The Dim Lighting Co. Case Analysis

The Dim Lighting Co. Case Analysis

The Dim Lighting Co. Case Analysis

The Dim Lighting Company, a subsidiary of a major producer of electrical products, has hit a critical fork in the road. Currently realizing significant drops in their profit margins means there will be critical decisions to be made in the future of Dim Lighting's General Manger, Jim West in the hopes of a sustainable outcome.

Problems

Macro.

Today is the day and age of constantly evolving technology; often times consumers find products are obsolete by the time they buy them. In order to survive under these conditions, Dim Lighting needs to decide if they are going to attempt to safe guard their longevity or their short term lively hood. The primary macro problem here is the decline in profit margin. Surely as a result, investors may be on edge due to this decline.

Micro

Mr. West is at a pivotal point in his career with Dim Lighting. He is greatly concerned with thought of have a second poor, profit declining year and the negative effects it will have on his career. There is also a note that Mr. West is concerned there may be problems working with the talented scientist, Mr. Spinks, as other managers have stated he is autocratic, strong-willed and impatient (Brown 2011, pg 81). Working with a stubborn individual that holds a portion of the company's future success in their hands can be a difficult situation.

Causes

The biggest cause to this dilemma is the poor performance in the previous year. A drop in profit margins of 15% is quite significant and great cause for concern. Management cannot ignore that drop and carry on with regular business, failing to realize its operating targets and having that drop in profit margins is cause to investigate and find a solution in order to turn things around. There also seems to be a strong focus on just the bottom line, a company needs to invest some time into research and development in order to maintain profitability. This could have been a long time coming for the Dim Lighting Company. New ideas lead to changes, and change intimidates people because it is hard to predict the outcome of change on this scale.

System Affected

This case has a great impact on the overall company; since it is not isolate it will affect a number of the systems. Technical being the biggest, one could say; as they are discussing a new technology that would change a great deal about the company, not in its concept. The technical subsystem includes the primary functions, activities and operations, including techniques and equipment used to produce