Organisational Change

CASE 20 SEEING THE FOREST AND THE TREES

The changing face of competition, both domestic and global, was looking directly into the window of the headquarters of the Forest Products Company (FPC) of the Wood India Corporation, Mumbai. It was a face that reflected the trend away from the large-firm, commodity lumber business and towards the small mills that tailor-made products to meet the demands of their customers. Interestingly, these small mills owed their existence, in large part to the sale of machinery by the larger firms when they were faced with the depressed housing market in the early 1980s. As a consequence of being able to buy this machinery at depressed prices, these small, non-union, owner-operated, entrepreneurial, customer-oriented ...