Chad's Creative Concepts

Chad Thomas has a relatively successful wood furniture business. Originally, his company began making furniture based on custom customer orders. As his company matured the company branched out and began making standard furniture. As such, this decision to branch out into the ‘ready to buy’ sector has put additional pressure on the company. Specifically, the pressure on the production line to trade-off between low-profit, high demand products versus the high-profit, low demand products. Inevitably, Mr. Thomas is now reviewing the decisions he has made. Through this paper we will explore in detail the decisions Mr. Thomas has to makes daily and over the long run to ensure his company’s operations are running effectively. Next, how sales and marketing are affecting the operations of the company. Thirdly, how the decision to produce standard furniture affect the company’s financial structure. Lastly, what alternatives or decisions Mr. Thomas could have made to avoid some of the problems the company now faces.

Running a company is daily task that requires a great amount of judgment to make an informed decision (Froeb, McCann, & Shor, 2014). This assumption is based on my own years of experience leading Marines in combat. There is a direct correlation between leading Marines and running a business: the decisions you make today have lasting impacts tomorrow. For Mr. Thomas this is no less a reality when deciding to branch out into the standard furniture market. Whether Mr. Thomas realized it or not he made a set of decisions within the framework of the nine competitive priorities (Krajewski, Ritzman, & Malhotra, 2013). Originally, the company was arguably based firmly in customization and top quality when Mr. Thomas was starting out. As the business progressed the company then took on the consistent quality and variety aspects of the competitive priorities once Mr. Thomas decided to produce standard furniture. Therefore, instead of focusing on one or two...