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CASE ONE: TANGLEWOOD STORES AND

STAFFING STRATEGY

Case one principles:

1. You will first assess the urre!t o"erati!# e!$iro!%e!t for

Ta!#lewoo& i! ter%s of it o%"etitors' struture' e%"lo(ees'

ulture' $alues' a!& hu%a! resoures fu!tio!.

). The! (ou will the! &e$elo" reo%%e!&atio!s for how the

or#a!i*atio! shoul& staff its o"eratio!s' fousi!# o! strate#i

&eisio!s "ertai!i!# to staffi!# le$els a!& +ualit(.

Section Objectives

The goal of this section is to help you learn more about the basicenvironmental concerns the Tanglewood Department Store chain isfacing. This information will help you to understand howcompetition, strategy, and culture jointly inform the effectivedevelopment of a selection plan.

Organization Overview

Tanglewood is a chain of general retail stores featuring items such as clothing, appliances, electronics,and home decor. The company operates in the moderate price niche, targeting middle- and upper-incomecustomers. Tanglewoods strategic distinction is an outdoors theme, with a large camping and outdoorliving section in every store. The store also distinguishes itself by its simple, elegant, and uncluttereddesign concepts for the store and their in-house products. The companys mission statement is!

Tanglewood will be the best department store for customers seeking quality

durability and value for all aspects of their active lives! "e are committed as acompany to providing ma#imum value to our customers shareholders and

employees! "e will accomplish this goal by adhering to the core values of responsible

financial management clear and honest communication and always keeping

performance and customer service in the forefront!

Tanglewood was originally founded in "#$% by best friends Tanner &merson and Thurston 'ood. Theinitial concept was a single store in Spo(ane 'ashington, named Tanner'ood, which sold a combination

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of outdoor clothing and e)uipment that the pair had designed themselves. The employee handboo( notesthat, Tanner and Thurston financed their early store plans with credit cards and personal loans fromfriends and family. They had so little money that they slept in sleeping bags in the bac( room and putevery penny they made bac( into the stores. The first stores uni)ue merchandise offering andpersonable sales staff made them successful )uite rapidly, allowing &merson and 'ood to move out ofthe bac( room and add several more stores during the late "#$*s. The merchandise offerings e+panded

over time to incorporate more conventional retail items, while still retaining the elegant, yet outdoors loo(for the stores overall.

&merson and 'ood eventually decided to rename their store chain Tanglewood in "#. uch morerapid growth began around this time. /s &merson put it, we worried for a long time that e+pandingwould compromise our vision of a small, personable shopping e+perience. 'e had always wanted to runthe type of store that we would love to wor( and shop at. /round "#, after we had "* stores, wereali0ed we had developed a fairly successful blueprint for running stores with a strong base of employeeparticipation, customer satisfaction, and profitability. So we decided to spread out to cover thenorthwest.

During the "##*s the e+pansion strategy really too( root. ost of the e+pansion occurred by purchasing

other e+isting stores rather than building new stores. &merson and 'ood had been heavily involved in themanagement of the stores, but found that increasingly the corporate administration was a more pressingconcern. The company arrived at a regional structure for its operations. &merson and 'ood too( on thepositions of 1&2 and 3resident of the company, respectively, while a team of regional managers moredirectly oversee day to day operations. The company currently has a total of 45 stores open in the statesof 'ashington, 2regon, 6orthern 1alifornia, 7daho, ontana, 'yoming, 1olorado, 8tah, 6evada, 6ewe+ico, and /ri0ona.

3rior to any further e+pansion, however, the company needs to consolidate its current managementstrategy. The process of growth has been very )uic( in the last % years, and has involved buyouts ofseveral smaller chains of department stores. 'hile all the stores under the Tanglewood name have thesame basic loo(, the management styles and human resource 9:;< practices still reflect the historical

differences between stores. 'ood noted in a recent interview with =usiness onthly, Tanglewood reallyneeds to slow down and ta(e a hard loo( at our corporate culture. ;ight now, we need to consolidate andma(e sure were as close to the companys original mission as we can be. 2ur success is due entirely toour strong culture>this is something we need to hold on to. These concerns have lead Tanglewood tobring in e+ternal human resources consultants li(e you to help centrali0e the organi0ations practices.

/nother major concern for Tanglewood has been the westward e+pansion of companies li(e ?ohls andTarget. The possibility of more direct competition has lead Tanglewood to critically e+amine their :;policies and practices. @or staffing, in particular, the organi0ation feels there absolutely must be awor(force of committed, )ualified individuals who will help carry the Tanglewood philosophy into thefuture.

Competition and $ndustry"

The Tanglewood Department Store chain operates in the nondurable general retail industry, which fitsinto industry %4"** as classified by the 6orth /merican 7ndustry 1lassification System 96/71S

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other housewares. The retail industry accounts for over F5 trillion in annual sales. ;ecent estimatesindicate that the retail industry employs appro+imately 45 million people.

/ comparison of several top retail stores is presented below. The operating revenues indicate total salesfor these organi0ations, and the compound growth rate trac(s changes in the sales for each retail chain.The financials show that Tanglewood is a moderately si0ed organi0ation with strong growth potential.

2perating;evenues

9in millions