Instructions:
a) Formal writing assignment #2: The Peerless Starch Company of Blair, Indiana.
b) Grading to be based on the CWE scoring rubric previously provided.
c) Assignment must be placed on the online portfolio and must be submitted to etutoring for review.
d) Read the case study below in its entirety and give it some serious thought. Then, in your own words, summarize the issues involved in this case (there are quite a few) and indicate whether Glen Baxter has a case and provide a thorough discussion to support your conclusion. Finally, and within the write-up, discuss what you would do if you were John Ludwig? Essay word count should be no less than 750 words.
e) Required dates:
a. Provide your instructor a copy of…show more content… Thereupon the outside directors, who had not dared speak up while the "old man" was alive, refused to appoint his son-in-law or his nephew as his successor. Instead they picked an outsider to become president and chief executive officer: John Ludwig, who was not even a native of Blair, Indiana, let alone a chemical engineer or a starch machinist. In fact, Ludwig had been with Peer¬less less than four years and had been forced on the "old man" by some of the outside directors. Having started as an industrial psychologist, Ludwig had first taught, then worked for the Pentagon as a training specialist, then in Industrial Relations for Ford, where he helped reorganize one of the major divisions and then had become general manager of one of the smaller Ford Motor divisions. He had come to Peerless in 1981 as its first "professional manager" - at least the first one in Blair - and as executive assistant to the president. The "old man" had kept him busy with the affairs of the other plants in the other towns, so that Ludwig knew very little about the Blair, Indiana Mill. Although he had several times thought of resigning what he felt was a futile and frustrating job, he now found himself in charge.
2. Even before the death of the "old man," things had turned critical at Peerless, and
Especially at the mill at Blair, Indiana. The market had sud¬denly become competitive. Synthetic starches and adhesives were
