Case Study Analysis of Panda Bear Toys, Caribou Toys and Grizzly Bear Toys
Abstract
Starting from going through respective business background then to the challenges faced, and finally recommended HR practices to improve corporate effectiveness, competiveness and sustainability, this analysis has addressed aforementioned of following 3 toy companies: Panda Bear Toys, Caribou Toys and Grizzly Bear Toys. With limited background information provided, several studies have been treated as reference in this analysis, especially the studies of Gubman (1995) and Sheppeck & Militello (2000),describing the relationship between corporate value disciplines and corporate strategies. Value discipline is a framework to describe organizations’ marketplace strategies, and company with different value discipline has its own business goals and culture. With reference to the information provided, the value discipline of Panda Bear, Caribou and Grizzly Bear were identified. They are Product Leadership, Customer Intimacy and Operational Excellence respectively. In addition, macro environment, Toys industry trends and statistics from European Commission (2012)and Toy Industry Association (2012), were taken into consideration throughout the whole analysis.
Panda Bear Toys – Company Background and Challenges Faced
It is a family-run business which has been producing high-quality and expensive nostalgic wooden toys for over 50 years. The products, targeting at both children and parents, are distributed via up-market retailers and department stores. It strives to continually improve the quality of its existing products and does not focus greatly on developing new product. The business strategy of it is to sustain its competitive advantage by differentiating itself in terms of high product quality, superior customer services and unique product feature which is ‘nostalgic’ focus. Its challenges include how to maintain the high quality of products and services: how to source and retain the skilled labor, e.g. craftsmen, how to expand production capacity to
Starting from going through respective business background then to the challenges faced, and finally recommended HR practices to improve corporate effectiveness, competiveness and sustainability, this analysis has addressed aforementioned of following 3 toy companies: Panda Bear Toys, Caribou Toys and Grizzly Bear Toys. With limited background information provided, several studies have been treated as reference in this analysis, especially the studies of Gubman (1995) and Sheppeck & Militello (2000),describing the relationship between corporate value disciplines and corporate strategies. Value discipline is a framework to describe organizations’ marketplace strategies, and company with different value discipline has its own business goals and culture. With reference to the information provided, the value discipline of Panda Bear, Caribou and Grizzly Bear were identified. They are Product Leadership, Customer Intimacy and Operational Excellence respectively. In addition, macro environment, Toys industry trends and statistics from European Commission (2012)and Toy Industry Association (2012), were taken into consideration throughout the whole analysis.
Panda Bear Toys – Company Background and Challenges Faced
It is a family-run business which has been producing high-quality and expensive nostalgic wooden toys for over 50 years. The products, targeting at both children and parents, are distributed via up-market retailers and department stores. It strives to continually improve the quality of its existing products and does not focus greatly on developing new product. The business strategy of it is to sustain its competitive advantage by differentiating itself in terms of high product quality, superior customer services and unique product feature which is ‘nostalgic’ focus. Its challenges include how to maintain the high quality of products and services: how to source and retain the skilled labor, e.g. craftsmen, how to expand production capacity to
References: European Commission (2012). Statistics on Toys. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/toys/statistics/ Gene Siciliano. (2009). The family-run business and succession planning. Army/Navy Store & Outdoor Merchandiser, 64(5), 16 Gubman, E. L. (1995). Aligning people strategies with customer value. Compensation & Benefits Review, 27(1), 15-22. doi: 10.1177/088636879502700103 Sheppeck, M. A., &Militello, J. (2000).Strategic HR configurations and organizational performance. Human Resource Management, 39(1), 5-16. Toy Industry Association (2012).Economic Data & Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Industry_Statistics