A French Bakery Chain Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A French Bakery Chain - Case Study Example They strongly believed that acquisition would help them maintain steady advantage without incurring extra cost on the expansion of business on a stand-alone basis. The LPB stores had decentralized working and functioned as stand-alone stores which it easy for the Fields to amalgamate the administration within its core functioning process. It was for this reason that merely after a month of acquiring LPB, Fields reduced the subsidiary administrative staff from 53 to three. Many of their functions like accounting, finance, human resource, training etc. were merged with that of the Fields’ company that resulted in redundancy of jobs in LPB. The main reason for the action was that Mrs. fields Cookies followed mechanistic approach and heavily used technology within its administrative process to streamline sales and production. While Fields appreciated empowerment of its managers and workforce, they also used technology extensively in their production processes to predict and improve sales. The huge hierarchy of employees in LPB was therefore not suitable for the efficient delivery of Fields’ goals and daily targets. Hence, they could o nly retain two persons in operations and one from their R&D section. As LPB Manager, I believe that the strategy of Fields is not right. LPB has gained considerable credibility in the area of baked products, coffee, and sandwich. The huge size of LPB was a significant factor that had prompted Fields to acquire it. The LPB products and services could offer the huge scope of expansion of interests of Fields as they had already created a niche market for their cookies. The acquisition had provided them with the opportunity to introduce their specialty cookies in the European market. The combination outlet could serve as a major facilitating platform for their business with a wide scope of opportunities for improved revenues. In such a scenario of a win-win situation, the redundancy was neither necessary nor morally correct decision.