This document provides a 19 page breakdown of the entire Stone Stylists Ltd case study for the BTEC Business Level 3 Unit 6 Principles of Management January 2025 Exam. It provides a Distinction level understanding and analysis of the case study, linked to theory. It includes a comparison of Lisa vs...
BTEC Business Level 3 Unit 6 Principles of Management 17th January 2025 Exam
Stone Stylists Ltd Notes
Table of Contents:
Introduction:.................................................................................................................................2
Understanding the Case Study:................................................................................................. 2
Overview..................................................................................................................................2
Strategic Objectives (Business Goals).................................................................................... 2
Comparison Between Lisa Stone and James Stone:............................................................... 3
Management Style...................................................................................................................3
Action Centered Leadership.................................................................................................... 4
Functions of Leadership.......................................................................................................... 5
Functions of Management....................................................................................................... 6
Motivation................................................................................................................................ 6
Data Analysis............................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 1 Employee data for Stone Stylists Ltd.........................................................................8
Figure 2 Sale data for Stone Stylists Ltd................................................................................. 8
Calculating Labour Turnover....................................................................................................9
Calculating Net Profit Margin................................................................................................... 9
Challenges:................................................................................................................................ 10
1. Unsuitable Management Style...........................................................................................10
2. Poor Motivation.................................................................................................................. 11
3. Decreasing Revenue and Net Profit.................................................................................. 12
4. Skills Gap...........................................................................................................................12
Proposals:.................................................................................................................................. 13
1. Transformational Leadership Style.................................................................................... 13
2. Management by Objectives Performance Appraisals........................................................13
3. Quality Circles....................................................................................................................14
4. External and Off the Job Training...................................................................................... 14
Recommendations:................................................................................................................... 15
1. Two-way Communication...................................................................................................15
2. Financial Motivators...........................................................................................................15
3. Kaizen................................................................................................................................15
4. Human Resources Planning.............................................................................................. 15
Charts:........................................................................................................................................ 16
Updates:..................................................................................................................................... 19
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Introduction:
This document provides a detailed analysis of the Stone Stylists Ltd case study for the January
2025 Unit 6 exam. It covers everything students need to know about the company, from its
business goals to the implications of changes in management under James Stone.
The document covers the entire case study, including an overview of the business, an in-depth
breakdown of the challenges Stone Stylists Ltd faces along with the proposals and
recommendations to solve them. It also includes detailed graphs and interpretations from the
two data tables provided.
Please note that the document contains significantly more information than students will need
for the exam. The approach is to allow students to select the topics and theory they feel most
confident about to use in the exam in order to help them achieve a Distinction grade. Students
can pick and choose the most relevant information that showcases their understanding of
principles of management.
The document will continue to be updated up until the January 2025 exam, based on feedback
from students. Please send feedback, suggestions and any questions to
btecbusinessnotes@gmail.com to help improve the resource.
Understanding the Case Study:
Overview
Stone Stylists Ltd is a chain of hair salons and barbershops in Sheffield with 5 locations owned
and run by Lisa Stone for over 30 years. In 2023 James Stone was appointed as the
“Operations Manager” and was given the responsibility of day-to-day operations with Lisa
stepping back. This change is where the challenges stem from, with conflicts between staff not
getting promotions to James making ineffective decisions due to his inexperience in the industry.
Some of the changes include; introducing daily sales targets and weekly prizes for employees
who upsell the most products, introducing new services and introducing longer working hours.
James discussed with the owner of a chain of salons in Leeds why he thought his businesses
were so successful and found that they carry out quarterly performance monitoring, give annual
feedback with recognition rewards, monitored human resources staffing requirements with IT
systems and partnered with a local hairdressing and beauty academy to address skill gaps.
Strategic Objectives (Business Goals)
Stone Stylists Ltd has three strategic objectives:
1. To be ranked number 1 hair salons and barbershops in Sheffield
a. By number of customers? Revenue? Profit? Customer satisfaction?
2. To achieve a 10% net profit margin
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a. Net profit is the final profit made after deducting all costs and the margin can be
calculated by dividing the net profit by revenue
3. To improve client retention to 90%
a. Keeping more customers → repeat business → stable income
Comparison Between Lisa Stone and James Stone:
Management Style
Lisa Stone:
The case study directly states that Lisa is a charismatic leader. A charismatic leader is where
the leader is inspirational and motivates their employees to do well, which leads to higher
engagement. In the case study it mentions that she knows all of her employees well and they
are all aligned on what she wants the business to achieve, with full support from all employees.
The main advantage of this style of management is that employees feel more connected with
the manager, helping to create a better working environment and lowering labour turnover rates.
James Stone:
James operates with a transactional management style. Objectives will be assigned and tasks
will be organised, employees carry out these tasks for rewards. The obvious disadvantage is
that it's difficult to find a reward that motivates and benefits all employees and that employees
are pressured to complete tasks through the fear of punishments, creating a poor working
environment. James exhibits many characteristics of the transactional style as one of the
changes he made was to introduce daily sales targets and giving prizes to employees who sold
the most at the end of the week. This is certainly a transactional approach as employees are
instructed to carry out a task (upselling products) and are rewarded for their efforts. This style
also focuses on supervision rather than control which is why James has twice daily meetings.
Summary table of Charismatic vs Transactional management style:
Charismatic Charismatic Employees feel more By persuading
leadership is where connected with the employees to do
the leader is manager which tasks, this style can
inspirational and lowers labour lead to manipulation
motivates their turnover rates. and narcissism.
employees to do well.
Transactional This style focuses on Employees are Hard to find
supervision rather rewarded which can incentives/rewards
than control. increase motivation that will motivate and
Objectives will be and productivity. benefit all employees.
assigned and tasks
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