This paper adopts the systems thinking methodology to solve the dilemma of the Andersons’ silk art business. The company has a problem identifying the best strategy that will project its image as a global brand, market Mary Anderson, a pioneer of the project, and realize profitability for the owners. The paper identifies three variables, managerial capability, the stakeholders, and the legal environment as the determinants of the attainment the objectives of the company. It reports that the Andersons should be effective managers of their business; they should use their talents to manage their advertisements, human resources and other elements of their business.
The systems thinking methodology has undergone different developments, and Eric Wolstenholme made the most recent one in 1997 (Cavana and Maani, 2000). His description of the systems thinking involves three key issues. The first one concerns what, which is a rigorous approach to thinking, communication, sharing, and visualizing the evolution of an organization and issues surrounding it in future. The second involves why, and it defines the objective of solving the problem and the creation of designs that are more robust that will help in reducing the chances of an occurrence of unpleasant surprises as well as un-purposed occurrences. Lastly, the scope has the within the framework, which fosters and respects the requirement and values of equality, responsibility, openness and awareness of teams and individuals (Cavana and Maani, 2000). Based on the above framework of the systems thinking methodology, entails five main steps, which this section of the paper analyzes in relation to the case study of the Andersons and their silk project.
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First, there is a need to undertake the problem structuring, which is an identification of the issue of the situation at hand or the policies that concern the management of their business (Cavana and Maani, 2000). According to the case study, the Andersons are concerned about the sustenance of their business for a long time, an increase in their revenues earned from their business, and the raising of public awareness concerning the environment. The Andersons are also concerned with how they will balance their corporate policies to suit the initial objectives of Mary Anderson of environmental protection and the promising business opportunity that her talent had come to be. The business requires identifying the best pieces that will fetch the best revenues on the market since the owners are undecided about which one of them is the most appropriate. The management of the business also seemed to be undecided about which of the policies was to be given the priority.
Second, the process involves the causal loop modeling, which entails a series of steps that identify the conceptual models of the issues identified (Cavana and Maani, 2000). The first among the collection of steps is the identification of the main variables. According to the case study, three main variables impact on the nature of the business of the Andersons; the stakeholders (clients and the community), the managerial capability and the legal aspects of the business world. Concerning the stakeholders, the company needs to identify which of its customer segments is the most important according to the revenues generated and the future trends in the market. This move is essential to identify which of the silk pieces the company should specialize in production over time and which of them should be supplementary products. Concerning the community, the business needs to identify the best way through which it can approach the society in an attempt to raise their awareness of the need to protect the endangered species of plants, specifically the flowers. This step could also be useful to the business in determining its approach to corporate social responsibility projects that will serve the rest of the objects as stated in the previous paragraph. Concerning the managerial capability, the business requires identifying the power that their talent holds in the projection of the image of their business. It should be known that the arts industry relies exclusively on the creativity of the business owners because the clients will always want to purchase products that are uniquely inspired and designed. The managerial capabilities of the Andersons will also determine how effectively they pursue their objectives and how they coordinate the rest of the resources, including the human resources into realizing the overall goal of a renowned business worldwide. Concerning the legal issues of the business world, the Andersons should realize a need to operate according to the set rules and regulations of business as well as the need to protect their ideas and artwork from potential theft. This step is fundamental because it will ensure that the company owns the patent rights of production and distribution of their products for a long time to come.
The causal modeling step also entails an establishment of the behavior over time for the variables identified. First, the trend in the business world indicates that the clients and the community (the stakeholders) are moving towards the desire for high-quality products. Specifically, some of the most successful businesses in the arts industry such as the fashions segment have moved into adopting culturally appealing and lifestyle products. Therefore, the Andersons might want to learn from such case studies to inspire their products by ensuring that their products in terms of both quality and cultural appeal satisfy the clients. It should also be known that both the community and government are continuing to advocate social responsibility among traders worldwide, which means that only business that gives real value to the community in which they operate have the appeal of such stakeholders. The field of management has also been under a constant evolution, but one aspect remains constant for a long time, the power of the human resources to the success of a business. The Andersons should identify which of the styles of management will drive the employees to give the best to their company. The transformational approach to management is one of those that has been widely adopted by managers across the world and yield much profit to them regardless of the industry in which they operate (Barling, Weber and Kelloway, 2009). Apart from these, the workplace around the world has grown its interest in managers that have the talents to perform their tasks, which is why talent still matters to the Andersons. Lastly, copyright infringement has been on the rise in the past, and has been occasioned by the rampant use of the internet and related technologies. For this reason, the Andersons should be keen enough to protect their business from possible mimicking by unscrupulous artists who might lead to a compromise of their brand in terms of quality. Lastly, though mentioned, the contemporary corporate world has been subject to an ever-growing number of restrictions and directions from the government, one that includes corporate social responsibility.
The next step under the causal modeling framework is to identify the relationship between the variables based on the behavior identified above. The managerial capability of the Andersons is at the center of the three variables. First, it will influence the capacity of the business to acquire and retain a pool of specialized staff and to enhance the way the business will foster its relationship with its external environment. Next, the managerial capability of the Andersons will determine the rate at which company will invent and adopt new designs of production to suit their target market. Therefore, the Andersons should emphasize their need to be effective managers since this will affect the two other variables and ensure the business through difficult times. The main leverage points in this relationship, therefore, is the ability of effective management to help organizations realize the financial objective of being a global brand, the social responsibility objective of conservation of endangered species of plants and flowers, and to promote the artistic talent of Mary Anderson.
The third step in the systems thinking approach is the dynamic modeling and could be done in almost a similar approach as the causal modeling. The difference is that this step is done using computer simulation, and emphasizes the relationship between the variables. It means, therefore, that the business might want to skip this step because it gives the same results as the causal modeling phase.
The fourth step is the scenario modeling and planning phase, and it entails the postulation and testing of different strategies (Cavana and Maani, 2000). According to this phase, strategies refer to the changes that would be made to one of the variables such as the prices of the products, quality of products, and hiring among others. According to the case study, the business might decide to open more stores within the US and hire additional staff in an attempt to provide more products to the market. The business could also decide to focus on vigorous marketing campaigns using social and mass media channels as well as engage in philanthropic initiatives to raise the awareness of the public about the need for environmental protection and the role of art in such campaigns. The third strategy could be the business deciding to produce products that sell at the cheapest products and place them in strategic stores. Considering the first strategy, opening more stores and hiring more staff could be productive since it is comparable to the internationalization projects that companies such as Samsung and others have undertaken in the course of their histories. However, it should be understood that this strategy has only been useful for businesses with huge financial resources that are able to compensate their failure in one market by success in another (Liang, Lu, and Wang, 2012). This way, the business might struggle to manage financially and deter its goal of profitability. Vigorous marketing campaigns are a useful tool for businesses, specifically those that are not well established. The Andersons could benefit from this strategy since it will inform the public about the existence and specialization of their business. More attention from the public will allow the company to undertake other strategic issues that will help drive the profitability objective as well as the rest of the targets. The only setback of this strategy could be the costs associated with advertising in mass media, but the availability of social media could help the managers to offset the costs. Selling prices at the lowest prices have a perceived advantage of raising sales ceteris paribus (drawn from the law of supply). However, this strategy could delay the capacity of the business to produce the highest quality of products since the costs of production are huge.
The last phase of the systems thinking approach is implementation and organizational learning (Cavana and Maani, 2000). The Andersons need to evaluate the effectiveness of their adopted strategy through performance indicators such as the rate of profitability, the appeal of the business to the public and the orientation to meeting governmental regulations. The management could come up with a system of feedback, which allows the public to comment on their project and its relevance to the society. The metrics of financial performance could be an indicator of the financial success of the adopted strategy while a lack of governmental scrutiny could imply that the business is operating within the legal stipulations.
In conclusion, the Andersons’ silk art business operates in an environment with three main determinants of success, the stakeholders, the management and the government. This paper has reported that managerial capabilities of the Andersons (their talents and ability to manage the workforce) is an essential leverage point to ensuring that the company solves its current dilemma of pursuing three objectives at one. This paper has proposed vigorous advertisement as a managerial duty that will create an awareness of the public towards the identification of Mary Anderson as a capable artistic, a lover of nature, and a successful entrepreneur. The strategy will also help the Andersons identify the best piece of art that will earn them the desired profits.
References
Barling, J., Weber, T., & Kelloway, E. K. (2009). Effects of transformational leadership training on attitudinal and financial outcomes: A field experiment. Journal of applied psychology , 81 (6), 827.
Cavana, R. Y., & Maani, K. E. (2000). A Methodological Framework for Systems Thinking and Modelling (ST&M) Interventions. In ICSTM .
Liang, X., Lu, X., & Wang, L. (2012). Outward internationalization of private enterprises in China: The effect of competitive advantages and disadvantages compared to home market rivals. Journal of World Business , 47 (1), 134-144.
