Reference no: EM133180537

Questions based on Organizational leadership and management/Organizational structure

1. Levitt-Safety Limited is Canada's largest specialist supplier of safety equipment and services. Like many Canadian companies, it looked to emerging foreign markets for growth opportunities. However, globalization and outsourcing are no longer a one-way street. Foreign competitors are eyeing the Canadian market, because barriers to entry, such as the North American regulatory and approval bodies, are easier to navigate in Canada. To be successful in the Canadian marketplace, foreign companies need to spend a lot of time and money to build up their brands. Or they could form an alliance with a company like Levitt-Safety to piggyback on a brand that is already established and well known after 36 years of business. Increased competition has led to downward pressure on profit margins. To counter this, CEO Bruce Levitt created an intermediary company to import product and resell it to Levitt-Safety's distribution business. The company sales teams now have a much better understanding of inventory carrying costs, stock-outs, dead stock, and other often hidden costs. Levitt-Safety also has a separate manufacturing business, NL Technologies, run by Heidi Levitt, which has become a world leader in the manufacturing and design of mining technology.

a) Describe and evaluate what Levitt is doing.

b) Do you think this arrangement would work for other types of organizations? Why or why not?

c) What role do you think organizational structure plays in an organization's efficiency and effectiveness? Explain.

2. Caterpillar Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and dieselelectric locomotives and has its corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, U.S. Its global locations are the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and total more than 500 locations worldwide. In the 1980s, all pricing decisions were made at the corporate headquarters. This meant that when a sales representative working in Africa wanted to give a discount on a product, they needed to check with headquarters. Headquarters did not always have accurate or timely information about the subsidiary markets to make an effective decision. As a result, Caterpillar was at a disadvantage against competitors such as the Japanese firm Komatsu. If you were present back in the 1908s, what might you have recommended to Caterpillar to overcome this disadvantage? Explain your rationale