case study about : SOARING EAGLE SKATE COMPANY

Which are the three most relevant Best Practices of this Organization and Management Business Case? Please explain why? and analyze, and discuss in great detail .

case study story

As a child, Stan Eagle just knew he loved riding his skate- board and doing tricks. By the time he was a teenager, he was so proficient at the sport that he began entering pro- fessional contests and taking home prize money. By his twenties, Eagle was so successful and popular that he could make skateboarding his career. A skateboard maker spon- sored him in competitions and demonstrations around the world.

The sponsorship and prize money paid enough to support him for several years. But then interest in the sport waned, and Eagle knew he would have to take his business in new directions. He believed skateboarding would return to popularity, so he decided to launch into designing, building, and selling skateboards under his own brand. To finance Soaring Eagle Skate Company, he pooled his own personal savings with money from a friend, Pete Williams, and came up with $75,000. Sure enough, new young skaters began snapping up the skate- boards, attracted in part by the products association with a star.

As the company prospered, Eagle considered ideas for expansion. Another friend had designed a line of clothing he thought would appeal to Eagles skateboarding fans, and Eagles name on the product would lend it credibility. At the friends urging, Eagle branched out into clothing for skateboarders. However, he discovered that the busi- ness of shorts and shirts is far different from the business

of sports equipment. The price markups were tiny, and the sales channels were entirely different. Three years into the expansion, Soaring Eagle had invested millions of dollars in the line but was still losing money. Eagle decided to sell off that part of the business to a clothing company and cut his losses.

Soon after that experiment, cofounder Williams pro- posed another idea: They should begin selling other types of sports equipmentinline roller skates and ice skates. Selling equipment for more kinds of sports would produce more growth than the company could obtain by focusing on just one sport. Eagle was doubtful. He was consid- ered one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about skateboarding. He knew nothing about inline skat- ing and ice skating. Eagle argued that the company would be better off focusing on the sport in which it offered the most expertise. Surely there were ways to seek growth within that sportor at least to avoid the losses that came from investing in industries in which the company lacked experience.

Williams continued to press Eagle to try his idea. He pointed out that unless the company took some risks and expanded into new areas, there was little hope that Williams and Eagle could continue to earn much of a return on the money they had invested. Eagle was troubled. The attempt at clothing delivered, he thought, a message that they needed to be careful about expansion. But he

seemed unable to persuade Williams to accept his point of view. He could go along with Williams and take the chance of losing money again, or he could use money he had earned from his business to buy Williamss ownership share in the company and then continue running Soaring Eagle on his own. Managerial Decision Making Chapter 3 99 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS How do the characteristics of management decisions uncertainty, risk, conflict, and lack of structureaffect the decision facing Stan Eagle? What steps can Eagle take to increase the likelihood of making the best decision in this situation?

Identification of Key Organization and Management Critical Issues and Problems

Analysis of Key Organization and Management Critical Issues and Problems

Identification of Alternatives for each Key Organization and Management Critical Issues and Problems