Scenario: Kelly Mattison, a Computer Science college graduate, and Li Huang, an Interior Design college graduate, began a small business together eleven years ago. Their company, Green Life Furniture, found profitability quickly with its simplistic yet elegant office furniture designs featuring sustainably sourced materials. Specialized software developed by Kelly allows customers to select customized features and visualize their personalized designs before placing orders. This unique process ensures that the pieces of office furniture fit the customer’s specific needs. Quality control is a strength of Green Life Furniture. Approximately 60% of the product is manufactured in Taiwan, with the other 40% produced near Bozeman, Montana. Their target market is businesses with 15-50 office employees in the USA and Canada. The pricing is 10-25% higher than traditional office furniture. Kelly and Li have recently considered creating a new line of home-use office furniture. This line would be sold through various retailers, including big-box and office supply stores (ex. Costco and Office Max). The home-use product line would be compact, highly durable, and sustainably sourced. This furniture would not offer customizability as the current line does. Instead, Green Life would limit the number of product configurations offered to fit the retail store business model better. The new product line would be manufactured 100% in Taiwan to keep costs down and meet the retailers’ competitive prices. Kelly and Li need help understanding how this additional product line will change their business overall. They have brought you in as a business advisor. They have provided you with access to all employees and managers and the financial statements for the past three years. Instructions: After reviewing Green Life Furniture’s information, prepare a written summary of your findings related to the following topics to help them assess the current situation and how an added product line may affect the business. Identify and describe one or more internal stakeholder groups that will be impacted by adding the new product line. Include a description of the potential positive and negative impacts to this group. Identify and describe two or more stakeholders in the external task environment that will be impacted by adding the new product line. Include a description of the potential positive and negative impacts to this group. Describe the four functions of management. Explain how each of the functions is vital to business management. Identify what changes need to be considered related to each function if the company goes ahead with the retail store. (For example, related to the planning function, there could be the need to review/change the current mission statement.) Describe the significance of each change identified. (e.g., how it impacts other areas, whether costly, labor-intensive, etc.) Conclude by briefly summarizing your overall findings and insights regarding the potential impact of the new home-use office furniture line on Green Life Furniture. Include a call to action that encourages the owners to take the next step you recommend. (e.g., go ahead with the new line, specific further analysis, gather exact data, etc.)
