Rubbermaid: An Unbelievable Disappointment

Newell’s Acquisition of Rubbermaid: An Unbelievable Disappointment
1. Answer the questions at the end of the case.
1. Whenever there is the pruning of “deadwood” in a company it can disrupt company dynamics. It may make employees uneasy as they worry about the security of their jobs. This uneasiness can come out as low employee morale and therefore poor employee performance. This pruning can cause even more harm when it is done by managers who do not know that much about company, such as right after an acquisition and a new management team takes over. The letting go of personal and departments by a new manager team will cause the remaining employees to be very skeptical and critical of the new management.
2. Pruning the “deadwood” from companies

Rubbermaid’s inability to improve its delivery service to Walmart is a little pathetic. Walmart was a serious part of their business and when Walmart started taking their shelf space away they shut done nine facilities and cut 9% of their workforce. Rubbermaid knew that Walmart was a big customer and they should have done everything it took to keep Walmart happy. I think there are two major factors that contributed to or account for this deficiency. First, I blame top management. Customer service starts at the top. If top management does not care about customer service no one in the company will care about customer service. Secondly, they must have had an outdated computer system. This is evident by in 1996 after they had been cut by Walmart they spent $62 million on a new one. However, this also did not help and even after the merger things did not improve much. I think that there was too much other drama going on with the merger, for the managers to care about customer

These included Home Products, Little Tikes which was toys, Graco Century which is baby strollers and swings, Curver which is storage solutions, and Commercial Products. Promotion was something Newell’s Rubbermaid struggled with when Galli took over he promoted the brand on prime time television for the first time in three years. They also have swarm teams that make sure product is displayed nicely, which can be its own kind of promotion. Pricing varies tremendously due to the different kinds of products Newell’s Rubbermaid sells. As far as place. Rubbermaid was originally headquartered in Wooster, Ohio. However, it can be purchased almost everywhere because of its deal with Walmart. However, it has also had to work with smaller retailers because of the troubles it has had with