Richard Murphy and the Biscuit Company Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Richard Company and the Biscuit Company Case Solution

Introduction

There was a concept of production in which companies were supposed to produce goods only. Companies were not paying attention on marketing because they knew that their product would sell out. There was no competition at that time and companies used to follow the same processes for many years. Companies were paying focus on human development because skilled workers were not required.

In the initial days of industrialization, technology did not have its impact on companies; hence, they used to follow the same processes and techniques for many years. It helped companies to increase their revenues without investing additional money into the business.

With the evolution of information technology, businesses have been affected the most. Technologies have transformed the way of doing business and have changed the preferences of consumers. Consequently, companies that have not utilized the benefits of technology are nowhere and they have to shut their plants. It happened just because of ignoring change and those companies that welcomed change are flourishing and making handsome money.

It is not easy for a company to sell its product without marketing. Companies are now supposed to find out the need of the consumer and then produce their product. Consumers have become powerful and they have choice to buy the product or leave the product because substitue products are available in the market. In certain situations, companies are supposed to welcome change and they are supposed to change the way of doing business. In the time of economic recession, companies are also supposed to make changes according to the economic conditions in that country.

About Company

Biscuit & Co was founded in 1930 but it was acquired by Gareth Eastern in 1949. Company used to follow the traditional way of making biscuits and had never upgraded its plant.  Gareth Eastern was very kind to his worker and employees were treated as family members and they were highly loyal to the company. They had been paid for their loyalty and high rewards were given to them.

Biscuit & Co had never paid attention on marketing and used to focus on production. The environment was changing and the company realized that its revenues were decreasing so they decided to introduce the new position of marketing. Andrew Eastern was selected for that position and he was not interested for that position because he did not know anything about marketing.

Under the leadership of Andrew Eastern, sales kept on decreasing and the cost of biscuits was increasing. Biscuit & Co did not have a clear strategy and the company just wanted to make biscuits and sell them. They had not paid attention on the preferences of consumers and no efforts were paid on marketing. Many plans were made by Andrew Eastern but no positive result was found. There was no increase in sales and the company started to face high competition from its competitors

About Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy was a committed professional, who liked to draw a big picture of every matter. He was known to find reasons of problems and identify solutions for those problems. He used to work for Nestle as a brand manager. Then, he joined Johnson & Johnson where his skills glittered for 17 years. In 2002, he was appointed as a marketing director of Biscuit & Co.

Q1. Based on the given case study, highlight some of the dilemma and challenges faced by the Richard Murphy as an outsider tasked with effecting a cultural change within the biscuit and company organization.

After joining the company, Richard Murphy started to face many challenges because change was never welcomed by the employees of Biscuit & Co. It was very difficult for Richard Murphy to bring change without motivating every employee, which resulted in the formation of two groups. One group was in the favor of change while the other group was not in a favor of accepting the change.

Initially, Richard Murphy decided to make strong relationship with the retailers; however, he found that Biscuit & Co did not have strong relationship with their retailers. It was found that the company was not listening to their retailers and was not paying attention towards the needs of its suppliers.

Another challenge that was faced by Richard Murphy when he decided to hire new employees especially in the marketing department. It created a problem for Richard Murphy because old employees did not want to welcome change while new employees were willing to bring change in the organization. As a result, employees started to divide into two groups; one group was in the favor of bring change and the second group was against the change. Marketing and sales department supported to bring change in the organization but on the other hand finance and production department had traditional thoughts. It was very difficult for the Biscuit & Co to work on a purpose when their workforce was divided into two groups....................

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