SunPower Case Study: Decision Making, Stakeholders, and Change

This case study examines SunPower's decision-making process, focusing on the company's strategic move and its implications. The paper outlines the seven steps of decision-making, emphasizing the importance of gathering information, evaluating alternatives, and considering consequences. It analyzes the impact of the decision on various stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, employees, and business partners, highlighting the need for effective communication and change management. The study also applies Kurt Lewin's model of change to understand the process of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing within the organization. The analysis underscores the importance of making sound financial and strategic decisions while considering stakeholder interests to ensure long-term organizational success. The paper concludes by emphasizing that the decision-making process involves identifying the best possible alternative, which is consistent with the company's main objectives.

Name
College

Abstract
In this paper we will talk about the SunPower case study which will help us
understand the process of decision making in an elaborative manner. We will first talk about
the seven steps of decision making then we will talk about different stakeholders and in the
end our paper with the Lewin’s model of change.

Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Plan for absorbing the change....................................................................................................6
Shareholders...........................................................................................................................6
Community and customers.....................................................................................................6
Employees..............................................................................................................................7
Business partners/suppliers....................................................................................................7
Conclusion/ model of change.....................................................................................................9

Introduction
Decision making process might seem easy and quick to many but in reality, it is just
the opposite. An organization needs to go through a number of steps in order to make a safe
and sound decision that will help them both financially as well as strategically. The process is
inclusive of framing up a decision, gathering relevant information and then evaluating
various alternatives (Umass) .
A step by step decision making process can help us making more thoughtful and
deliberate decision by gathering essential information required for our final decision and for
creating solid alternatives. This approach ensures that an organization or individual chooses
the most suitable alternative out of all the possible outcomes (N.D., 2010) .
Some of the basic steps of any decision making process should be:-
a. Identify a decision- like we decided that a move from New Orleans to New Mexico is
essential for us.
b. Gathering information- we did it by contacting different governing bodies and asking
them for handsome cut in taxes
c. Weighing our gathered information- it would be one of the more crucial stages of
decision making where we will scale all the gathered information and imagine how
different alternatives will work out for us. Like in this case, when our teams came
back after negotiation, we deciphered in the case study that the best option would be
to move to a new location as the cost rate was supposedly going to increase.
d. Identifying different alternatives- this has not been done effectively by us and we
stuck to the most elaborative decision of moving out the entire business to a new
location but then in this case we can also say that, the company (SunPower) had no
other better alternative as the expected growth rate was supposed to decline in near
future, which the company could not afford at any cost.

e. Executing- Now is the time, in this decision process that we are ought to take a
decision and take it to the execution level by opting for the best alternative which we
can choose.
f. Consequences to stakeholders and impact on us- The last step of a decision making
process is where we evaluate our decision and analyze whether what we have gained
what we expected from our step 1 i.e. choosing a decision to make.
One of the more important steps while making a decision is that one is required to
always weigh both good and bad business consequences and ensure that they are biased
towards good and positive result.
This will help an organization to curtail some of the possible losses and keep the
company up and running with a stable growth rate. At times, scenario even arises wherein
decision making might not seem simple and avoiding it stands as the best decision itself. This
aggravates even more when an organization faces lot of confrontations after making a
decision.

Plan for absorbing the change
Stakeholders stand as one of the more important pillars of any organizations. If an
organization does not have stakeholders, it is equivalent to a body without spine. Stakeholder
is a collective term given to all the parties which affect the working, supply and demand of an
organization. As per SunPower, some of the more important stakeholders are the customers,
employees, retailers and other business partners.
Let us discuss one by one about these stake holders and how they n absorb these
changes taken by our organization, SunPower (Kokemuller, 2012) .
Shareholders
Company owners have a strong veto in the decisions made by the company and they
often take part in the daily operations of the business and they have a keen interest in the
profit potential of the organization. These stakeholders are the financial backbone of the
company and pleasing them is the utmost duty of management. It would be hard to make the
shareholders realize that the decision to move is essential for long term and profit making.
Even though profit making is good as of now but there I no surety as to when this graph will
also start declining.
Community and customers
Customers are that pillar of an organization which provides them with the cash flow
required for business to run and in the end, make profit out of it. It is quaint essential that the
company meets their requirements and needs on a regular basis. On the other hand, even
community activists and leaders will grasp an organization by its neck if they do not work for
social cause and do not donate to charities, it can even lead to backlash amidst the public for
the company. So, it becomes utmost important to leave a good image before leaving and
make sure all the neighboring communities are informed about this move of the organization

and hope for their support even if they move to a new location. This will ensure that the
organization has older links intact and get new links in New Mexico also which all in all will
help in the growth rate hence, main motive is getting fulfilled.
Employees
In today’s era, organization tends to keep its employees at a higher pedestal than the
business operations which indeed is a good step. We say this because a motivated employee
means better outputs which mean more appreciation and more profit, in the end benefit to the
organization. One needs to keep employee as close as possible with the decisions made by the
organization and a decision such as this where we are moving the entire organization is a
huge one. So, if we have not asked for their opinion then lease which could be done for them
is that we ensure this transition is smooth for them and most of the employees are able to
make a move to the new location. The company already decided that they want to keep the
same staff at New Mexico also hence, this needs to be injected within the team in a proper
manner with the help of group meetings, individual conferences that each and every
employee has played their role to the best possible manner and now there co-operation is
required for making this move successful for the company. They should be informed calmly
that incentives would become difficult to be given as the expenditure for transport itself
would cost the company a lot but then this movement in itself will garnish more income and
profit in the coming years which will benefit one and all.
Business partners/suppliers
An organization’s business partners/suppliers also affect an organization working by a
large extent. To be specific, companies with which we form an alliance for joint venture or
shared businesses. Suppliers are the once upon which company relies on for the tools used
inside the organization or requirements for the products which an organization makes. Strong

and negotiable supplier base is made over a long period of time and a abrupt change of
location will not please any supplier as that involves change of trajectories for delivery, time
invested for delivery, quality and health of products transported and urgency. So instead of
giving them a jolt, these suppliers and business partners can be informed about the change
in location before hand and plan should be made before hand on how they will negate the
transport and other costs due to this location change. They should be brought in confidence
that we still need supplies from them and along with that increase our supplier base in new
area too so that dependability on one source reduces and we are able to dictate the terms in
contracts.

Conclusion/ model of change
Kurt Lewin’s model of
change is appropriate for our move and we need to understand the importance of unfreezing
al the movement within the organization in a controlled manner, pour all the essentials in to a
new mould and then gradually inculcate the change within the organization and freeze
ourselves.
In short, one need to realize that decision making is a process wherein we are
supposed to find the best possible alternative. The basis of deciding this alternative lies on the
fact that it should be synchronizing with the main objective of the organization.

Bibliography
Kokemuller, N. (2012). What Effects Do Stakeholders Have on Your Business? Retrieved
from Chron: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-stakeholders-business-53361.html
N.D. (2010). Decision Making Process. Retrieved from
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/decision_making_process.htm
Umass. (n.d.). Decision-making process. Retrieved from
http://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decisionmaking/process/