Martha Inc. The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Purpose Statement: There are four management principles found in Christopher Byron's Martha Inc.: The Incredible story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
Main Point: Future managers can obtain success through hard work, determination and understanding marketing and management principles, but all these qualities must be balanced with respect for coworkers, partners and subordinates.
Subpoint- Knowing the market, created a niche and recognizing opportunities are essential to management success.
Conclusion-Martha Stewart's biography shows how hard work and determination got her to the top and how her treatment of coworkers could, in the end, undo her empire.
Book Appreciation Report of Martha Inc.: Martha Inc. The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Christopher Byron's unauthorized biography of Martha Stewart, Martha Inc. The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia tells two stories that are beneficial to learn for a future career in management. The first is that it…...
mlaWith the mindset of unabashed determination; the book shows another essential quality that a manager must develop in order to have a successful career -- working hard. Martha Stewart would not have built her empire without working hard. One paragraph in the book provides a glimpse at what a manager must do in order to become successful:
She could "feed 120 chickens and goats, double-spade the flower beds, spread out 500 pounds of pine bark and peat moss, and not come back inside until everything in sight looked exactly and perfectly like it ought to look. Behind the pretty face lurked the soul of a Polish farmworker. She was focused and determined as the Ohio State football team, which Woody Hayes had said was prepared to grind out the yardage, three yards at a time, and never quit." (Byron, 2002, p. 127).
In addition to a work ethic that includes hard work and determination. Byron offers practical business advice to the future manager. The first is a simple one that marketing classes often stress, "every marketing plan needs what is referred to in business school as a "unique selling point," Norma's and Martha's was this: a catering service set up so as to look as if
The 'Martha Loyalist' perspective
This perspective is advocated by fans of Stewart, who see her as unjustly accused, and are sympathetic to her cause, and logged on frequently to her Internet blog that she updated during the trial and from prison.
The 'I don't care' perspective
These people are not Martha defenders, but like Martha's sheets and recipes. They feel that these products will still be just as good as they were before Stewart was incarcerated, and they will be equally as good after her release.
Summary
Martha Stewart is a great brand and a great American success story. The American media loves a fall from grace, particularly the fall of a perfectionist, as Stewart herself as noted, in a reflective moment (Toobin 2003:1). However, there are many successful second acts in American life. Yes, the immediate effect upon company morale and stock prices may be negative. But the real charges facing Stewart are so…...
mlaWorks Cited
Anderson, William. (9 Jun 2003). "Martha Stewart: Political prisoner." Mises Institute. Retrieved 29 Sept 2007 at http://www.mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1246
Martha Stewart made most of prison stay." (2 Mar 2005). Fox Business News. Retrieved 29 Sept 2007 at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149218,00.html
McMenamin, Michael. (Oct 2003). "St. Martha: Why Martha Stewart should go to heaven and the SEC should go to hell." Reason Magazine. Retrieved 29 Sept 2007 at http://www.reason.com/news/show/28904.html
Toobin, Jeffrey. (3 Feb 2003). "Lunch at Martha's." The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 Sept 2007 at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/02/03/030203fa_fact
Since Martha had been capable of cheating, others would probably be too.
3. Training programs
The training programs to be designed for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia ought to include technical trainings that assist employees in improving their on job skills. The trainings should include all employees and should be differentiated based on the work areas and positions occupied within the company. Furthermore, aside from trainings, the management should present the workers the company's overall situation and figures, so that they are able to understand the ongoing trend and the company's future prospects.
4. The rationale behind the training programs
The rationale behind the implementation of training programs for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is based on two simple goals: achieving higher levels of productivity and increasing employees' satisfaction in regard to their workplace. The first idea comes to satisfy the company's needs. Technical training on the job will ensure MSO with better qualified personnel…...
mlaBibliography
Crawford, K., July 20, 2004, Martha: I cheated no one, CNN Money, accessed on October 18, 2007http://money.cnn.com/2004/07/16/news/newsmakers/martha_sentencing/,last
March 7, 2007, Martha Stewart back at work, MSNBC News, accessed on October 18, 2007http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7078053/,last
October 18, 2007, Martha Stewart, Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, accessed on October 18, 2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart,last
Stewart and Bacanovic were convicted.
But for others there are still many questions about the case and the motivations of the prosecutors. Paul Craig oberts (2004) believes the prosecutor criminalized Stewart's exercise of her constitutional right to declare her innocence. Claiming it constituted fraud for her to declare her innocence.
Nancy Shaw (2003) offers the opinion that the prosecutors charged Stewart with lying about a crime they cannot prove she committed. Shaw's theorizes that the reason for this is to make an example out of a celebrity's small infractions, comprising widely accepted business practices, trumped into allegations of wrongdoing and manipulation.
Joan Hemingway (2007) asserts the system and enforcement of insider trading regulations present opportunities for selective enforcement and the exercise prosecutorial bias. These prospects for selectivity and bias are due to the unclear and imprecise substance of the insider trading regulation and the unrestricted nature of the overlapping enforcement processes. Because…...
mlaReferences
Hemingway, J.M. (2007). Martha Stewart's legal troubles. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Hoffman, D. (2007, Summer). Martha Stewart's Insider trading case: A practical application of rule 2.1. Georgetown journal of legal ethics. BNET. Retrieved September 3, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200707/ai_n19511828/pg_2/?tag=content;col1
Kennon, J. (NDI). Understanding insider trading: definition, history, and punishment. About.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved September 4, 2010, from http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/newinvestors/a/102702a.htm
NAI. (2004, March 9). Musings on Martha. In Our Opinion. Center for Individual Freedom. Retrieved September 4, 2010, from http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/in_our_opinion/musings_on_martha.htm .
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Company Overview
For a time, Martha Stewart and her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (trading on the New York Stock Exchange as MSO) was best known for the brief imprisonment of its founder, namesake, and very public face due to insider trading convictions (Yahoo 2011; Brown & hodes 2011). Both Stewart and her company have more than rebounded form this debacle, however, and the long and almost entirely successful career of this cooking, crafting, and business wizard has hardly been affected by this isolated ordeal (Brown & hodes 2011). After building a moderate name for herself in the 1970s as a woman of taste who knew how to put on a party, from providing food to making the decorations, Stewart struck a publishing deal and in 1982 released Entertaining, which built her into a household name over the next decade (Brown & hodes 2011).
The Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia…...
mlaReferences
Brown, S. & Rhodes, N. (2011). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Accessed 29 May 2011. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Lo-Me/Martha-Stewart-Living-Omnimedia-Inc.html
MSLO. (2011). Corporate Information. Accessed 29 May 2011. http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.017db2225a7627b8510467a2b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=0b3ddc2858650110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Yahoo. (2011). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Accessed 29 May 2011. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MSO+Profile
Martha Stewart
Too Much of a Good Thing?: A Quantitative Analysis of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Martha Stewart and her business endeavors have come a very long way since the cooking, crafting, and home makeover maven attended a stock brokerage class and earned her trading license in 1968 (O'ourke 2007). The fact that Stewart even had a brokerage license might seem some what ironic in light of the insider trading scandal and resultant prison sentence that have now become some of the best-known details of her life, but far from being exemplary or definitive of Stewart's character or path to success this episode is quite contrary to the overall trajectory of her life and business acumen (Bhattacharya & Marshall 2009). At the same time, Stewart's current company could certainly stand to be in better financial shape than it currently is.
Beginning with a catering service and then a specialty foods store in the…...
mlaReferences
Bhattacharya, Utpal and Marshall, Cassandra D., Do They Do It for the Money? (November 18, 2009). AFA 2011 Denver Meetings Paper
Byron, C. (2002). Martha Inc. New York: Wiley.
Google Finance. (2011). MSO. Accessed 16 June 2011. http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:MSO
MSLO. (2011). 2010 Annual Report. Accessed 16 June 2011. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDI2NTc2fENoaWxkSUQ9NDQyNDc3fFR5cGU9MQ==&t=1
During success, for example, a company would wish for more of the same, and increase rather than change its current practices. Customers service for example might focus on establishing a characteristic sense of open friendliness towards customers by thoroughly training new recruits. An example of this is Virgin Mobile, whose employees are trained to be friendly and cheerfully helpful towards customers.
Leadership in a crisis situation would have to focus on what a company is doing to create and perpetuate the crisis and changing this. The aim would then be to change possibly harmful actions that might lead to a poor image of the company in the public mind, such as internal dishonesty. An example of this is the Enron scandal, which crippled the company. Because of the unpleasantly tense atmosphere at the workplace, leadership would also need to aim at reassuring and calming employees.
To deal with its current crisis…...
mlaSources
AIGA Design. (2007). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/cla-martha-stewart-living-omnimedia
Brady, Diane (2005). The Reinvention of Martha Stewart. Business Week. http://money.aol.com/bw/general/canvas3/_a/the-reinvention-of-martha-stewart/20061101102209990001
Dept. For Business Management and Regulatory Reform. (2007). Crisis Management. http://www.dti.gov.uk/sectors/infosec/infosecadvice/incidentmanagement/crisismanagement/page33391.html#CrisisManagementandBusinessContinuity
Guardian Unlimited (2004, March 8). Martha Stewart Living in Crisis. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-8-2004-51431.asp
The main objective of leadership training is to teach managers how to relate to their subordinates, understand, support and attend to their needs, all for the purpose of increasing their satisfaction at the work place and consequently the company's productivity. Once the training is complete, employees are prone to receive increased wages, to be better appreciated, to receive premiums, trainings and several other incentives that motivate them.
The training would be structured onto three stages. The first stage would have managers analyse the employees' demands. Then, they would walk among the employees and heard their requests. Third, they would implement strategies to resolve the employees' problems. All these would be done with the assistance of a specialized team of HRM, hired by the MSLO board of directors.
ibliography
Three Effective Management Styles, All usiness, http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management/11438-1.html, last accessed on October 12, 2007
Martha Stewart Website, http://www.marthastewart.com/,last accessed on October 12, 2007
Carter McNamara, Human Resource Management,…...
mlaBibliography
Three Effective Management Styles, All Business, last accessed on October 12, 2007http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management/11438-1.html ,
Martha Stewart Website, accessed on October 12, 2007http://www.marthastewart.com/,last
Carter McNamara, Human Resource Management, Authenticity Consulting LLC, last accessed on October 12, 2007http://www.managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm ,
Mathis Jackson, October 18, 2006, Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives, AIPI
This has been the case with Virgin Airlines where employees are given a wide range of incentives so as to enhance their performance as well as motivation levels. On the other hand, during times of crisis, leadership should be focused on damage control. Organizations that have applied this leadership approach before apart from MSO include the Trump Organization in mid-1990 (Greenbaum & Thakor, 2007).
elevant Changes in MSO & Organizational Politics
The current crisis in MSO has informed falling prices of the company shares as well as a significant decrease of the company's profits. To begin with, the company needs to deviate from brand personification. One of the main downsides of brand personification is the inherent tying of the brand to an individual. This essentially means that personal tribulations of an individual may end up affecting the very performance of the brand. The company may also need to borrow from Dell…...
mlaReferences
Greenbaum, S.I., & Thakor, a.V. (2007). Contemporary Financial Intermediation. Academic Press.
Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2009). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. Cengage Learning.
Sengupta, S. (2005). Brand Positioning. Strategies, for Competitive Advantage. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Weaver, R. (2011). Five Essential; Leadership Traits: The Story of Martha Stewart from Kmart to Macy's. Retrieved April 31st 2011, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Five-Essential-Leadership-Traits:-the-Story-of-Martha-Stewart-From-Kmart-to-Macys&id=461813
In the present times many government officials do the same feeding of celebrities and common people. Anyone can become a target for a prosecutor's conviction record. The war on drugs has come as a bonanza for such U.S. attorneys. It is easy to get a conviction on drug charges. The defendant need not have dealt drugs or even used them. Many defendants charged plead guilty to a lesser crime even when innocent or involve others even if there are not guilty just to get away. So what we know of such cases including that of Martha Stewart is what the government claims. Fiction could become fact by the leaking of 'truth' to the press, where some dutifully report these plants as facts. This is the reason that the Founding Fathers of the nation were determined that the federal government would have nothing to do in matters of business as…...
mlaReferences
Browne, Harry. (5 March 2004) "What the Martha Stewart Case Means to You'.
Retrieved at Accessed on 18 November, 2004http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/MarthaStewart2.htm .
Healy, Gene. (16 July 2004) "Lessons of Martha Stewart Case." Retrieved at Accessed on 18 November, 2004http://www.cato.org/dailys/07-16-04.html .
Hornberger, Jacob. G. (March 10, 2004) Retrieved at Accessed on 18 November, 2004http://www.fff.org/comment/com0403e.asp .
MSLO Events
Current Events for Martha Stewart Living
Incorporated in 1997, though in many ways in existence since the early 1980s, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has had a fairly eventful life for a corporation despite the brevity of its history. Built as it is around the knowledge, creativity, personality, and actions of its driving force and namesake, it is perhaps understandable that many of the events that have impacted the company and/or the environment in which it operates are in some way related to the personalities involved in the running of the company, and especially of Martha Stewart herself. Ethical dilemmas and potentially political internal moves of and amongst the company's executive personnel can both be seen as related to an overall internal environment that emphasizes the cult of personality, though there might be conscious moves away from this.
The Maven's New Salary
It is almost impossible to address the manner in which current…...
mlaReferences
Angelo, M. (2011). Check Out The Compensation Packages Of These 10 Media Moguls. Accessed 2 June 2011. http://www.businessinsider.com/martha-stewart-viacom-cbs-golf-les-moonves-philippe-dauman-live-nation-2011-4
Carr, D. (2009). Empire of Martha Marches On. NY Times. Accessed 2 June 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/media/27carr.html?ref=marthastewart
MSLO. (2010). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Names Sarah Gormley Senior Vice President, Communications and Marketing. Accessed 2 June 2011. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=96022&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1500689&highlight=
NY Times. (2010). Accounts and People of Note in the Ad Industry. Accessed 2 June 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06adnewsletter3.html?scp=1&sq=sarah%20gormley%20martha%20stewart&st=Search
Cardsmax
Marketing Plan for Martha Stewart Clean Brand in Japan
Marketing Objectives
Introduce Martha Stewart Clean Brand in Asia (Japan) and increase brand awareness by at least 25%
Increase advertising and initial sales by 30% in the 1st year
Increase brand equity evidenced by unsolicited purchases and additional information requests.
Financial Objectives
each profitability by the first season.
Maintain a pricing competitive to other eco friendly brands in the Asian (Japan) Market.
Generate sufficient revenues to maintain facilities in the area and keep overall cost low.
Target Marketing
"Martha Stewart Clean" (MSC) products will be targeting the middle class Japanese demographic. MSC is targeting college aged to middle aged individuals as they are most likely to be in charge of cleaning and most likely focused on using products that are eco friendly. Younger homemakers are also more likely to purchase MSC products themselves. MSC will also be targeting homes that have teenage and small children where there is a focus on…...
mlaReferences
Wakamatsu-Cho (2008). Statistical Data of Japan Homes [data set]. Japan: Statistic Bureau of Japan.
domestic diva artha Stewart really a convicted criminal?
artha Stewart is a household name -- not only because this icon of home decor and stylish living is awaiting sentencing for allegedly lying to investigators about the reasons she sold shares of a biotechnology company more than two years ago and faces the probability of a prison term -- but chiefly because she is revered as one of the most successful self-made female business owners in American history. She rose from her working-class roots to create a multimillion-dollar enterprise with a personal net worth of close on $2-billion, by selling America good taste.
For years the name artha Stewart personified the ideal of family life and home decor. illions of American consumers imitated her ideas of how to successfully juggle domestic and work responsibilities by adopting a standard of living that personified idyllic family life. According to the artha Stewart viewpoint all…...
mlaMartha Stewart's meteoric rise to fame and fortune began when she became one of the first female stockbrokers on Wall Street and through her business amassed a fortune. She also ran her own catering concern and published several books on entertaining. The climb up the corporate ladder toward establishing the Martha Stewart Empire began when she initiated a product partnership with Kmart and published a magazine called Martha Stewart Living. The name Martha Stewart became a national commodity when she developed her own syndicated cable TV show. In 1999 she combined her numerous enterprises - magazines, radio and television programs, household products and Internet sites -- to establish the company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She owns about 61% of the stock.
However, the optimistic public reputation that the Martha Stewart Empire represented was put to the test in 2002 when securities investigators began looking into the company's sale of 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems on Dec. 27, 2001 -- one day before the Food and Drug Administration made an announcement about an ImClone drug that sent stocks plummeting. A federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted Stewart and her former Merrill Lynch broker, Peter Bacanovic on June 4, 2003.
After reviewing numerous news reports about the background to this case, it is my belief that Martha Stewart should be acquitted for three reasons. Firstly, because her status and future progress is on the line for a crime that is rarely prosecuted in this manner; secondly, so that she may return to her business of improving the quality of life for all of us; and thirdly, because hundreds of jobs are at stake. Furthermore, I believe that the government is capitalizing on Stewart's celebrity status to distract attention from its failure to go after business tycoons whose criminal dealings far outstrip the misdeeds for which she is being prosecuted. The $40,000 she allegedly acquired unfairly is pocket change compared to her salary of over $2 million. She will be sentenced on June 17.
Martha Stewart
Stewart's control of shareholder voting rights disrupted the functioning of the board because Stewart was able to exercise control over the board. She put her hairdresser on the board, and clashed with the board over her compensation. Her involvement, combined with terms of her release, led to a convoluted management structure that undermined both governance and board function, in terms of being able to set the direction of the company. The directors found it difficult to act in the best interests of MSO, when those interests clashed with the best interests of Stewart herself, such as when she vetoed the desire of the board to take the company private, because she took personal offense to the idea.
The board functioned better with more external directors. Many of the governance issues as MSO started when a clash over pay in 2004 led to key external directors leaving. The board composition should…...
Creating a homey, comfortable, and beautiful environment is likely to be important for the consumer, as much of the products of the company stress simplicity and elegance, yet adding something a bit extra to everyday life, through the use of homemade crafts, making food from scratch, or added amenities to the home. These are women who are concerned as to what other women think of them, and think of their childrearing and homemaking skills.
hat segments are the ideal targets of the market?
Marketers estimate that although women slightly more than 50% of the population, they women "buy or influence an average of 85% of everything that is sold in the United States," and that number is even higher for food, household items and home improvement items (Clark, 2007) omen are ideal marketing targets because they have "huge appetite to communicate" and often recommend products to their friends, and use products,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Clark, Jennifer. "Women as Consumers." San Diego Marketing Power. 2007.
13 Mar 2007. http://sandiego.marketingpower.com/content20020.php#
Investor Relations." Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.2007. http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.017db2225a7627b8510467a2b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=b24ddc2858650110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
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