Peter Browning's White Cap Continental

850 Words2 Pages

The main problem that Peter Browning faces with regards to White Cap Continental is how to revitalize and make positive changes to White Cap’s declining market and unmotivated management without disrupting the family-oriented traditions of White Cap and without damaging the image of White Cap. The main root causes are lack of intrinsic motivation from management, the lack of change due to keeping stakeholders happy, lack of creativity, and how White Cap Continental is run. To make positive change to White Cap Continental, Browning should, in the short-term, motivate the managers such as Jim Stark and Joe Green, who will in return motivate their subordinates, and implement change while keeping the White Cap traditions alive. In the long term, …show more content…

Director of marketing, Jim Stark has tense relations with his marketing and sales team and therefore does not push for them to develop new ideas to help White Cap become more up to date with their products. Tom Green, manager of human resources, was found to be delegating jobs that he should be taking care of. This lack of intrinsic motivation feeds all the way down the corporate ladder causing White Cap to fall behind their competitors.
• The second root cause is answering how to keep the stakeholders happy. There are many people involved in stakeholders and many people invested in White Cap Continental. These people include: the investors, the community, the employees, Jim Stark, Tom Green, Dick Hofman, Art Lawson, Bob White, and all the rest of the management of White Cap Continental and Continental Group, Inc. All these people have an opinion on what Browning should do. Browning must keep all their best interests in mind when making a decision.
• The third root cause is a lack of creativity. White Cap Continental has been selling the same products and running business the same way for years. Their R&D and full service have become common and mundane to their customers. Their lack of creativity in products and unwillingness to branch out is hurting …show more content…

To do this Browning should sit down with Stark and talk about different ways to motivate his marketing team. This will motivate him and in turn motivate his team. To motivate the marketing team Browning and Stark should use job enrichment. When the marketing team creates a successful way to market they should be rewarded for it. This way Stark was better relations with his team and Browning keeps Stark’s boss happy by not firing him. Browning also needs to motivate Tom Green. In order to keep the stakeholders happy, Browning should sit down and talk to him about his job. If a simple conversation cannot solve the problem, then Green should be let go. Browning should also prepare the employees for change. To do this, Browning should keep the traditions set in place by the Whites while also implementing change such as price slashing. Browning should also hold a company lunch, just like Mrs. W.P. White did, and during that lunch talk about the long-term plans for White Cap with a question and answer at the end. This way the employees will have familiarity but also be prepared for change with the option to express concerns after. The overall changes will solve the problem of White Cap employees being too comfortable in their

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