Case Scenario: PERRY'S PRINTING – "THE QUESTION OF SUSTAINABILITY" Jeff Perry, the CEO of Perry's Printing, calls you in

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Case Scenario: PERRY'S PRINTING – "THE QUESTION OF
SUSTAINABILITY"
Jeff Perry, the CEO of Perry's Printing, calls you into
his office. As you're walking toward Jeff's office, you think
about the company that you've worked for for over seven
years.
Perry's Printing is a family-owned printing company that
has been in business for over 70 years. The founder of the company,
Lawrence Perry, started the company as a small printing and
engraving shop. Now Lawrence's grandson, Jeff Perry, runs the
company, and they have grown to $20 million in annual revenues.
Today, Perry's Printing specializes in signage for retail
stores.
"Take a seat," Jeff tells you as you enter his
office.
Then Jeff says, "We have a problem. Our competitor just
came out with a statement on their website about being a "Lean and
Green" manufacturer. So he pulls up the website, and you read
it.
Lean and Green Manufacturing at Donovan's
Printing
Donovan's is a Lean Manufacturer. The core idea of Lean
Manufacturing is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste.
Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer
resources.
A lean organization understands customer value and
focuses its key processes on increasing it continuously. The
ultimate goal is to provide value to the customer through a value
creation process with zero waste.
"I'm freaking out," Jeff confides in you, "we don't have
anything about green manufacturing in our strategic
plan."
"But Jeff," you reply as you continue to scroll through
the website page, "Perry's has almost all of these features! We use
waterless offset printing and UV offset printing. We have new press
dryers and cooling systems that save energy. We don't have
automatic ink dispensers, but we can easily get them – I think
they're even included in next year's budget. So what's the problem
here?"
"It's just that now that Donovan's has made it
public, I feel we have to respond. I'm not sure I even believe in
all this stuff, but our operation's manager insists on these
processes. I think it all cuts into our bottom line."
Answer the following A-C questions about this
scenario:
A. How could Jeff's attitude
toward social responsibility impact Perry's strategy? Justify your
rationale with support from course materials.
B. Should Perry's Printing respond to this new strategic
plan published by their competitor? Why or why not? Justify your
opinion with support from course materials.
C. Porter identified one of the most commonly
accepted definitions of strategy as "choosing a unique and valuable
position, rooted in systems of activities that are difficult
to match." In other words, differentiation is the key to strategy.
If all competitors are choosing sustainability as part of their
processes, can sustainability really be a strategy? Support your
opinion with course materials.