CASE – 3 The New Frontier for Fresh Foods Supermarkets

What steps can Vivian Noble take to recruit and develop her new workforce?

1. The new location of the store is diverse in nature and has many cultures. She needs to understand the
place and culture of the community; so for that, she needs to do a survey of the locality.
2. Based on the survey findings, she has to chart out a recruitment strategy.
3. Location being multicultural she might need to change some hiring, compensation & benefits and promotion policy and
operational policy.
4. Should attract local talents by offering them with competitive salary package.
5. Preference should be given to locals.
6. Should train new workforce with proper training program.
7. Create positive work environment, this promotes employees safety and growth. This will influence employee motivation and
also can keep employees productive and even help the organization to retain best employees.
8. Above all Vivian should get the support from the top management for that she needs to present her ideas and win their support.

What other ways can Noble help her company reach out to the community?

There are many ways to reach out to the community.

1. Network with local people.
2. Attend local events.
3. If possible sponsor local events.
4. Reach out local customers by giving Ads in the local newspaper and also by using social network.

How will Fresh Foods Supermarkets as whole benefit from successfully moving into this new region of the country?

By providing fresh and quality products to the consumers. Because of diverse community and different needs, the sales will
obviously increase and will be so for most of the season. Hiring locals will also help in cutting down the cost. Options will
open up for new products and existing products will have more demand spread over the year.

CASE – 4 The Law Offices of Jeter, Jackson, Guidry, and Boyer

Do you agree with Howser’s suggestion to “sit tight and ride out the storm,” or should the partners take some action
immediately?

Howser’s suggestion might hold good for other scenario but not for this. Firm is already dealing with many problems and Howser’s
policies made them even worse. His polices created dissatisfaction among employees and was met with resistance. Howser
should have realized that employees are the one who play very important role in organizational growth. His action towards
clients also resulted in company to suffer loses. It is true change is good, at the same time, before implementing new policies
and strategies, we should make the workforce to understand and engage them to achieve desired goal. In this case, Howser has
not only failed to bring the company into profit mode, he created more problems within the company and also outside of the
company. So partners should intervene and ask Howser to either change his attitude toward employees and clients, give him
an opportunity to show good changes within specific timeframe or remove him from his responsibilities. Company should
explain the situation to employees and motivate them to work towards company goal. Focus on rebuilding trust and harmony
with clients and try to retain them.

2. Assume that the creation of GM –Operation was a good decision. What leadership style and type of individual would you
try to place in this position?

The decision of creating GM – Operation in itself was good, but the problem was with the leadership style. In this case the
transformational leadership style would work well. This leadership style always inspire followers with a vision and then
 encourages and empowers to achieve desired goal. Howser failed to achieve the goal because he adopted autocratic or dictator
leadership style which did not work effectively.

3. Consider your own leadership style. What types of positions and situations should you seek? What types of positions and
situation should you seek to avoid? Why?

I would adopt democratic leadership style. I would like to take up Managerial position. By framing proper policies and strategies and
more importantly with effective and proper communication we can achieve company’s vision with more ease. I would act as a
bridge between employees and management to effectively minimize conflicts and boost productivity. As a leader I would like
to have proper communication within the company and good relationship with the clients.

CASE – 5 The Grizzly Bear Lodge

The Conrads are considering expanding their business. They have been offered the
opportunity to buy the property next door, which would give them the space to build an
annex containing an additional 20 rooms. Currently, their annual sales total $300,000. With
expenses running $230,000—including mortgage, payroll, maintenance, and so forth—the
Conrads’ annual income is $70,000. They want to expand and make improvements without
cutting back on the personal service they offer to their guests. In fact, in addition to hiring
more staff to handle the larger facility, they are considering collaborating with more local
business to offer guided rafting, fishing, hiking, and horseback riding trips. They also want
to expand their food service to include dinner during the high season, which means
renovating the restaurant area of the lodge and hiring more kitchen and wait staff.
Ultimately, the Conrads would like the lodge to open year-round, offering guests
opportunities to cross-country ski, ride snow-mobiles, or hike in winter. They hope to offer
holiday packages for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations in the great
outdoors. The Conrads report that their employees are enthusiastic about their plans and
want to stay with them through the expansion process. “This is our dream business,” says
Rudy. “We’re only at the beginning.”

1. Discuss how Rudy and Diane can use feedforward, concurrent, and feedback controls both now and in
future at the Grizzly Bear Lodge to ensure their guests’ satisfaction.

Feedforward: Identify and prevent deviations in standards before occurrence. As Rudy and Diane want
to expand their business without compromising their set standards they need to be well prepared in terms
of staff and service. They need to anticipate the issues that expansion might bring in and probable
increased workload to the existing staff and for that they need to have clear policy and procedure to carry
out planned activities. They should train old and new staff with proper training and guidelines to be set
for the staff to avoid any deviation in the set standards.

Concurrent: When project is in progress regulating ongoing activities. This means that the systems are
monitored in real time. Rudy and Diane can relate concurrent control by asking guests for their valuable
feedback during their stay whenever staff get a chance to meet the guest. Concurrent control is usually
 used in the form of information technology. This can be used to control budget and allocate the staff based
on the requirement and season.

Feedback: Focuses on output after project is completed. It is useful to bring the business to a greater
height. Before guests leave provide feedback form and request them to fill it and give any suggestions if
improvement in any area is required.

2. What might be some of the fundamental budgetary considerations the Conrads would have as they plan
the expansion of their logic?

Conrads should consider investment limitations when making new expansion of business plan. It is
evident that there is going to be an initial large capital cost of purchasing the adjacent property and
building the annexure, hiring new staff, etc. The purchase is considered as a one off capital expense and
therefore can easily be accounted for once the contract is executed; however, it is variable as it can be
considerably influenced if more labour, supplies, or changes are needed.

In the long term, Conrads must consider running costs and other overheads that their increased property
demands. There will be additional cost of utilities, insurance and rates expenses associated with
ascertaining more property.

The main issue is and always will be with any large business the increased expense of wages.

In order for the Conrads to expand their lodge, they should take few fundamental budgetary
considerations into account. For starters, an estimate of what they predict their sales and expected income
to be. Time is another factor that must be considered when configuring budget. The Conrads must decide
the length of their determined budget whether that be one, three, six months or a year. Because the lodge
has different expenses depending on the season, the Conrads should set up separate budgets for separate
times of the year.

3. Describe how the Conrads could use market controls plans and implement their expansion.

Marketing controls help monitor progress toward goals for customer satisfaction with product and services,
prices, and delivery.

Marketing controls are paramount to the successful implementation of their new expansion. These controls
will foster the marketing plan so that it can be successful in gaining awareness, bring in more customers,
ensuring quality and retaining customers for repeat business.

The only way I see that they can use market controls is to offer a competitive price for their lodging services
compared to nearby competitors. If they can rent out rooms and offers excursions at a considerably lower
price than some say 4 or 5 star resorts nearby that would be their market control strategy.

By completing market research, test research and marketing statistics of the target market, the Conrads will
fully understand the customer, what the customer wants and how they want it, allowing them to produce a
service that will not only satisfy the customer but also make them want to speak about the service with others
thereby acting as an advertising mechanism resulting in increased business.