Herman Miller Case Study Essay

This assignment had to be written for the class of Management and Organizations at Stenden University, course IBMS, first year. We had a group of 6 and had to work it out together. We were enjoying getting into the world of IKEA, the world’s most furniture store on the market.

The five forces examines the dynamics within an industry. Understanding the competitive forces, and their underlying causes, reveals the roots of an industry’s current profitability while providing a framework for anticipating and influencing competition and profitability over time. Understanding the structure of its industry is also essential to effective strategic positioning.

For instance, having an employee’s feedback box will provide all employees’ access to address different issue without the feeling of intimidation. The employees are aware that these issues can be very damaging to the company, if not addressed in the proper manner. I just think that the employees are more in tuned with the issues that are more pertinent. The area of Pay and Benefits is also an important factor.

When Mike Volkema, CEO of Herman Miller, abruptly attempted to appoint Gary Van Spronsen to executive vice president of offer development and marketing, Volkema was hesitant to get involved. Since 1992, Van Spronsen had worked feverishly to build a leader in the office furniture industry in the Herman Miller subsidiary SQA. Not only did Van Spronsen create the traction that prompted better customer service, a tailored product line and design process, but he also transformed the faltering subsidiary from a refurbishing company, into a position leader that develops their own products. Now, Van Spronsen was suddenly being called on to make the same impact on the second largest producer of office furniture in

Porter’s model aims to enable managers not only to understand their industry environment but also to shape their firm’s strategy. The five competitive forces are threat of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. “As a rule of thumb, the stronger the five forces, the lower the industry’s profit potential- making the industry less attractive to competitors. The weaker the five forces, the greater the industry’s profit potential – making the industry more attractive” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 65). It is recommended that managers position their company in an industry in such a way that relaxes the constraints of strong forces and

This method allows for employees to share in the decision making process. This allows for their voice to be hear, learn from others, and begin making managerial team decisions.

2. How Porter's Five Forces of Competition impact the company Porter set out his famous Five Forces model in chapter 1 of his 1980 Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, which has now become the dominant paradigm for the "Structural Analysis of Industries." The model places supply chain forces on the horizontal access and market structure vertically above and below industry competition, which they all point to as the center of potential profitability (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson,

1. Describe Herman Miller’s strategy. Is there evidence it has produced a competitive advantage and good financial performance? Explain.

The Porter Five Forces has been developed in 1979 to analyse industry’s affective and profitability. It is a famous tool for gaining insight into the overall fashion apparel industry and more importantly the role of Creación with a variety of key factors affecting the company itself. The Porters Five Force model comprises competitive rivalry within an industry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of buyers.

Including employees in the decision-making process tells them you value their opinions. Employees may understand that their everyday actions help or hurt the company, but it 's difficult for them to see that impact directly. When an employee sees that his input helped implement a beneficial company change, he can see his impact; it makes him feel that he 's making a difference.

- Provide more authority for the employees to self-manage and make decisions.-Invite the employees to contribute to more important department or company-wide decisions and planning.-Provide more access to important and desirable meetings.-Provide more information by including the employee on specific mailing lists, in company briefings, and in our confidence.-Provide more opportunity to establish goals, priorities, and measurements.-Assign the employee to head up projects or teams.-Provide the opportunity for the employee to cross-train in other roles and responsibilities.

Porter 's Five Forces Model is a critical instrument to break down an outer aggressive environment of the business. The model incorporates threat of entry, the threat of rivalry, the threat of suppliers, the threat of purchasers and threat of substitutes.

The employees feel that they have greater responsibility and trust put on them, this can generate greater participation, commitment, and a better job performance.

The Porter`s five forces are threats of new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers ,product substitution and intensity of rival of rival among competitors .These forces measure the competitiveness of the market and also helps the company to identify strategies to use to penetrate such and gain market share.

Porter’s five forces are used to determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. These are close forces that affect a company’s ability to make a profit and serve customers. If any of these forces change, a company must reassess its marketplace. The five forces include: the threat of substitute products, the threat of the entry of new competitors, the intensity of competitive rivalry, the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers.