Strategic Analysis of Inner-City Paint Corporation: A Case Study

This case study analyzes the Inner-City Paint Corporation, a wall paint manufacturer in Chicago, owned by Stanley Walsh, facing significant challenges including poor management, disorganized business practices, and financial mismanagement. The study examines the company's market position, financial situation, and competitive landscape, highlighting issues such as low employee productivity, unqualified workers, lack of financial audits, and stiff competition from larger and smaller companies. It identifies the lack of a strategic plan and poor inventory management as critical weaknesses. The study recommends that Mr. Walsh improve his management skills, review the recruitment system, improve the inventory system, hire a financial expert, address the company's debt, invest in new machinery, and explore new markets. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the company's problems and offers strategic recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the need for better financial management, strategic planning, and market adaptation.

Running head: INNER-CITY PAINT CORPORATION 1
Inner-City Paint Corporation
Name
University Title

INNER-CITY PAINT CORPORATION
Introduction
Inner-City Paint Corporation is a firm that produces wall paint and which is situated
in Chicago and whose proprietor was Stanley Walsh. It began its operations in a warehouse.
The company is facing problems of poor management and disorganized business. The
customers lack confidence in the corporation, with poor financial management and high
receivables in accounts (Narayana et. al., 2010).
Problem Statement
What strategic methods can the proprietor Stanley Walsh take to redeem the name of
Inner-City Paint Corporation while improving the present situation?
Objectives
Analyze the company’s current situation
Make a SWOT analysis of the company
Do an analysis on finances
Do an analysis on the industry
Seek alternatives and recommendations to the current problem
Strategic analysis of the current situation
Market
Mr. Walsh has been managing the company in a style that has not changed ever since
he started the company. His policies on recruiting new employees are not revised and do not
seem to work well with the company. This is because the company is facing problems
including low productivity due to the lack of motivation to existing employees and at the
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same time hiring unqualified workers making him lose a chance to enter new markets, and
improve on the product and getting more and bigger clients (Burrow & Kleindl, 2013).
Financial situation
The proprietor Mr. Walsh does not want to spend on hiring an auditor to take care of
the finances. Therefore, audit has not been done and the suppliers and taxes have not been
remitted due to poor management of finances. The income taxes were left out in the income
statement making it hard to calculate the profits.
Competition
Inner-City Paint Corporation is facing stiff competition from the small companies
surrounding it. Glidden and Du-point is a larger company that tends to receive more clients
than Inner-City thus Inner-City is losing its potential customers to Glidden (Scarborough,
2014). There are also smaller companies existing in the market giving Inner-City stiff
competition.
Product
Mr. Walsh did not do a SWOT analysis to assess the environment. Thus, he did not do
a strategic plan for the company making it hard for him to cope with the situation of
economic slowdown and also the housing market. The inventory and record system was also
poor, therefore unable to handle the management of the product and new orders (Open
Polytechnic of New Zealand, 2008).
Recommendations
Mr. Walsh should review his management skills by improving on his management
skills or by acquiring a competent manager to manage the company for him. It seems that as
the company grows, it is becoming difficult for the Inner-City Corporation to cope with the
external and internal environmental changes. The recruitment system should also be reviewed
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by a qualified human resource specialist to enable Mr. Walsh employ the right people and
also learn how to maintain the existing people. The inventory system needs improvement to
enable the company handle larger orders. Finances should be handled by an expert so that the
financial expert may include the taxes of $38,510 in the income statement which figure was
left out. The company should also pay taxes and control the debt because the debt was too
high. Inner-City should also invest in more machinery and equipment for more and better
products in the future. Mr. Walsh should also look for new markets, look for more orders and
get a computerized system of inventory that will enable him to lessen the errors.
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References
Burrow, J. L., & Kleindl, B. (2013). Business Management. Mason, US: Cengage Learning.
Narayana, R. P., Appannaiah, H. R., & Sathyaprasad, B. G. (2010). Business management: II.
Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.
Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. (2008). Business & management. Lower Hutt, N.Z: Open
Polytechnic of New Zealand.
Scarborough, N. (2014). Effective small business management. Pearson.
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