The company reports that it expects more than 2 million Jiffy Lube customers to receive a direct mail postcard featuring a mail-in offer for two free movie tickets with the purchase of a Jiffy Lube Signature Service oil change using Pennzoil or Quaker State® SUV/minivan, high mileage vehicle or synthetic motor oil; the company also notes the direct mail postcard will also include a $5 off instant coupon and will be honored at participating Jiffy Lube service centers through mid-August 2005. According to the press release, the company's director of marketing stated: "Jiffy Lube is targeting customers that our internal research has identified as the most likely candidates for a specialty oil change. The movie offer is perfectly timed because the summer is synonymous with road trips and blockbuster movies" (Jiffy Lube Rolls Out Red Carpet for Summer Promotions 2). Management Team Composition.

According to Sims (2002), the hierarchy of authority within any organization represents the extent to which decision-making processes are established and where the formal power is situated. "In a mechanistic system," he says, "higher level departments set or approve goals and detailed budgets for lower level departments and issue directives to them. A mechanistic system has as many levels in its hierarchy as necessary to achieve tight control" (p. 37). By contrast, a company with an organic system has fewer such levels in its hierarchy, thereby making coordination and communications easier, as well as helping to fuel innovation; however, Jim Hindman has guided Jiffy Lube to its position as an industry leader by maintaining a centralized focus for policies and procedures with little room for innovation by the company's management team: "At Jiffy Lube," Sims reports, "top executives make nearly all decisions affecting store operations. Rules and regulations are sent from headquarters to each store, and reports from the stores are sent up the hierarchy" (279). This is not to say, of course, that individual Jiffy Lube franchisees do not exercise all of the authority that is granted by their charters; it is to say, though, that Jiffy Lube's policies do not brook any deviation from its standardized and proven methods of automotive services, a fact that has clearly contributed...

From its beginnings as a seven-store consortium to the company's far-flung operations across the nation today, Hindman has remained an ardent believer in the entrepreneurial spirit and a firm supporter of the nation's youth. Based on Jiffy Lube's track record of success to date, it would be safe to say that new franchisees would be well advised to pay careful attention to how the company says things should be done. In the final analysis, Hindman managed to recognize an opportunity and took the positive steps required to fill a need before many people in the country even realized they needed it.
Works Cited

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Baucus, David a., Melissa S. Baucus and Sherrie E. Human. (1993). Choosing a Franchise: How Base Fees and Royalties Relate to the Value of the Franchise. Journal of Small Business Management, 31(2):91.

Brown, Paul B. (April 1989). Looking Out for Number One. Inc.com. Retrieved February 9, 2005 at http://www.inc.com/magazine/19890401/5615.html.

Golden harvest: plan well to cash out big - American Oil Change Corp. founder Stephen Spinelli. (August 1997). Success. Retrieved February 9, 2005 at http://www.findarticles.com.

Jiffy Lube Int'l. Inc. (2005). Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved February 9, 2005 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/franzone/details/0,5885,12-12-282479-,00.html.

Paisner, Marshall B. Sustaining the Family Business: An Insider's Guide to Managing across Generations. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1999.

Sims, Ronald R. Managing Organizational Behavior. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2002.

Women's Channel. (2005). Jiffy Lube. Retrieved February 9, 2005 at http://www.jiffylube.com/InDrive/ind_WomensChannel/_ind_WomensChannel.aspx.