John Mackley Organizational Structure

John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, is one of the largest natural and organic food retailer worldwide. Throughout the article Mackey has made numerous accomplishment on many occasions with his business. In the article Mackey talks about his competitors, and how his company is different from other food retailers. Mackey talks about his management styles and what he believes to be, the best way to run his business. Throughout the Whole Foods article Mackey speaks of Organizational structure and how and why he uses centralization and decentralization throughout his company.
Mackey, the founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market uses organizational structure within his company. John Mackey states that his company uses decentralization.
His company took a turn because “Whole Foods grew and the company moved away from local, customized distribution facilities and systems, opting for regional and national standards.” With being a centralized company you are now responsible for more product, other products that need to be held accountable by regional managers. With the company building its own seafood distribution center, it now holds more responsibility. “For example, a team leader did not think that people in northern climates should not eat grapes in December, he didn’t feel that it was Whole Food prerogative to stop them (page 10; whole foods case).”
John Mackey also used competitive advantage. Whole Foods was the only retailer to have natural and organic foods. Mackey distinguished his company from other competitors by providing all natural foods and condiments to their customers while other food retailers couldn’t not because it was too expensive, or did not have a great variety of choices because of price. Whole Foods also provided positive economic benefits by being the first retailer to build a supermarket that met the environmental standards of the LEED Green Building Rating System (Page 9; whole foods