Jensen Shoes Case

Situation Background:

An organization called Jensen Shoes which was established in 1953 sells high quality casual and athletic footwear for both adults and children. Casual wear had contributed to almost 45% of the company’s revenues but in recent times, the sales for this category had begun to flatten. Hence, Jane Kravitz was appointed as the Strategic Product Manager for casual wear product division to develop a marketing plan that would define opportunities for new products and markets. She came up with a comprehensive marketing plan such that each of the three staff is allocated two verticals as follows:

• College and Men’s markets to Larry Bunton.

• Pre-teen and Women’s markets to Cheryl Abbott.

• Latino and African American markets to Lyndon Brooks.

• Lyndon Brooks had also been assigned to conduct a special project on environmental consumer buying trends by the Executive Vice President.

Problem Statement:

Jane Kravitz, Strategic Product Manager, Jensen Shoes wants to find a strategy to complete the S.O of the casual wear by managing the resources so that her credibility remains intact in the organization.

Contextual Analysis and Reasons:

The case mainly deals with the perceptual distortion of Chuck Taylor, Lyndon Brooks and Jane Kravitz which has lead to failure among individuals to understand each other’s personal aspirations.

Jane’s Perception for Lyndon-Lyndon previously worked in the managerial position. So Jane assumed that he might have ego issues having being given a role under someone. He also said on the very first day that he is not there for many days and is planning to leave. This gives us a clue that he might probably be searching for a job elsewhere where he could get a role of this choice and interest. His attitude bears evidence to the fact that he is not interested in doing the job he has been currently assigned and his attitude in further days make Jane assume his adamant and lazy behavior.

Chuck Taylor’s Perception for Lyndon- Lyndon brooks is a person who completes his job and meets expectations. But according to what Chuck Taylor says, we can deduce that he has not been given sufficient recognition for his work. On completion of environmental aspect project that has been assigned to him, Chuck again fails to appreciate his endeavors. This shows that he has a preconceived notion about Lyndon which he does not want to alter. It might also be a fact that since Chuck has worked with Lyndon for the past three years, he knows his drawbacks well and hence fails to acknowledge his work without even noticing the current performance.

Lyndon’s Perception towards Jane and Chuck- Chuck had warned Jane about Lyndon, Jane should