Managing People assignment.

a) Analyze the business environment and internal environment of

CCC.
Introduction:
Carter Cleaning Centers is a chain of laundry stores which was first opened in year 1995 and
consequently expanded to total of six laundry stores over a period from 1995 to the year 2004 by
its founder Jack Carter.
He was initially running his retail business as capital intensive, rather than labor intensive, by
once investing in machinery and having one unskilled employee. Consequently, due to unused
space in his laundry stores that were under lease and inconvenience of sending clothes to another
cleaner, which took most of his profit, Jack Carter decided to expand his business.
Each of the stores has its own on-site manager and about seven employees, including
cleaners/spotters and pressers. Jennifer Carter, Jack Carters daughter, after graduating from
university joined her fathers business as troubleshooter/consultant.
Annual revenues of CCC are calculated to be approximately $500,000.

Organizational Structure of CCC:

The following diagram (Diagram 1) illustrates the organizational chart of CCCs stores,
assuming that each of sixth store will have the same organizational chart, which also represents
the reporting relationship in CCC:

Jennifer
Carter

Jack Carter

Cleaner/Spot
ter
Presser

Manager
Cashier
Diagram 1

Business Environment of CCC:

To analyze business environment of an organization, the following components are to be
considered:

Competition/Industry Structure
Regulations
Technology
Market Trends
Economic trends

To analyze competition and industry structure, the focus should be on identifying who the key
competitors are, means by which they compete, what is the power within the industry, barriers
to entry, opportunities to acquire and merge with other organizations , critical success factors
within the industry and industry maturity level (Jeffrey A. Mello 2011)
From the information received about the CCC case, mainly Episode 3,we can assume that CCC
has several direct competitors, because it is mentioned that the turnover rate in their store as well
as in the stores of many of their competitors if high, and approaches to be 400%. From
employee perspective, and also according to Episode 3, they have no more than a high school
education and the market for them is very competitive.

According to episode 1, after operating his business for four years, Jack Carter decided to expand
the services that his company offered in the store and apply the strategy of related
diversification by adding new servicers that were related to his current business activities.
Consequently, after operating the stores with additional services, Jack C. was sufficiently
satisfied with their performance. From here, we can suggest that there are some privileges that
CCC owned since the performance and revenues were on high level. Privileges might be from
convenient location of the stores, more diverse specter of services or the quality of services.
In terms of barriers to entry, it is easy for new entrants to enter this industry, since the main
investment required to start this laundry business is capital (fixed assets) investment, in other
words, investment in machinery.
The second component is regulations (government regulations) .Critical issues that need to be
identified are the scope of laws and regulations that may impact what the organization does.
From the CCC case we are not provided with any information concerning government
regulations influencing CCC operations.
Third component is technological aspect. It looks into automation processes, new materials and
techniques for producing goods and services and improved products and special features. (Jeffrey
A. Mello 2011). As it was mentioned above, Jack C. expanded the scope of services that were
offered in CCCs store by adding new services that were available for customers. One of such
new implementation is clearly stated in episode 1. He included dry cleaning services into his set
of service offerings, so that the company receives its own interest of it and customers are more
satisfied with their offerings.
The forth component of business environment analysis is market trend analysis. It examines who
existing customers are, their needs and wants and how well satisfied they are. (Jeffrey A. Mello
2011). No information is provided in CCC case about customer satisfaction and special
requirements. But we can assume that, the target market of CCC are individuals staying nearby
the laundry stores and who are in need to use laundry services. Moreover, it can be assumed,
since the performance and profits of CCC are satisfactory enough for its CEO Jack Carter,that
target market is set clearly, needs and wants of customers are met and level of satisfaction is
reasonable. Otherwise, if CCC would not meet their customers needs and wants, leaving them
dissatisfied with the service they receive, there will be no increase in profits and eventually costs
of operating the business would not be covered.
The last, but not least component of business environment analysis is economic trends analysis.
It involves forecasting the conditions and direction of the national and local economy. This
component cannot be discussed as no information was provided in the case.

Internal Environment Analysis of CCC:

Internal analysis include such components as culture, capabilities and composition.

Cultural audits refer to the audits of the culture and quality of work life in an organization.
Lets answer some basic questions about CCC organizational culture in order to understand their
internal environment:

How do employees spend their time?

According to episode 5 some behaviors can be revealed, which do not directly connected with
the time management of employees, but this points might give us grounds on overall employees
feeling about the job they are assigned to do. First, employees in CCC are not satisfied with the
paying manner of their managers. They are paid on Tuesdays rather than on Fridays, due to
managers precaution that employees might not return to work on Monday. From this statement
we can assume that employees who joined CCC do not have a long-term intention to work in this
organization, which might lead to just wasting the working hours, waiting for the end of week to
claim their salary. This might become a serious issue directly affecting overall companys
performance. Another point, that is stated in episode 5 is that employees are not clear about the
procedures of applying leaves and medical leaves and moreover they are not even aware that
eating and smoking while working is prohibited by CCC. This statement tells us that employees
do not take their job and employment seriously. They treat their positions as something not
limited in actions, without policies and regulations.

How do they interact with each other?

According to episode 2, there is a serious issue of communication problems in CCC. It is stated

that one of the store manager was violating company policies and procedures. He was not aware
on what is his job and how to perform it. This is an obvious lack of communication between
CEO and staff, which leads to such violations. Another communication issue is that in CCC they
have no organized approach to interview job candidates.

What is their morale level?

Employee theft is one of the serious problems faced by CCC. According to episode 4, employee
theft is done not only in cash manner, but also using employees creative thinking in order to
make illegal personal profits. The CEO of CCC has taken certain steps to eliminate this problem,
but as it was revealed later, one employee found a way around it.

Are employees empowered?

According to episode 6, employees of CCC are not formally evaluated due to the companys
CEO, Jack being busy to handle all other issues that exist in the organization. However, it is
mentioned that he has provided feedback periodically during his swings through the stores if
things went right or wrong, he was never shy to tell his managers about store problems. His
daughter believes that more formal performance evaluation is required, which is true, because
systematic performance evaluation will not only help employees to identify their strengths and
weaknesses, but also will serve as a motivational factor. It can be assumed that employees in
CCC are not motivated and empowered by their respective CEO.

Second component of internal environment analysis is capabilities.

Capabilities are defined as integrated knowledge sets within an organization that distinguish it
from its competitors and deliver value to customers. Organizations can achieve a sustained
competitive advantage if they are able to meet the following criteria (George W. Bohlander, Scott
Snell)

The resources must be valuable. People are a source of competitive advantage when they
improve efficiency or effectiveness of the company. There is another serious problem
faced by CCC high turnover rate. Employees get hired and at the same time leave the
organization very fast. It is stated in episode 3. They have other goals when joining CCC,
and this goal is definitely not improving the efficiency or effectiveness of organization.
The resources must be rare. People are a source of competitive advantage when their
knowledge, skills and abilities are not equally available to competitors. With this criteria
CCC has weaknesses as well. As it is mentioned in episode 3, employees have no more
than school education, while the market for them is very competitive, meaning that there
lots of job seekers with the same educational level. We can assume that CCC employees
do not possess special knowledge, skills or abilities in order to get a competitive
advantage over its competitors. However, same situation exist among their direct
competitors, as it was stated that the turnover rate in this industry approaches 400%.
The resources must be difficult to imitate. People are a source of competitive advantage
when the capabilities and contributions of a firms employees cannot be copied by others.
This section can be referred to the section above.
The resources must be organized. People are a source of competitive advantage when
their talents can be combined and deployed to work on new assignments at a moments
notice. Since employees in CCC are not aware of general procedures and regulations,
according to episode 2 and 5, it can be assumed that employees in CCC are far from
being organized so as to handle new assignments at a moments notice.

The last, third component of Internal analysis is composition. A related element of internal
analysis for organizations that compete on capabilities is determining the composition of the
workforce. Managers need to determine whether people are available, internally or externally, to
execute an organizations strategy. George W. Bohlander, Scott Snell)
According to episode 3 Jack and Jennifer Carter are facing with a big issue: hiring good people.
Many employees do not stick long enough in the organization (Episode 6). It can be assumed that
their recruiting method is not efficient. Management cannot identify right people to occupy
positions in CCC. Therefore, CCC is weak on determining the composition of the workforce.