Business 11th Edition by William Pride,Robert Hughes ,Jack Kapoor

Exercise 2

At Numi Organic Tea, Teams and Organizational Culture Are Critical
You might expect a company specializing in marketing organic teas to have a distinctive corporate culture. In the case of Numi Organic Tea, a progressive seller of premium organic and Fair Trade teas based in Oakland, California, you'd be right.
With a relatively small staff of about 50 people and a recent growth rate of 180 percent a year, Numi needs to remain nimble and responsive. Its founders, the brother-and-sister team of Ahmed and Reem Rahim, were inspired to create a tea company after Ahmed had spent some years operating tea houses in Europe while Reem studied art in the United States. Combining both their interests led to a unique firm dedicated to quality, sustainability, and community. Numi occupies offices that include a tea garden where employees often gather to relax, and it has won awards for many achievements including its unique teas, its innovative packaging, and its commitment to the environment. Numi's 25 different tea and flowering tea products and gift packs are sold in Whole Foods and Safeway markets, as well as in individual natural food and grocery stores throughout the United States, and in 20 other countries overseas.
The prevailing attitude in the company, which maintains a blog and a presence on Facebook and MySpace, is a can-do, team-oriented spirit. Because it's a small firm where everyone works hard, Numi can't afford rapid employee turnover and the time that would be lost in recruiting, interviewing, and training. Employees are thus carefully chosen for their willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done and to remain upbeat and positive despite the occasional stress of working for a small company with customers around the world. Workers must also be able to devote long hours when necessary and share the company's goals.
Employees in Numi's distribution center, for instance, recently found themselves under pressure because it was taking nearly two weeks to fill international orders. With a new manager and a new focus on everyone's understanding how each job fit into the big picture, however, a sense of teamwork began to grow. Soon each employee had been trained to perform all the critical tasks in order fulfillment, so instead of working in isolation they were able to pitch in during crunch times. Their new flexibility reduced lead times for overseas orders to about five days and cut the time for domestic orders in half. Sometimes the team can ship them the same day.
At Numi, managers who communicate well and who are out working alongside their staff are the norm. They must also communicate well with customers and demonstrate a high level of emotional maturity. Some meet with their teams on a regular basis, to review project status against deadlines and due dates and to make changes in workload and procedures where necessary. The company offers flextime to help employees retain a balance between their work and personal life, and when things get overwhelming at the office, there's always the tea garden and a freshly brewed cup of organic tea. 6
Numi's distribution manager, Dannielle Oviedo, says her philosophy of management means she gets involved in what her team is doing: "I do what I ask folks to do." Do you think she is a good delegator? Why or why not?