TOMS Shoes is a private company producing footwear. It gives a considerable part of its profit to provide children from disadvantaged regions with shoes. The paper presents a case study conducted for this company.
Major factors influencing TOMS Shoes can be classified as external and internal. The external factors include:
- business competition – as a for-profit company with a charitable purpose, TOMS Shoes is in a different position than other companies, who do not have to distribute much money for charity. On the other hand, a company with charity purposes may attract more buyers than other companies.
- social factors – mainly child poverty in various countries, which influences the organizational goal, i.e. to provide these children with footwear;
- ethical factors – they affect the understanding of the company’s mission, i.e. helping children (Wheelen and Hunger 765-768);
- legal and political situation – general factors affecting all businesses, such as laws regulating production and selling, the political situation that influences these laws and the rights of businesses, etc.
The internal factors are:
- the leadership style of B. Mycoskie, his ethical leadership, and the inspiration he gives to the followers;
- the organizational culture of TOMS Shoes;
- the organizational structure – it involves both for-profit and non-profit elements since it is built as a regular for-profit company but includes volunteering workforce along with paid employees (Wheelen and Hunger 767-768);
- the current mission and vision of the company – producing quality footwear, providing disadvantaged children with it, becoming a global charity initiative.
It is clear that B. Mycoskie, the founder of the company, is a great, talented leader, who operates TOMS Shoes successfully at the moment. However, people do not live forever, and it is hard to implement such an ambitious mission without sharing responsibilities with other people. The major problem of TOMS Shoes is that it is too dependent on the talents and enthusiasm of its leader. There is no other figure in the company equal or nearly equal to Mycoskie in meaning, which needs to be changed for the sake of the company’s future.
A set of measures can be recommended to TOMS Shoes as a solution of this problem. First, it is necessary to enhance the scope of tasks given to subordinates. Second, a culture of responsibility needs to be created or promoted in the company. Third, employees need to be encouraged to lead more often, even if it does not seem a good idea at first. For instance, during a meeting, a team member other than the Chief Executive can be put in charge. Such measures will help to develop leadership skills in the company’s employees, which will solve the problem of dependence on the Chief Executive.
The SWOT analysis performed for the company produced the following results:
- strengths: the business project gives TOMS Shoes advantage over others since it includes charity purposes, which yields a strong mission statement and perfect marketing promotion;
- weaknesses: dependence on the leader;
- opportunities: the mission of the company can help it to become a global corporation;
- threats: changes in the market can cause profit loss and thus reduce the company’s opportunities to do charity.
In conclusion, TOMS Shoes is a result of an astonishing initiative, and its charity cause presents great opportunities to the company. However, the organization should become less dependent on its founder to develop further.
Works Cited
Wheelen, Thomas L., and David J. Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability. New York City, New York: Pearson, 2012.