INVIGORATE FOOT WEAR

A CASE STUDY ON INVIGORATE FOOT WEAR

INVIGORATE FOOT WEAR

Executive Summary:

Invigorate is a footwear company operating in the industry of footwear for the last three decades. When Invigorate started its operations, it gained popularity because of its owners focus on providing customers the best possible quality. But with time, due to the policies of George Lieber, the owner of Invigorate, the company started to loose its market share and now the time has arrived where the company is facing some serious problems including a possibility of shutting down operations in the future. These problems include aged employees, most of those about to retire in near future, failure in a pilot project to import animal hides from Vietnam, which backfired and destroyed the reputation of the company, using old and costly technology, autocratic management, etc. The future implications of these problems are dissolution of the company. The company should take some urgent steps to alter its strategic direction. Invigorate should induct some new young employees in the company, more involvement of employees in strategic decision-making, change in the management structure, etc. All of these steps in taken at the right time and in the right way are bound to give fruitful results to the company.

Introduction:

Invigorate is a footwear company, which used to rule the market but now it is facing some serious problems which may cause the company to close its operations in a few years, if not addressed properly. This report tries to identify those problems, makes an analysis of those problems i.e. the impact these problems are having on the company operations. These problems include issues such as old and tiring workforce, reliance on obsolete technology, a decision which back fired and caused a lot of damage to the reputation of the company, etc, these problems have a created a situation in which the company will have to make certain strategic adjustments to its planning and control. This company needs a huge change in most of the things, which should be led by a leader who can manage this change and make sure that everything goes according to plans. The owner of the company, George Lieber has always avoided change right from the time the company started its operations but now the time has arisen where the company has to make changes otherwise it will be forced to dissolution.

Case Analysis and Diagnosis:

Key issues and analysis:

Some of the main issues with Invigorate footwear are:

Aging workforce:

A large number of employees working in Invigorate are aged. For some reason Invigorate hasn't been able to attract fresh blood in the company and now due to this majority of the workforce will retire in the next 10 years and Invigorate will only be able to retain 40% of the total workforce. This phenomenon is sure to create a lot of problem for Invigorate in the next few years because Invigorate will face a serious shortage of workforce (Erlenkamp, 2007, Pp. 125).

Reliance on traditional and costly technology:

The old and obsolete technology ...