Question 1

The following is a case study of Big D Custom Screen Printing wrote by Adriana Gardella and published byThe New York Times in April 27, 2011.

Darren Robbins and a parner founded Big D Custom Screen Printing in 2007. In its first year, the company, which is based in Austin, Tex., and specializes in printing T-shirts, recorded sales of $325,000 and a small loss.

THE CHALLENGE: To become profitable, Big D must determine whether to cater to customers with large printing orders or small.

THE BACKGROUND: Mr. Robbins, a former full-time musician who still plays in a band, was nostalgic for the multicolor tour shirts of his youth, which he described as works of art. He said he was appalled by the one-color shirts sold at Todays Shows. He was also disappointed by the quality of shirts created by some of Austins many screen printers and said he could do better.

With that goal, Mr. Robbins and his partner, who worked for Capitol Records, invested a total of $225,000 to open Big D. The division of labor was clear. I was a natural-born customer-service geek, and he was a natural-born salesman, said Mr. Robbins, who resolved to take care of the customers his partner brought in. We wanted to be one of the big boys.

As his partner traveled the country trying to win sales, Mr. Robbins ran the shop, frequently declining business from potential customers who requested small orders. Mr. Robbins, 44, who has a background in ad agency account management, said that turning away business kept him up nights. He wanted every call to end with a sale.

By the end of its first year, Big D ha grabbed a few big accounts local video game and record companies that placed orders for 5,000 to 15,000 shirts. But when the shop was not cranking out large orders, it becoming inactive. Mr. Robbins said his partner feared that small orders would prevent Big D from handling bigger jobs should they come in. But given his ad agency experience, Mr. Robbins said he was used to demanding clients and short deadlines. With effective scheduling, you can pretty much accommodate any customer, he said. Following the lead of his competitors, he charged more per shirt for the smaller orders he did take.

Required:

based on the case study illustrated above, discuss the four (4) Porters 5 forces are evident in this case study.

Porters forces	Elaboration
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