Roxanne Quimby Case Recommendations: For the Burts Bees Company, the best decision to make is to move the

company to North Carolina. In North Carolina, the company will have greater opportunities for growth and higher profitability. However, Roxanne Quimby needs to slow down the relocation process. She has decided to make a sudden move of a $3 million company, and this is not wise. Roxanne Quimby would be much better off if she paced this move and followed careful steps in the relocation process. The first step in this process would be to return to Maine and restart operations. This recommendation is due to the fact that Quimby has not adequately planned for the changes that would happen in North Carolina. Moving to North Carolina would require a new product line and manufacturing processes. Quimby has not done any necessary research and development of the product. In fact, she did not start planning the new line until she was already in North Carolina. Quimby needs to keep Maine operations going until the North Carolina move is completely set up. This way, she can maintain profitability in times of change. The next step for Quimby is to hire and put together a management and support team in North Carolina. Roxanne needs to pursue qualified personnel to fill top positions. She has discovered experts in Plant Engineering and Marketing Management. If she went ahead and hired qualified personnel, she would have the adequate skills to help her plan and develop her product line. Quimby must spend adequate time developing new products and test them to see if they are desirable with consumers. Quimby felt that they would have to completely abandon their

original product line for new products. This is a dangerous concept, because the original products were the source of success. Without careful new product development and test marketing, Roxanne Quimby may be headed for trouble with this set of all- new products. Quimby needs to explore alternate manufacturing techniques of current products and find out definitively if they can be produced in the new location. Roxanne needs to carefully plan a new product line instead of jumping into it as she has already done. Once Roxanne Quimby has correctly planned the product line and has a well structured team in place, she will be ready to move to North Carolina and cease production in Maine. Situation Analysis: Burts Bees is currently a highly successful business that started when two talented people came together to create a new, interesting product that was attractive to consumers. Roxanne Quimby brought creativity to this business, and Burt Shavitz brought his technical expertise of handling bees. This pair was able to take a simple idea and turn it into a $3 million business. Burts Bees uses beeswax and creates simple products that are desirable to consumers. The company has a highly successful product line, and high sales volume. Due to the overdemand in product, Roxanne works 20 hours days on the line with other workers. She does not have time to focus on managerial issues. Burts Bees now faces growth constraints and high business costs in its current location in Maine. Roxanne Quimby started this business without managerial or technical business expertise. The company has now grown beyond the scope for her to manage alone. The company is also not able to keep pace with the growing demand for its products. Without a change, Roxanne Quimbys operations will be extremely limited in Maine. Problem Identification:

Burts Bees is limited in its growth potential due to its current location in Maine. Roxanne Quimby feels conflicted about moving this company to North Carolina, a place where she will certainly have more opportunities for growth. There are many reasons that Quimby wants to move and financially it makes sense. However, Roxanne is also scared of the change that moving will bring. Analysis of the Problem: Burts Bees is currently located in a small town in Northern Maine. This location creates high costs for the company. The town is isolated from major metropolitan areas, and this means that shipping and distribution is a challenge. The shipping costs for Burts Bees are excessively high. The process is not efficient. Another problem with the companys location in Maine is that this state has very high payroll taxes. These taxes make it unattractive to continue operations in Maine. Moving to North Carolina would be very advantageous to the company because it is centrally located around major metropolitan areas. Distribution channels would be abundant and shipping products would be much cheaper here. North Carolina also has lower tax rates than Maine. This provides a great incentive of tax savings for Burts Bees. The Commerce Department was very willing to make deals to attract Burts Bees to North Carolina. Burts Bees is also constrained by the lack of talent and knowledge of its employees. In Maine, the company had a staff of 44 unskilled workers. The low skill level of skills meant that productivity and profitability are lowered. For example, none of the employees have the ability to operate a forklift. This means that time and money is wasted by having to alter simple operations. This points out how incredibly constrained this company is by the lack of talent. In this very small town in Maine, it was impossible to find the talent needed to grow Burts Bees. Moving to North Carolina will be advantageous because the labor pool will be substantially

larger than in Maine. The company will be able to find employees with a greater range of skills and knowledge that it needs for general operational efficiency. Roxanne Quimby does not have the capability of managing the business properly; she needs help. She does not have any real business training, and this is a major problem for such a busy company. Quimby needs to have adequate managerial help for a company of this size. However, it is impossible to recruit highly talented managers to this isolated town in Maine. Moving to North Carolina would allow Quimby to higher the management talent that she needs. Without an adequate management team, this business will not be able to sustain itself. Moving the company poses a new set of problems for Burts Bees. A major problem will be the change in manufacturing techniques required. The company currently makes all of its products by hand, and is very labor intensive. In Maine, labor costs were low and this made this business model reasonable. However, North Carolina has higher wage rates and this business model will not work there. Moving to North Carolina would mean that the production process would need to be automated. Besides investment in new equipment, this move would also require the development of a new product line, due to the fact that current products such as birdhouses, baby clothes, and lip balm are completely unrelated. In North Carolina, Burts Bees would have to transform its product line to focus on skincare products. Alternative Courses of Action Roxanne Quimby has the alternative option of giving up on her expansion dreams in North Carolina. She could move back to Maine and accept that flaws that come with the territory. She can continue making her current set of products that have been successful. If Roxanne Quimby decided to move back to Maine, she would need to look at expanding her facilities there. The current facility and number of employees is constraining the output of the

company and they are unable to keep pace with demand. Roxanne is too overwhelmed with the workload. She needs to hire additional employees if available to her. Moving back to Maine would be the safe bet for Roxanne if all she wanted was to maintain the $3 million sales and current profitability levels. She is comfortable with this atmosphere, so this might fit her management style. However, the company would continue to be constrained by factors out of her control. This means that the Burts Bees brand will not be able to realize the full potential Quimby envisions. Quimby has the option of selling Burts Bees and follow other life goals or entrepreneurial adventures. However, Roxanne truly cares about this company and feels deep connection to it. She has also built a great partnership with Burt Shavitz. It would be very tough for Quimby to let this venture go, especially when it has not realized its full potential. She would not feel content at this stage with a selling decision. For Burts Bees, the best decision would be to proceed with the North Carolina move with time and due diligence.