Assignment
"The people at Burton are a powerful, inspiring, and fun group, and I will miss that," said the former CEO of Vermont's fabled Burton Snowboards upon departure. In fact, the company's nearly 900 employees are some of the many reasons the firm has grown to be the world's leading snowboard and accessories company. Many are snowboard enthusiasts, not least among them Jake Burton Carpenter, founder and currently interim CEO. Despite his management responsibilities, Jake still rides a snowboard about 100 days of the year, sometimes to test new products, but sometimes just for fun. "There are a lot of vibrant folks [at the company] and it rubs off on you," he says. The company, which began as an entrepreneurial venture housed in a barn in 1977, now manufactures and sells snowboards with prices that range from $300 to $1,500. Jake, who says he was a failure in shop class while in school, handmade his own boards for a sport that had few followers and was yet unrecognized. Snowboarding has since come a long way, having made its Olympic debut during the 1998 Winter Games at Nagano, Japan.
Burton Snowboards has grown, too. With world headquarters in Burlington, the company operates a factory in Austria and stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Wrentham (MA), Orlando, and of course Burlington, as well as in Tokyo and Innsbruck (Austria). It also works with thousands of retail dealers in more than 30 countries around the world and offers products for sale online as well. A major factor in the company's success is the high-quality standards to which it has adhered from its very beginning. These have made Burton Snowboards a premium supplier whose name is synonymous with quality. Its snowboards are made to exacting specifications from wood, fiberglass, and steel (not cheaper foam materials), and with unrelenting attention to every step of production, including the finishing details. "We don't cut corners," says a company spokesperson, though that sometimes means its products will cost a bit more than competitors'. The prevailing philosophy at the firm is that "you get what you pay for," and by listening to its core customers, who fall between the ages of 12 and 35 years old, Burton remains confident that its high standards meet the expectations of those for whom snowboarding is not just a sport but also a lifestyle.
"We've always based our decisions around snowboarders and what's best for them," says Jake. Quality is further assured by the company's policy of redesigning every product every year in order to retain its position as "an innovator, not an imitator" and to keep up with changing customers' needs and desires as well as with competitors' efforts o grow their own market share. One such threat comes from ski companies that have decided to move into the snowboarding industry. Burton's managers credit much of the company's success to its ability to respond well to change. According to Jake, "As a company we've always thrived on opportunity." One new opportunity the firm faces is the need to control its production costs without sacrificing quality. Burton recently announced that it is closing its Burlington factory and will manufacture exclusively at the Austrian plant it has operated for the past 25 years. "It costs us significantly more to produce a board in Vermont than we are capable of selling it for," a company statement said, "and sadly, this is not sustainable in the current economy."
Nearly 400 employees will remain at the Burlington facility, however, which has "excelled at prototyping and developing product" in the past and will still carry that responsibility. "Here in Vermont," said the then-CEO, "we will continue to focus on advanced product development, which will allow us to bring the latest snowboard technology to riders faster than ever before." As evidence of its commitment to maintaining its reputation as the best snowboard manufacturer in the world, Burton opened a new state-of-the-art prototype research facility named after world famous snowboarder Craig Kelly in
Questions
1. About 40 people lost their jobs when Burton closed its Burlington manufacturing facility. How do you think the factory closing might affect the productivity of the remaining headquarters staff? What impact could it have on product quality?
2. Do you think there will be an impact on quality when the design and development staff is separated from the factory floor by so many miles? Why or why no
3. Can you reconcile the company's focus on product quality with its decision to concentrate manufacturing in a place where it's less expensive to operate? If so, how, and if not, why not?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.