Reference no: EM132169297

Discussion 1: The CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe will be losing his title at the end of May. This means that there is going to be new management in control that will have to make sure they move in the direction of their strategies. The new CEO must have a vision and plan to put into action as Colin Watts had failed to do so in the last few years. As stated on the management page on The Vitamin Shoppe’s website, “Mr. Watts is responsible for day-to-day operations of the company as well as driving the strategy of the company” (para. 1). His replacement will also have these responsibilities to take care of under their time as CEO.

A new CEO in place means a new strategy that needs to focus on moving the strategies forward but also maintaining their current business. It is clear that the current plan or strategy for the company wasn’t working out as reported in financial statements. Something that the new CEO can use to figure out the steps it needs to take is by using a balanced scorecard. “A balanced scorecard is a performance metric used in strategic management to identify and improve various internal functions of a business and their resulting external outcomes” (para. 1). It’s a good practice and start for those coming into a new company that need to drive results by using their strategies.

As stated by Kaplan (2006), “Managers at every level in the corporation, from regional sales managers to group CEOs, can use the tools of the framework to drive their unit’s performance. Strategy maps enable managers to define and communicate the cause-and-effect relationships that deliver their unit’s value proposition, and the scorecard is a powerful tool for implementing and monitoring the unit’s strategy. A balanced scorecard–based system, therefore, provides both a template and a common language for assembling and communicating information about value creation” (What kind of systems? para. 2).

Discussion 2: Some of the problems the Vitamin Shoppe could face during the strategy implementation is:

Ineffective leadership: Having a leader in place is required to make difficult decisions when the times comes. They need to be able to make quick decisions that will help the company be strong than it already is. If there is not an effective leader, it will be hard for the company to implement these new strategies. No company wants to make a decision quickly that it may or may not harm the company. It could definitely fail and/or harm the company even more if a wrongful decision was made. Leaders need to know exactly when to implement new strategies and be able to overcome each and every one of them. The way to overcome this is by having the leader discuss the decision that needs to be made with the partners in the company. The leader needs to be able to build a strong cohesion and support every opinion the partners have.

Weak strategy: When all employees and members of an organization don’t believe in the strategy that has been presented by a leader or partner, the strategy doesn’t tend be an appropriate strategy. If no one wants to help implement the strategy, that means no one believes it will work. Leaders need to help build a strong strategy that members will enjoy and follow. It will surely be hard to get everyone on board at first but after a great way of implementing others will follow. Additionally, when there is a weak strategy it will be impossible to build the company to become better. Also, when there is not a viable strategy, organizations fail to take actions to implement the plan that is needed.

Resistance to change: When employees and members don’t make the effort to adopt to the new changes and approach the strategy that needs to be implemented will not happen. The one implementing the strategy will be underestimated for not being able to go through with what is needed for the company. To make this change happen, leaders need to figure out what the hurdles and traps may be and figure out ways to resolve them. Developing different tools to help make the change can lead to a successful strategy implementation for the company overall.