The confectionary industry has been undergoing several major changes over the past two decades. As one of the biggest players on the market, Ganong Bros. Limited has suffered from these market ups and downs. There have been years in these two decades on which the company resulted with financial loss at the end of the fiscal year. This paper will discuss a critical financial time for the company, 1995, where the need for change was overwhelming and immediate. The Board of Directors asked the president of the company to design and implement as soon as possible a ‘way out’ strategy that will ensure a comfortable future positioning in the market for Ganong Bros. Limited. There were two major reformations that the management team pointed out should be undertaken in order to enhance the company’s position; organizational structure and coordination.
Functionality and efficiency are two themes for organizational structuring. A functional organizational structure focuses primarily on increasing the organization’s efficiency by using specialized personnel in handling various processes. At the Ganong Bros, they needed a reorganization of their structure due to the changing conditions of the market. Since the late 1980’s the market had gone global obliging many companies to compete globally. This global competitiveness led that many firms concentrated their efforts in certain segments of the market specializing in one or two products of the confectionery industry. Ganong had failed to do so in time, and that is one of the reasons why it was becoming less competitive, and thus, gaining less profit. Overhead costs were making the company suffer financially. Ganong should definitely move toward specialization in the market. This is why a reorganization of its structures is necessary. This structural reorganization will ensure to the company a higher efficiency in operations for tasks that are routine, will specialize it in certain sectors of the industry, and make it more reactive to market shocks and changes.
This organizational structuring should include all aspects of the company. It is a fact that the only person from the management team in the Board of Directors is Ganong himself. Despite having very committed and professional members, the Board of Directors does not have the capability to adjust what is going wrong in the company. The reason is that board members do not know from within the management history of the company. They are not in touch every day with the processes the company undergoes. That is very significant. Managers are on the front line every day and their voice is not represented as it should. The structural adjustment should begin by giving more voice and decision power to the managers of the company. A sort of decentralization process would greatly benefit the company.
By giving more decision and implementation autonomy to managers, you will impact their performance. First of all, the time of reaction to a problem or a situation will shorten. Managers will not have to wait until the board decides what to do even for routine problems but will act independently. Secondly, this will increase their responsibility toward the sector they are in charge of. And thirdly, this will motivate them to improve their performance. The board will continue to play an important role. It will monitor the activities of each sector and make managers accountable for errors or lack of performance. But it will be easier for the board also since they can easily identify which sector is lacking performance.
But the main responsibility of the board of directors is to ensure proper cooperation among the different sectors of the company. Managing autonomy can tend to make managers and employees care only for their sector and their performance targets. It is the board that will have to make these pieces come together to form a puzzle. Without proper coordination, the company as a whole will still continue to suffer. Since Ganong Bros is a small firm compared to other industry giants, it cannot afford futile financial spending. This is the only thing that should be controlled in a centralized way. The board will assign to each sector its finances and will keenly monitor its spending. It is vital that operating costs remain as low as possible for Ganong Bros. proper coordination will automatically give a hand in this process. Each department or sector will not spend unnecessary time and money on futile duties but will benefit from the work of others. This way each sector will strictly specialize in its predefined duties and responsibilities. So they will increase their performance, especially for routine duties. But there exists the risk for a narrow specialization which will harm the company as a whole.
It will be the duty of the board of directors to monitor the situation and not let individual sectors fall into this narrowness. The board can implement a strategy to make departments interact with each other. By being in contact, they will enhance collaboration and avoid being narrow in their duties. What is important is that Ganong needs to implement this restructuring and coordination strategy as soon as it can.
Maps are an interesting aspect of human history. Since their invention in the ancient world, people have used them as a source of both knowledge and power. Maps can be utilized in various aspects. Some people use them to know the boundaries of land, geographical features, and political boundaries. This can be classified as a sort of practical knowledge in order to know where to go and what to expect there. The essay of James Akerman relates to maps in this sense. In fact, Akerman praises the American road map of the twentieth century to be one of the greatest inventions for the benefit of the public. This is certainly the case for the American road maps. These maps had a direct impact on popular culture. In fact, they changed the popular culture by introducing a new concept of traveling. The map is organized around the roads, the highways, and not vice versa.
The central theme that attracts the viewer’s attention is the highway(s) and everything on the map is organized around it. One can view the trip that he wants to pursue and find on the map all the necessary facilities to make it as easier and pleasurable as possible. The map clearly indicates all the gas stations during the trip so you will not be concerned about running out of gas, all the restaurants and bars so you can refresh yourself, and any natural park or attraction alongside the road which you can visit. This is a very practical way of informing people and motivating them to take the trip instead of de-motivating them. These maps changed the psychology of traveling by road in American society. Now the trip is not just about getting from point A to point B but also of enjoying the road and taking advantage of all the facilities and natural beauties that can be found alongside the road.
Another aspect of maps is their relation to power. The knowledge of the existence of oil has made people mine it and use its enormous returns to dominate the world. Oil is a very important resource to a country since it keeps the economy running by providing energy as well as fetching foreign exchange thus contributing directly to the country’s gross domestic product. Despite many countries being involved in the search for oil minerals, the product has been found to occur only in selected areas of the world. This paper identifies maps, knowledge, and power, and their relation to oil and people in the context of Harley (1988) in the book “Maps, knowledge, and power”.
The oil and gas map of the world conveys a significant message to the reader. The circles that symbolize oil production of the world attract attention immediately toward the Arabian Peninsula. The overlapping circles demonstrate the producing power of the region. On the other hand, the oil consumption circles demonstrate the predominance of the North American (mainly the US) market for oil consumption. Thus, the inevitable thought that comes to mind is the connection between the two regions, i.e. the biggest consumer with the biggest producer. Subsequently one can understand the focus of interest of the United States government in the region just by viewing the circles of this map. Compared to the previous map or American roads, this one is conveying not practical knowledge to people but a political and economical message to businesses and governments.