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In 1996, a young college student name Elizabeth decided to start a company. This company was born from her love of music and reading. Liz started her business out of a spare bedroom in her apartment. CanGo initially started selling books. After some time, CanGo expanded its operations to include CDs, DVDs, and audio and video tapes and customized MP3 players. (Kingston, 1999). CanGo target customers who enjoy online entertainment and games with the majority of their customers being Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers.
CanGo values its employees and customers and strive to keep employees involved in the decision making policies. CanGo motto is to keep the employees motivated and working hard in order for customers to reap the rewards. SWOT Analysis Strengths: * Creativity * Market leader * Quality of service * Understanding and knowledge of technology Weaknesses * No clear vision or mission statement * No clear goals or priorities * Organization skills * Did not use MBO approach * Current layout * Use of brainstorming with supporting historical data Opportunities * Become market leader in CD and book industry Use new technology to improve service * Expansion in international market Threats * Do not have an organized approach to their opportunities * Competition Individual Analysis Report Week 1 In week 1 video episode 1, Liz received a call from Julian, the President of the Hudson Valley Business Association informing her that she has been nominated for the Business Leader of the Year and is expected to deliver a speech at the next association meeting addressing the success of CanGo. Julian wants Liz to address the “How’s and why’s of CanGo’s success. Of course Liz is ecstatic about the nomination. Liz realizes that her hard work is paying off. Liz sits at her computer to work on writing her speech in preparation for the Business Association meeting. Liz asks herself “How did I plan this and how did we plan this? ” Liz states “It was an accident, we started a business and it became a success. ” During this self-talk to with herself, Liz becomes frustrated and says, “I can’t do this, I won’t do this. ” In my analysis, Liz initially started CanGo in an Entrepreneurial stage.
She had no clear vision or mission statement. She only provided services that people needed or wanted. Now that the company has started to grow, her haphazard approach to vision and mission statement is no longer working. One problem that Liz faces is her use of an emergent rather than a deliberate strategy. This approach has no formal training process and realizes on the social interaction with members of the company. Liz realizes that much of CanGo success has had little to do with planning and more to do with luck and being at the right place at the right time.
In developing a strategic plan, Liz should first develop a precise vision of what CanGo is all about. Secondly, CanGo will need a concise mission statement that defines who its customers are, what products and services it supplies, how these products and services are provided. In order for Liz to lead her company CanGo, she needs to follow these steps in developing a strategic management plan: * CanGo’s strategic management process begins with a vision statement. * CanGo’s next step is to write a mission statement that identifies the firm’s target market, products, services, processes and philosophy. Liz and her staff need to conduct a SWOT analysis of CanGo’s strengths, its environmental opportunities and external challenges in order to minimize their exposure to threats. * Liz needs to develop long term goals for CanGo. * A strategic choice has to be made that reflects the mission, follows the SWOT analysis and has the potential to achieve long term goals. * Liz and her senior staff need to identify how to implement their strategy. They create short term objectives for the different functions of the company and develop tactical plans to achieve these objectives. Liz and her staff identify time periods for evaluating whether short term objectives and long term goals are being achieved through their chosen strategy. * If evaluation process reveals that CanGo objectives and goals are not being achieved, then the strategic management process is reviewed and necessary revisions. In video episode 2, Liz speech to the Hudson Valley Business Association, she did not address the how CanGo became successful. Her speech was weak at best and did not address the keys to success.
In an audience of her peers, Liz lack of knowledge about CanGo success may have exposed the company’s weaknesses to its competition. While Liz speech left a lot to be desired, she openly discussed these weaknesses with a co-worker. This is a credit to her because she is willing to accept constructive criticism. In video episode 3, Liz calls a meeting with her staff to discuss ideas for a new market: online gaming. Andrew is excited about the new endeavor and shares his excitement with the other staff members.
During the meeting, Andrew is bombarded with questions such as what type of games should be offered, are additional personnel needed and what costs will be associated with this new venture. Of course, Andrew does not know the answer to these questions but he attempted to answer the personnel question. Andrew stated that he planned to train the CanGo existing staff to take on additional tasks and responsibilities. At that time, Liz interrupts the conversation and states that the meeting will reconvene when a preliminary market analysis is completed. The meeting introducing this new market was poorly planned and executed.
The staff had many suggestions for the online gaming concept but there were no clear set goals or plans. Liz is relying on a preliminary Marketing Plan. The decision to look at establishing online gaming is haphazard. The questions raised by the two employees were very valid. The employees noted these concerns: new market was never discussed, it seems risky, and company is already in the red, no discussion on how this venture would add real value to the operation of CanGo, whether it would inflate the price of stock or how online gaming would contribute to CanGo overall strategy.
The conversation between the two employees following the meeting spoke volumes to the feelings of the staff about the new venture. It is obvious that some of the staff had concerns about pursuing the new market: online gaming. The problem with this is the two employees should have brought their concerns to Liz and the other staff members at the meeting. The fact that they are discussing it after the meeting will bring no resolution to the implementation of the new venture.
On order for CanGo to determine if this new venture will be advantageous to them, all the members of management have to raise any issues or concerns that see will be potential show stoppers to starting this new market. Individual Analysis Report Week 2 In week 2, clip 1 video episode, Warren discusses a new market of online gaming with Nick. Warren tells Nick to develop a full implementation plan on online gaming with everything laid out clearly where all aspects are covered. Warren tells Nick that he need to consider hardware to be purchased, software options, bandwidth, licenses and fees.
Warren conveys to Nick that is his top priority and that there is plenty of time for planning and we will be able to pull it together. There is to be no defense in the strategy only offense. During the entire conversation, Nick seemed a bit unsure of what Warren wanted and how he was to accomplish this tasking. After sitting at his desk, Nick is approached by Gail who stands beside him and proceeds to go through a stack of files she is holding, naming them one by one. She then makes an off the cuff comment about Nick’s lack of a filing system and tosses the pile on his desk.
Nick makes a joke about his filing system. A short while later, another female employee approaches Nick and begins talking to him about an outing the previous evening, again disrupting his ability to focus on the task at hand. Nick tells the ladies about his assignment and the implementation plan; he looks very frustrated and perhaps a bit confused. Debbie enters his office and offers to help Nick get his files in order, she asks him where his to do list is and Nick looks embarrassed as he hands her a piece of paper.
She asks him if he knows what a Gantt chart is, his response indicates a lack of knowledge pertaining to this tool. In my analysis, Warren informal meeting was not effective. Warren should never had conducted this meeting Nick in this manner. As a manager, Warren should have scheduled a meeting with Nick either in his office or a conference room with a meeting agenda and the tasks that he wanted Nick to research. Warren failure to first develop plan, establish effective goals, be more specific and make goals visible shows weaknesses in his managerial ability.
Perhaps, Warren should have used a Management by Objectives approach and allowed Nick to have some input into the process of researching online gaming. His failure to accomplish these things left Nick confused on how he would accomplish his tasking. Nick has more than one problem. Nick is easily distracted and this could derail any project. Nick is not organized and does not know how to prioritize. Of course, Warren did not help this situation because he did not give Nick specific directions. It appears to be too much needless conversation going on in the workplace.
I think Nick falls prey to this because he is so easily distracted. It appears that Nick need to be given specific directions and perhaps be given an area where he would not be so easily distracted. In video episode 2, Debbie is in her workspace and hears Nick shuffling a stack of papers over and over, frantically searching for a document. She offers her assistance when Nick turns down her offer she politely accepts his decision and walks away, she observes him engaging in the same process again. Debbie offers her service once more letting Nick know she is willing to really help him.
This time Nick accepts, he takes his papers and goes to Debbie’s office where she takes a look at what he has. She carefully explains each step to Nick and makes sure he understands. During this interchange with Debbie, Nick is distracted twice by other employees and Debbie has to keep Nick focus on the task at hand. In my analysis, Debbie is a lifesaver for Nick. If she did not offer her services Nick would not have been able to accomplish the task that Warren gave him. Debbie demonstrates teamwork because she is focused on helping Nick and doing a good job for the CanGo.
With Debbie help, Nick needs to take advantage of the tools that Debbie is giving him and capitalize on them. He needs to develop his Gantt chart, prioritize his workload and meet his deadlines. Nick also needs learn these tools because this will help build his reputation for future projects. In video episode 3, Warren calls a meeting and announces that CanGo should expect a 500% increase in business beginning in the month of October. He has prepared a list of priorities which need to be addressed to make sure the company’s capacity matches its projected growth.
He mentions order fulfillment including staffing, Hardware (can the servers handle the additional demand), Finance (resources available for upgrades and resources), Warehousing (including cost of additional storage space. Warren then asks the group if he left anything out, an employee immediately mentions shipping and Warren agrees they need to look into the cost of adding new trucks and the possibility of GPS mapping to help prevent downtime due to lost drivers. In my analysis, Warren needs help with planning.
Again, he calls a meeting with no definite planning and no effective goals. His presentation could also use some help. Warren needs to use a MBO approach to decision making. In this approach, Warren along with the staff members both have input in establishing goal difficulty, specificity and deadlines. This allows everyone to feel as though their opinion counts and it gives them a sense of ownership. Warren seem to just tell the staff members his thoughts but do not accept feedback and this could alienate his staff and make them feel like they are not a part of the team.
I recommend that Debbie play a larger role in CanGo because she is the most organized and she seem to have a grip on the inner working of the company. References Kingston. (1999, April 15). CanGo CEO Explains Her Entrepreneurial Spirit. Retrieved March 13, 2009, from http://myphlip2. pearsoncmg. com/masteringbusiness/cango/inthenews. html Mastering Business Strategy. (2009, March 10). CanGo Quicktime Videos. Video posted to http://www. devryu. net/ec/courses/35545/CRS-BUSN460.