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The first problem in Mrs. Fields’ case was micromanagement. Regardless of the expansion of business, Mrs. Field seemed to have difficult time delegating authorities to lower managers, and it is reflected by the computer system the company applied in all stores. By computerizing most processes, even interviewing potential workers, Mrs. Fields missed the opportunity of benefitting from store managers’ experience.
The second problem in Mrs. Fields case was the lack of planning. A good example of this problem is the way Mrs. Fields financed new opening stores by dept only. The lack of planning in Mrs. Fields’ case can be also reflected in the decision of opening stores in Japan without a partner.
Another problem Mrs. Fields got into was adding so many product lines to her business. Regardless of all management mistakes Mrs. Fields made, she was very successful at the beginning because of the good experience she had in the cookies’ business. Adding new products to the business and keeping the management system unchanged, had a big impact to Mrs. Fields’ business downturn.
Another noticeable problem in Mrs. Fields’ case was the firing of the La Petite Boulangerie (LPB) management team. Mrs. Fields had reduced the LPB management team from 53 to 3, after the acquisition, which made it harder for Mrs. Fields to run the new subsidiary properly.
The last problem in Mrs. Fields’ case was the quantity of information reported. The district managers of Mrs. Fields have to print out 300 pages a day which is both tiring and wasting of work time. Instead of these massive reports, managers at Mrs. Fields should have focused in the quality not quantity of these reports....