3. Read the short case study LoneStar Electric in the next two pages and answer the following questions. Please provide at least 3 references to support your recommendations.
(a) What strategies / plans should LoneStar Electric develop to position itself in the marketplace to grow sales? How should it be implemented across functional areas within LoneStar Electric?
(b) How should LoneStar Electric set up its organization structure to foster customer service and a profitability-driven culture?
Case Study: LoneStar Electric Supply Entrepreneurs wear many hats. They create the firm’s vision, usually establish early critical customer relationships, and develop the firm’s capabilities. For larger, more mature firms, the company’s vision was created and is modified by top level management over the years. Key initial customer relationships are often first brought in by the entrepreneur and may be maintained for a considerable time after. Establishing and communicating vision and establishing initial key customer relationships are significant endeavors. In addition, the culture is formed under the guiding hand of the entrepreneur. Developing the firm’s capabilities is perhaps an even more significant challenge and must be continuously maintained. Capabilities include process capital, information capital, financial capital, organization capital, and human capital. Human capital development is an ongoing activity and is a key responsibility for leadership. The entrepreneur often starts their organization as the only key employee. In other cases, the entrepreneur may have brought in partners or key employees from previous engagements to share the early development of vision, customers, capabilities, and culture. Jeff Metzler graduated from the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M in 1983. The Program had a long, rich history with Electrical Distribution. Jeff began his career at Evans Electric Supply, after college, in outside sales and soon became a branch manager. Following his success at Evans, he started the Industrial Division at Summers Electric/Rexel before being promoted to Gulf Coast Region manager. He soon joined Crawford Electric Supply and opened its Houston branch in 2001. Under Jeff’s leadership, Crawford grew rapidly. In 2007, Jeff and his partner sold the firm to Sonepar Electric and Jeff stayed on to serve as Crawford President from 2007 to 2015. Jeff’s management philosophy matured during his years with Crawford/Sonepar but his entrepreneurial spirit remained strong. Jeff believed that success was driven by a highly energized, devoted team. Throughout his career, he recruited college graduates and others who he viewed as strong candidates with the right outlook to be successful sales and operations professionals. He believed that the right people with the right motivation could move mountains. Crawford sales soared as Jeff’s highly capable sales and operations teams generated sales and met customer needs with excellent service performance. In 2015, Jeff left Sonepar to launch LoneStar Electric Supply. LoneStar was quickly successful but Jeff soon found himself facing the typical challenges all small firms face. The market was changing rapidly as it became more price sensitive. Ecommerce was gaining momentum. New competitors were entering the market and traditional competitors were changing their strategies to remain competitive. Jeff wasn’t a stranger to change. He’d faced it many times in his career and had always been agile enough to succeed. Change was coming fast now, however. Jeff was convinced that people would remain the difference, but he needed to address who and how to recruit in this changing environment, how to develop those people, how to lead them, and how to retain the best talent. He had to consider these challenges as a small distributor. He could attract aggressive individuals wanting to learn how to grow small firms but he needed to plan his resources carefully to ensure he could develop and train the new employees. Consider how to propel LoneStar Electric Supply to the next level of growth through highly effective leadership, organization structure, market positioning, customer intimacy, and value-added services. Think how LoneStar Electric can remain competitive for a small firm.