Hausser Food
[1]
Hausser Foods is clearly experiencing a decline in sales growth due mostly to competition and a decline in population growth. The case focuses mostly on the southeast sales region; however the decline in sales growth is affecting the entire company. The lack of new ideas by the sales force is primarily due to a lack of reflective and adequate encouragement from HDQ as well as a fear or concern that such new ideas for sales revenue might actually burden the sales force in the following year through increased sales targets.
In particular, the Florida HFP sales found a great revenue opportunity with elderly clientele. They noticed a clear demand for baby food and were able to utilize this new and growing market to help meet and exceed their sales targets each term. The Florida team was incredibly cooperative with each other and all had a similar goal of exceeding plan by only 10%. They worried that anything beyond that would cause an increase in their sales targets in the following year which would bring undue burden on them the following year. They also never communicated this new market segment to HDQ because they felt they would get inadequate recognition for it. Daniels’s concept of “perception error” also applies to HFP. Most companies believe that employees will respond positively to any form of incentives. However Daniels notes that not all forms of incentives provide the same motivation for employees, if any. In this case, HFP salesmen Alby Siegel states, “$500 for your idea. That amount of money is an insult…” It is apparent that Alby does not value $500 for a good idea, and decides to keep his idea from corporate. Another example of why the group was reluctant to provide new ideas and suggestions ties directly to the idea of negative reinforcement. Daniels mentions that negative reinforcement occurs when employees give a level or performance that is just enough to get by. The Florida sales team felt if they contributed new ideas that helped
Hausser Foods is clearly experiencing a decline in sales growth due mostly to competition and a decline in population growth. The case focuses mostly on the southeast sales region; however the decline in sales growth is affecting the entire company. The lack of new ideas by the sales force is primarily due to a lack of reflective and adequate encouragement from HDQ as well as a fear or concern that such new ideas for sales revenue might actually burden the sales force in the following year through increased sales targets.
In particular, the Florida HFP sales found a great revenue opportunity with elderly clientele. They noticed a clear demand for baby food and were able to utilize this new and growing market to help meet and exceed their sales targets each term. The Florida team was incredibly cooperative with each other and all had a similar goal of exceeding plan by only 10%. They worried that anything beyond that would cause an increase in their sales targets in the following year which would bring undue burden on them the following year. They also never communicated this new market segment to HDQ because they felt they would get inadequate recognition for it. Daniels’s concept of “perception error” also applies to HFP. Most companies believe that employees will respond positively to any form of incentives. However Daniels notes that not all forms of incentives provide the same motivation for employees, if any. In this case, HFP salesmen Alby Siegel states, “$500 for your idea. That amount of money is an insult…” It is apparent that Alby does not value $500 for a good idea, and decides to keep his idea from corporate. Another example of why the group was reluctant to provide new ideas and suggestions ties directly to the idea of negative reinforcement. Daniels mentions that negative reinforcement occurs when employees give a level or performance that is just enough to get by. The Florida sales team felt if they contributed new ideas that helped