CBSE 2025 · Region 7 · Set 1 · Q5

'Apex Shoes', a popular footwear brand had grown rapidly over the years. It decided to open its own retail outlets across major cities. To ensure smooth operations, the retail outlets were

managed by store managers who were responsible for day-to-day operations like inventory management, customer service and sales targets etc. However, for key decisions such as offering discounts or processing refunds etc., managers had to seek approval from corporate headquarters. Quite often, customers would ask for a discount or want to return the shoes and get a refund. The store managers did not have the authority to approve this. They had to call the head office for approval, which caused a delay. These delays affected both customer satisfaction and footwear sales. Realizing the need for faster decisions, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Atul, decided to selectively disperse the authority to the store managers to approve discounts, returns and other customer-related decisions. He believed that store managers could assume responsibility for effective implementation of their decisions. This led to faster service, satisfied customers and an increase in sales. The concept used by Atul to improve customer satisfaction and store performance was: