Change Management Memo

1. Change Management Memo

2. Monica Barker, Maricko Thomas, Erika Coleman

3. HRM/310

5/11/2015

Carol Willett

1. Change Management Memo

                                                                                       Monica Barker, Maricko Thomas, and Erika Coleman
        Russell Stover Candies
        1993 Caramel Blvd
        67410 Abilene
        Kansas

        2015. May 11.

Mr Trey McGruder
Russell Stover Candies
4000 Oak St
65874 Kansas City, Kansas

This is regarding the information communicated at the store manager meeting last month.  This includes the remodel and inventory reduction schedule.  In the meeting, we discussed the locations that will be receiving the remodel within the next year, and the remaining locations to follow.  The understanding was that the locations that have the log cabin exterior will be first, due to the high cost of maintenance for those buildings.  This seems logical; our suggestion would be to start at the top of the list for the other stores to follow.  The most profitable stores will benefit from the remodel immediately because of the foot traffic already taking place and the increase in average sale will be an easy goal.

When it comes to the inventory, we took notice when ordering replenishment product that some products were discontinued and are not available for order.  It is important to this because of the very low sales on those particular items.  However, we have developed a new concern about the plan to redesign our planograms to reflect the gaps in the product.  We understand this will probably happen at the time of remodel; however we need a temporary solution in the meantime.

We are very excited for these changes to start being implemented.  The most exciting one is probably the changes in the ice cream program.  Per the Blue Bell recall, we understand why the company chose to change to selling Dryers.  The customers have reacted well to this change, as well as implementing specialty sundae program. These changes in all are simplifying the jobs for the employees, making the everyday maintenance easier to accomplish.

 “As an organization evolves and come to be seen as dynamic, coping systems, the concept of how they change and methods by which they manage change have continued to be refined.” (Harwood, 2014, para. 1) The ability to oversee a change within an organization can be very difficult because when not done correctly the whole idea can fail. That is why it is our belief that we must implement a plan for everyone to follow. At this point, we must decide on how to correctly implement this change and how to go about it. We feel one process would be to unfreeze, change, and freeze this is known as the Kurt Lewin model. Most people view this as a very simple way to go, but if done correctly it could help us slowly put in place the changes without anyone being hurt. Another process that I think we could look, but is a little more in depth is that of Edgar Huses' Seven-stage Model of Change. It includes scouting, entry, diagnosis, planning, action, stabilization and evaluation, and termination. While this process, is a more detailed it does have its problems. In the three-step process, our employees will be able to better understand everything. The seven step process is longer and could cause an uproar.