When White Cap was bought out by Continental Can, the White family continued to manage the company, and its traditional company culture continued. W.P. White and later on his son, Bob, made the working environment a very friendly and relaxed, family like place. The main plant was in the middle of a Polish neighborhood, and those people made up of a lot of the employees. Once hired, employees tended to remain and to bring in their frien

In 1982 Bob White would step down from his position and had it over to Art Lawson. Art had worked at White Cap for a while and many saw him as a proxy for the Whites. Even Lawson would say that he saw himself as a caretaker manager, maintaining things as they had always been (Gentile 3). Lawson picked the wrong time to be the vice president and executive officer because the completion was starting to heat up. There were five significant manufacturers in the national marketplace and seventy worldwide who offered the twist-off cap (Gentile 3). White Cap never had a competitor that threatened them in the past fifty years, now they have five to worry about. The American Can Company came up with a squeezable plastic container which Heinz and Hunt used for there ketchup and barbecue sauce products. Before this product, White Cap held %100 of the ketchup business worldwide. Lawson knew something had to be done, so he called on Peter Browning to held solve this problem. On April 1, 1984, he took over a division with $175 million in gross sales, 1,450 employees, 12 sales offices, and 4 plants (Gentile 3).

From the very start, Browning recognized two major obstacles that he would need to address (Gentile 1). First, only a few employees and managers felt that something needed to change. These other people felt that the business would pick up soon like it has done in the past. That is the wrong type of thinking, all employees and managers should realize that there are more competitors out there and they need to do something different to be able to compete with them. Sitting back and waiting for the market to change is naive, and should be recognized by more than a few employees and managers. The second obstacle that Browning needs to address is that he is not W.P. White or Bob White, he is a different type of manager. The Whites had a family-style environment with long-term loyalty from its customers, job security, and liberal benefits. Browning knew the employees would be up in arms if any of these things were changed, however, that is his style of management. Browning’s future with White Cap is relying on how he handles this situation. He is in a bad spot, White Cap is a successful company, therefore if it goes downhill while he is there, it will reflect very badly on him in particular. “White Cap needs change, but just don’t break it while you’re trying to fix it. Continental cant afford to lose White Cap” replied executive vice president of the Continental Group, Dick Hofmann. He basically put the entire company on Browning’s shoulders.

ds and relatives as well (Gentile 2). Continental White cap was a good place to work, “I really think that many employees felt that White Cap bought Continental Can, instead of the other way around”, say the manager of human resources at the Chicago Plants.

The stakeholders of this company are going to have some changes. Before everything was perfect, the workers were happy with t

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