The Business Operations of Robin Hood and the Merrymen

Robin and the Merrymen are in business to steal from the rich and give to the poor. The organization had begun as a personal interest to Robin, and has grown with allies and new recruits to become a very large organization. Robin is the head of all operations with few delegates who have their own specific duties. The Merrymens dilemma is that they must overcome their largest competitor, the Sheriff, who is growing stronger and becoming better organized. The Sheriff has gained the money and men and is beginning to cause problems for the Merrymen, looking for their weaknesses. The Merrymen have several strategy options in order to triumph over the Sheriff. There are three approaches we will focus on to find a strategy to overcome the Sheriff and his band. First, Robin and the Merrymen can find ways to improve their internal operations in order to compete. By finding internal strengths and weaknesses the Merrymen can capitalize on their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Second, the Merrymen can focus externally on market opportunities, competitive advantages, consumer expectations, competitors actions, and technological advances. Third, Robin could chose to mix internal and external focus and perform a SWOT analysis to find the complete standing of the Merrymen compared with their competitors. Focusing internally, the Merrymen could change their business strategy in order to end competition with the Sheriff before they are completely defeated. Secondly, with an external focus, Robin could kill the Sheriff. But, Robin believes this would not completely solve the problem. Third, they could join an alliance by helping the barons in their goal to free King Richard the Lionheart. This would save the Merrymen from the Sheriffs increasing power, but is also a risky choice. There are several issues that the Merrymen must consider while striving to compete with the Sheriff. The size of the band of Merrymen is becoming too large for the economic resources available. Robin is feeling like he is not in touch with his employees because of the increasing size of the band. Vigilance is in decline and discipline is becoming hard to enforce. Robin needs to decide whether or not to change the business strategy of the band from confiscation of goods from the rich to a fixed transit tax. In the beginning, Robin Hood takes on a leadership role by ruling supreme and making all-important decisions. He delegated specific tasks to followers who worked towards a vision that Robin Hood, the leader, prescribes. In forming a vision Robin felt that his strength was in numbers so he accepted allies and later also excepting all those who had a willingness to serve for Robin. The best leaders will have the most followers. His followers need to be motivated, believing in Robins vision and taking this vision on themselves for it to be successful. Its Robins responsibility to commit to leadership and the enterprise (Merrymen) in order to have a successful band of Merrymen. Without his leadership of his strategy, the Merrymen would not have a road map to carry out Robins vision. Perhaps Robins success was in part to his power as a trustworthy leader. Robins influence of referent and expert power helped to give to his charismatic leadership style. Robin exerts expert power by providing knowledge and advice, which helps, increase his credibility and trust within the band of Merrymen. He links his referent power to his Merrymen by valuing and accepting them as well as making them feel important which enables his followers work closely towards his vision as a leader. As the size of the band increased changes arose in Robins leadership role although his original vision of strength in numbers still held strong. Due to large band of Merrymen, Robin began to fade into the crowd and eventually losing control over his followers. All these organizational changes contributed to Robins inability to recognize his own band of men, overlooked the lack of food, resources, and financial reserves, as well as discipline. Due to the lack of control and his change in power, this shifted his leadership role to a management role. His original followers have now become mere subordinates with their own goals in mind. In his new management role Robin has shifted his strategy from previously establishing direction to now working towards his goal. Instead of aligning his Merrymen he now needs to focus more on aligning his resources to satisfy his band. Although Robins role has shifted it is important that he must maintain the level of motivation that existed under his leadership role with his subordinates. As his leadership role was altered, as did his power over his Merrymen. Now taking on more of a management

position his power included legitimate, reward, coercive, and referent power, which was a change from his previous expert, and referent power in a leadership position. His new legitimate power, which was granted by the organization, enabled the Merrymen to realize their own responsibilities. Although Robin held reward power, it was not visible to his Merrymen; this indirect power kept them free from the Sheriffs rule. Coercive power is also indirectly seen by his Merrymen in that if they choose to leave the band and were caught they risked a confrontation with Robin. Referent power the only power that Robin hold intact as a previous role as a leader, he valued and accepted his Merrymen to make them feel important.

Forming an Alliance The barons have approached Robin and asked him to join their conspiracy against Prince John and the Sheriff. Due to this, Robin is now faced with a very important decision he has to make about the future of the Merrymen. He has to figure out if it will be better for the Merrymen to form an alliance, a merger, or to continue to not have any ties with the barons. If Robin takes the first option and forms a merger with the barons, he and the Merrymen would dramatically strengthen their position, and open up the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage against the sheriff. This competitive advantage would occur, because the merger would help fill many resource gaps that the Merrymen currently have. The main resource gap being the fact that the barons would be contributing their financials, which, in turn, would help pay for the rising costs of food. These lower costs will help stop the draining of the Merrymens financial reserves and Robin and his Merrymen could be able to invest their financial resources somewhere else. Robin could take the second option and form an alliance with the barons. This option is more probable for the Merrymens current situation due to the fact that alliances can be quickly formed and disbanded if necessary. At the same time, an alliance offers almost all of the advantages of a merger, without all the disadvantages. If Robin were to form an alliance with the barons and it did not work out, the alliance could be quickly dissolved, whereas a merger can not. Also, in an alliance, not all resources are shared, so the Merrymen would not have to worry about a strain on their already diminishing resources. The final option Robin has is to not form a merger or an alliance with the Barons. Robin may not want to take the risk that is associated with the barons proposition. He may want to explore other strategic options to overcome Prince John and the Sheriff. Although there is a high return (future amnesty) for Robin and the Merrymens services, there is also a high risk associated with this venture. Robin knows this and has to make a decision on what he thinks is best for the Merrymen.

Recommendations We have developed several recommendations for the Merrymen to aid in the success of the group. It is our belief that the current strategy is one that can again be successful but many changes need to be implemented to ensure this strategy s success. The Merrymen need to build off the strengths it has. Manpower is the largest resource any group can have, but the quality of the manpower is an area of concern. Implementation of the original

recruitment process or an advanced recruitment process is the first necessary fix. Just letting anyone be a participant of the group has been the source to several of the issues plaguing the Merrymen. Candidates should have a particular set of skills to allow entry. If there is a food shortage, pre-screen candidates for skills such as farming. Discipline has been identified as another issue. This can be eliminated through the better screening process and better training. For this all to work, there must be a better management system put in place. Five to six managers is not enough for a group of this size. The better screening process would help identify candidates with the skill sets that would be suitable for the management needs of the group. Since the largest internal issues facing the group have stemmed from its size, identify the candidates who can help manage the discipline, resources, provisions and intelligence gathering. Departmentalization is a must. The brand recognition the Merrymen have can also serve as a source of strength in regards to recruiting. Since the group is so well known, a call to action for specific skill sets can result in a flood of qualified candidates to help manage and maintain the group. Aaron Labin Curt Matthews Rich Miller Robin Hood Case Study The external threats, weaknesses and opportunities the Merrymen have are formidable, but proper action can be used to manage these. The lack of food and provisions can first be solved by recruiting farmers and hunter/gathers to the group who solely focus on these issues. This would also help eliminate the expenses the group incurs as trading and bartering for provision could be gradually eliminated. Since revenues are in decline, any money-saving action is beneficial. Concurrent with this issue, expansion of the raiding area is a must. Since merchants are now circumventing the forest, the raids need to be taken to them. Simple logic informs you to go where the money is. This is another area where recruitment can help, as the group needs to train specific individuals to focus solely on the raids and the guerilla-warfare tactics they use. The part of the group that conducts raids should also work

very closely with the intelligence gathering portion. Once again, proper recruitment and training will result in a part of the group who can focus on this important aspect. The intelligence can be used to know when and where raids are conducted and what moves the sheriff is making. However, all the groups need to be properly trained in combat for when the need arises. These groups should continue to be managed separately. Killing the sheriff would not end the campaign because it has grown beyond the scope of just the sheriff. This was the innovation that helped form the Merrymen but it has since transformed into its own entity. The death of the sheriff would result in only fulfilling the revenge of Robin Hood and has no benefit to the group as a whole. Throughout the study, we have made recommendations on what action plan and implementation steps Robin Hood needs to take to continue the Merrymen. Proper execution of these plans will result in a continued group and prosperity to those involved. We feel the biggest area for Aaron Labin Curt Matthews Rich Miller Robin Hood Case Study improvement is the recruitment and training aspect. Since the largest resource the group has is its manpower, utilization can yield great results.