個案資料

Jaipur Rugs Company Private Limited, a family-owned business, was founded with the twin goals of leading a thriving export business and helping artisan weavers to live with dignity and keep their heritage alive. In 2015, this company was the largest exporter of hand-knotted carpets from India and faced two dilemmas: Should the company focus exclusively on hand-knotted carpets, as preferred by the founder and some family members, or should it focus on tufted carpets, which also provided a considerable share of the company’s total revenue and had increased the company’s sales? Also, because of the number of recent departures by non-family members from the management team, a balance was needed in terms of the family's values and those of the hired professionals that were brought into the company. Many initiatives had been introduced at the company, but would they be sufficiently helpful to achieve the company’s goals?

This case is ideal for postgraduate courses in organization theory, leadership and change management, or succession management in family businesses, and for executive training. Students should be sufficiently familiar with the basic concepts of management that they readily recognize the phases of the organizational life cycle, the crisis that organizations face in each phase, and the possible approaches for effectively addressing each crisis. After completion of this case, students will be able to:<ul><li>Identify obvious and subtle conflicts between multiple pairs of seemingly contradictory goals and concerns of different stakeholders, including between the head of the company and his successors within the family; between the family members and the business’s professional staff; and between the head office staff and the weavers.</li><li>Recognize that although it seems logical to balance conflicting forces rather than favour one side, achieving a fine balance is a difficult task.</li><li>Understand the concept of organizational ambidexterity — the ability of an organization to pursue seemingly contradictory goals and the notion that seemingly opposing forces are often interrelated and embedded in numerous contextual details, such as the organization’s life cycle phase.</li><li>Determine whether balancing contradictions is more effective than exclusively favouring one option, especially from the perspective of the founder’s values and in regards to their resources.</ul>

• Balancing goals, Family business,