Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is an old 18th-century river town along the Mississippi River in the southeastern part of the state. Ancient streets have French and Spanish names or the names of the founders of the city. The river is a lifeline, with tourists frequenting the area via bus, car, and even 19th-century paddleboats that dock a couple of times each week in the summer months. With about 40,000 citizens, it’s a surprisingly busy town with numerous restaurants and retail establishments, plenty of banks and churches, and two very large regional hospitals. At the heart of the downtown area near the river is the central business district. Here, there are a variety of independent small businesses: bars and restaurants, boutiques, old furniture stores, ice cream shops, art galleries, antique malls, and more.

Several miles away, near Interstate-55, the city has seen a growth spurt of new retail, restaurants, and service businesses—mostly national chains. This has naturally drawn traffic away from the downtown area near the river, potentially hurting the sales of those businesses in the oldest part of the city. Fortunately, there is an organization dedicated to the resurgence of the original city streets: Old Town Cape.

The executive director, Liz Haynes, described the focus of the nonprofit organization. “Our mission,” said Haynes,

“is to preserve, promote, revitalize, and enrich the historic, cultural, and economic landscapes of downtown Cape Girardeau, Missouri.” The organization’s vision builds on this mission. It states that Old Town Cape “imagines a thriving, diverse downtown that is cultured, historic, and the pulse of the community.” The area that Old Town Cape covers is approximately 130 blocks containing over 300 organizations.

In addition, there are nearly 5,000 people residing in this geographic area. “We are happy to work with any business in the Cape Girardeau region, but our attention is primarily those in the historic, downtown area,” said Haynes. What Old Town Cape does for these small firms is provide marketing, offer consultation, hold workshops, and coordinate concerts and other events that bring sometimes thousands of people into the heart of the city, as well as anything else that accomplishes the mission Haynes and her team hold dear.

Questions 1. What is the mission and vision of Old Town Cape? Do you think these are well-written mission and vision statements?
Why, or why not?
2. What type of strategy does it appear that Old Town Cape is utilizing: cost leadership, differentiation, or focus?
3. Describe the organizational structure of Old Town Cape.
How would you characterize the complexity of the structure (vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation, or spatial differentiation)?
4. Is Old Town Cape’s organizational structure centralized or decentralized? Explain.
5. How would you characterize the organizational culture of Old Town Cape?