wk7 assigningersoll l
TRANSCRIPT
Hallmark’s History
1910 – 18 yr old Joyce Clyde Hall started marketing and wholesaling picture postcards.
1911 – J.C. brothers joined him in the business and they named the company Hall Brothers.
1915 – Fire destroyed their office and inventory. They took what was left in the safe and moved forth with the company.
1917 – Hall brothers invented modern gift wrap 1928 – The work Hallmark appeared on the back of every card. Company
was the first in the industry to advertise nationally. 1932 – Hallmark signed first licensing agreement with Walt Disney 1944 – The slogan "When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best" was first
advertised 1949 – Creation of Hallmark signature and crown logo 1951 – J.C. Hall received an Emmy Award for sponsoring the original opera
“Amahl and the Night Visitors” 1954 – Name officially changes to Hallmark Cards, Inc.
History cont.
1956 – Company moves to Kansas City, MO.
1966 – Hallmark International organized
1982 – J.C. Hall passed, Don Hall became chairman
1986 – Hallmark Gold Crown store program became
official
1994 – Hallmark Gold Crown® card became the first consumer reward program in the greeting card industry
1996 – Corporate website launched: Hallmark.com
2002 – Donald J. Hall Jr., grandson of founder J.C. Hall, was named president and CEO of Hallmark
Hallmark’s Beliefs and Values
Beliefs:
Goods and services must improve individuals lives
The products and services creativity and quality are vital to the company’s success
Innovation is very critical in attaining and sustaining leadership
The People of Hallmark is the firm’s most valuable resources
Values:
Excellence
Heightened principles of ethics and honesty
Hallmark’s Vision
“We will be the company that creates a more emotionally connected world by making a genuine difference in every life, every day.
“When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best”
Background
Over 40,000 retail stores including 2,400 Hallmark Gold Crown® stores
$87.1 million total revenues for 1st quarter of 2014 $3.9 billion annual revenues for 2013 31,800 total employees includes full time and part time for
both Hallmark and subsidiaries Over 500 designers, artists, writers, stylist, editors,
photographers, and web designers Estimate of 10,000 new and redesigned greeting cards
annually Over 49,000 variety of products Publishes in 30 different languages and issue to over 100
countries
Some of Hallmark’s Competitive Advantage
Hallmark has Gold Crown® Program
Hall of Fame
Hallmark Channel www.hallmarkchannel.com
Crayola subsidiary that motivates children to be artist and creative
Creative greeting cards that displays emotions of music, voices, or hand made imagination
E-Cards, Ornaments www.hallmarkecards.com
New innovative products like recordable storybooks www.hallmark.com.recordable-storybooks/
Hallmark’s Culture
Hallmark’s culture consist of their mission and goals. The individual facilities at Hallmark focus on the corporation goals and not individual goals.
Company’s focus is about helping people make emotional connections with others.
Creativity and innovation is constantly built on the evolving needs of the people
Leadership and Decision Making Ability
Hallmark has different leadership styles
Finance director and manager have an oppressive style
Leaders in this department has little trust in the staff and excluded from decision making
Staff members participate in the decision-making process only by attending unit-based meetings whereby their input is heard.
Unit managers report to the administrative leader, and in return the chief officers report to corporate managers for their final say in making decisions.
Organization Criteria
Communication from the management is, usually, abrasive as well as degrading with a high employee turnover ratio
The autocratic leadership style has not been well accepted by the staff who works in this company
Many workers, usually, feel inferior and intimidated to voice any concerns they may feel, like often working understaffed in a high acuity environment
Diversity
At Hallmark, diversity has been embraced from the lowest level of employment to the highest
The diverse group of employees generates a range of ideas that, usually, result in better outcomes
The average age of a worker in Hallmark is 46.8 years
Change Process
The process of organizational change involved the procedural review to purposely upgrade and improve the workforce of the organization
Process required skilled personnel mostly referred to as the change leaders
Change leaders have been considered to undergo different difficulties with respect to the resistance from some of the organizations bigwigs
Change Process cont.
Resistance encountered during the change process was some top managers could not submit some of the financial data of the organization for analysis
They feared being uprooted out of the organization due to mismanagement of funds.
The resistance slowed down the change process since without the analysis of financial data it was hard implementing a change
Resistance they encountered involved organizational hatred, lack of adequate cooperation from the employees, lack of adequate means of change communication, minimal access to organizational records since most of the employees feared losing their jobs
These resistances manifested throughout the organization and negatively impacted on the change process
Change Process cont.
After the implementation of the change, a strategy referred to as post-implementation strategy was applied to institutionalize and sustain the change
Some of these post-implementation strategies included; using a formal structural process issuing information to the staff and have them display how they are faring with the change process
Second strategy involved benchmarking, which involved making phone calls, reading articles about the organization and meeting with the employees to get information on the progress of the change
Thirdly, involved communicating with the employees adequately, though organization of meetings.
With these post-implementation strategies, the institutionalization process was successful
Conclusion
Conclusively, the hybrid organizational structure at Hallmark, as well as its commitment to maintaining its intended purposes constitute to an placement of goals across all the systems and subsystems.
It needs communication to take place between organizational divisions and departments (Hunter, 2007).
The environment at Hallmark is restrictive in that it does not allow frontline workers or staffs who are dealing with the clients to make some rash decisions by themselves. This might sometimes cost the company dearly in case something of an emergency sort occurs. (for more information on Hallmark Incorporation please click on the
link www.hallmark.com)