HAZEL Case Study

HAZEL CASE STUDY
Summary
 Hazel had worked for Fortune 500 for 15 years.
 Hazel, along with 400 other workers were
terminated due to the new CEO's decision to
downsize the company.
 Hazel lost her job and was unable to find more
work
 Began mowing lawns as small source of income
during unemployment
 Saw this as a business opportunity and began
expanding
Question 1:
1) In what ways are Hazel’s customers most likely to
judge the quality of her lawn care services?
Hazel’s customers will judge her work based on the appearance

of the lawn after her service.
Example :
1: Landscape
2: Height of the grass
3: Health of the plants
 How quickly the staff can finish the
job and analyze the quality of the job.
 Availability of the service.
 Prior experience the worker have.
Question 2 :
2) Hazel is the operations manager of her business.

Among her responsibilities forecasting, inventory
management, scheduling, quality assurance, and
maintenance.
(a) What kinds of things would likely require forecasts?

 Inventory: Equipment and supplies used for
fertilizing, weeding gardens, trimming shrubbery.
 Demand needed (more demand is more likely
needed in the summer than winter)
b) What inventory items does Hazel probably have?
 Fertilizers
 Herbicides
 Grass seeds
 Pesticides
 Tools in gardening ( e.g rake, grass cutter,
spade etc )
 Fuel for her lawn movers
c) What scheduling must she do? What things might
occur to disrupt schedules and cause Hazel to
reschedule?
Disruptions
1: Lack of supplies and equipment

2: Not enough stock, workers or funds
3: Natural disasters like :
 Storms
 Hurricanes
 Drought
 Thunderstorms
d) How important is quality assurance to
Hazel’s business? Explain
“ At the end of the day. Customers are the ones

signing our paychecks ”
If the customers are not satisfied then they are

less likely to recommend your services to other
potential customers.
e) What kinds of maintenance must be
performed?
A. Repairs needed on the lawn mowers

B. Gardening equipments
C. Smooth flow of operations
D. Healthy client relationship
Question 3:
 What are some of the trade-offs that Hazel

probably considered relative to:
A) Working for a company instead of herself?
Company is more stable, Lawn Care is not really

needed during winter pay may be lower
compared to owning her own business.
B) Expanding the business?
 More clients
 More profits
 More expenses
 May have to increase prices, & in turn lose
customers
C) Launching a website?
 Easy to share link to the website on any social media site

 May be expensive
 Could bring in more customers
 Shows what Hazel’s business has to offer
Question 4 :
4) The town is considering an ordinance that would

prohibit putting grass clippings at the curb for
pickup because local landfills cannot handle the
volume. What options might Hazel consider if the
ordinance is passed? Name two advantages and
two drawbacks of each option.
1) Provide a new kind of service wherein she will

offer to pick up grass clippings and dispose them
properly.
 Advantages:
 -She can utilize the grass clippings as fertilizers for her

business by decomposing them.
 -She can also earn higher revenues by selling fertilizers
made out of grass clippings
 Disadvantages:
 -She will incur costs in finding a space to

store/decompose the grass clippings
 -She will need one or more vehicles to collect and
transport the grass clippings.
2) Expand her business through backward integration. She will
breed goats, cows and other grass-eating animals and feed
them the grass-clippings.
 Advantages:
-she may generate higher revenues by selling these animals

at a reasonable price (with minimal costs on feeds because
of the grass clippings)
 -She will have a wide range of business.
 Disadvantages:
 -Additional capitalization is needed.

 -She may not be able to focus on her lawn mowing business.
Question 5:
5) Hazel decided to offer the students who

worked for her a bonus of $25 for ideas on how
to improve the business, and they provided
several good ideas. One idea that she initially
rejected now appears to hold great promise.
The student who proposed the idea has left,
and is currently working for a competitor.
Should Hazel send that student a check for the
idea? What are the possible trade-offs?
 Hazel should not send the student a check
because the student works for a competitor
that is probably using the students idea.
 It creates room for new ideas that may be

more profitable or beneficial to Hazel’s
company.
THANK YOU

HAZEL Case Study

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HAZEL Case Study

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

HAZEL Case Study

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HAZEL CASE STUDY

Hazel’s customers will judge her work based on the appearance

2) Hazel is the operations manager of her business.

(a) What kinds of things would likely require forecasts?

1: Lack of supplies and equipment

“ At the end of the day. Customers are the ones

If the customers are not satisfied then they are

A. Repairs needed on the lawn mowers

 What are some of the trade-offs that Hazel

A) Working for a company instead of herself?

Company is more stable, Lawn Care is not really

 Easy to share link to the website on any social media site

4) The town is considering an ordinance that would

1) Provide a new kind of service wherein she will

 -She can utilize the grass clippings as fertilizers for her

 -She will incur costs in finding a space to

-she may generate higher revenues by selling these animals

 -Additional capitalization is needed.

5) Hazel decided to offer the students who

 It creates room for new ideas that may be

You might also like