Fred recently became a manager at a local hardware store that employs six managers and 55 non-management
employees. As new, larger chains such as Home Depot come to the area, the owner is concerned about losing many of
his customers because he cannot compete on the basis of price. The management team met and discussed its strategic
response.
The team arrived at a strategy that would focus on high volume items and make personalized service the cornerstone of
its effort. Fred’s responsibility was to train all non-management employees in good customer relations skills; for that he
was given a budget of $70,000. Over the past six months, Fred has received a number of training brochures from
outside organizations.
One of the brochures boasted, “Three-day work- shop, $35,000. We will come in and train all your employees (maximum
of 50 per session) so that any customer who comes to your store once will come again.”
• What else should Fred have done before choosing a training package? Be specific.
• If you were the training consultant that Fred hired, describe how you would plan for the training. How would you create
work simulations for Fred’s store? Provide 1 example of a work simulation you might create.
• How successful do you think this training will be? Why? What factors or information from the case analysis influenced
your position?
