Business Problem Practicum Mid-Term

Catamount Fine Furniture Company is located in Woodstock, Vermont in a 25,000 square foot facility, and employees 33 full time wood workers. With a focus on architectural, customized, and high end furniture and cabinetry, Catamount has succeeded in building a national brand, well known among residential and office architects and designers. Often in the top 10% of prices for any given bid, Catamount combines rare and exotic woods with clean designs and precise manufacturing tolerances.

Recently, the owner of Catamount, Judy Franks, has become aware that a higher volume woodworking manufacturer called Vermont Contract Furniture has become available for purchase. Vermont Contract Furniture, located in Brattleboro, Vermont, built a regional brand by offering sturdy, hardwood furniture for public environments – libraries, schools, colleges, medical offices, and governmental offices. VCF’s products are well made and built to last, but do not include the higher end features found in Catamount products.

Judy can think of a number of advantages in purchasing VCF, including balancing her customer and product portfolio, and an increased buying power for raw materials. The business cycles of Catamount and VCF are quite different, so Judy sees a further opportunity to balance and reduce total labor if both businesses could share employees.

Judy wonders whether she should combine the brands into one business, say, “Catamount Contract Furniture of Vermont.” On the one hand, VCF customers might see this as an upgrade in brand quality and design, and thereby expand the market into higher grade contract furniture. At the same time, it could scare away some VCF customers. Judy also worries that Catamounts upper level customers may see this as a brand quality reduction; or, on the plus side, perhaps there are lower quality jobs which she is missing among her high end customers which could become available to the combined business.

Judy has asked that you help her sort this out.

There are 9 questions. Answer each question in a complete sentence using good grammar and spelling. Type your answers.

1. Given the information or data needs, which will likely be available from secondary sources?

Answer:

2. Who are the key stakeholders in the problem/opportunity?

Answer:

3. If the problem is solved, what could be the positive outcomes?

Answer:

4. What biases or mistakes in problem-solving should Judy avoid?

Answer:

5. What survey methods should be considered in collecting data?

Answer:

6. What steps can be taken to make surveys more reliable?

Answer:

7. Assuming you recommend surveying Judy’s customers, how many customers should be surveyed?

Answer:

8. What cautions should be taken in gathering secondary data from internet sources?

Answer:

9. Which are you most likely to use to solve this problem: a cause-and-effect analysis or the 5 Whys method of inquiry?