Mrs. Fields Cookies Case Study free essay sample

Another aspect that was focused on is food hygiene to attract more customers. ?Place: Store is strategically located outside the food court, normally near department or clothing stores to target impulse buyers. Service? Treat employees as important as customers. ?Encourage employees to be â€Å"wacky† and personable so that customers feel comfortable purchasing cookies. Support activities – according to Porter’s model Organization? Believed in â€Å"The less hierarchy, the better†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which means focusing on managing internal customers would take them away from managing the key business processes. Human Resources? Place high value on employees by using â€Å"promote from within† strategy. ?Employees are rewarded for their performance with a bonus system. Technology? Believed in â€Å"Demeaning for people to do what machines can do† which means employing technologies to free managers from tedious tasks that a computer can do. Purchasing? Maintaining consistent quality and taste by purchasing from the same suppliers year after year. Question#4 What role does IT play in the Mrs. We will write a custom essay sample on Mrs. Fields Cookies Case Study or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Fields’ Cookies organizational structure? Answer to question#4 At Mrs. Fields’ Cookies, IT (or MIS, also a part of IT) enables Mrs. Fields’ Cookies to have â€Å"Networked Organization Structure†. According to the case, the organization structure was designed to be flat but at the same time there was a hierarchy (reporting chain). IT enables this structure to happen by using centralized information system out of Utah and distributed it to everyone as needed. Question#5 Would you describe Mrs. Fields’ Cookies as more of a functional hierarchy structured along traditional information line or more of an IT-enabled network consisting of tailored business processes? Why? Answer to question#5 We definitely describe Mrs. Fields’ Cookies as more of an IT-enabled network consisting of tailored business processes because IT is integrated with each business process, according to the case study. Some examples are: ? Store operation process is integrated with system providing work structure, production schedule and marketing strategy recommendation. ?Controller at head quarter in Utah is also integrated with system collecting and processing sales information received from all stores. The system then helps Controller in generating reports for management review. Question#6 Using the 5 Forces Model, analyze Mrs. Fields’ Cooks. What challenges does Mrs. Fields’ Cookies, Inc. face in the next five years? How positioned is the company to meet those challenges? Answer to question#6 Potential threat of new entrants According to the case study, Mrs. Fields’ Cookies was a part of the sweet snack industry. It was considered specialty sweet snack food. We believe that it will be easy for new businesses to enter the market and thus to maintain a competitive advantage Mrs. Fields’ cookies will require large investment, well-defined business strategy, perfectly implemented information system and of course considerable time frame to establish themselves as well-known cookies makers. Thus, we believe there is a high threat of new entrants. Bargaining power of buyers We believe that the customer has high bargaining power because specialty cookie, for many consumers could be a superior goods, but not necessarily a necessity goods. The customer does not have any switching cost if he/she does not like it, or if he/she finds that the price to be too high. Further in such situations, it becomes very important for the firm to understand its customers and target market to sustain in the competitive environment. Bargaining power of suppliers We believe that the supplier has high bargaining power because Mrs. Fields’ Cookies bought its main ingredient, chocolate, from the same supplier for 10 years. On one hand this practice may help the supplier understand and manage its inventories, but on the other hand we assume that this could make it difficult for Mrs. Fields’ Cookies to change chocolate supplier not only in terms of establishing a business relationship with a new supplier but also for the fact that it would change the quality and the taste of its cookies. Threat of substitute products Needless to say, there are plenty of edible products today. As we said earlier, specialty cookie is considered superior goods, but not necessity goods. Substitute products are already there in the market today. Thus, there is extremely high threat of substitute products for Mrs. Fields’ Cookies. Industry competitors We believe that Mrs. Fields’ Cookies does not currently face intense competition in its defined industry (special sweet snack). However, there are some other specialty food retails such as Starbucks and Cinnabon, which offer cookies in their product lines. What challenges does Mrs. Fields’ Cookies face in the next five years? Chocolate supplier may raise the price which will in turn force Mrs. Fields’ Cookies to raise retail selling price too. As we mentioned that the customer has high bargaining power, this may affect Mrs. Fields’ Cookies financially if the customer finds the price to be too high. ?By saying that retail selling price may be too high, Mrs. Fields’ Cookies can compensate th at by keeping its operating cost low to offset high input price. It will be a challenge to figure out how to utilize the information resources and combine it with IT to help save operating costs and create a market share for itself in the industry. How positioned is the company to meet those challenge? We believe that the company is now relatively positioned to meet the challenges, however for it to sustain the competitive advantage in the future; it will have to make use of information systems to expand its customer information system and also to keep its operating costs at the lowest possible level. A perfect blend of these two will enable the company to build customer value and in turn grow financially. Question#7 Using Papp’s article on alignment, describe the alignment situation at Mrs. Fields’ Cookies (review the question at the back of the chapter and then use the online tool). What was your point of view for this analysis – time frame and from what perspective (management, IT, or analyst)? What roles should the IT director and CEO be taking? Answer to question#7 Already informed Dr. Austin that the online tool does not work. Question will be unanswered, but will be discussed in class on 07/14. Question#8 What advice would you have given Debbi and Randy Fields in 1988? Why? Answer to question#8 We believe that â€Å"A logical extension for the bakery aspect of Mrs. Fields’ Cookies† did not work as it resulted in a net loss of $18. 5M in 1988. We would advise Debbi and Randy Fields to concentrate on the cookie business, instead of acquiring LPB (the bakery company), because we believe Debbi Fields specializes in the cookie business and the financial results before LPB acquisition proved the success. The reason we believe in the above is that combining the cookie business with bakery business took away Debbi’s and Randy’s focus from their expertise in the cookie business. By doing this, the idea of doing what they were best at was defeated. We also believe that closing down some cookies stores that performed poorly did not really support their original goals and instead necessitated write down of $19. 9M in real estate assets. We would suggest that Debbi and Randy Fields should have spent more money on RD to recognize the areas of improvement and use the resources to create opportunities to achieve strategic advantage by implementing the key changes.