Westlake Lanes Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Westlake Lanes Case Study Solution

1) Main Strategic Problems:

After analyzing the case, following main strategic problems were identified.

Financial Issues:

The financial problems which were being faced by the company are that the revenues were declining and the costs of operations of the company were being increased. The increase in the operations costs was due to the increasing costs of health benefits provided to the employees as currently there was four employee working in the Westlake Lanes. The other financial problems were that the sales on the food and beverages had started to decline due to low demand which in result caused the revenues to decline. Most of the bowling machinery was reaching its expiry date in the year 2010 and are required to be replaced which would increase the costs of the company.

The company had been experiencing losses since the year 2007 – 2009 and the losses had been significantly increasing each year causing difficulty for the company to run its operations. The company had been advertising a week thrice through print media, coupons on newspaper and coupons distributed to the customers. This also led to increase in the operations costs to the company and also the declining of customers made difficult for the company to break-even.

Managerial Issues:

There were also some managerial issues which were impacting on the company’s performance. The first issue was mainly due to weak communications with the employees and the management. Some of the employees who had been working hard were not being appreciated, compensated and motivated. While some of the employees were not taking seriously of their job

Responsibility as one of the employees, Jenny Bullock reads magazines behind counters instead of being initiative. The others employees who were tasked with keeping tracks on customer’s spending and were not fulfilling their responsibility which caused a major problem for analyzing the financial statements. The lack of interest by the board of directors also led to lacking operational and financial planning. The weak communication between the employees and the board of directors resulted in weak performance by the employee. This also resulted in the employees feeling uncontrolled and being independent and were no longer taking initiatives on recording expenses and coming up with strategies that would boost the sales of the company.

2) Porter 5 Forces:

The tool which would be the most appropriate for analyzing the bowling industry is through the five porter forces. The five porter includes the bargaining power of supplier and buyers, threat of substitute products and new entrants and competitive rivalry

Bargaining power of Customers

The bargaining power of customers is high in the bowling industry as there are many bowling service companies for entertaining the customers. The switching cost for the customer is low as they can easily go to bowling where the prices are low or which have attractive venues. The changes in the customer behavior could also impact the bargaining power, as most of the people have no longer interest in bowling due to the changes in technology. Customer being price sensitive in the bowling industry is also causing them the high power to manipulate prices and also cause the company revenue to decline.

Bargaining Power of Supplier:

The bargaining power of supplier is low as there are many suppliers in which the company could easily acquire its supplies. The main supplies of the bowling industry include the bowling pins, balls, food, beverages and among few other items. A company could easily obtain a supplier who deals with these items as there are huge numbers of suppliers dealing in these products. This also causes low manipulation on the prices by the supplier which would not much impact on the company. The low bargaining power of supplier would benefit the company by obtaining the supplies at low prices and being cost effective.

The threat of Substitute Product:

The threat of the substitute product is high as there are many alternatives for a customer to entertain. The advancement of the technology has also led to the increase of substitute products as people could easily play bowling virtually through WII without going to bowling clubs. There are also some other clubs which people could entertain themselves such as the rock climbing clubs, car racing and other entertainment clubs which affects the bowling industry directly or indirectly.

The threat of New Entrants:

The threat of new entrants in the low for the Westlake Lanes as the club is the only bowling club located in downtown Raleigh. The Westlake Lanes has been around for more than 40 years in that area which makes difficult for new entrants to enter. However, the cost needed to invest for opening a new bowling club would be low but for it gain customers and become reputable in the market would require a long time. The Westlake Lanes is also established at a prime location where there is lively neighborhood along with a lot of restaurants........................

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