Essay Public Relations – Feuerstein Vision of Business – Report Writing Economics Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Feuerstein’s Vision of Business:
Employees Are Assets
Feuerstein is a devout Jew and his belief drives his decision-making. A cornerstone of his thinking is a 2,000-year-old saying from the Jewish tradition: When everything is moral chaos, try your hardest to be a “mensch”— a man of highest principles. Malden Mills had no board of directors or shareholders. Feuerstein answered to his own belief system, and its wisdom was apparent:
• In 1980, Malden Mills declared chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off workers. Research and development was aggressively pushed—making an investment in brand equity. Out of this came the discovery of the lightweight, resilient, wool-like fabrics under the brand names Polar fleece and Polar Tec. This put Malden Mills back in business. Feuerstein hired back every worker he had let go after the bankruptcy.
• Feuerstein knows the correlation between loyal employees and loyal customers Customer retention at Malden Mills Ran roughly 95 percent, which is world class.
• Major retailers such as L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Lands’ End, Patagonia, and North Face carry the Malden Mills products not just as a picture in a catalog but with a history of the product and the company line itself.
• Malden Mills is a union shop and has long invested heavily in technology that eliminates jobs, but has never had a strike.

The Payoff
In the long run, Malden Mills’ worldwide business grew 40 percent from pre-fire levels. In less than two years, all but a handful of the original 1,800 displaced employees were back on the factory floor. “Customer and employee retention at Malden Mills runs roughly 95 percent.” The percentage of off-quality products went from 6 to 7 percent pre-fire to 2 percent post-fire. Once the fourth plant, which was not completely destroyed in the fire, was up and running, Feuerstein
walked among the employees. All present shared tears and thank yous. Employees promised to pay him back “tenfold.” Before the fire, that plant produced 130,000 yards per week. After the fire, production increased to 200,000+ per week, clearly the result of employee goodwill. In the past decade, Malden Mills has grown 200 percent with sales over $300 million a year and customers in more than 50 countries.
Malden Mills is a symbol of heroics. As one practitioner recently said, “I feel good wearing my Polar Tec jacket knowing how that man treats his employees.” That kind of customer loyalty is earned, not sold.
“The goodwill Malden Mills banked from the fire continued to pay dividends in late 2001 when the company sought bankruptcy protection. The loss of customers after the fire (they had to sign contracts elsewhere in the interim) and three warm winters hurt sales. The company was $140 million dollars in debt. However, lenders did not seek to liquidate the company, which was an option available to creditors. The goodwill continued to pay off when in 2004 Malden Mills hired a new president and CEO to run its day-to-day operations. The U.S. Government continues to be a major customer for Malden Mills’ Polar Tec garments, supporting Malden Mills through Department of Defense research contracts on combat clothing.

Questions:
1. Discuss the elements of an employee communications plan and how it impacted the decisions Feuerstein made.
2. What steps would have been taken had he decided not to rebuild the factory?
3. How would the closing of the mills have impacted the branding that occurred after the fire?
4. If you were the public relations director, what would you have suggested be done differently?
5. What would you recommend be done to ensure continued high levels of employee satisfaction?
6. How might this have been handled differently if it was a shareholder-owned organization? What would you recommend to management in that case to achieve similar
outcomes?
Q 04: Review the chapter “Media Relations” and develop a reflection (500 words) that what did you learned from this chapter and what the chapter was about?