BUS500: SunPower Inc. Relocation Analysis and Implementation Plan

This assignment presents a case study on SunPower Inc., a solar panel company facing declining growth and high operational costs in Oakland, California. The Board of Directors decided to relocate the company to Sunland Park, New Mexico, to reduce costs and take advantage of state incentives. As the CEO, the student is tasked with evaluating the consequences of this decision on stakeholders (employees, customers, etc.) and the business, developing an implementation plan to manage the change, and addressing the board's objectives: retaining employees, minimizing moving costs, completing the move within the current tax year, and ensuring continuous customer order fulfillment. The analysis requires considering governmental compliance, tax increases, leasing and property costs, utility expenses, and employee benefits, alongside the benefits of relocating to New Mexico. The student must identify and discuss consequences, create a detailed implementation plan using a change model, and justify the choices made, emphasizing effective communication and change management strategies.

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is double-spaced, 12-point font. The final
product will be between 5-6 pages in length excluding the title page and the reference page.
 Title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor’s name;
 Introduction paragraph in which the decision process is described and its significance in
business. The introductory paragraph is the first paragraph of the paper but is typically
written after writing the body of the paper.
 Body Paragraphs
 Summary paragraph. A summary paragraph restates the main idea(s) of the essay. Make
sure to leave a reader with a sense that the essay is complete. The summary paragraph is
the last paragraph of a paper.
Read critically and analyze the scenario provided below.
You are the CEO of SunPower, Inc. The job of implementing the Board of Directors’ decision
to move the company to New Mexico has been delegated to you. Before anything can be done in
carrying out the decision, the consequences of implementing the decision must be
evaluated. Stakeholders are vital to the organization and it is necessary to consider how the
decision will impact them. Also, the decision will impact the business concern so be sure to
consider all aspects of how the decision will impact the business.
Then create a plan that will address the changes that will occur as a result of the decision’s
implementation. The reasons for the choices you have made in the plan should take into account
the material discussed in class and focus on communicating and creating change.
In your paper, respond to the following elements:
 Identify and discuss consequences to stakeholders and the business concern that will be
impacted by implementing the decision;
 Develop a plan for implementation that addresses the change.
 Use a model of change as part of the Implementation Plan
Case study:
Decision History:

SUNPOWER, INC. is a medium size company that makes solar panels. Located in Oakland,
California,, the company has been doing well financially but its growth rate has declined by 3%
in the last two years. Projections indicate that the next two years will bring the decline to 5.4%.
The Board of Directors carefully reviewed all the business factors to determine what was
responsible for creating the decline. It was determined that over 72% of the problem arose from
expenditures in the areas of governmental compliance costs due to a new California
environmental regulation in the manufacturing process, state tax increases, leasing and property
costs of company buildings, utility expenses, insurance and employee benefit costs.
Concerned that the cut in profit and potential growth will continue, the Board entered into
discussions with the State of California to see if reduced tax rates could be effected because of
their green status. The company also opened a dialogue with the leasing company and utility
companies to see what possible reduction in costs could be obtained. Initial responses seemed to
yield little movement.
Talks with the Governor of California showed that the state was willing to reduce the company’s
tax load by 10%. Leasing, utility, and insurance creditors said that they could not decrease the
costs and that in some cases the expenses were likely to increase by 6%. Further research by the
Board suggested that if the company moved to another state that was solar-friendly, SunPower
would be able to receive major benefits. SunPower went into discussions with the State of New
Mexico. New Mexico is willing to give SunPower a 20% tax reduction and employees a cut by
5% to 3% (graduated by highest/5% to lowest/3% salary base) on their personal income tax for
three years as a relocation credit. The cost of doing business in New Mexico is 30% less than in
Oakland. After consultation with the CEO the Board decided to move the business. In making
the decision the Board set three major objectives as their priority: 1) they wanted as many of the
present employees as possible to come with the company; 2) the costs of moving would be
minimized so incentives to move could not be given; 3) the move would happen within the
current tax year (10) months and; 4) customer orders would be fulfilled with absolute continuity.
After the review of various alternatives and weighting objectives the following decision was
made by the Board for the Company.
Decision:
SUNPOWER, INC. will move to Sunland Park, New Mexico by December 31, 2016.