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1. Introduction Figgie International Figgie International began in 1963 when Harry Figgie acquired dozens of small companies and merged them. By 1989, the company consisted of 36 divisions offering dozens of various products. The company once generated $1.31 billion annual revenues, and about $63 million profits for its shareholders. However, the company ended up bankrupt by 1994. This report will identify the problems in the company and suggest ways in which the failure could have prevented. 2. General Management Issue 2.1 Organizational Cultural And Management Style 2.1.1 No Clear Plan The company should have had a clear plan which guided the division to direct improvement and work practices. However, at Scott Aviation, manufacturer of emergency oxygen masks, there were once 20 projects being run simultaneously. The project・s goal often clashed with another・s. It was also hard to allocate human resources to handle those projects as it took a great deal of time to meet with consultant, to install and test the system. As the result, Dick DeLisle, the director of operations at Scott Aviation, needed to work more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Besides, there was no clear goal for what the employees should do or what they need to achieve. There were no clear definition of the term ：world class； and the employees did not know how to get to that stage. 2.1.2 Centralized Decision-Making In Figgie International, only Harry and his son made decisions. Employees were assigned tasks but they were not given control over their tasks. For instance, Dick was responsible for the output at his division, which means he needed to be given authority to make sure the production process ran smoothly. However, his operations were greatly disrupted by the doctor・s plan which was implemented merely by the consultants, Dick had no control over the decisions. It is understandable that employees would be very frustrated and perhaps not work as effectively when this happened. Moreover, a lot of the directors in the Figgie International tended to please Harry by going along with his plans to upgrade all its divisions to world class. They did that as they received considerable salary and commissions from the company. It is almost impossible to make the most beneficial decisions to the entire company in these circumstances, and the company suffered as a result. Besides, it is suggested that management in Figgie International must make correct decisions for the company to succeed; those decisions must not be biased. Max H. Bazerman, Harvard Business School professor, points our that ：managers audit their decision-making process, perhaps against a checklist of common snafus； (cited in Hintze, 2003, n.p.). In the case, Harry was less likely to make sensible decisions when he tended to support plans that looked good to him. Furthermore, when the company has formal policies for recruitment, promotion, resources allocation and strategy setting, employees not only have sense of security, they will be also able to participate more in decision-making process. 2.1.3 Lack of Communication Top management failed to communicate with the employees, which might have prevented the company from successfully launching the proposed changes.
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