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Background
Slim Gyms owns and operates six health and fitness clubs in Manhattan, New York. The clubs aim to appeal to people of all ages and income groups.
All the clubs have a large gymnasium, with the latest equipment, an aerobics studio, a solarium, a swimming pool, sun decks, a café, bar and clubroom. There are always several fitness instructors on hand to advise people and provide them with personalized fitness programs. A wide range of aerobic and relaxation classes run throughout the day and during the evening. The clubs try to create a friendly atmosphere, organizing numerous social activities to bring members together. Three of the clubs are located in areas where large numbers of Spanish, Chinese and Italians live. Slim Gyms recently advertised for a General Manager.
Slim Gyms
General Manager - required for our chain of Health and Leisure Clubs
*Salary negotiable
*Excellent benefits package
The job
*Developing a customer-oriented culture in the organization in the clubs
*Increasing the revenue and profits of the six clubs in Manhattan
*Exploiting new business opportunities
*Liaising with and motivating our team of managers and their staff
*Contributing to marketing plans and strategies
The person
*Dynamic, enthusiastic, flexible
*A strong interest in health and fitness
*A good track record in previous jobs
*The ability to work with people from different cultural backgrounds
*Outstanding communication skills
*A flair for new ideas and sound organizational skills
Task
You are directors of Slim Gyms. Study the file cards on the four short-listed candidates. Hold a meeting to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each person. Try to agree on who seems to be the best candidate for the job.
Then listen to the interview extracts with each of the candidates and come to the final decision on who should get the job.
Applicants:
1. Name: Isabella Rosetti Age: 35
Marital Status: Single
Education: Princeton University – Master’s degree in Business Administration
(MBA)
Experience: Advertising agency for the last eight years. Important position liaising with clients and managing a team of ten people. Previously worked as Sales Manager in a department store. (Chinatown area)
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Outstanding achievement: Got a contract with a major advertiser Skills:. Fluent Italian, judo expert, paints.
Personality/appearance: Well-dressed and self-confident. Says she is usually successful when she wants to be. Thinks women are better managers than men: ”They listen more and use their intuition to solve problems”.
Comments: Positive reference, but employer suggested she sometimes took days off work with no good reason. Several good ideas for increasing revenue, e.g. by setting up beauty centers in our clubs. Didn’t mention the cost of doing this! Above average score on our aptitude test.
2. Name: Michael Bolen Age: 36
Marital Status: Married, with three children
Education: Columbia University, Master’s degree in Business Administration
Experience: Four years with international sports goods manufacturer – Marketing Director. Previous experience with a variety of firms (sales, administration). Wants to work for a smaller organization.
Outstanding achievement: Successful product launch in previous job. Skills: Numerate and good with computers. Only a few words of Spanish.
Personality/appearance: Forceful, determined, with strong views. Likes ‘to keep his distance’ from people until he knows them well. According to the letter of reference, ‘Some women find him too assertive and cold’.
Comments: Unhappy in present position. He has often changed jobs. Aptitude test – average score.
3.Name: Bob Wills
Age: 40
Marital Status: single.
Education: Twenty years in US army – Physical Fitness Instructor. Travelled all over the world. Left army tree years ago. Has taken courses in marketing, management and computing. Over the last two years has run a fitness center in Lower Manhattan very successfully.
Outstanding achievement: Two decorations for bravery.
Skills: Speaks Spanish fluently (his girlfriend is Puerto Rican). Is a successful disc jockey in a downtown club.
Personality/appearance: Correctly dressed in a dark suit, but has tattoos. Sociable, with a lot of friends. Enjoys parties and dancing.
Comments: Believes you should always stick to the rules. Values honesty and reliability. Can be quick-tempered if people are not doing their best. Very enthusiastic with many good ideas. High score on aptitude test
4.Name: Stephani Grant
Age: 30
Marital Status: married, no children.
Education: New York University – BCs (Bachelor of Sciences) in Business Administration.
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Experience: Former swimming champion. Competed at Olympic Games. For last six years, highly successful presenter (children and sports programs).
Outstanding achievement: Voted Top Sports Personality on a cable TV channel four years ago.
Skills: Exceptional sportswoman.
Personality/appearance: Beautiful, clever and successful. Good sense of humor. On television, handles people well. Presents an image of a caring, sympathetic person.
Comments: ‘She’ll do anything to get what she wants,’ wrote one journalist. At 24, she gave up competitive swimming, following rumors of drug-taking. Aptitude test – above average.
Words to remember:
ongoing process – непрерывный процесс
to guide the firm – осуществлять руководство компанией manufacturing facilities – производственные мощности financial assets – финансовые средства
capabilities – возможности expertise – знания
to specify objective – (точно) определить цель to specify order – оговорить заказ
firm’s revenues – доходы компании
tactical (functional) planning – функциональное планирование integrated activity – комплексная деятельность
operational planning – операционное планирование
mission statement – заявление о целях, программное заявление competitive advantage – конкурентное преимущество
to outperform competition – опередить конкурентов
to implement plans – выполнять планы, претворять планы в жизнь distinctive competency – отличительная компетенция (квалификация) to decree – постановить, издать указ
to contribute to success – способствовать (содействовать) успеху differential benefit – отличительная выгода
to pay a premium – платить надбавку
brand preference – предпочтение к марке (марочному товару) to claim – утверждать
day-to-day execution – повседневное выполнение overall goal (objective) – общая цель
product benefit – выгода от товара, выгода, присущая товару self-contained division – самодостаточные подразделения strategic business units – бизнес-единица
to authorize – разрешить; уполномочить; санкционировать to allocate resources – распределять ресурсы
bargaining power – рыночная власть, позволяющая отстаивать свои интересы
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Starting up
Read the following statement about planning and formulate your own definition of its benefits.
Benefits of not planning:
“The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, and is not preceded by a period of worry and depression”
John Perton – Boston College
Reading “Plan Well and Prosper”
1.You will read the text about different stages of planning and their importance for the successful operation of an enterprise. Read it through and speak on it.
Whether a firm is a major motorcycle manufacturer or a tiny, family-run motorcycle repair shop, planning for the future is a key to prosperity. Planning is an ongoing process of making decisions that guide the firm both in the short and long term periods.
Strategic planning is the managerial decision process that matches the organization’s resources (such as its manufacturing facilities, financial assets, and skilled workforce) and capabilities (the things it is able to do well because of its expertise and experience) to its market opportunities for long-term growth. In a strategic plan, top management, usually the chief executive officer (CEO), president, and other top executives, define the firm’s purpose and specify what the firm hopes to achieve over the next five or so years. For example, a firm’s strategic plan may set a goal of increasing the firm’s revenues by 10 or even 20 percent in the next five years.
Tactical planning (sometimes called functional planning) is done by middle-level managers – the vice presidents or department directors. Tactical planning typically includes both a broad five-year plan to support the firm’s strategic plan and a detailed annual plan for the coming year.
First-line or lower-level managers (a benefit manager, a safety director, a wage and salary manager in the human resource department, a quality control manager, a marketing communications manager, a sales manager) are responsible for a third level of planning, operational planning, which focuses on the day-to-day execution of the tactical plans.
Business planning is an integrated activity. It means that all the organization’s strategic, tactical and operational plans work together.
In the first stage of strategic planning, a firm’s top executives define the mission of the organization, top management’s vision of why the firm exists, how it is different from other firms, and the place in the market it wants to take. Decision making in the strategic planning stage revolves around such “soul-searching” questions as: What business are we in? What customers should we serve? What kinds of products and benefits can we create for them? How should we develop the firm’s capabilities and focus on its efforts? In many firms, the answers to questions such as these become the lead items in the organization’s strategic plan. They become part of a mission statement, a formal statement that describes the organization’s overall purpose and what it hopes to achieve in terms of its customers, products, and resources.
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Before deciding strategies, the planners have to look at the company’s present performance – internal environment, and at any external factors which might affect its future. To do this, they carry out an analysis, sometimes called a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). First, the organization examines its current performance, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. It looks at performance indicators like market share, sales revenue, output and productivity. It also examines its resourcesfinancial, human, products and facilities. For example, a department store chain may have stores in good locations – a strength – but sales revenue per employee may be low – a weakness. Next, the company looks at external factors from the point of view of opportunities and threats. It is trying to assess technological, economic and political trends in the markets where it is competing. It also examines the activities of competitors. The department store chain, for example, may see the opportunity to increase profits by providing financial services to customers. On the other hand, increasing competition may be a threat to its very existence.
Having completed the SWOT analysis, the company can now evaluate its objectives and perhaps work out new ones. They will ask themselves questions such as: Are we producing the right product? What growth rate should we aim at in the next five years? Which new markets should we break into?
The remaining task is to develop appropriate strategies to achieve the objectives. The organization decides what actions it will take and how it will provide the resources to support those actions. One strategy may be to build a new factory to increase production capacity. To finance this, the company may develop another strategy - the issuing of new shares to the public.
Company planning and strategic decision-making are key activities of top management. Once they have been carried out, objectives and targets can be set at low levels in the organization.
The underlying goal of all marketing strategies and plans is to create a competitive advantage for the firm, i.e. to take what the company does really well and outperform the competition, thereby providing customers with a benefit the competition can’t. A competitive advantage gives consumers a reason to choose one product over another again and again.
How can a competitive advantage be created?
The first step is to identify a firm’s distinctive competency, a firm’s capability that is superior to that of its competition. For example, Coca-Cola’s success in global markets - Coke has 50 percent of the world’s soft-drink business - is related to its distinctive competencies in distribution and marketing communications. Coke’s distribution system got a jump on the competition during World War II, when the firm decreed that every soldier would have access to a five-cent Coke. The US government liked the morale-building effort, and assisted Coke in building 64 overseas bottling plants. Coke’s skillful marketing communications program (television commercials) is another distinctive competency that has contributed to its global success.
The second step in creating a competitive advantage is to turn a distinctive competency into a differential benefit. Differential benefits set products apart from competitors’ products by providing something unique that customers want. Differential benefits provide reasons for customers to pay a premium for a firm’s products and exhibit a strong brand preference.