Case Study - Hazel - Bus Operations
Case Study #1 – Hazel
BSC 405: Business Operations
Professor Jim Beam
August 5, 2012
| | | | | | By: Joe Mama | | | |
Hazel
Hazel worked for a fortune 500 company for the past 15 years. The company itself has been slow during the down economy of the last few years, but recently things were beginning to turn around. Customer orders were on their way up and quality and productivity have dramatically improved as well. Things were looking pretty good for the company and the employees. During the down period the company hired a new CEO to turn things around. It came as quite a surprise to Hazel and 400 other workers when he decided to lay them off in an effort to cut costs and downsize the company. Hazel was devastated. Hazel began the search for a new job after the shock of being laid off wore off. Hazel worked hard at her job search for over eight months with no bites. She was living off of her savings and was quickly running out. In an effort to bring some money in she began cutting her neighbors lawns. This helped to keep her going. She was talking with a neighbor and they mentioned not having any kids around to cut grass. Hazel joked that she would do it and ended up cutting several of her neighbor’s lawns as a result. She only took on the lawns of five neighbors so she could also concentrate on finding a “real” job in her spare time. As time went on, she piled up more and more rejection letters. She began to consider cutting lawns as a fulltime job and possibly a business. As the scare of being her own boss subsided, she began to take on the lawns of more neighbors. Many of her neighbors began using her services and even moved from using professional services to hers. Hazel discovered at the end of her first year that she could make a living at this. As time went on, she even began adding other services to her business; weeding, mulching, fertilizing, tree trimming, etc. Her
BSC 405: Business Operations
Professor Jim Beam
August 5, 2012
| | | | | | By: Joe Mama | | | |
Hazel
Hazel worked for a fortune 500 company for the past 15 years. The company itself has been slow during the down economy of the last few years, but recently things were beginning to turn around. Customer orders were on their way up and quality and productivity have dramatically improved as well. Things were looking pretty good for the company and the employees. During the down period the company hired a new CEO to turn things around. It came as quite a surprise to Hazel and 400 other workers when he decided to lay them off in an effort to cut costs and downsize the company. Hazel was devastated. Hazel began the search for a new job after the shock of being laid off wore off. Hazel worked hard at her job search for over eight months with no bites. She was living off of her savings and was quickly running out. In an effort to bring some money in she began cutting her neighbors lawns. This helped to keep her going. She was talking with a neighbor and they mentioned not having any kids around to cut grass. Hazel joked that she would do it and ended up cutting several of her neighbor’s lawns as a result. She only took on the lawns of five neighbors so she could also concentrate on finding a “real” job in her spare time. As time went on, she piled up more and more rejection letters. She began to consider cutting lawns as a fulltime job and possibly a business. As the scare of being her own boss subsided, she began to take on the lawns of more neighbors. Many of her neighbors began using her services and even moved from using professional services to hers. Hazel discovered at the end of her first year that she could make a living at this. As time went on, she even began adding other services to her business; weeding, mulching, fertilizing, tree trimming, etc. Her
References: Stevenson, W. J. (2012). Hazel, Hazel Revisited. Operations management (11th ed., pp. 38, 69). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.