Deborah Black, who is the CEO of MJB Service company is heading an organization that is in serious need of reorganization. In summary, her company has grown from 10 employees to 1,100 in four years, and offers business office computer installation, service and training to a market that covers three states -- California, Nevada and Arizona. The MJB span of management includes 17 managers, with all of the decisions apparently being passed up to her. Currently, the company is organized along functional lines. This paper will discuss the steps she should take to bring her company in line with reasonable operational theories. An added challenge is that any reorganization must not affect the response time of three hours.
We are told from the case that the three revenue streams come from installing (and selling, we can assume) business computers, servicing them and training employees in their use. None of these three revenue streams is particularly high-margin and therefore, the costs must be carefully controlled. The three business activities that MJB performs are also done by numerous other companies, and, we can assume, have stronger market position than MJB.
This situation of competitive pressures being exerted on the primary revenue streams can be corrected by making each of the three business channels separate profit centers (Fleming, 1997). This would involve taking a careful look at the costs and profits of each of the three areas, and forcing them to stand on their own.
The structure of the company should be decentralized into areas that have strong decision making levels assigned to them. In effect, given today's rapid development of technology, MJB is much like a multi-national corporation, with the only difference being that the offices are in states rather than countries.
The astounding adoption rate of computers by busines
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