Jack Raynolds bought the company Tea and More (TAM) over sixteen years ago. The firm has demonstrated quite a significant performance and profits in the tea market. Its sales grew from 1 million to 25 million US dollars. The company has been growing considerably, with the occurring necessity to hire new staff and advance its supply chain, as well as essential inner processes. Recently, TAM has faced a number of pressing issues that burden the organization substantially – starting from high turnover rates and ending with problems with the loyalty of the customer base. Raynolds adheres to the top to bottom approach in terms of corporate governance and has considerable power over the staff. He has called the meeting in order to figure out ways in which the company’s issues could be solved (Doyle & Bell, 2014). Raynolds says that he does not care if this meeting will take a whole night.
Major Problem
It seems reasonable to focus on a single problem for TAM, given that there are several crucial issues that negatively affect its performance. The first one is the complicated supply chain with the primary trouble of the location of its production facility. It is located outside Cleveland, Ohio, while the middleman, Earl Morgan Limited (EML), is situated outside London. There are many difficulties in this regard – shipment time and terms, the related expenses, and instability. Another major problem is Raynolds’s approach to corporate governance – he concentrates too much power in his hands and does not allow the employees to make strategic decisions (Doyle & Bell, 2014). Hence, it would be rational to state the major problem for TAM is the disorganization within the scope of its processes at almost all levels.
Possible Solutions
Option A involves the focus on the issue of the approach to management and changing it from “up-to-bottom” to “bottom-to-up.” The advantage of this option is that Jack’s powers will be delegated, and the decision-making process would involve many specialists who definitely have justified opinions in their spheres. The disadvantage here would be that the necessity of reorganization of the whole company occurs. This implies time and additional costs for hiring significant top managers.
Option B may be to simplify TAM’s supply chain to an exact extent and replace the production facility from Cleveland to London. Such an option could reduce the time of shipments, diminish delays, and make the supply chain easier to organize. On the other hand, it should be admitted that this shift implies immense expenses, given that London is a really expensive city for any company, given the local taxes and business principles.
Option C involves changing the main partner of TAM to another one. It would be reasonable to say that EML offers too harsh conditions that may press the firm to a great extent. An obvious advantage here would be reduced expenses, a simplified supply chain, and more coherent management of TAM. However, this shift would change the established processes of the company, and the switch to another partner can take too much time, which would decrease profitability vastly.
Choice and Rationale
Despite its disadvantages, option A seems to be a good choice for TAM. The company that has profits of 25 million cannot afford itself any disorganization and incoherency of its management. Jack concentrates too much power, does not pay attention to CSR accordingly, and takes too many responsibilities. He should listen to his employees who are specialized in their field and understand particular issues better than Jack. Such a change would be a foundation for resolving all the other pressing problems for TAM.
Implementation
To implement the option, TAM is to restructure its management system – Jack should delegate his power to his employees, as well as form a top management team in TAM. This would imply hiring several outside specialists in the field of corporate governance. Still, he is to give more responsibilities to the current staff; the directors and chiefs of different branches should feel free to continuously participate in strategic decision-making. Then, it would be appropriate to issue a corporate governance manual for the company so that all the new rules, principles, and powers could be expressed in the formal written format.
Reference
Doyle, B., & Bell, A. (2014). Reading the tea leaves at Tea and More: Resolving complex supply chain issues. Operations and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 2(3), 172-177.