Union station clothing store. Management Case Study

Overview (TOTAL: 6 sentences • company & duration • stakeholders • products/ services/property components • competitive advantage (uniqueness) • current financial status • *current decision necessity)
The overview should contain information about the following five questions: 1. How would you describe the company? Provide information about the age, location and type of business. 2. What products or services does the company offer and who are the primary customers? 3. What is the competitive advantage? State and explain what makes the company unique or better than the competition? 4. What is the current financial situation like and how do you know that? Provide financial proof. 5. What is the current decision that the company is facing?
What counts in this section is being as specific as possible and supporting your statements with relevant facts from the case. The overview is a summary of the current situation NOT a history of the company. Put in past facts only if they help answer one of the five key questions.
SWOT Analysis (TOTAL: 16 sentences • 2 sentences for each SWOT element)
Strengths & Weaknesses – internal factors – owned or controllable by the company Opportunities & Threats – external factors – uncontrollable by company
STRENGTH: will support an opportunity or overcome a threat • WEAKNESS: vs. taking advantage of an opportunity • OPPORTUNITY: trends; new technology; legislation; reputation • THREAT: new entrants; loss of reputation; brand damage
For each point that you make you need two things: a) A statement of the existing factor; and, b) An explanation of why it is a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat in that particular situation
- PROBLEM ANALYSIS (one [main; overriding] problem • 2 causes (prioritized) • for each cause: identification + significance (how much problem is affecting company) and urgency (status of need to come to a decision and/or implement decision))
Causes The first thing we need to know is why has this happened? What you may be seeing are just symptoms and the causes may vary.
Significance & Urgency When we ask ‘how significant is it?” we want to know how much it gets at the heart of what this company is/does. Urgency tells us how fast the person has to a) come to a decision and/or b) implement the decision.
ALTERNATIVE IDENTIFICATION (TOTAL: 9 sentences • 3 alternatives/options • rationale for each option • evidence (e.g., use of quantitative data (and, if appropriate, qualitative issues) for each option)
In this section you will put forward your best answers to the problem; typically you are asked to come up with three to four best answers. Each solution has to have some obvious rationale right from the start. The first thing you want to do is to brainstorm as many alternatives as possible based on your SWOT analysis and problem analysis. If it looks like you are facing a YES/NO sort of decision then start with that but then broaden out to many versions of each.
DECISION CRITERIA (+*measurables) (9 sentences • 3 criteria • for each: identification; explanation; evidence)
SOLUTIONS AND RATIONALE EXPLANATION: • identification of criteria that will decide best alternative (similar to “goals”) • based on section 3 [Alternatives] • prioritize by: finances; employees; customers; competitors; internal processes/deadlines; external bodies. each criterion must have case-based evidence • based on measures, indicators • conventions: 1. each criterion impacts at least two alternatives; 2. use only one financial measure. Avoid general statements such as “because profit is essential to all companies”. The word ‘because’ is absolutely essential in this section to get full marks. Do not use the general problem as a criterion. It is a given that each of your solutions has already met this criterion. You can use the problem only if you attach a specific target to it. Do not use more than one financial criterion as finances are interrelated and your analysis will overlap. Financial measures are not the only factors that we need to take into account. Many managers do make decisions based solely on finances but we want to see you demonstrate a good understanding of other considerations.
ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES (9 sentences • explanation of 3 alternative/criteria designations • for each: identification and location of quantification data/calcs)
This section is where you get right down to determining the best solution by matching your alternatives against your criteria. You do this in two stages, as follows: 1) In a matrix table that summarizes your findings. 2) In paragraphs (one paragraph per alternative) that explain how well each alternative fits the criteria. Put the three criteria across the top and the alternatives down the side then work left to right to come up with your conclusions. If the answer is a ‘maybe’ then you have to take a stand and decide is it closer to YES or closer to NO? Don’t...