Strategic Choices Implemented by Paul Pressler’s

MGT 599 SLP 4: STRATEGIC CHOICES
Strategic Choice of Paul Pressler
            After taking office as the CEO of Gap Inc on 2002, Paul Pressler started concentrating on intensifying teamwork and collaboration among the employees of Gap Inc. At first, the effort of Paul Pressler did improve the teamwork and collaboration among the workforce of Gap Inc. But people started to roll their eyes after countless meetings, workshops, role-playing seminars and get-togethers, which aim to improve the teamwork and collaboration of Gap’s workforce, began consuming a lot of time of employees. Most of the staffs of Gap Inc felt that those countless meetings, workshops, role-playing seminars, and get-togethers only waste their time and did not address the crucial matter of creating and marketing the product lines of the company (Businessweek.com, 2007). Paul Pressler believes that through improving sense of teamwork and collaboration on the workforce of Gap Inc, it can easily improve the productivity of each and every person working on Gap Inc which later will reflect to the overall performance of the said company in the market.

Effectiveness of Paul Pressler’s Strategic Choice
            Though the initial objective of Paul Pressler on providing team building seminars and meetings was to improve the productivity of Gap’s workforce, at the end of the day, the result was the opposite of what Paul Pressler was expecting. During those times, Gap Inc’s main concern was the tight market competition and product line development, but Paul Pressler wanted to use teamwork as the pillar of Gap’s stability towards answering the above mentioned concerns of the company. Due to this misaligned strategy of Paul Pressler to boost the productivity of Gap Inc, employees’ performance starts to drop as their valuable time, supposedly for developing and marketing new product lines of Gap, started to be wasted by tons of workshops and team building seminars. Though the intention of Paul Pressler was good, but it does not fit to various issues that needs immediate solution or actions, e.g. tight market competition and weak product publicity. It is therefore clear that the strategic choice of Paul Pressler was a failure and ineffectively addresses the immediate concerns of Gap Inc.
Cost Cutting Strategies
            Another strategy that Paul Pressler implemented during his term as the CEO of Gap Inc would be the cost reduction of Gap’s operation. Paul Pressler made necessary adjustments on product’s research and development in order to minimize the cost of their operation, thereby improving the profitability of the entire company. Though Paul Pressler’s strategy aims for the cost of operation of Gap to be minimized, but this also lead to the sudden drop on the quality of Gap’s products in the market. In other words, the quality of Gap Inc’s products in the market was sacrificed leading to the sudden down turn on the profitability of the company and outperformed by its competitors in the market. Therefore, the cost-cutting strategies of Paul Pressler was ineffective in improving the brand development and financial status of Gap since it only served as an avenue for the quality of their product lines to deteriorate and being outperformed by competitors.
Major Accomplishments
            Though Paul Pressler’s term as the CEO of Gap Inc was considered by many as a disastrous one, he still managed to offer improvements on the operation of Gap in the market. He was responsible for the strengthening of Gap’s balance sheet, improved the overall performance of various departments of Gap, greatly enhanced the presence of Gap on its on-line stores across its brand portfolio, and improved the corporate standing of Gap on the global market (Gapinc.com, 2007). Paul Pressler was also a good leader and a nice person to work with based from the statements of his immediate subordinates which improved their performance. Therefore, Paul Pressler, despite of the mismanagement that he done, must still be considered as a leader for he just did what he think was right and good for the entire company – Gap Inc.
References
Businessweek.com (2007). Paul Pressler’s Fall From The Gap. Retrieved May 30, 2008, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_09/b4023067.htm
Gapinc.com (2007). Gap Inc. Announces Paul Pressler to Step Down as Chief Executive Officer. Retrieved May 30, 2008, from http://www.gapinc.com/public/Media/Press_Releases/med_pr_PresslerStepDown012207.shtml