In response to the major risk factors identified, National Furniture has formulated the following plans:

>   Diversion from Core Competency

National Furniture will not allow it’s mission statement to be diluted.  Therefore, it has included in it’s mission statement the use of consulting as another means of implementing the mission itself.  Since the public increasingly demands guidance in purchasing the products the company produces and integrating them into their spaces, it has decided to include the consulting division as a way to fulfill it’s mission statement of making these products more accessible to the public.

National Furniture will commit itself to maintaining it’s core competency, the making of high quality, classic, wood furniture.  In order to do this, it will divorce it’s consulting operation from it’s production facilities and will provide the consulting arm of the company with only limited support through it’s retail system.  The consulting department will operate with it’s own line items under each budget item, and will place orders with the company through it’s wholesale and retail line as do other companies.  Once the orders are received they will be given priority, but the consultants will not have direct access to the computers or specific resources of the other divisions.

Finally, there will be no intersection in the management structure of the company.  Kevin Flowchart and Amy Spreadsheet, the two vice-presidents, will have no supervision of, and little interaction with the consultants.  This division will report directly to Bob Wood Jr., with no manager in the middle.

As the consulting division grows, Mr. Wood will consider creating a separate corporate structure for the consulting division with it’s own management, and National Furniture as the holding company.

>   Implications of fast growth.

The company will have frequent management meetings to discuss the potential for quick growth, and to formulate a number of tactics to identify problems and smooth the transition.

First, it will commit to detecting transition problems in their infancy.  Because this is not always easy, Mr. Wood has developed ten benchmarks to serve as triggering points for reevaluation of the company’s growth.  For example:

>  If a manager ever becomes responsible for more than ten persons at one time, the position
    will be immediately assessed for signs that it is becoming overburdened.

>  If employees in a division are consistently putting in more than 50 hours per week, that division
    will be re-evaluated for signs that it is becoming overburdened.

>  If gross sales exceed 7% over the previous year on an annualized basis, for a one-month          
    period in the retail division, a meeting will be called with all employees to investigate hiring and   
    promotion needs.

Second, National Furniture will be committed to early education of employees about the changes that can occur with the anticipated rapid growth.  A series of five company-wide seminars will be held periodically in order for top management to present ideas on their possibility of modernizing computer systems, hiring efforts, and their anticipated effects on the corporate structure, as well as personnel policy changes that may occur as a result of growth.

Third, it will use ABC Consulting to review it’s growth patterns and the subsequent effects on the organization every six months for the next three years since ABC Consultants have several noted authorities on managing growth in organizational development.