Assignment Prompt & Instructions
Each Case Study assignment is designed to help the student make application of course content
to a real world situation. Read the assigned case study and connect the key issues in the case to
assigned readings and presentations. Respond to the questions with direct, thorough responses.
Each case study assignment should include the following:
• Title Page in APA format
• Introduction to the case summarizing the situation
• Questions converted to sub-headings – responses to each question
• Strong conclusion that summarizes the ideas
• APA Style Reference page (as needed)
INSTRUCTIONS
C.K. Worth Case Study
C. K. Worth Co., Ltd., was founded by Clayton Ken Worth, who also serves as president. C. K.
Worth’s primary activity is representing U.S. processed and fresh foods to retail and food service
distributors. The company is also engaged in representing processed and fresh food producers in
international trade. Principals in the company have many years of business experience in sales
and the food industry. The company has been in business for twenty-five years, and President
Worth is interested in diversifying the company’s products to ensure its continued growth and
success.
C. K. Worth has employed Kathy Green for the past twenty years. During that time, Green has
worked in various capacities with the company. She has seen the company grow from a small
operation to a large brokerage firm, which employs fifteen salespeople located throughout the
United States. However, Green always thought that the C. K. Worth Co. should expand its
services to represent other U.S. and international products. Given that Green has a sport
background and has tracked the growth of the sport industry over the past decade, she
approached Worth with the idea that the company should expand its product line to include
sporting goods. Green was confident that the Worth Co. could improve its profit margins by
representing another product line, in addition to food. After listening to Green’s idea, Worth
developed a sporting goods division within Worth Co. and named Green as its vice president.
Her job was develop a plan to expand the company’s services to include sporting good products
and to get the division up and running.
Green was excited about the opportunity and proceeded to develop a plan for C. K. She
developed a mission statement for the sporting goods division, which was to represent
manufacturers of sporting goods products in sport retail stores within the United States. Her
goal was to acquire at least ten product lines. With the approval of Worth, Green attended the
National Sporting Goods Association shows in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In
addition, she contacted sport manufacturers by telephone, letter, email, and personal visits
requesting to represent their products. Within six months, Green had acquired more than twenty
product lines to represent to sporting good retail stores. Primary lines acquired were Converse,
Salzenger, and some Wilson products. She was pleased with the product lines, and reported her
progress to Worth.
After their meeting, Worth decided that, instead of hiring salespeople specifically for the
sporting goods division, it would be more efficient to use the existing food sales force to
represent the sporting goods products. Green thought it would be better to hire a sales force
specifically for sporting goods products, however. Worth stated that he did not have the
resources to hire new sales personnel; instead, Green should train the existing food sales forces
to sell the sporting goods products. Given the situation, Green scheduled a sales meeting to
discuss the selling of sporting good products.
Fourteen of the fifteen sales personnel attended the meeting. Although some personnel were
happy to have another product line to sell, many voiced their opposition to selling sporting good
products—stating that they did not believe that the product lines of food and sporting goods were
compatible. After much discussion, however, the entire sales force decided to give the sporting
goods line a try. After all, as one salesperson stated, “selling is selling.” Green distributed
procedures for selling the sporting goods line and assigned sales territories to be the same as the
food territories.
As time went by it became apparent to Green that having food sales reps sell sporting goods
products was not working. She received phone calls from manufacturers complaining about the
lack of knowledgeable people selling their product. In addition, she received phone calls from
retail stores stating that the reps did not seem interested in the products and that they were
providing poor service. Green reported the situation to Worth.
Worth’s reaction was simple. He instructed Green to “either get the food sales force to do a good
job in selling sporting good products or get rid of the sporting goods line.” Green decided to
work with the sales force a while longer. She provided more training and sales meeting. Sales
personnel attendance at the meeting went down, as did the sales of sporting goods products.
Furthermore, manufacturers were beginning to pull their lines from the C. K. Worth Company.
Given all these facts, Green decided that she could no longer support having the C. K Worth
Company sell sporting goods products. Therefore, fifteen months after the inception of the
Sporting Goods Division of C. K. Worth Company, Worth discontinued the division upon
Green’s recommendation.
1. How effective was the C. K. Worth Company’s planning regarding the sporting goods product
lines? Where did the company go wrong? What planning steps could have been considered
and/or undertaken to improve the effectiveness of the sporting goods product lines?
2. In what areas were the goals of the food division and the sporting goods division compatible,
and in what areas were the goals not compatible? Explain.
3. Undertake and report the results of a SWOT analysis for the expansion of C. K. Worth
Company’s business into sporting goods product lines. What factors should have been
considered in the decision to create a new division to sell sporting goods?
4. If you were an advisor to Worth and Green, what advice would you have provided to them
about planning, budgeting, goals, forecasting, and knowledge management?
5. Go online and locate two sporting good manufacturers’ websites to determine how they sell
their products. What types of information are included in these manufacturers’ mission
statements?
– a year ago