case study
Footwear International – Case Study
R. William Blake
John Carlson frowned as he studied the translation of the front-page story from the afternoon 's edition of the Meillat, a fundamentalist newspaper with close ties to an opposition political party.
The story, titled "Footwear 's Unpardonable Audacity," suggested that the company was knowingly insulting Islam by including the name of Allah in a design used on the insoles of sandals it was manufacturing. To compound the problem, the paper had run a photograph of one of the offending sandals on the front page. As a result, student groups were calling for public demonstrations against Footwear the next day. As Managing Director of Footwear Bangladesh,
Carlson knew he would have to act quickly to defuse a potentially explosive situation.
FOOTWEAR INTERNATIONAL
Footwear International is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of footwear. Operations span the globe and include more than eighty-three companies in seventy countries. These include shoe factories, tanneries, engineering plants producing shoe machinery and moulds, product development studios, hosiery factories, quality control laboratories, and approximately 6,300 retail stores and 50,000 independent retailers.
Footwear employs more than 67,000 people and produces and sells in excess of
270,000,000 pairs of shoes every year. Head office acts as a service center and is staffed with specialists drawn from all over the world. These specialists, in areas such as marketing, retailing, product development, communications, store design, electronic data processing and business administration, travel for much of the year to share their expertise with the various companies.
Training and technical education, offered through company-run colleges and the training facility at headquarters, provide the latest skills to employees from around the world.
Although Footwear requires standardization in technology and the design of facilities, it
also
R. William Blake
John Carlson frowned as he studied the translation of the front-page story from the afternoon 's edition of the Meillat, a fundamentalist newspaper with close ties to an opposition political party.
The story, titled "Footwear 's Unpardonable Audacity," suggested that the company was knowingly insulting Islam by including the name of Allah in a design used on the insoles of sandals it was manufacturing. To compound the problem, the paper had run a photograph of one of the offending sandals on the front page. As a result, student groups were calling for public demonstrations against Footwear the next day. As Managing Director of Footwear Bangladesh,
Carlson knew he would have to act quickly to defuse a potentially explosive situation.
FOOTWEAR INTERNATIONAL
Footwear International is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of footwear. Operations span the globe and include more than eighty-three companies in seventy countries. These include shoe factories, tanneries, engineering plants producing shoe machinery and moulds, product development studios, hosiery factories, quality control laboratories, and approximately 6,300 retail stores and 50,000 independent retailers.
Footwear employs more than 67,000 people and produces and sells in excess of
270,000,000 pairs of shoes every year. Head office acts as a service center and is staffed with specialists drawn from all over the world. These specialists, in areas such as marketing, retailing, product development, communications, store design, electronic data processing and business administration, travel for much of the year to share their expertise with the various companies.
Training and technical education, offered through company-run colleges and the training facility at headquarters, provide the latest skills to employees from around the world.
Although Footwear requires standardization in technology and the design of facilities, it
also
Bibliography: Blake, William R. “Footwear International.” International Management Behavior. 3rd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1999. 173-80.