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Edmone Washington MGMT 3010

Case #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 change
4. Sales people dont respond to customer requests
5. The culture of the store has become conservative and risk-averse

Competitor - organizations that produce goods and services that are similar to a particul
organization's goods and services.
Competitor crisis:
1. Two other major clothing store chains have opened
2. Steadily attracting customers away from store
Customer - 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 trends
b. 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.
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Edmone Washington MGMT 3010


Case #3 Assignment p.144 (Be the Manager)

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).
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Edmone Washington MGMT 3010


Case #3 Assignment p.144 (Be the 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).

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