Rustia Jr., Teresito B.

Business Strategy (10AM-1PM(SAT.))

ROBIN HOOD
Time Context
The legend emerges in the late 15th century which date from around the reign of Prince John.

Viewpoint
Assembly meeting to the Merry Men or the bands and let them know for the problem
arises:
Lets put myself on the shoes of Robin Hood as the CEO. First, is to acknowledge the
main problem. Deal with it and discuss the issue arises; communicate with them professionally,
consider and listen all the ideas or opinion of both sides, take care to remain open rather than
criticize or judge the perceptions of the Merry Men and then convene back as a team. Example of
the issues to tackle: the transit tax, the increase size of the band and etc. I will address the new
set of objectives and strategies to them, share my own perspective and ideas on the issue and if
there no appeal or questions on the proposal, it will directly implemented and position are
properly delegated to those who deserve.

Statement of the Problem

Robin Hood personal crusade against the Sheriff.

The increasing size of the band.
A mission to restore King Richard back to power.
Security and vigilance (because whoever wanted to join was taken in there could be
spies and traitors in the group).
To overcome the largest competitor, the sheriff.

Objectives
-

Change the old organizational structure to a new one - Organizing group into one force
with a common goal and objective. Establishing a mission and Vision for such a big
organization ad aligning people with it.
Keeping up with ever changing environmental and economic scenarios.
Changing from old war methods to newer one which could utilize the workforce better.

Areas of Consideration/Analysis
There are several problems that need to be considered.
Robin Hoods personal vendetta
Robin Hoods personal vendetta serves as the basis for many of the problems encountered by
the Merry Men. Robins needs to make sure his own personal grievances against the Sheriff, do not lose
sight of his initial crusade or dont cloud his vision on what is in the best interest of his Merry Men as a
group. Another is a competitive forces in the industry which considered as an external environment.

The two main threats facing Robin Hood are the intensive threat of competitive rivals and
threats to suppliers. Prince John and the Sherriff are Robins main rivals and pose a definite threat to
his operation. They are in direct competition with each other, and their actions have to constantly be
monitored. They pose a high level threat, because of the threat of an attack, taxations to the residents of
the forest, and their persistent efforts to capture Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Suppliers are a high
level threat, because at any point those who support Robin Hood could be captured by Prince John and
the Sherriff, thus cutting off supplies. Also, the bargaining power of suppliers is high simply because of the
business Robin is involved in. His business is illegal and therefore a high level threat to anyone who
supplies to him.
Threat from buyers is currently a low level threat because an objective of Robins is to give to
the poor. They have no reason to pose any threat unless at some time Robin Hood begins to tax them.
The threat of new entry is also low given the legality of this endeavor. Individuals will likely be more willing
to join Robin Hood as opposed to forming their own faction. Although it is obviously more common to
have a threat of new entry when in control of the market while making a profit, in this particular situation it
is relatively low given Robin Hoods rapport within the forest.
The threat of substitute products has been identified as a low to moderate threat. The
residents of the forest are assumed to be the customers. Two variables that that make them a threat
include: The further increases in taxes via Prince John and the perceived possibility that Robin may fail. In
the event of either of these things transpiring, the most probable alternative would be the majority of the
people leaving the forest. This is a low to moderate threat because although Robins current status is
relatively stable; his customers face the real possibility of being forced into making alternative decisions.

Increasing size of the band

Robin Hood needs to plan and strategize on how to take care of his Merry Men and address the
issues to handle overwhelming growth of new recruits. He is responsible for the training, health, morale
and safety of the band, as well as its well-being. The rapid size increase of the band creates several
different issues that Robin must deal with as well : (1) depleting the forest resources for food and shelter
causing the band to outgrow its present location; (2) find a legitimate market for making revenues,
because travelers avoid forest for fear of being rob; (3)because of the large number of new recruits,
security for the band must be increased to avoid spies and detection and not give away their exact
location; (4) almost half of his band are unfamiliar to him, so Robin needs to know all of his Merry Men or
remove unnecessary manpower and develop a strict and stringent way of determining who can become a
band member.
Mission to Restore King Richard back to Power

By assisting the barons to restore King Richard back to power has many pros and cons. The mission is
very dangerous and King Johns Spies are everywhere. If this plan fails, the consequences are very
grave. The retributions that would follow will be swift and very dangerous.
Pros
- King Richard will be able to answer to the peasants needs and concerns

Cons
-

Sheriff will not be in power and hence his threat will be minimal
There will be no need to steal from the rich
Dangerous proposition with very swift retributions
It would be risking everything that the band stood for but the benefits would sure be grand
The Barons or King Richard himself might not live up to their words

To overcome the largest competitor, the sherif

Robin and his Merry Men need to overcome their largest competitor, the sheriff, who has become
powerful and more organized. He is the biggest threat to Robin Hood and his organization. The Merry
Men can adopt several strategies in order to overcome the sheriff.
1. Robin Hood and his men can improvise internal operations in order to compete by finding internal
strengths and overcoming their weakness they can capitalize on advantage thus gained.
2. Merry Men can focus on new market opportunity, competitive advantages, consumer expectations,
competitors actions and technological advances.
3. Robin Hood can choose the external and internal focus and perform a SWOT analysis to figure out the
complete standing of the Merry Men compared to their competitors.

Alternative Course of Action

Robin Hoods organization is much unorganized. He is assisted by three people for the functions
and is certainly under employed. It is very evident that managing such a huge organization is getting
difficult for him and there may be certain functions that are rejected due to less supervisors and
managers. There is not much of interaction between the various departments. Robin Hood needs to
change the organizational structure. He should change it to the below mentioned structure and delegate
responsibility in order to manage the bigger group that he now commands. This will result in
decentralization of the control to some extent however, not to the fullest level but to certain extent. Please
see below proposed organizational structure for Robin leadership:
Old Organizational Structure

New Organizational Structure

1. In order to meet the decreasing level of discipline and vigilance Robin Hood needs to put the
recruitment process in order. A better way to do this is by recruiting supervisors and laying down HR
policies for recruitment. They could limit the age, family background. By doing this he shall only get
workers who are focused and share the similar goal.

2. Appoint a food shelter and medical supervisor under his human resource manager. Food and shelter
supervisors will concentrate on sole responsibilities. The main role of food supervisor will be to constantly
look for newer and cheaper sources of food.
3. Device a spy/vigilance division under the operation manager to built a fleet of spies and deploys them
around the sheriffs office. The job should encompass the cross verification of the details of new recruits.

SWOT Analysis
Following are opportunities:
A fixed transit tax could be implemented to immediately increase revenues.
Accept the invitation from the Barons to join them in their quest to collect the ransom that would
release King Richard the Lionhearted from his jail in Austria in return for Robin's future amnesty.
The Barons assistance would alleviate problems concerning provisions.
Expansion of the operation to geographical areas to the north, south, east and west of Sherwood
Forest for an opportunity to create new avenues of revenue.
The Merry Men could kill the sheriff therefore ending his reign of Nottingham.
An immediate downsizing of the manpower of the band would solve the issue of additional
expenses due to the ever increasing size of the band.
He could explore new means in which to create revenue other than a transit tax which seems an
unpopular choice and the current means of robbing rich merchants as they travel through
Sherwood Forest.
The men could be taught to grow additional fruits and vegetables in the forest to help subsidize
the lack of game available in the forest.
Following are threats:
The rich merchants who once traveled through Sherwood Forest are now taking alternate routes
to avoid it. Although this incurs additional costs upon the merchants it eliminates the threat of
having their entire shipment confiscated by The Band of Merry Men. The reduction in traffic in the
route results in a loss of revenue for the organization.
Though Robin's band is growing at an uncontrollable rate, the sheriff's forces are becoming
stronger and more organized.
The ever growing size of the band is making it a challenge to conceal their whereabouts within
the Sherwood Forest making it easier for the Sheriff's forces to attack.
The rapid growth rate of Robin's organization is deplenishing the provisions available to them
within the forest. Continuing to go to the outlying villages for supplies is not an option because
with each occurrence their chance of being spotted and followed back to their hiding place within
the forest by the Sheriff's men increases dramatically.
As Robin himself stated, there are so many men in his group now that he can hardly recognize
half of them. With the great number of spies loyal to Prince John this was an ever growing threat.
Little John is having difficulty maintaining discipline within the ranks because there are so many
men now that he is in charge of overseeing. This is too difficult a task for one person which leads
to the men slacking off and playing games in downtime instead of hunting for food or
concentrating on their training.
If Robin was to accept the Baron's invitation to join in their crusade and it failed he could cause
himself and all of his men to suffer consequences in the courts.
If a transit tax is implemented Robin could lose the backing of the local farmers and village
people.

Following are strengths:

A strong team of managers including Will Scarlett in charge of intelligence and scouting, Little
John in charge of discipline and archery training, Scarlock who oversees the finances, and Much
responsible for provisions.

The group has a strong leader in Robin and the farmers and townspeople are loyal to him.
Robin's Band of Merry Men is established after being in business for a year now.
The men are highly skilled in archery.
Robin Hood has gained strength in numbers. His band is constantly increasing with men traveling
from all over England to join.
Following are weaknesses:
The food and supplies in the forest are being depleted at a rapid rate caused by the continuous
growth of the group of men.
It is becoming difficult to prevent the band from being infiltrated by spies because Robin could not
recognize half of the men anymore.
The sheriff has the support of Prince John.
The organization is growing in size, but the revenues are declining.

Recommendation

Robin has only one viable strategy. He must expand his vision. He must join the barons
and embrace a bigger picture. It means losing control. But that's okay. In so doing, he will
not only have the opportunity to "do good" to others (the king, the barons, and the rest of
the loyal kingdom), but he just might accomplish his own personal goals as well. He's got
to become a part of something bigger than himself. If he doesn't, he'll wither and rot in his
vengeance spirit.

Conclusions
The choice is to pursue negotiations with the barons and participate in their efforts to restore King Richard to the
throne; there are several actions that Robin should take:

Have a meeting with the Merry Men and explain fully the strategic dilemma that the organization finds itself
in for the long term and the tough choices that have to be made. Let everyone know that the future does not
look promising, that things cannot continue going as they have been, and that the time has come to chart a
new course.

Stop accepting recruits immediately and begin a program to downsize the organization.

Encourage people to leave the organization voluntarily. Perhaps Little John should come down hard on
those who are not inclined to observe strict discipline as a way of making some people unhappy enough to
leave.

Employ a harvest strategy to maximize short-term cash flow. Perhaps make scattered raids outside
Sherwood Forest to shore up sagging revenues.

Pursue negotiations with the barons to secure amnesty for all the remaining Merrymen, the justification
being that their efforts have helped generate the monies that Robin Hood can contribute to the ransom for
King Richard.

Avoid further conflict with the Sheriff and lessen the urgency for the Sheriff to secure reinforcements. Try to
buy enough time in the campaign against the Sheriff for the efforts to secure the Kings release to bear fruit.

Prepare to cease operations as soon as circumstances permit. Help the Merrymen find alternative career
occupations. Try to bring the organization to a graceful end. Have key lieutenants develop an orderly exit
strategy.

Robin should personally devote most of his time and effort to assisting the barons gain King Richards
release and making sure that the promise of amnesty is honored.