“From This Point On …” Champion Foods is one of several companies offering healthy, frozen-packaged meals in the once-laughable and nutritionally challenged frozen dinner industry. Meeting the changing needs of modern, on-the-go, budget-conscious consumers, the new generation of meals offered by Champion faces unprecedented competition from long-time industry leaders including Bertolli, Marie Callender’s, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, and others. Cutthroat competition within the industry means every corporation must hustle for high-quality ingredients, improved packaging, efficiency in delivery systems, and decreased cooking times. Like its competitors, Champion strives for increased market share through a combination of promotional strategies and the introduction of new products. To meet these challenges, CEO Roberto Champion created a new management position to monitor promotional strategies. Vice president for Marketing Ted McCann hired Lucian Wilkes, a retired army colonel, for the new position, giving him wide latitude for setting up new rules and procedures. With an announcement from CEO Champion, Wilkes was introduced to the company. Following an intense period of in-house research and information gathering, Wilkes zeroed in on what he saw as the major problems—the fragmentation of promotional strategy decisions, with managers in various regions devising their own standards and making their own contracts. The process sent up red flags for Wilkes. He made an across-the-board e-mail announcement for new standardized procedures, basically informing each regional office that “from this point on …” regional managers must inform his office of any promotional policy change. In addition, all local promotion contracts above $10,000 must also be approved by Wilkes’s office prior to implementation. Directives for these new procedures were issued to regional managers for their policy manuals. These managers, according to their immediate feedback, were all in agreement with the changes. But as one month followed another, Wilkes’s concern and level of frustration grew, and everyone seemed to carry on with a culture of “business as usual.” Managers did not resist. Frequent correspondence across the various regions, including e-mails, faxes, and conference calls, brought repeated assurances that change was coming. “We just need time to make the changes,” one manager said. But time dragged on, and the situation remained unaltered. Complicating the situation, Wilkes appeared to have no vocal support from company executives, who were busy with their own concerns. While both Champion and McCann offered lukewarm comments about the need for new initiatives to spur efficiency, neither demonstrated wholehearted support for the changes. The new plan was going nowhere, and Wilkes was aware that the failure of the company to increase profits could result in the loss of his own position. “If nothing changes,” Wilkes complained to his wife, “the regional managers will remain on the job. My job will be cut.” Wilkes wondered what his next move should be. In how many ways could he inform the managers to implement the new procedures? What pressures could he apply? How could he impress upon Champion and McCann the importance of their support for the changes? He felt at a loss for what he should do. Did Champion Foods want these new standards implemented or not? Adapted from: Daft, R. L and Marcic, D. (2014). Building Management Skills: An Action – First Approach, South-Western CENGAGE Learning, USA. In your opinion, what has gone wrong that staff are not cooperating with Wilkes? Do you think he has adapted the right leadership/management style to implement this change? Provide suggestions to Wilkes to help get this new procedure implemented and become a successful manager Analyze the frozen dinner/food industry in your city and investigate what kind of promotion strategies the companies in your area are using? You need to provide examples of real companies and their products and connect them with the promotional strategies that we discussed in our lecture. You need to discuss at least 3 promotional strategies with real-business examples in this section. Would you advice Wilkes to adapt one of the promotional policies you researched? Using your understanding of the marketing research and operations management, explain how Champion foods’ products can be differentiated from other competitors in the market? How can Wilkins improve efficiency of his organization and become more profitable? You need to use examples from your research in question 2 above, and the textbook/lecture materials to validate your responses.
CASE:
“From This Point On …”
Champion Foods is one of several companies offering healthy, frozen-packaged meals in the once-laughable and nutritionally challenged frozen dinner industry. Meeting the changing needs of modern, on-the-go, budget-conscious consumers, the new generation of meals offered by Champion faces unprecedented competition from long-time industry leaders including Bertolli, Marie Callender’s, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, and others.
Cutthroat competition within the industry means every corporation must hustle for high-quality ingredients, improved packaging, efficiency in delivery systems, and decreased cooking times. Like its competitors, Champion strives for increased market share through a combination of promotional strategies and the introduction of new products.
To meet these challenges, CEO Roberto Champion created a new management position to monitor promotional strategies. Vice president for Marketing Ted McCann hired Lucian Wilkes, a retired army colonel, for the new position, giving him wide latitude for setting up new rules and procedures. With an announcement from CEO Champion, Wilkes was introduced to the company. Following an intense period of in-house research and information gathering, Wilkes zeroed in on what he saw as the major problems—the fragmentation of promotional strategy decisions, with managers in various regions devising their own standards and making their own contracts.
The process sent up red flags for Wilkes. He made an across-the-board e-mail announcement for new standardized procedures, basically informing each regional office that “from this point on …” regional managers must inform his office of any promotional policy change. In addition, all local promotion contracts above $10,000 must also be approved by Wilkes’s office prior to implementation.
Directives for these new procedures were issued to regional managers for their policy manuals. These managers, according to their immediate feedback, were all in agreement with the changes. But as one month followed another, Wilkes’s concern and level of frustration grew, and everyone seemed to carry on with a culture of “business as usual.” Managers did not resist. Frequent correspondence across the various regions, including e-mails, faxes, and conference calls, brought repeated assurances that change was coming.
“We just need time to make the changes,” one manager said.
But time dragged on, and the situation remained unaltered. Complicating the situation, Wilkes appeared to have no vocal support from company executives, who were busy with their own concerns. While both Champion and McCann offered lukewarm comments about the need for new initiatives to spur efficiency, neither demonstrated wholehearted support for the changes. The new plan was going nowhere, and Wilkes was aware that the failure of the company to increase profits could result in the loss of his own position.
“If nothing changes,” Wilkes complained to his wife, “the regional managers will remain on the job. My job will be cut.”
Wilkes wondered what his next move should be. In how many ways could he inform the managers to implement the new procedures? What pressures could he apply? How could he impress upon Champion and McCann the importance of their support for the changes? He felt at a loss for what he should do. Did Champion Foods want these new standards implemented or not?
Adapted from: Daft, R. L and Marcic, D. (2014). Building Management Skills: An Action – First Approach, South-Western CENGAGE Learning, USA.
- In your opinion, what has gone wrong that staff are not cooperating with Wilkes? Do you think he has adapted the right leadership/management style to implement this change? Provide suggestions to Wilkes to help get this new procedure implemented and become a successful manager
- Analyze the frozen dinner/food industry in your city and investigate what kind of promotion strategies the companies in your area are using? You need to provide examples of real companies and their products and connect them with the promotional strategies that we discussed in our lecture. You need to discuss at least 3 promotional strategies with real-business examples in this section. Would you advice Wilkes to adapt one of the promotional policies you researched?
- Using your understanding of the
marketing research and operations management, explain how Champion foods’ products can be differentiated from other competitors in the market? How can Wilkins improve efficiency of his organization and become more profitable? You need to use examples from your research in question 2 above, and the textbook/lecture materials to validate your responses.
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