The two main issues at hand are quite contrary to one another, but they ultimately come down to Paakkanen’s work style and how she runs Marimekko. While Paakkanen has generated extreme success with her persistence as a control quadrant leader and her clear objectives for the company, she’s at a fork in the road. She must choose between staying with Marimekko and expanding the company internationally or starting to train a successor to take over her management role in the company so she can retire (Mitchell 11). Kirsti is dependable and reliable, a perfect control quadrant leader. But due to her micromanaging she doesn’t necessarily teach her workers. She informs her workers of what they’re supposed to do and is helpful (CVA). But, no one knows how to run the company or organize the different aspects of the product making like Paakkanen due to her lack of hands-on training of her employees. So, at this point in her career, she does not have a successor, who she would be comfortable leaving the company with, so she feels that she should not retire (Mitchell 11). This is completely fine since she has worked so hard to optimize the company and wants to continue to do so, but if something were to happen to her, she has no one to fill her shoes due to her control personality.
On the other hand, if she chooses to stay and expand, she faces a few challenges. The company has a strong sense of their Finnish brand image, which could potentially be lost by expanding internationally. Plus, Paakkanen would not have as much control over the branches internationally, which is not how she tends to work. She loses control over aspects such as distribution or manufacturing (Mitchell 10). This could cause conflict among different subsidiaries internationally, which would hurt the company. Also, there may be a lack of demand for this type of unique design that Marimekko offers (Mitchell 10). If they expand internationally, people may not understand or appreciate the company’s designs and the market could fall short. Lastly, if she continues to stay and expand with the company, she is still the only one in charge. Yes, she brings success, but others must learn to take on some of her roles in the company or some sort of hierarchy must be enforced. This will benefit the company and Paakkanen down the road when she is forced to retire and no one will fill her shoes. This becomes even more complicated when involved