Hello, please help me out with this case study (answers are to be original and well-detailed for better understanding ), thanks in advance.

CASE STUDY: MERRITT'S BAKERY In 1979, Larry and Bobbie Merritt bought The Cake Box, Christian Merritt, one of Larry and Bobbie's sons, joined a small business located in a tiny 450-foot store in Tulsa, the business in 2000 and now runs the business. An engineer Oklahoma. The couple were the only employees. "I would by training with experience in the telecommunications in- make cakes and Bobbie would come in and decorate them," dustry, Christian soon developed flow charts that describe Larry recalls. Bobbie Merritt was already skilled in decorating precise procedures for most work activities, ranging from cakes, whereas baking was a new occupation for Larry Merritt, simple store-front casks (cashiering) to unusual events such who previously worked as a discount store manager, So, Larry as a power outage. These documents standardized work ac- spent hours pouring over baking books in the local library ivities to maintain quality with less reliance on direct super- and testing recipes through trial-and-error experimentation. vision. Christian also introduced computer systems to pool "I threw away a lot of ingredients that first year," he recalls. information across stores about how much inventory exists, Sales were initially slow. Then, a doughnut shop around which products are selling quickly, and how much demand the corner was put up for sale, and its owner made it possible exists for Merritt's famous custom cakes. The information for the Merritts to buy that business. They moved to the improved decision making about production, staffing, and larger location and changed the company's name to Merritt's purchasing without having to directly contact or manage Bakery to reflect the broader variety of products sold. The each store as closely. Merritts hired their first two employees, who performed In late 2007, Merritt's Bakery opened a dedicated pro- front-of-store sales and service. Over the next decade, duction center near the original store and moved all produc- Merritt's Bakery's physical space doubled and its revenues tion staff into the building, affectionately called "the Fort." increased 13-fold. The company employed 20 people by the The centralized production facility reduced costs by remov- time it made its next move. ing duplication of staff and equipment, provided more con- In 1993, Merritt's Bakery moved to a 6,000-foot location sistent quality, and allowed the stores to have more front across the street. The business became so popular that cus- store space for customers. tomers were lining up down the street to buy its fresh-baked Merritt's Bakery also refined its training programs, from goods. "That looks like success to a lot of people, but that the initial orientation session to a series for modules on spe- was failure," says Bobbie Merritt. The problem was that the cific skills. For example, front-of-store staff complete a series couple didn't want to delegate production to employees, but of clinics that add up to 20 hours of training. The company they couldn't produce their baked goods or decorate their also introduced special selection processes so people with the carefully crafted cakes fast enough to keep up with demand. right personality and skills are hired into these jobs. Employ- "We felt like failures because we had to work those 20 hours ees at Merritt's production facility receive decorator training (per day)," she reflects. through a graduated program over a longer time. One or At some point, the Merritts realized that they had to be- two managers at the production site closely coach up to five come business owners and managers rather than bakers. They new hires. devised a plan to grow the business and drew up an organiza- Today, Merritt's Bakery employs more than 80 people, in- cional structure that formalized roles and responsibilities. cluding production managers, store managers, and a market- When a second Merritt's Bakery store opened across town in ing director. Two-thirds of the business is in the creation of 2001, each store was assigned a manager, a person in charge of cakes for birthdays, weddings, and other events, but the com- baking production, another in charge of cake decorating and pany also has three busy and popular stores across Tulsa. pastries, and someone responsible for sales. A third store "We're just now getting the pieces in place to start to treat opened a few years later. Larry worked on maintaining quality Merritt's Bakery like a business, with a lot of parts that we by training bakery staff at each store. "Because it is so difficult manage from a distance," says Christian Merritt, "We're pres- to find qualified bakers nowadays, I want to spend more time ent but detached; we have our hands in a lot of things, but it's teaching and developing our products," he said at the time. in managing stores instead of operating them."Discussion Questions 3. What form of departmentalization currently exists at 1. How have the division and coordination of labor evolved Merritt's Bakery? Would you recommend this form of at Merritt's Bakery from its beginnings to today? departmentalization to this company? Why or why not? 2. Describe how span of control, centralization, and formal- ization have changed at Merritt's Bakery over the years. Is Sources: S. Cherry, "Not Without Its Merritt's," Tide World, 13 April 2001. the company's organizational structure today more mech- 19: D. Blossomn, "Bakery Has Recipe for Success," Tila World, 28 October anistic or organic? Are these three organizational struc 2002, A7; M. Reynolds, "A Difficult Choice Pays Off for Merritt's Bakery," Modern Baking, March 2010, 39; "Flour Power." Tila People, May 201 1. ture elements well-suited to the company in their current Information also was collected from the company's website, http/www. form? Why or why not? merrittsbakery.com