2. Seek out in-house resources that may already be available
for improvement ideals, e.g. Brooks Brother, used data mining (a
database information-analysis tool that involves the automated
discovery of patterns and relationships in a data warehouse) to
provide store managers with reports that help improve store
performance and customer satisfaction.3. Seek alternative supplier
channels (e.g. if suppliers products are not selling, eliminate
them, and replace them with new suppliers). 4. Try to create a
better team working environment between the purchasing, sales, and
store operation departments (e.g. an employee from each department
can be assigned to a Total Quality Management Team (TQM) to keep
track of trends, compare notes and report their findings to the
store manager).5. Sales employees should be retrained and monitored
on customer service and suggestion selling.May need top management
approval:6. Incentives should be provided to purchasing agents who
find new suppliers that attract new customers, and sale employees
who excel in customer service or suggestion selling.7. Re-evaluate
advertisements, floor displays, and in-store promotions (consider
Return on Investment ROI).8. Observe competitors websites for
e-commerce technology services and special promotions to customers
that our store is not offering; e.g. website compatibility with
most mobile devices, various views of product items (zoom-in or
out, 2D and 3D), free shipping to store for pick-up; discounts on
purchases above a certain dollar amount, and etc (consider Return
on Investment ROI). 3
