Organizational metaphors in management theory and practice

Business Metaphor

Metaphor for Men's Wearhouse

The information detailed in the company profile compiled Datamonitor (2007) paints a very rosy picture of a strong and growing corporation with a relatively quick rise to Wall Street and international prominence. Men's Wearhouse and its subsidiaries have a very strong market presence, which is only on the rise given the recent acquisitions at the time of this profile's publication. Yet despite the impressive growth that the company has displayed, especially since going public, a rather conservative mindset as been apparent in both the merchandising and fiscal areas of the company's endeavors. This has even been openly acknowledged by the company's co-founder, chairman, and CEO George Zimmerman (Datamonitor 2007). The selective growth that seems to have driven the company form fairly humble beginnings (a single men's clothing store in Texas) to its strong standing, presence, and large market share today is one aspect of Men's Wearhouse as observable in the company profile that suggests the organizational metaphor of a person is the most applicable to the company.

According to Mitch McCrimmon of the Self-Renewal Group (2009), one of the strongest implications of thinking about organizations as people is that "all the thinking is done only at the top." While this is not strictly true of Men's Wearhouse or indeed of any company that is and hopes to remain viable in the long-term, the direction of the company has been very tightly held. All of the retail outlets and subsidiaries, whether recent acquisitions or their long-term manufacturing arm Golden Brand Clothing, are run with direct corporate oversight (Datamonitor 2007). Though in some businesses and for many companies such highly centralized organization might be detrimental to the companies' continued development and evolution, the narrow scope of Men's Wearhouse's endeavors allows for immense flexibility and responsiveness.

Since the very beginnings of the company and up to at least the time of this company profile's center of this centralized organization has been George Zimmerman, the only of the three founding partners that remains on the board of directors, former president of the company, and the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors ever since the company went public (Datamonitor 2007). The extreme centralization and tight reins with which retailers and subsidiaries are held by the corporate office of Men's Wearhouse can be seen as a direct extension of George Zimmerman's natural desire to know what is going on with each part of his own body. The company, as a human organism, would likewise be conscious of each of its interconnected constituent parts, and would be desirous both for the most up-to-date information possible from every part and the ability to exert control over these parts.

The business model that Zimmerman himself lays out towards the end of the company profile (quoted from his remarks in the company's 2006 annual report) is another example of the purposeful lack of differentiation that makes personhood such an apt metaphor for Men's Wearhouse. Despite the phenomenal growth of the company, the only way this growth has been achieved is through, in Zimmerman's words, "acquisition targets that complement our current footprint, such as After Hours, or extend our services to an underserved segment, such as K&G" (Datamonitor 2007). This shows the careful and controlled way in which the operations of the Men's Wearhouse company are organized, with the senior management of the company -- and George Zimmerman in particular -- acting as a brain that controls all of the other parts of the human body that is, in this metaphor, the Men's Wearhouse company (McCrimmon 2009).