Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to classmates or your faculty member.
Due Day 3
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
Review Case Study 4, “Beijing Sammies,� which you can access in the Wk 5 Learning Activities folder.
In the case study, Sam Goodman has a well-organized business plan underway as many consumer aspects have been considered. It was quite a surprise to many when Sam’s company suddenly began to lose traction after a steady climb to finally reach a proverbial mountain of success. It appears that Sam failed to anticipate some entrepreneurial and managerial traps that impede further organizational development.
What measures can Sam implement at this time to further promote a recovery process?
Note: Case studies are located in the last section “Part 6: Cases� in the course textbook.
Due Day 7
Post 2 replies to classmates or your faculty member. Be constructive and professional.
Response 1:
Mr. Goodman in my opinion had a vision and did his best to be successful. He started off with the discounted price and then raised the price and noticed a decrease in sales. First off, he should have stated it was a grand opening promotional price on some items and state a start and end date. This way customers and not surprised of the increase.
Also, I he needed help with maybe hiring a marketing agent, financial consultant and an HR manager. He would have been informed of his overspending on advertising and also maybe a better way to advertise. With an HR manager in place, training of staff would have been a priority in the hiring process. Seems like his business was lacking solid employees with customer service skills. Setting expectations from the beginning and training/hiring the right people will help his business.
I also think he should have had the ability to make orders at each store of what the customer wanted. Premade is not always the best, I can see the bread and other items being made at the large store, however putting it all together could have been a made to order.
Just a simple business plan and even a manual for employees to read and know what was expected of them and some other details could have been very effective and helpful in terms of profits and quality customer service.
It’s about the details.
Response 2:
It appears that Mr. Goodman has a great start and has the right ideas to help his business return to its peak performance. However, there are a few things he should really focus on in order to truly make a significant difference.
Of course, number one is to strengthen the culture of Chinese heritage within the business. Make the environment, foods, smells, etc all reflect on the amazing culture of the Chinese people. Customers are more likely to find interest in the business the more authentic it is. I certainly would not go into an American looking business expecting to find amazing Chinese. I would definitely question things! Training team members on Chinese culture and etiquette would also be beneficial. That way the employees could answer questions and deliver customer service in a professional, authentic manner.
I’d also encourage Mr. Goodman to complete a SWOT analysis. The first step to determining where changes can occur would be by identifying the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Accepting these characteristics and challenges allows one to bring focus on how to make improvements, utilize strengths to an advantage and also prepare the business for overcoming current and future obstacles.