ABSTRACT

An analysis on the article Welcome Abroad (But

don’t change a thing) by Harvard Business Review
Case Study.

Course: Written Analysis and Communication

WELCOME ABOARD (BUT DON’T

CHANGE A THING)
By Mayank Agrawal
 A REPORT ON:
WELCOME ABOARD (BUT DON’T CHANGE A THING)

By: Eric J. McNulty

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
October 2002 ISSUE

Submitted to: Rihana Shaik

In partial fulfilment of the requirement of the WAC Course

Submitted By:
Mayank Agrawal

Submitted on:
September 1st , 2018
 Letter of Transmittal

September 1st, 2018

Miss Rihana Shaik

Assistant Professor
Written Analysis and Communication
Department of Business Administration
Jindal Global Business School

Subject: Submission of Case Analysis Report

Respected Ma’am
As per the guidelines provided by you during the classroom discussion, we hereby submit a
report on the case titled Welcome Aboard (But don’t change a thing). This report has been
prepared after going through the entire case and carefully scrutinizing the facts and
assumptions, and using the 6- step problem solving model of Penrose, Rasberry and Myres.
The report contains the relevant facts in the introduction, problem statement and list of
possible alternatives and best action plan to be implemented.

We humbly request you to kindly evaluate the same and provide your valuable inputs and
feedback.

Regards,
Group 14
Mayank Agrawal
Jindal Global Business School
 Executive Summary

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a producer of top-notch wooden

toys, was selected as the CEO alleging she knew how to deliver profits and because the Ex-
CEO trusted her energy and enthusiasm as a driving factor to help Lakeland reach new
heights. However, she is stuck at a point where her vision is not grabbing hold in the
company. She must achieve the board’s development objectives -to increase the growth rate
significantly. She believes that going past Lakeland's center upscale market and propelling
into the midmarket with a selective toy contract with another client- Bull’s Eye Stores, would
help them reach closer to this goal. But the problem arises when she notices the employees
dawdling and moving away from her vision and plans. This might result in the company
losing its Bull’s Eye Stores contract and in turn not achieve the expected growth rate. The
CEO wants immediate changes to be made by introducing new players in the process but is
not able to analyze the consequences in the long run.

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 Table of Contents

S. No. Content Page No.

1 List of Illustrations 3
2 Situational Analysis 4
3 Problem Statement 5
4 Alternate Solutions 6
5 Evaluation Criteria 8
6 Evaluation of Options 9
7 Recommendation 10
8 Implementation Plan 11
9 Contingency Plan 12
10 List of References 13

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 List of Illustrations

S. No. Content Page No.

1 Table 1 - Evaluation of Options 9

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 1.Situational Analysis
Welcome Aboard (But don’t change a thing) is a 2002 HBR case study based upon on
a 94-year-old company called Lakeland Wonders (based in Minnesota) having 3
manufacturing units and almost 5000 employees producing world-class wooden toys. The
company has been operating since its inception under the guidance of members of the
Swensen family. Cheryl Hailstrom, who is approaching her 6 months anniversary as a CEO,
was appointed by then retiring CEO to turn around the growth numbers for the company and
due to fading interests of his children to be active drivers. The Ex-CEO Walter Swensen IV
entrusted her with his primary source of wealth due to her experience, energy, enthusiasm
and exceptional work as the COO of Lakeland’s largest customer - Kids & Company, an
upscale retail chain based in Chicago.
After the recent acquisition of a chunk of shares by Hastings, the board has
developmental objectives to increase the growth rate significantly. A new opportunity to meet
this goal comes in the form of a prospective client - Bull’s Eye Stores - looking for an
exclusive line of products. Cheryl understands the significance to convert this deal and is thus
determined to fulfil it as soon as possible. She proposes to launch Lakeland into the mid-
market segment from the upscale market by outsourcing the manufacturing overseas to fulfil
Bull’s Eye Stores Contract in time while making healthy profits. She wants to accomplish
this by going out of the already established structures and bringing new players into the game
to design, supply and procure resources as soon as possible. The employees support her
vision to expand and grow but are of the unfavourable view of implementing it in a haste.
They don't work overtime and are now accustomed to the things as they are.
The VP of operations, Mark Dawson, wants to delay any offshore movement for at
least a year as the Labour union contract was going to expire in 9 months, and thus making
any hasty moves could result in a strike and have huge ripple effects throughout, thereby
disrupting the production. Lakelands design director, Barry Quince, didn't want to seek help
from outsiders. Elaine Spenser, from Marketing, is concerned with branding and to maintain
their USP of 'Handcrafted with pride in the USA'. Jerry Silistro, from sales, expressed his
concern for new resources to handle it, and to maintain their delivery to virtually ship always
on time. Ned Honester, the CFO, weighs in by signifying the importance to reach targets &
expand and how Cheryl's idea and the pace have helped create some of the best-
selling products earlier. He points out that - we need to move forward while considering all
the challenges faced.

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 2.Problem Statement

Cheryl is a fast-paced employee looking to lead by example and has the sense of
urgency in converting Bull's Eye into a customer, whilst delivering the organization's growth
& expansion target. She wants to achieve this by outsourcing production, hiring new award-
winning designers and recruit some fresh blood to speed up the process. Cheryl is focused on
the growth of the company to meet the board's target and by concentrating on the current
project. This tunnelled vision of hers to act immediately is not shared by her colleagues and
thus they are resistant to move out of their comfort zones and explore new territories without
analyzing & understanding its implications in the long run. They want to follow the same
ways that have been there in the company for a very long time. They recognize that
outsourcing is a good possibility, but only if they take ample time, that is a year, to consider
all the possible scenarios; especially the labour. Since generations of labour have been
working in the organization for a very long time, outsourcing could result in dis-alignment of
values & vision and thus lead to disturbance in production with degradation in the quality of
goods produced.
Thus, the overall problem statement would be CEO’s “too quick” attitude towards
change as it would include other problems as well. In other words, we can state that it is a
"Trust" issue.

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 3.Alternative Solutions

3.1 CHERYL BUILDING TRUST AMONG CO-WORKERS

Cheryl should build trust among her co-workers and peers in the organization.
Since there is a lot of mistrust placed on Cheryl, almost nobody is on the same
page with her. Everybody was enthusiastic when she joined, but with time and
ideas discussed, she lost her grip and was slowly boycotted in important decisions
by different operation heads. So, to move forward she must slowly build on
relationships with people in the organization and value their opinions and
viewpoints. They have been working in this organization for a long period of time
with their core values in center and focus. Thereby, Cheryl wants to focus on the
growth of the company but her perspective on it is to outsource everything and
has very little trust over already existing structure. She wants to get a new design
team, a new supplier, and outsource the production. Thus, she wants to
completely go out of the existing structure and get into untested waters. This
cannot be done alone and can only be accomplished when everyone is on the
same boat. Therefore, she must get the confidence and trust of all the department
heads and then present her ideas. Moving too fast will result in a conflict of
opinions and ineffective implementation.

3.2 LAUNCHING A PILOT PROJECT IN U.S. PRODUCTION HUB WHILE

INTRODUCING OUTSIDERS
Cheryl should discuss to launch a pilot project for mid-size market, in-house. The
project does not necessarily have to be a big one, but a relatively small-scale
production with a span of max 4 weeks could be implemented while introducing
some new key players in the process. This pilot experiment can be then accessed
and analysed for its resources, weaknesses, and strength while exploring the
operations where it went wrong and the corrective measures to be taken to fix
them. Thus, she could build trust among decision-makers and employees over
this course of operation and understand the working culture & speed of
implementing new processes in the already existing 94-year-old organization. If
this is successful, it may lead to future projects being procured.

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3.3 MEETING WITH THE LABOUR UNION and STARTING THE
3rd SHIFT FOR PRODUCTION
An organization’s culture is defined by the groups in the company, and groups
are made of employees. The Labor union is one of the most crucial elements of
the already working system. There are labor’s whose three generations have been
working in the organization, and thus they have had a long history with it. Taking
immediate actions towards outsourcing would result in weakening of trust among
labors and their enthusiasm would break. Cheryl had tried to lure them by giving
variable incentives, but that went in vain. Therefore, talking to the Labor Union
head & the labors and acknowledging their opinions would lead to increased
synergy. Labors are ready to take extra pay, provided there is a 3rd shift. This
could be implemented immediately with rotational shifts, thereby increasing
production significantly, and thus probably achieving Bull's Eye target
production.

3.4 CHANGING CHERYL’S LEADERSHIP STYLE

Cheryl's style of working - leading by example, too quick attitude and tunnelled
focus on converting a prospective client could be intimidating for some of her
colleagues. She should be acceptable and open to ideas while being inspirational
and persuasive. Thus, she needs to be more communicative in terms of ideas and
implementations proposed. She has been presenting inputs in terms of her vision,
and thus needs to re-phrase it as our vision while considering all the core values
that this organization has been built upon. Thus, giving her cross training would
help the organization in the long run.

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 4.Evaluation Criteria

To select the best possible solution for the case, the proper evaluation criteria is to be
chosen. They are as following:

4.1 Growth Rate

The most important factor for any company is its growth, in line with the Board of
Directors. The company needs to prosper in all senses- Expansion, Capital, Revenue.

4.2 Time
Time is an important criterion as there is a major clash between the time span hand-
picked by Cheryl and the other managers.

4.3 Resources
The amount of resources available and the amount further required to meet a
requirement will define the rate at which production could continue. Improper
planning of resources could lead to huge losses incurred.

4.4 Outsourcing
It has its own pros and cons. By outsourcing, the production cost will reduce. It will
increase the capacity of manufacturing goods and help complete the contract. But on
the other hand, their brand value of being a manufacturing company from the USA
and the idea of Made in the USA would deplete. Also, the trade union contract which
is up in nine months will be under threat of outsourcing. Moreover, hiring people
from another firm might not be a well-accepted and an appreciated idea.

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 5.Evaluation of Options

Based on the evaluation criteria, we can say that the solutions presented above have the
following analysis:

S. No. Solutions Growth Rate Time Resources Outsourcing

CHERYL BUILDING
5.1 TRUST AMONG CO- HIGH HIGH MODERATE MODERATE
WORKERS

LAUNCHING A PILOT
PROJECT IN U.S.
5.2 PRODUCTION MODERATE HIGH MODERATE LOW
HUB WHILE
INTRODUCING
OUTSIDERS

MEETING WITH THE

LABOUR
5.3 UNION and STARTING HIGH LOW HIGH NIL
THE 3rd SHIFT FOR
PRODUCTION

5.4 CHANGING CHERYL’S MODERATE MODERATE LOW NIL

LEADERSHIP STYLE

(Table 1)

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 6.Recommendation

We would suggest option 1 as a solution for this case analysis, i.e., to build trust
among her co-workers. Since her colleagues are apprehensive of her viewpoints and the
direction she wants to advance, she should take a step back, and work on developing trust
among her peers to fully understand the significance & importance of the values on which
this organization is based upon. She cannot achieve the board targets alone and thus need
people's support. This could be only done when her colleagues are satisfied and have
confidence in her decision-making skills. Thus, building a trustworthy relationship with the
key stakeholders in the organization should be her primary aim for the time being. Winning
people slowly, one by one, would not result in a complete vote showdown as opposed to the
previous case.

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 7.Implementation Plan

7.1 Interact with each of the department heads and key people involved 1-on-1 and try to
know them personally.
7.2 Develop Goodwill with each of them.
7.3 Convey the importance of penetrating the mid-tier segment in expanding & growth of
the company.
7.4 Meet with the Labour union and head to understand their point of view and the motive
that drives them. In the process, convey the future prospect of Bull's eye, and how
important it is to produce high-quality products on time.
7.5 Reach on an agreement to implement the 3rd shift to increase production.
7.6 Establish a 2-way communication with open dialogue to instil trust among employees
at all levels.
7.7 Cross train labours to increase their skill level, and thereby increasing Cheryl's
impression and respect on them.
7.8 Consult with top-level managers to hire new people (Pat & Cecil) and honour their
opinions.
7.9 Evaluate the team's performance and reward them accordingly in terms
monetary/non-monetary benefits.

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 8.Contingency Plan

To meet the immediate requirements in case the recommendation fails, the

organization should launch a pilot project on a very small scale, in-house. They could hire
outsiders for some of the operations, and then mix them with the already existing team so as
to have better synergy among them. This should be led by Cheryl in accordance with the
inputs from her colleagues. Assessing the various factors of this model, they could come up
with factors on why it failed, weaknesses and strengths, and then build upon their weaknesses
to have a better sustainable model.

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 9.List of References

1. Understanding Situation Analysis. Retrieved from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/situation-analysis.html

2. Understanding Problem Statement. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_statement

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