WRIGHTLINE INC.

Case Study

GROUP-6
Major Constraints being faced at the time

 Direct sales unit of the company can’t keep pace with rapid growth and change in the
market scenarios
 Despite salesforce expansion (60% between 1977-81), market coverage declined,
productivity per sales rep deteriorated ($221000 to $187000 between 1978-81).
 Short term goals
 Unit 1 being the primary business, yielding maximum profits and having the most experienced
and skilled workforce, shall remain in the frontline. (HPA’s and MPA’s are maximum profit
yielding areas with 70% of business). (Reference Chart 1.2)
 Sales representatives employed before 1978 (i.e. experienced sales reps) should be incentivised
and promoted to higher levels of hierarchy as per company norms (rationale: POSITIVE sales
rate at this level over 1978-81). Advantages would be employee motivation for newer
workforce employed during this period and also for higher levels of hierarchy. Also, during
diversification, experienced workforce could be easily distributed among various units for a
better resource allocation. Simultaneously, low performers should be notified and motivated to
perform better in future. (Reference Chart 1.1)
 For Office Products Supply Store accessories fraudulent and lookalike products flooding the
market, a sentence of caution should be included mentioning the authenticity of WL products in
the advertising catalogues to preserve the goodwill of the company and notify the customer
base of duplicitous products.
 WL is planning a course of action for high potential list, where HPAs and MPAs shall be
identified and first of the MPA territories would be established in New York, Chicago, and Los
Angeles.
Long Term Goals
 According to Marsh, “Wright Line could not afford two years of development time needed
to make Unit 2 competitive with other catalogue operations”. Challenges would include
identifying a new customer base (400000 small business computer users who were not
currently WL users) and also hire and train new workforce for the same.
 WL is already planning to setup MPA territories in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Geographically, it forms a triangle along the American landscape which could be ideal to
support the regional distribution centres (RDCs) for Unit 3 as well.
 Changes in Average sales by WL job level (in thousands of $)

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
Assistant Area Manager Senior Account Manager Account Manager Account Representative Sales Representative

Average Sales (1978) Average Sales (1981)

Sales per account vs percentage of order dollars

Target Area of Unit 2

Target Area of Unit 1

$1000+