Richard Murphy And The Biscuit Company (A) Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

INTRODUCTION

Biscuit & Co. Ltd is a subsidiary of Conglomerated British Food (SBF), founded in 1949 by Gareth Eastern. Biscuit and Co. Ltd is a family-run organization with the strong cultural value in its heart. The mission of Biscuit & Co. is to deliver healthier food products and services to its customers and maximize the customers’ satisfaction. The company diversified its product line by introducing different products such as crackers, rice cakes, bag snacks, muesli Crispbread, and cereal bars. The quality product line and financial strategy are the major strength of the company.

Gareth Eastern is the man of principles and values with strong religious convictions and belief in hard work. Gareth possesses strong leadership skills, expertise power, good communication skills and coercive power. The strong values and skills of the Gareth lead the company to gain success and increase its revenue. After the death of Gareth, his son Andrew Eastern held the position to run the family business.

However, Andrew did not have the same rights and authority as his father. Moreover, he has a lack of experience in the different field, especially in marketing, which is the major weakness of the company. Therefore, Richard Murphy was appointed to the position of marketing director in order to make effective marketing strategies to achieve the long-term goal and competitive advantage.

Moreover, the company does not have proper sales and marketing department and have lack of business strategies to bring effective change in the organization. Furthermore, the company is a niche market player with a major production system and effective manufacturer. However, the company does not have a strategy to compete with the giant players such as PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, and Barilla.

Therefore, Richard Murphy was hired to change the organization and initiate successful strategies, in order to compete with the major player in the food industry and gain competitive advantage. Nowadays, it is very important to analyze and forecast the competitors’ analysis, in order to reduce the risks of becoming obsolete in the future. However, it is difficult to bring a change in the organization and therefore, effective and successful strategies are required to manage and sustain the change.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

According to the case, there are numerous problems faced by the company such as improper sales and marketing department, lack of lack of human resource department, and lack of research and development department. Moreover, competitor analysis of the company is based on rumors rather than the real facts and figures. Historically, the company runs without the brand awareness, marketing strategies, product promotions and huge marketing campaigns.

Furthermore, the company refuses to participate in the retail trade investment and promotional activity, and as a result, the company fails to forecast the customer’s needs, perspectives, and demands. Moreover, the company has a lack of business strategy and inefficient staff to promote the business on the large scale. Apart from that, there are no proper decision-making strategies in order to initiate and utilize the innovative and creative ideas to bring a successful change.

Furthermore, the company only relies on its financial drivers of cost constraints, efficiencies, and prudence. However, the financial drivers will not lead the company to gain success in the long run because many new and existing players have come in the food industry and giving strong competition to the company. Therefore, the company should develop a strategy to bring change in the organization to gain competitive advantage and sustain its family business.

Moreover, Andrew Gareth lacks experience in the marketing field and lack of leadership skills to run the family business successfully. Therefore, the company decided to hire Richard Murphy to initiate an effective strategy and bring a positive change in the origination. However, it would be difficult for Richard to initiate a change because of its negative relationship with Andrew and some employees are not in favor to bring change.Richard Murphy And The Biscuit Company (A) Case solution

Furthermore, Murphy’s strategy is to launch the company on a high- profile marketing plan. However, it requires huge capital investment and resources to bring a big change in the organization. Moreover, it would be difficult for Richard to maintain the strong cultural values of the company and sustain the brand loyalty of Biscuit Company.

Q. Highlight some of the dilemmas and challenges faced by Richard Murphy as an outsider tasked with effecting a cultural change within the Biscuit and Company organization?

Richard Murphy possesses numerous qualities such as effective leadership style, good communication and negotiation skills, teamwork skills, and decision-making skills. He is also a man of principles and values like Gareth Eastern and committed towards his job. Therefore, the company made the right decision to hire Richard Murphy because he is courageous and energetic towards his work, which helps the company to implement positive change in the organization...................

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