Windvest Motorcycle Products
CASE 4: WindVest Motorcycle Products
Down the Windy Road
May 22, 2011
Case summary:
WindVest is a small family business specialized in designing and manufacturing windshields for motorcycles. The company has experienced an annual growth of 10% and 1.5 million Dollars of sales. In order to overcome the local competition WindVest would like to improve the company’s efficiency trough the restructuring of their supply chain and finding suppliers that are located around their headquarter located in Campbel in California. WinVest is encountering a lot of problems issues related to leadership and organization dysfunctioning which make the implementation of their new strategy a hard task.
1. How might the Dobers address the management issues they face relating to control and delegation? What steps should they take to deal with the issues of running a family business?
We think that the Dobers have diverse managerial issues, such as non efficient business organization, absence of HR strategy, and bad repartition of responsibilities and duties. Doug is in charge of the manufacturing, marketing, and after sales. Consequently, Doug doesn’t have enough time and resources to do promotional marketing actions to increase his customer base. He couldn’t attend the annual Hampshire Biker Rally that draws 300 000 bikers a year. Doug also has a lack in negotiation skills especially when negotiating prices with his suppliers. Marilyn, Norm’s wife is responsible of accounting and does not want to delegate some of her duties to her daughter Tami.
In order to deal with the issues of running a family business, the Dobers have to assess their needs in terms of Human Resources organization by unloading Doug from his many responsibilities by hiring or promoting a qualified WindVest employee to be the marketing manager. Also, we recommend creating a customer service position in order to deal with clients’ requests and complaints. On the other hand, Doug
Down the Windy Road
May 22, 2011
Case summary:
WindVest is a small family business specialized in designing and manufacturing windshields for motorcycles. The company has experienced an annual growth of 10% and 1.5 million Dollars of sales. In order to overcome the local competition WindVest would like to improve the company’s efficiency trough the restructuring of their supply chain and finding suppliers that are located around their headquarter located in Campbel in California. WinVest is encountering a lot of problems issues related to leadership and organization dysfunctioning which make the implementation of their new strategy a hard task.
1. How might the Dobers address the management issues they face relating to control and delegation? What steps should they take to deal with the issues of running a family business?
We think that the Dobers have diverse managerial issues, such as non efficient business organization, absence of HR strategy, and bad repartition of responsibilities and duties. Doug is in charge of the manufacturing, marketing, and after sales. Consequently, Doug doesn’t have enough time and resources to do promotional marketing actions to increase his customer base. He couldn’t attend the annual Hampshire Biker Rally that draws 300 000 bikers a year. Doug also has a lack in negotiation skills especially when negotiating prices with his suppliers. Marilyn, Norm’s wife is responsible of accounting and does not want to delegate some of her duties to her daughter Tami.
In order to deal with the issues of running a family business, the Dobers have to assess their needs in terms of Human Resources organization by unloading Doug from his many responsibilities by hiring or promoting a qualified WindVest employee to be the marketing manager. Also, we recommend creating a customer service position in order to deal with clients’ requests and complaints. On the other hand, Doug