Nordstrom Case Study Essay Example for Free

Nordstrom Case Study EssayAnswer 1 In the 1990s, Nordstrom had six-spot co-presidents who were six cousins belonging to the familys fourth generation. All six cousins took decisions jointly on major issues concerning the business. Thus, it was incumbent that all six co-presidents agree on a decision or a plan for it to be acted upon. This was quite a difficult task as all of them often had differing opinions. Due to this many decisions were detain or met with resistance by matchless or the other member. These six co-presidents were compared to a multi-headed snake in the grass. Dismantling the hydra would prevent conflicts on future decisions and would also enable decisions to be taken quickly. It give also invest the ownership for the decisions onto one person. It will also enable a family member to be groomed for perchance leading the company one day. The possible disadvantages of dismantling the hydra is that the six co-presidents could have all contributed their fello wship and experience and have arrived at a better more informed decision. If equal power is vested in six people at the surmount, it enables them to share the workload.Answer 2 Creating departments around products will create unconditional profit and loss units for each product. The members of each department will have expertness on their products. They will know how to procure those products and effective sales and marketing techniques to sell those products better. This will narrow down their nidus and they will concentrate only on the product that they are selling and will authorize expertise on how to sell it better(p). The possible disadvantages of creating departments around products are that the employees will not have a perform picture of the entire business and where they stand. If in future, they are moved to another department, they will have to gain information about that product from scratch.Answer 3 The following changes prompted the move from mechanistic to orga nic organization. In the 1990s, the company met with stiff competition from its competitors. Its sales began to plateau. Its net income fell 2% and sales edged up only 1.9%. In the stores that had been open for a year, its sales dipped 1.1% after a 2.6% drop the antecedent year. Nordstroms shares fell from a 1999 high of 44 3/16 to under 20 in February. The customers and outsiders complained that top executives spent more time in seeking consensus of all co-presidents on issues and this was a reason for Nordstrom be slow in presenting new fashions for sales.Answer 4 In designing an organization to manage change, an supernumerary structural change that Mr. Whitacre should consider is to start a competition among the departments. In this quarterly competition, the department that has the dress hat sales and profits should be the winner and its members should be given some incentives. They should be asked to share the best practices with the other departments in order to help them manage change better. Employees should be rotated regularly from one department to another.