Sumeet Malhotra

The Business Operations of Robin Hood and the Merrymen

Robin hood and the Merrymen are in the business to steal from the rich and give it to the needt. Th
organisation which was started by Robinhood has grown large with lot of new recruits. Robinhood
serves as the head of operating and has delegated few of the duties to his subordinated.
Merrymen need to overcome their largest competitor, the sheriff, who has become powerful and
more organised. He is the biggest threat to Robinhood and his organisation. The Merrymen can
adopt several strategies in order to overcome the sheriff.
1. Robinhood and his men can improvise internal operations in order to compete By finding internal
strengths and overcoming their weakness they can capitalie on advantage thus gained.
!. Merrymen can focus on new market opportunity, competitive advantages, consumer
e"pectations, competitor#s actions and technological advances.
$. Robinhood can choose the e"ternal and internal focus and perform a %&'T analysis to figure out
the complete standing of the Merrymen compared to their competitors.
Problems Robinhood and his organisation face:
(ack of discipline
Maintenance )ost
%helter*%pace shortage
+ood %hortage
Training , -s everyone was welcomed to .oin the organisation/
Maintenance and operating )ost
)hallenges to organise big and little trained group.
)hange management , introducing a change for such a large group of people from different
background/
0oal alignment of the individual with that of a group
%ecurity and 1igilance ,Because whoever wanted to .oin was taken in their could be spies
and traitors in the group/
2ssues that need to be addressed
'rganising group into one force with a common goal and ob.ective. 3stablishing a mission
and 1ision for such a big organisation ad aligning people with it.
2t is clearly mentioned that the organisation was constantly recruiting people and their
small bivouac grew into a ma.or encampment. Hence, arranging food and shelter for such a
large group is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
4eeping up with ever changing environmental and economic scenarios. The %heriff
continued to get strong and organised. Being a direct competitor it is very important for
Robinhood to constantly keep a vigil at the ever changing environment. The 5rince too for
well known for his vindictiveness as he had spies all across the nation.
)hanging from old war methods to newer one which could utilise the workforce better.
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)urrently Robinhood#s organisation is much unorganised. He is assisted by three people for the
functions and is certainly under employed. 2t is very evident that managing such a huge
organisation is getting difficult for him and there may be certain functions that are re.ected due to
less supervisors and managers. There is not much of interaction between the various departments.
Robin Hoodneeds to change the organisational structure. He should change it to the below
mentioned structure and delegate responsibility in order to manage the bigger group that he now
commands. This will result in decentralisation of the control to some e"tent however, not to the
fullest level but to certain e"tent.
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1. 2n order to meet the decreasing level of discipline and vigilance Robin hood needs to put the
recruitment process in order. - better way to do this is by recruiting supervisors and laying down HR
policies for recruitment. +or eg. They could limit the age, family background. By doing this he shall
only get workers who are focussed and share the similar goal.
!. -ppoint a food shelter and medical supervisor under his human resource manager. +ood and
shelter supervisors will concentrate on sole responsibilities. The main role of food supervisor will be
to constantly look for newer and cheaper sources of food.
$. 8evice a spy*1igilance division under the operation manager to built a fleet of spies and deploy
them around the sheriff#s office. The .ob should encompass the cross verification of the details of
new recruits.
9. 2f we look at the -nsoff#s Matri" then that would give an alternative approach
The Third ,$
rd
/ gives the following possible -lternatives
Robinhood can levy regular or fi"ed ta"ed on the merchants who pass by their territory. This
would be regular ta". (evying regular ta" shall act a constant source of income. -lso, the
merchants can be informed that they will not be looted in case they adhere to the ta"
policies. They will be rather protected in Robin Hood#s Territory. This shall be a win:win
situation for both as Robinhood shall get regular income and merchandisers don#t have to
worry about getting looted in forest and can concentrate on other issues.
He should encourage a villager ,%omeone not from his group and ;uite popular/ to become
his spokesperson and representative in the kingdom.
He should ask people to participate in the 4ing Richard#s rescue mission.
The 9
th
<uadrant gives this alternative=
Robinhood should not recruit new men in his group and should rather diversify. He should
provide his men with funds and support to become merchants and trader. The group thus
formed should be supported and hence they can use their power to threat other merchants
as well as the prince.
He should bond and increase his relationship with the farmers. 2nstead new recruitment
should be done from among the farmers as it shall serve as a strong economic backup and
also as a abundant supply of cheap food.
He should try to get people from prince#s court on his payroll. -cting as a spy and thus
letting him know of any new strategy prince is formulating or any new business that he
indulges to get in. -t the same time Robinhood needs to be ready to diversify into new
business in case, he get to know about it.
>. 3nforce discipline by practising it.
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)ompetitive -dvantage
)ost -dvantage
8ominance= 2t can be achieved by internal growth and through e"pansion in new markets.
6ew 5roduct 8evelopment= 6eed to develop better and more suitable methods of
increasing earning. i.e new ta" policy
)ontraction and 3"pansion
Reengineering= 5rocess and +unctional reengineering
8ownsiing= get rid of unwanted parts of the business. 7nits which are not profitable
Restructuring= )omplete restructuring of various departments needs to be done.
ACTO! P"A!