Describe the planning (P) method to enter the Toronto market based on their core competency and what should be their competitive strategy if they wish to enter this market?
Please note that this Case and your analysis of it assumes that we are in September, 2016.
You are a world-renowned Independent Management Consultant with several decades of experience providing management consulting to organizations across North America. You have just been hired by Managed by Q’s Co-Founders Dan Teran and Allen Erickson. They have called you and provided you with the information described in the case Managed by Q (Ton &
Reavis, 2016).
The Co-Founders are thinking of expanding into Canada and so they need your management advice on:
• Describe the planning (P) method to enter the Toronto market based on their core competency and what should be their competitive strategy if they wish to enter this market? Describe a decision-making process by using a decision matrix with alternatives and decision criteria to enter the Canadian market. (10 marks)
• Consider their current organizational (O) structure. Argue why the sub-contractor model is more appropriate for the Canadian market. Review their recruitment strategy as described in the case and explain how to adjust this recruitment process to account for the Ontario Human Rights Code (use the current code as described in this course and current to today even though it is not the same as the 2016 code).
• What leadership (L) style should their local management in Toronto use, describe why that would be appropriate and how would it be different from the current leadership style (hint- what is the current leadership style)? What specific motivational tool should be used that is not already described in the case?
• They both believe that decentralized controls are good for Managed by Q but they have heard about Simons’ (1994) management control (C) systems and wonder if they can be applied to strategic planning at Q’s Canadian operations and if so, how? They are also concerned about the bottom line and would like you to take a quick look as to their budgetary control (C) and assumptions to see if their projected gross margin projections over 5 years give them sufficient margins to expand into Canada (see appendix 7) – what
do you suggest that Q does to improve their financial performance and generate more cash?
Take the role and point of view of a consultant; make sure that you use content from Robbins et al. (2021), the case study (Ton & Reavis, 2016) and Simons (1994) and that you cite your evidence (including page number as ‘p.’ or Chapter/Section number if it’s from Robbins et al. (2021)).
Read the questions carefully, answer every element of the questions and support your answers with factual or conceptual support from the appropriate site in the textbook, from the course website, the assigned readings or the case.
This final exam requires you to do critical reflection and to use terminology and content as described in the course.
The structure should be essay type with a title page, a brief Introduction followed by subtitles for each of the four sections of Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling and a brief Conclusion.
