Mrs.

Fields’ Cookies

Taking advantage of progress in any field and applying some of its tenets to a present
situation, for example a business, helps the present to stay relevant for the future. In the
present study, Debbi Sivyer Fields, created the business of tasty homemade cookies.
Randy Field, an economist, devised a corporate structure fit to blend into an information
system. The objective was to keep the USP of the cookies – the home-made taste and
homely service – alive in a business that grew to cover stores in 25 states and 5 countries
across 4 continents. Did it work is the question.

The explosive growth was a result of Debbi’s creative, if intuitive marketing strategy. The
crux of which was innovative sampling. Her methods made people sample the product.
This yielded dividends whether in the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong or Australia.

Products & Competition: The 14 varieties of Mrs. Fields Cookies had competition from
a wide range in the packaged snacks segment. Besides this, the sweet snack food
industry – chocolates, ice cream, cinnamon rolls and croissants sold in shopping malls
made for fierce competition.

Management Philosophy: Debbi Fields was a self-taught business person. She learned
by observation, and taught by example. Caring for her employees taught employees to
care for their customers. In a sense, every store became an extension of Mrs. Fields’
personality. In another sense, it could be seen as control.

Through going public, the Fields had financial control. However, each store operated as
a profit centre, which made them accountable.

Organizational Structure: Believing that “the less the hierarchy, the better…” employees
had titles and job responsibilities but no official organization chart. In 1987, the sales staff
strength was 105 District Sales Managers, who reported to 17 Regional Directors of
Operations, who reported to 14 Senior Regional Directors. At that time, the store
manages were 20-25 years old, hence stability became a concern. Turnover was high.
The salary plus bonus pay structure was adequate. The “promote from within” policy
rewarded loyalty and was beneficial.

The Key Question: The key question of growth was: How does one keep control over
the main vision of Mrs. Fields, and of course the profitability, while at the same time
delegating operations down the line.

The answer lay in Randy Fields’ development of a corporate structure that would be
meshed with information systems – MIS. “Putting as much decision-making and
intelligence into the store level PC as is necessary to free the manager to do those things
that uniquely people do” was the strategic goal of the MIS area according to Randy. In
automating routing elements of the operations, Managers could add value to decisions
that required their input and intelligence.

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The sophisticated MIS tracked the financial performance of each company-owned outlet
and provided comprehensive scheduling of activities within stores, including marking
support, hourly sales projections et al. It was a micro-management of sorts. The
applications included day planning, time clocks, store accounting and inventory, interview
scheduling, skill testing and electronic mail. One application dialed the headquarters’
computer, deposited the day’s transaction and retrieved any mail for store employees.
(Close monitoring of operations)

The system ensured clarity of role and performance and also a 2-way communication
with the headquarters that kept the channel of advise open and available. The daily
reports allowed for a quick response to issues (in keeping with Mrs. Fields’ vision)

The communication system through electronic mail as well as audio messages retained
the personal touch which was Debbi’s key strength. The technology leveraged Debbi’s
ability to project her influence into more stores than she could ever reach effectively
without it. “Even when she isn’t there, she’s there”

MIS also helped in the recruitment process, giving data for assessment by Managers.

When an organization grows rapidly, if there is no control of key areas, it can be

disastrous. MIS is the tool that offers timely, accurate information based on which good
decisions can be made.

Conclusion: (This will have to be based on Exhibit 1 – Financial info.

- Need to analyze the factors that affected the loss incl the negative publicity in
financial papers (pg 10) etc.

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