Environmental change is inevitable regardless of the business. How and why these changes occur can determine the course of a business and its success or failure. The external environments that affect change for Camp Bow Wow were minimal, due to its stable environment (Williams, 2015). However, there was one major factor that could break the dream of the Camp Bow Wow franchise, external lenders, a general environmental factor (Williams, 2015). Due to the complexities of lending money for a franchise it was difficult for Heidi Ganahl to sell her franchises. Determined to accomplish her goals without help she began her research and attained a partnership with VCA. They bought out Camp Bow Wow on August 15, 2015 and Heidi Ganahl remains as …show more content…
The organizational culture has been one of Heidi’s greatest successes and hardships within her franchises. There are now more than 200 Camp Bow Wow locations and maintaining the original ideals, the same style, the level of services, and excellent customer service is an on-going challenge. To overcome her challenges she has created an open door policy to encourage and reinforce her franchisee’s voices. Heidi also holds frequent meetings (Relyea, 2015) to reinforce a consistent organizational culture and reestablish the company mission (Williams, 2015). Heidi Ganahl’s techniques in maintaining her established and consistent organizational culture can be related to the Hawthorne Studies conducted by Elton Mayo from 1928-1932 (Williams, 2015). Her adamancy of bringing her franchisees together on a regular basis and conducting business on an open floor where everybody is heard and has a vote in decisions to be made, has developed a sense of belonging to a group or family. In turn, these reactions have developed a cohesive outcome for successful businesses and her over all franchise. In addition to applying Mayo’s ideals, Heidi has also established a system to identify organizational heroes, to encourage consistent organizational culture (Williams, 2015) through an annual awards ceremony held