Case Study Questions
1.
Who are the main players (name and position)? The main Player in this is Amy Scherber and she is the manager and owner. Another main character is Toy Kim Dupree and he is Amy’s assistant manager. 2.
In what business or businesses and industry or industries is the company operating? Amy’s bread is in the business of selling bread products both wholesale and retail. They sell primarily to high quality restaurants, hotels and food shops. 3.
What are the issues and problems facing the company? (Sort them by importance and urgency.
) It is hard to make a large profit because Amy pays her employees a higher amount then the other business in her field. She also has to employee about four times as many employees to complete the same job due to the intensiveness provided on each batch of bread. The company is also struggling with the idea of wither to expand or stand pat with their business.
4.
What is the primary problem for the company/organization in this case? The primary problem in this case is the idea of expansion. The problem is that they do not know if they should expand or stand pat. If they do expand how are they going to centralize their business. Are they going to do strictly wholesale or wholesale and retail. 5.
Why have the problem (s) you cite emerged? Identify the causal chain (the events or circumstances that caused the problem-Some will be Internal Weaknesses, others EXTERNAL Threats). This main problem has occurred because they are currently located in a storefront that is not adequate to provide the needs of all their potential customers.
The main weakness here is that they are in a bad location for advancement. In their current location they are completing all of the orders that they possibly can. 6.
What are the characteristics of the industry that the company is in and how
is the industry changing over time? When Amy’s Bread first open bread baking was a growth industry. The U.S Department of Commerce reported there was a 12 percent increase in the consumption of specialty breads per capita.
This industry is also very tough to get into there are a great deal of company’s that already have been working with restaurants for a long time. The other problem with the industry is that because it was a growth period many new bakers were trying to enter it and earn a name for them. So the computation for customers is high in the industry and only growing more competitive. 7.
What is the firm’s strategy for differentiation, enabling them to compete within the context of their industry? Amy had a clear goal she wanted to be famous for making a great product and for creating a good place to work. Amy’s product itself was different because she set the highest standards on her quality. They also do not use any machines in the shaping of their bread. Every load of bread was hand crafted and shaped which was why her payroll was so high but it set her breads apart from the average shop. 8.
What are possible solutions to the problems you have identified? Possible solutions to her crisis on where to go or wither to move at all are one she could not move and be satisfied where she is. The second option is she could move to a building that she would be able to produce large amounts of wholesale goods at and not concentrate on retail goods. The third option is she could move to an even bigger place where she could sell retail product and still meet her needs for wholesale. 9.
What are the advantages and possible disadvantages of your solution(s)? If she stays pat then she will be able to turn a marginal profit and meet the needs of her current customers. The disadvantages would be that she would then miss out on opportunity to sell to all the customers that she has on her waiting list and her retail business would not be any bigger.
In second option they would be able to meet all her wholesale needs. The disadvantages would be that she could not sell retail customers any more and she would be paying more for the property. In the third option she would be able to sell both retail and wholesale. She would be in a newly developing retail market with access to foot traffic. She would also be able to meet all her whole sale needs.
To top it off she would be able to design the layout of the building to fit her exact needs. The disadvantages of this are that it is very expensive. She would get everything that she is looking for but at a substantially higher price then the other two options. 10.
Are there any possible problems with your suggested recommendations? What contingencies need to be accommodated? My recommendation would be to choose the third option. It is the most expensive but Amy has already demonstrated that she has a sharp business minded and is able to build business and promote it. The retail space will help spread the word of how good her bread actually is and word of mouth is the best advertisement they could have.
The biggest problem that they could have is if they start to loose customers. A second problem would be if the market begins to shift away from the cravings of bread. Or another problem could be that they simply do not add enough customers to be able to afford the new space. Case Study Analysis Narrative Format
Case title: Amy’s Bread
Student: Nicholas Mustico
Date: 3-18-2013
Course: Management Principles
Firm Overview and Introduction to the Case
(Use this and all headings in your narrative)
In this first section of the narrative, you will provide a brief description of the case subject firm and circumstances for your reader. YOU are the expert.
Your analysis is reliant on the fact that you’ve read the case at least three In the case study of Amy’s bread you get a complete overview of the company. It discusses where they started how they started and the experience that the owner Amy Scherber has. Amy Scherber is the centerpiece of the company she is the founder, owner, manager, and lead baker/chef for Amy’s bread.
Amy is also the main person in charge of the company’s finances and business discussions. Amy is now facing the problem of wither or not she is going to expand her company. She has been able to entrench her business in the tough industry of baking breads. This is a business that is very completive and hard to establish yourself in. Now that she has become establish she has to decide wither she would like to expand to meet consumer’s demands or stay where she is and be happy with what she has accomplished. Internal perspectives
(Use this and all headings in your narrative)
This section of your narrative is used to explain to your reader the internal, factual information about the case subject organization and the problems you’ve identified. Additionally, in this section you need to describe the causal chain. How did the problem arise? What caused it?
The problem in this case would not be a problem if the company had not become as successful as it has. If the company had not become so popular then the small storefront that she had originally solicited would never have become a problem. They did become popular though and now they have to adjust to what they would like to become. No one knows if she had selected a larger site if she would have ever been able to get herself going but if she had then this problem may never have occurred.
Her company now is at a point where they cannot satisfy one additional customer due to space constrictions. Amy’s problem is a hard one to decide on but for a company it is a good spot to be in if you have too much potential business. It is always better to have too much opportunity then too little. *
External perspectives
(Use this and all headings in your narrative)
In this section you will describe the characteristics of the industry in which the subject organization operates. Identify any changes over time, which you believe contribute to the problems you’ve identified. Has the Firm’s Strategy for differentiation within their industry caused, Added to or exacerbated the problems you’ve identified? Amy’s bread is in a very complex and difficult industry to work in. She is in a field that has been “well farmed.” What I mean by that is that there have already been people there doing what she is trying to do.
The business she is trying to sell to unless they are newer then her have all already put someone in place to fulfill their need. She then would have to show these businesses that she is that much better then her computation that they have already employed. Amy’s strategy for differentiation is basically being better then the computation. She is striving to have the highest quality, freshest, and most innovative bread selection. She had made it a point that she will not sacrifice quality for anything else including profit.
Amy was lucky, or smart enough to enter the backing industry when it was on the rise. Consumption of grains had just begun to rise when Amy entered the industry. The U.S Department of Commerce reported there was a 12 percent increase in the consumption of specialty breads per capita. This industry is also very tough to get into there are a great deal of company’s that already have been working with restaurants for a long time. The other problem with the industry is that because it was a growth period many new bakers were trying to enter it and earn a name for them.
So the computation for customers is high in the industry and only growing more competitive. This main problem has occurred because they are currently located in a storefront that is not adequate to provide the needs of all their potential customers. The main weakness here is that they are in a bad location for advancement. In their current location they are completing all of the orders that they possibly can. Then again this is not a problem that most business would not want. Solutions
(Use this and all headings in your narrative)
In this section you will provide a proposed solution to the primary problem/ secondary problems you’ve identified. Possible solutions to her crisis on where to go or wither to move at all are one she could not move and be satisfied where she is. The second option is she could move to a building that she would be able to produce large amounts of wholesale goods at and not concentrate on retail goods.
The third option is she could move to an even bigger place where she could sell retail product and still meet her needs for wholesale. If she stays pat then she will be able to turn a marginal profit and meet the needs of her current customers. The disadvantages would be that she would then miss out on opportunity to sell to all the customers that she has on her waiting list and her retail business would not be any bigger. In second option they would be able to meet all her wholesale needs.
The disadvantages would be that she could not sell retail customers any more and she would be paying more for the property. In the third option she would be able to sell both retail and wholesale. She would be in a newly developing retail market with access to foot traffic. She would also be able to meet all her whole sale needs. To top it off she would be able to design the layout of the building to fit her exact needs. The disadvantages of this are that it is very expensive. She would get everything that she is looking for but at a substantially higher price then the other two options.
My recommendation would be to choose the third option. It is the most expensive but Amy has already demonstrated that she has a sharp business minded and is able to build business and promote it. The retail space will help spread the word of how good her bread actually is and word of mouth is the best advertisement they could have.
The biggest problem that they could have is if they start to loose customers. A second problem would be if the market begins to shift away from the cravings of bread. Or another problem could be that they simply do not add enough customers to be able to afford the new space.
Case Model
Insert a copy of your case model at the end of your narrative. Model the problem and solution by drawing a diagram. Identify the problem, what is causing it, what is making the problem worse (or potentially hiding the problem), and what can be done to mitigate or eliminate it. Use the strategy models to help you think through the steps that must be taken to intervene and solve this problem. Case model
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