Golden Gordon's hair care empire 1 Whilst his friends had yearned to be train drivers, astronauts and brain surgeons, Gordon Black had never wavered in his desire to follow in his father's footsteps and become a hairdresser. 2 Nigel Black was delighted to welcome his son into the business. He had developed a reputation as a skilled, but slow artisan. Gordon's arrival created dramatic changes Whilst his father cut a customer's hair, Gordon was kept busy washing the hair of the next customer in preparation for the cut to be administered by his father. Turnover rose dramatically. Sales of hair care products also boomed. The salon's central location had always encouraged passers-by to enter to buy products, but Nigel's attentiveness to the hairdressing had led to long queues and disgruntled customers. With Gordon ever eager to serve, this part of the business thrived. 3 The business moved to larger premises. As the business grew, it became clear that his father did not want to trust his other staff with the more skilled elements of hair- dressing. As a result, Jill, the new employee, would wash their hair and Nigel would administer the main cut and styling, leaving Gordon to trim and Julian (the trainee) to tidy up and collect the money. The customers seemed to prefer this method: it was impersonal, but fewer customers needed to dash out to feed the parking meters outside. 4 Wandering through the park one day, Gordon counted 13 David Beckham shirts in a kick-about game of football. He also noticed that 11 of them sported a Beckham- type hairstyle, but that only one of them had blond hair. 5 Gordon decided to create his own hair dyes and add them to the range of products on sale at the salon. Initially, he concentrated on a honey blond dye. The first con- signment of 'Gordon's Golden Hair Dye O' sold out in 5 days. Within months he was producing regular orders for individual customers, and the clinching of a deal with a regional chain of chemists led to the movement of production from the family garage and into a unit at the local industrial estate. A wide range of colours was nowproduced. 5 The production line for the main line of hair dyes was fully automated and could be switched to a different dye in a minimal amount of time. It was a protable market, but Gordon's niche became a specialist range of dyes, featuring herbs and spices. Customers were prepared to pay very high prices for these speciality products. A special room was set aside in the factory unit, to mix the ingredients for 'Golden Gordon's Herbal Dyes 0'. 3' Gordon considered the optimum combination of factors of production to employ. Four alternative production methods could be employed in the room set aside for ' the herbal range of dyes, but each required a different balance of capital and labour. 8 For example, to produce his weekly target of herbal dyes, he would need to use two units of machinery and employ six staff if he used 'Production method 1'. Different combinations would be required for the three other methods as shown in Table 1- 5 Gordon tabulated the different reqrrementa of the four different methods. Unit at main-o , Quantity of Ilhnur 2 a 4 2 1 10 Gordon calculated that the weekly costs per machine would be $150. Labour costs equalled $200 per employee per week. 11 The inspiration for Golden Gordon's national breakthrough came while searching for the right shade of emulsion paint for his new flat. Gordon discovered it in the Mix and Match paint section in B&Q. If it worked for paint, why not hair dyes? 12 After much hard bargaining, a major chemist chain agreed to franchise floor space for 'Golden Gordon's Do-It-Yourself Mix and Match Hair Dye Mixing Machines O'. The early teething problems, with Gordon unable to meet the astronomical demand, only served to inflame the customers' insatiable appetite for the new product. 13 Within 3 years Gordon had retired to the Bahamas, occasionally serving and mixing cocktails in the bars of the hotel chain he now owned