Week 15: Kinky Boots and What Women Want
This was my first time watching Kinky Boots and I really enjoyed this movie, not only the plot was really engaging but the film gave me the opportunity to see the examples in the chapter 10 in action. Charlie Price began his journey as the owner of his dad’s company not trying to emulate his father or replace him but continue with the legacy that he left behind. What prompted Charlie to change his company’s strategy was the financial crisis he faced. Initially he attempted to attack the issue in a practical and linear way. He began cutting funds in areas where he could save money: by making people redundant. It seemed to be the most logical thing to do however, it wasn’t until one employee, Lauren challenged this action when she went off on a rant, after being made redundant and said to Charlie “All of them other sods, they went out looking for their niche markets. They didn’t just sit back in their offices going, What can I do?” The book also states this idea of finding niche markets and a “narrower consumer audience” and gives a series of examples to illustrate this need. “Developing a successful strategy can be as simple as noticing an unfilled nice in a particular market” (Pg. 304). Both chapter 10 and Kinky Boots stress the idea that in order for an organization to survive it must be flexible, or rather lend itself to the idea that the currents of your market will at one point shift and those organizations who seek to survive will need to expand or reinvent a part of their model.
Charlie Price would have never come to the realization that making women shoes for men would be a niche he could profit from. This is also a good example of how organizations cannot exist as “entities isolated from the rest of the world”… “for a company to succeed, some of it’s members must spend a significant amount of time engaged in environmental scanning” (Pg. 101). In this case Charlie happened to stumble upon Lola, when he attempts to rescue her from a group of men harassing her. This serendipitous event [where she breaks her heel and complains about the poor quality] is what sparks Charlie to think about what he could turn his dad’s company into. Without this idea, Charlie would have sold the company against his will. However, his devotion to this team, the shoemakers of Price and Sons were like family to him. It was a group of tight-knit people whom he cared for deeply. A family run organization like Price and Sons tend to treat it’s employees like just that family, a community of individuals who respect each other and whom might give a little more of themselves for the work they do because they feel more invested.
The book outlines this idea as well on page 313, “Companies that treat people as their most important asset are also the most profitable”. We don’t really see this in the beginning of Kinky Boots as there are a lot of factors that get in the way of the members of this organization bonding with Charlie as the new owner. Not only was it difficult for people to shift loyalties quickly from one Mr. Price to another but Charlie had to earn the respect of his employees. I guess they had to realize how invested Charlie was in making the company a success and they realize how deep Charlie’s devotion ran when they overhear Charlie and Nicola arguing about his remortgaging their house to borrow money for the Milan fashion show. Once they saw his deep belief in their work, and his investment, they committed themselves as well. The success can be credited to not only the members of this organization but to Charlie, whom as Lola indicated was “a man brave enough to realize that a factory is it’s people not it’s bricks”.
What women Want
Watching Kinky Boots reminded me of What Women Want, a film about Nick Marshall an advertising executive who after being passed over for a promotion has an accident that causes him to hear the thoughts of any woman. The films plays out as Nick and his now rival Darcy attempt to change their company Sloan and Curtis image and appeal to companies who sell products to female consumers.
In this scene, Darcy is introduced to the creative team and she presents the mission and goals of the company. She illustrates the direction that they are moving towards and how this change will impact them financially. This is a good example of how not unlike Kinky Boots, Sloan and Curtis realize that their organization is lagging behind in profits because they are still operating under the same goals when perhaps the business model they have no longer applies with their market.
This movie wasn’t so much about a company realizing that they needed to find their niche but that they needed to participate in a situation that was in current high demand. In order to do this, the organization needed someone who would be fluent in the needs of women and in making this particular group of consumers respond to the message being presented. The only way something like this could happen was if a woman, or someone who understood their needs could convey this creatively. The clip above shows the process making an advertisement for Nike what Nick and Darcy focused on to make their advertisement stand out. The clip below illustrates the respond that the representatives from Nike had and how each woman felt that their advertisement really resonated with their own personal experience and needs.
This movie was also a good example of how Sloan and Curtis used human resources to make their company more profitable. They realized that in the 21st century, business in their field had become more competitive not only in the way companies were producing their products, how they were reaching their audiences but also how they were using their people. In a field where creativity and the ideas that people have are their greatest assets, it was crucial for this and any other company to recognize that talent needed to be attracted and retained.
