Change strategy for Bill and Fred's Sporting Goods acquisition and leadership transition

Change Strategy for Bill and Fred’s Sporting Goods and More, Inc.

Description of the organization’s mission statement
The mission statement of Bill and Fred’s Sporting Goods and More, Inc. (hereinafter alternatively “the company” or “Bill and Fred’s”) is simply but ambitiously “to be the leading merchant of outdoor recreational products inspiring people to love, enjoy, and conserve the great outdoors” (Our mission, 2018, para. 1). In furtherance of this mission, the goals for the company over the next 3 years include the following:
1. Successfully complete the harmonization of the company’s former major competitor’s corporate culture and business model following its recent acquisition by Bill and Fred’s;
2. Identify new markets for its sporting goods and services and target them effectively; and,
3. Groom a new leader to replace the current chief executive officer who is 75 years old and shows no sign of retiring in the foreseeable future.
Key external and internal stakeholders
Following the acquisition of its former major competitor, Jack’s Sporting Goods, in 2016, the company’s current internal stakeholders include more than 22,000 workers in its North American retail facilities. The company’s key external stakeholders include its numerous North American and international supply chain partners as well as its loyal customer base and the environmental groups the company supports.
Discussion concerning the organization’s current leadership
The company’s current leadership represents a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, the company’s founder and current CEO, “Bill,” is an internationally recognized sports enthusiast and conservationist as well as being an award-winning angler. Together with the CEO’s extensive knowledge of the sporting goods industry, this background and expertise have served the company well over the past half century and have helped it become an industry leader in its North American market. On the other hand, though, Bill is also a septuagenarian (albeit still active and lucid) who evinces no indication that he plans on retiring anytime soon.
At present, the life expectancy for a 75-year old American male is about 86 years (Social Security actuarial life tables, 2018), and the longer Bill lives, the greater his chances of living even longer. Given the longstanding personal and amicable relationship between Bill and the other members of the board of directors, it is reasonable to posit that they would be highly reluctant to attempt to force the current CEO out of office, and they might even risk their jobs if they tried a failed mutiny. Consequently, the company is faced with a leadership an unprecedented leadership crisis that it has not fully comprehended at present.
Analysis of two fundamental problems in the company
As indicated previously, the two most significant business challenges facing the company today are as follows:
Business challenge one: Develop and implement a transition program to groom a replacement for the current CEO.
Business challenge two: Create a marketing division focusing on female-oriented sporting goods and services, including sports-related video games.
Explanation concerning why fundamental change is necessary for the company to meet its mission and goals
The sporting goods and services industry is changing in substantive ways, and the company must respond to these changes by ensuring that its culture embraces new ideas and recognizing the need for fresh leadership. Indeed, the company’s board meetings likely resemble the stereotypical smoke-filled room where everything important is decided beforehand and then sprung on unsuspected stakeholders. This is not to say, of course, that Bill and his board of directors are a bunch of stodgy old white men (even though they are), but it is to say that the time has come for the company to look ahead and see where things are headed rather than keeping its corporate head in the sporting goods sand.
SWOT analysis
A previously developed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis that has been updated for the company is provided in Table 1 below.
Table 1
SWOT Analysis
Factor
Description

Strengths
The company’s main strength is its well-established brand and current overwhelming dominant leadership position in the sporting goods and attire industry. The company also has a mature decentralized distribution network throughout North America and sophisticated supply chain management practices with its downstream partners.

Weaknesses
The company’s current geographic concentrations of its retail stores (see Figure 1 below) limit the company’s ability to provide its high value-added services as well as the walk-in traffic that drives its mega-format success. In addition, the company’s remains highly vulnerable to major disruptions in its leadership due to the advanced age of its current CEO who has not announced any plans for retirement.

Opportunities
The company dominates the North American market but it also has significant opportunities available by expanding its operations to Europe, Mexico, and South America. In addition, the company also enjoys a significant opportunity to increase its target market by developing and marketing female-oriented sporting goods and attire. While the company does currently feature some products that are geared towards female consumers (i.e., a pink BB gun), many of its other sporting goods (i.e., archery, camping and firearms) have remained targeted at its traditional male-oriented market. In fact, during the 2017 Christmas season, Bill and Fred’s were offering various toys including a handsome scale-model tractor-trailer rig with an in-store sign that read, “Help your son imagine driving the big rigs!,” with no mention of female children. Such stereotypical male-dominated marketing may have operated to the company’s advantage in the past, but this type of blatant sexism is inappropriate for a major international enterprise.

Threats
Although some of the company’s products (i.e., firearms) remain best sellers irrespective of downturns in the economy, many of the company’s other products and services such as its bass boats are largely discretionary and luxury purchases that decline with downturns in the economy. There have also been some changes in consumer preferences in sporting goods and attire that have not been match by corresponding marketing efforts by the company, including significant declines in boating, bowling and camping (-12.0%) (Sport Participation Trends, 2011). While remote, another significant threat looming on the company’s horizon is the potential for stricter gun control laws to erode some or even all of many of its best-selling firearms, especially automatic and so-called “assault” weapons. Indeed, the company has already experienced the negative public relations fallout from the high-profile theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado by James Eagan Holmes on July 20, 2012 that claimed the lives of 12 people and injured another 70 (Adelmann, 2012). One of the assault weapons used by Holmes was purchased from the company’s retail store in Denver after the gunman successfully passed his background check despite exhibiting extremely erratic behaviors in the months leading up to the murders (Adelmann, 2012). In the wake of other similar incidents in recent years, the percentage of Americans in favor of stricter gun control laws is at an all time high, and there may come a day in the foreseeable future when the 2nd Amendment is applied literally and gun owners will be required to belong to regulated militias, an eventuality that would inevitably have dire consequences for the company’s annual revenues..




Figure 1. Current company locations
Strategic plan:
The proposed strategic plan will benefit the company and its stakeholders as follows:
Business challenge one: Develop and implement a transition program to groom a replacement for the current CEO: This strategy will help ensure that a suitable replacement is ready and able to assume the company’s top leadership position when needed. The remaining members of the board of directors are all elderly white men who possess an accumulated wealth of business acumen and expertise, but times are changing and no one is getting any younger, a harsh reality that relates to the second business challenge as discussed below.
Business challenge two: Create a marketing division focusing on female-oriented sporting goods and services, including sports-related video games: Although the company’s core target market of North American males in general and younger males in particular remains salient for its current line of products and services,
Implementation of the strategic plan
a. Three steps key stakeholders will need to take to prepare the company for change implementation.
Step one – Internal stakeholders: Formulate a case for persuading the current CEO of the business necessity of grooming a replacement.
Step two – Internal stakeholders: Modify the organizational culture to embrace the changes that are needed to remain competitive in a dynamic marketplace, including the addition of female-oriented products and services.
Step three: Internal stakeholders: The company’s executive leadership team needs to persuade the marketing division at the company’s national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri to add gender-neutral and/or female-oriented products and services.
b. Resources needed for each step in the implementation plan
The organizational resources that are needed to accomplish each of the foregoing steps are described in brief below.
Step one – Internal stakeholders: Formulate a case for persuading the current CEO of the business necessity of grooming a replacement: The company’s director of human resources will require a staff of one or two full-time and one part-time employee to develop the case to convince the current CEO of the need for a leadership transition process.
Step two – Internal stakeholders: Modify the organizational culture to embrace the changes that are needed to remain competitive in a dynamic marketplace, including the addition of female-oriented products and services. The company’s marketing division will require time and sustained effort to alter the current organizational culture to become more nimble and responsive to significant changes in the marketplace, including those anticipated changes that are still on the horizon.
Step three: Internal stakeholders: Persuade the marketing division at the company’s national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri to add gender-neutral and/or female-oriented products and services. The company’s chief of marketing, in collaboration with the executive leadership team, will need time to modify its current line of products and services to include those that are gender-neutral and/or female-oriented.
c. Timeline for implementation of each step. As previously reported, a proposed timeline for the execution of the plan is set forth in Table 2 below, together with proposed beginning and ending dates.
Table 2
Implementation timeline for strategic change initiatives
Stage
Phase one: initiation
Phase two: planning
Phase three: execution
Phase four: closure

Stage one: CEO transition
1-1-18/1-31-18
2-1-18/2-28-18
3-1-18/5-31-18
6-1-18/6-1/21

Stage two: Female-oriented marketing division
1-1-18/1-31-18
2-1-18/4-3-18
5-1-18/7-31-18
Indeterminate



Evaluation of the strategic plan
a. Description of two success metrics that will be used to evaluate the plan.
Business challenge one: Develop and implement a transition program to groom a replacement for the current CEO: The success metric for this business challenge will consist of meeting the objectives set for in the timeline in Table 2 above.
Business challenge two: Create a marketing division focusing on female-oriented sporting goods and services, including sports-related video games: The success metric for this business challenge will also consist of meeting the objectives set forth in the timeline in Table 2 above.
b. Explanation concerning how the suggested changes will be sustained
One of the most effective ways of sustaining meaningful change in organizations is to celebrate incremental successes as the business challenges are addressed.