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Winning and Longevity A professional baseball team set Its sights on winning the World Series. The team owner wanted to win big and win fast. Consequently, the team sank all of Its resources into trading for the best players in the league. It was able to obtain enough of them that within two seasons the team was the World Series champion. However, the team had committed such a high percentage of its financial resources to players’ salaries that other important elements of the team began to suffer.
Its stadium quickly fell Into such a state of disrepair that fans began to stay home. Training faculties also began to suffer, which caused discontent among the players. The money left over to pay the salaries of coaches wasn’t enough to hold onto the good ones, most of whom accepted better offers from other teams. In short, by focusing so intently on the desired end result, this organization neglected other important aspects of building a competitive team. As a result, the team’s World Series championship was a short-lived-once-in-a-lifetime victory.
The very next season the team’s crumbling infrastructure sent it tumbling to the bottom of Its division. Without he people, processes, and environment to turn the situation around, the team was eventually sold at a loss and moved to another city. Discussion Questions Why would a company that is turning out a satisfactory product want to continually examine its processes and the work environment? What happened to the old adage “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”? The old adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” is not applicable for the current competitive world.
Even though the company is producing a satisfactory and the best product in the market It Is high-risk for the company to go on with the same product. It Is very important for the company to continuously innovate the current product to exceed the customer expectations and maintain gap between themselves and the rest of the competitors. Here we can take an example of pioneers like Monika and Blackberry how they use to lead the wireless mobile market until Apple and Samsung came into the picture.
Their products were absolutely satisfactory but they failed to compete with the current innovations and technology used by their competitors. Added to this quality Is always dynamic and always changes as time passes by and circumstances altered. For an example, there Is radical change in the data storage industry in last decade. If the company restricted their production to floppy discs or Cad’s they wouldn’t have sustained as the technology drastically changed to flash storage and now cloud storage. The competitors who focus on continual improvement might produce a comparable quality.
But the competitor who looks beyond Just the quality of the finished product and also focuses on the continual Improvement of the people who produce the product, the processes they use, and the environment they work in will win in the long run. The company should continuously examine its products, processes and the work environment to satisfy the customers or else someone else will. Create a manufacturing, processing, or service sector parallel for this activity. Discuss how this assignment would apply to a company.
One of the biggest online bus ticketing companies called to take ten Dustless to ten next level Day utilizing zest technology available and to develop the strong management. Company hired chief operating officers and technology experts from big firms by offering high salaries. Initially company started modestly with a few seats from one bus operator and gradually expanded their horizons to almost all the bus operators’ country wide. In no time company has become one of the most successful online bus ticket booking agencies.
With the fame they gained during initial stages, the best technology used and with the top management resources they hired by offering high salaries the company’s growth boosted up instantly but they neglect to look before they leap, moving forward with plans without taking the time to realize that the base assumption of the business plan is wrong. They believe they can predict the future, and invested a lot in acquiring top resources. The company wanted their venture to be all about the technology and management, without taking time to form a balanced plan.
Initially the company has not spent a dime on marketing and the growth has been entirely organic, driven by word of mouth boosted by achieving deeper engagement with existing customers. But it is not sufficient to gain the new customers and hold the old customers. The company couldn’t spend on marketing and advertising on mass media including TV ads and couldn’t offer any deals to the existing customers. The competitors came up with best offers and the marketing strategies and win over the current customers. Due to these circumstances the customer acquisition was slowed down, it has become increasingly harder and more expensive.
The company failed to satisfy the existing customers and it has become hard for the company to maintain the top employees. Employees started looking for other sources as they couldn’t find any growth in the company. Without the people, processes, and environment to turn the situation around, eventually the company has to shut down for good. Few key factors that affected the company were, emphasis on short-term profits, using only visible data and information in decision -making, and failed to manage the funds effectively.