Blockbuster is the the world’s largest video rental company. The past few years have not been good ones for Blockbuster, because they have posted losses in 9 of the past 11 years, closed many stores and lost many customers to Netflix. One of the most important changes that Blockbuster did in order to remain competitive was to hire a new CEO, James W. Keyes who faced a similar situation as the former CEO of 7-eleven Stores. Who after facing bankruptcy in 1990 his company achieved 26 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and a profit of 106 million in 2004 , by relying on numbers by implementing the quantitative approach.
Keyes is now using the same method with Blockbuster. Case Questions: 1. Mr. Keyes obviously is a big fan of the quantitative approach . How might principles of scientific management be useful to Blockbuster? By using the principles of scientific management Blockbuster can improve production efficiently and thus can increase their ability to satisfy customer need so they will have a competitive advantage and can re-open their stores and have profit instead of lost. 2. How might knowledge of organizational behavior help the company’s frontline store supervisor manage their employees?
Would Mr. Keyes and other top managers need to understand OB? Why or Why not? Organizational behavior is the field of study that researches the actions of the people at work, so by knowing this you know your employees’ behavior and thus you know how you have to deal with each of them so you also know how to manage them better. Yes they would, because it is very useful to know about your employees and specially their behavior, because the success of a company starts by the people in the company.
4. Based on information from Blockbuster’s website, what values does this company embrace that might be important for successful organizations in the twenty-first century? They have a great value for their employees and their community they utilize corporate and employee resources and talents to benefit the communities they serve ,and they also focus on fun teamwork and on providing exceptional customer service. And they also make sure to creating and maintaining an environment based on respect and inclusion for all of our employees and customers.
Diversity is an integral part of our business, from customer satisfaction and workforce development, to supplier relationships and community involvement. We are dedicated to creating and maintaining an environment based on respect and inclusion for all of our employees and customers. 5. What do you think Mr. Keyes’s quote (last sentence in last paragraph) is saying? Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Explain. I think what Mr. Keyes is saying is that it doesn’t matter what kind of product or service you are specialized in selling, if you have the ability to understand the needs of customers and satisfy those needs in a way that is better and different from the competitors. I agree with his statement, because the most important thing for any kind of company/retail are the customers, and the goal of every company/retail is to create value for customers and build strong customer relationship to capture values from customers in return.
