Grayson Chemical Case

CASE STUDY: Grayson Chemical

The Grayson Chemical Company manufactures industrial chemicals for sale to other industrial companies. According to Brown (2011) the company has become increasingly stagnant and has had declining earnings and sales. The company has steadily lost market standing and profitability. The board finally decided to get some new blood and hired Tom Baker who had made his former company an industry leader. Baker went to the board to develop a strategy about how he should proceed. The board was not on one accord so now Baker has a challenge deciding how to go about moving the company into a leadership position in the industry.

Problems

Macro- Grayson lost its competitive edge. It has become stagnant and market standing in the industry has decreased. The management at Grayson is resistant to change. They feel that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. The problem is that it is broke and really needs fixing.

Micro- Incompetent managers were being promoted simply because they were next in line. Another problem is that when he polled the board to gage the direction in which he should go, he got a variety of answers. The board isn't even on one accord. There is no unity, so there is no direction.

Causes

Deimler and Reeves (2011) believe that the main cause of the problems at Grayson is the lack of flexibility and adoptability by the organization to new changes. Because of this philosophy, the company has failed to stay abreast of new ideas and fallen far behind the competition. The board doesn't have any unity and can't agree on issues because the organization is disorganized and has no direction.

Systems Affected

The reliance by the company on old traditional ways of doing things has affected almost every aspect of the organization. It has become part of