Hausser Food Products Company Сase Study

Summary: Due to demographical changes and competition growth Hausser Food Products Company (a leading infant food producer and marketer with a 60% market share) is currently facing a decrease in sales growth and profit together with unused capacities of its plant and warehouse. Hired by HFP researcher finds out from their Regional Sales Manager, Brenda Cooper, about the difficulties of motivating her team to come up with new ideas of selling to increase the sales.
Reasons
1. HFP target planning doesn’t involve “people from the field” while they are the ones who know the local markets, what is realistic, what their capabilities of selling are whereas they are the ones to finally meet the targets.

2. Rewarding scheme is not adjusted to the constantly changing market and working environment. Neither does it motivate employees to achieve higher targets set year after year nor does it encourage them to share their creative ideas on selling methods and new market opportunities.
3. HFP management puts too much pressure on paperwork. Such bureaucracy limits the time sales people spend on selling activities.
4. The company seems to have a fixed boundary between the top managers and regular sales forces. It is divided into “us and them”. Sales forces don’t understand that achieving a general goal is to their own benefit too – they are only focused on their personal goal which is receiving yearly bonus.
5. Sales meetings are held without Regional Sales Managers such as Brenda Cooper. How to resolve the problem:
1. District Managers should be involved in drawing up sales plans together with Regional Sales Managers who should be then communicating those goals to the Sales and Market Planning Directors.
2. Changes of rewarding system should be made so that extra sales are rewarded more i.e.: not only bonus should be increased but also base salary should be revised. Moreover, creative or innovative ideas of regular employees should be recognized and prized accordingly to company’s increase in profit so that sales forces don’t get the impression of being “used” to the company’s general benefit.
3. Limit the paperwork by involving Regional Sales Manager in sales team meetings which would naturally keep them updated without the necessity of producing numerous papers and reports by sales people.
4. Introduce team bonding activities, social events which would be attended all kinds of levels of employees: directors, managers and sales people. This would on one hand result in information exchange crucial to the directors and on the other hand – in building-up of sense of belonging to the company as a whole and understanding the role of an individual in a company.