Roxanne Quimby Case Study

Eric Porter Roxanne Quimby Case Study B283 Case Analysis Introduction: Roxanne Quimby grew up in an entrepreneurial family. She was taught a lot of self-reliance which came in handy when, through some choices her father didn’t approve of, she was disowned and left to fend completely on her own. She found a bee keeper named Burt Shavitz who was just as broke as she was. They decided to team up, applying her creativity to Burt’s honey and bees wax. It was a hit and everybody wanted their supplies from candles to lip balm across all 50 states. With increasing demand Roxanne didn’t believe they had any more room to grow in Maine. In an attempt to make room for more growth her and Burt purchased a small factory space in North Carolina where they hoped to increase their efficiency as well as their customer relations. However the move brought with it more growing pains that Roxanne had imagined. Problem Analysis: -Major problems and challenges facing employees and organization: The employee culture is cheap in Maine and unskilled while the employee culture in North Carolina is very factory skilled but not cheap. It will probably cost the same to pay one employee in North Carolina as it would cost to pay three in Maine. This is a step out of her comfort zone because for Roxanne, she can do the labor intensive candle shaping, dipping, wax blending work, yet she cannot work the machinery. There is also the critical decision of what products will they continue and what not. Roxanne brings a good point that the work culture is very different. I don’t, however, believe that her options are that limited. Every place has unskilled workers somewhere and she could attempt to continue her line of candle making. Though I do see her point that it is more efficient to use machines and while hand sculpting candles is profitable, it is very labor intensive. This could partly be solved by leaving a small branch of the store open in Maine where people know what to do and can continue doing what they do best which would bring in money while Roxanne attempts to expand the business into North Carolina. Recommendations: Some recommendations are too late to change, but if I were moving my entire company I would put way more planning into it before actually moving. Like what products will I make when I get there? Is the factory adequately equipped for our business? How many employees will we need once we move down there? These and many more questions I would have asked that Roxanne didn’t seem to think through very much. Conclusion: In the end Roxanne offers three futures for her business. To move back to Maine and live with the issues they are currently dealing with. They could stay in North Carolina and try to make it work, even with all the changes they may need to undergo. The final option is selling the business completely and moving onto another venture and another dream in India selling various fashions and crafts. Of the three I completely believe that she should work it out in North Carolina. I believe that she should have made a few more preparations in the move rather than laying off everybody and moving before everything was ready in North Carolina; however she is simply taking the easy road out. Roxanne speaks of freedom being her biggest desire for even starting the company. She wanted to be free from accountability and this business would in many ways tie her down. There is so much potential in the company though that I think she lost a lot of her vision for the company, if she ever had a vision for it. She often calls the business her child and that eventually a child grows up and leaves its mother. Now that the business is just getting into high school and can start playing with the big boys, she fears the extra work and commitment it will take to get it prepared. However it is obvious that she can make it work and grow in North Carolina.