Burtons Casestudy
Managing Change
Ladislas Rice
1969-1975
1) When Rice took over as CEO at Burtons in 1969, the men's clothing industry was beginning to have a higher demand. Due to the Beatle's era during the 60's, men became more fashion conscience. Up in till Rice was appointed, Burton's menswear specialised in made-to-measure suits but young males were buying more ready to wear clothes. Competition was becoming stronger, coming from Italian designers, which offered ready to wear suits and more colourful casual clothes. Not only were these garments ready to wear but also they were less expensive to buy. This was becoming a serious problem for Burtons and changes had to be made.
The first decision Rice made was to switch Burtons from selling made-to-measure to selling ready-to-wear clothes; the need for this change can be illustrated in forces of change diagram below.
Driving forces can be internal and external likewise for restraining forces. The external forces of change are outside factors that can force a company to change and internal factors are factors within the company that may force or restrain change. In the case of Burtons the external forces that influenced this decision was the customers, more males especially the age group of under 25's became more fashion conscience. This may be from a change in culture and lifestyle from the ?swinging sixties' and the Beatles era rubbing off on young males across the nation. It was cooler for men to take notice in their appearance and fashion, men tried to do out each other by wearing more flamboyant clothing. The stronger competitors were also a force of change, more and more designers were coming into the market. Italian designers were becoming more popular; imports of ready-to-wear sui ...