Next instead of promoting from within, they searched for new blood and hired former Barney’s CEO Allen Questrom. Penney went on to sell one it’s direct marketing unit to raise capital to reduce debt. They restructured the company to focus on its struggling department stores, cutting employees and closing down many stores. By September 29, 2003, the culmination of CalPERS active investment in Penney, JC Penney seemed to right the ship and was able to streamline operations to be more efficient and profitable. Chronology of Events 2/22/00: CalPERS identifies 10 underperforming companies that will serve as their primary focus for corporate governance activism for the 2000 proxy season.
The whole luxury goods industry in the U.S. dropped over 14%, and R&R revenues declined 10%. Although R&R suspended new-store opening, and hiring, still the business not good as before. So, now the CEO of R&R, Linda Watkins, not only has to cope with the SPH lawsuit, but also fix the reputation damage during this hard time. Beginning in 1992, Rosse introduced the firm’s “Ownership Culture” program- a set of initiatives and policies to creat a more entrepreneurial and accountable environment. Among other things, R&R changed the hiring profile for its sales associates, shifting away from experienced sales prosessionalsto recruiting college graduates.
Case Analysis: Captiva Conglomerate I. Major Facts Captiva Conglomerate and its employees are unsatisfied with a subsidiary contractor S.O. Software (SOS). SOS’s inventory management system has caused excessive delays in Captiva’s distribution of goods and services by four month. This in turn further delayed the implementation of their regional and centralized inventory management system delay by ten months.
But until they can do this, Daryl Brewster has an exceedingly amount of “dirty work” to do. Because of this work, he is almost stuck. It could be possible that KKD has too much baggage for even him to fix. For instance, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has not filed a quarterly or annual financial report since 2004. This has caused incredible controversy, almost tainting their reputation.
Discuss how the economic environment in the US culture was changing. How did the changes affect the toy industry and Gilbert? There was a higher demand for low cost, low quality toys that A.C. Gilbert couldn’t compete, until the point where the company introduced 50 new toys for different age groups and toys for girls and preschool children. Although the company tried to change and adapt to the rapidly changing industry, their low quality toys hurt the company a lot, because of the high return rate on some of the poorly built toys. 5.
John majors government came into office after the downfall of Margret Thatcher, which ultimately created divisions within the party. Not only did the party suffer from the internal conflict but also faced the problems of the recession after the ‘Lawson boom’. In order to stabilise the economy he joined the ERM getting a good deal but ultimately resulting in ‘black Wednesday’ causing Major to raise interest rates to 15%. This was political suicide and he soon lost the support of the press we had once relied so much on to get re-elected in 1992. The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess.
He willing to do whatever it took to bail his company out of its fallout. Because consumers confidence is factor that keeps the company going. Major Problems Opportunities Mattel biggest problem was the toy recall; they were producing unsafe and defective toys. Lead paint and faulty designing cause Mattel to put over 700,000 manufactured products off the market. The recall brought Mattel lawsuit dealing with children illnesses and deficiencies, Causing Mattel to lose lots of money.
The LEGO Case Study 2014 Dimensions of Strategy from John Ashcroft and Company experience worth sharing The LEGO Case Study - New for 2014 About the Author In 2003 and 2004 LEGO announced losses of over $400 million dollars on annual sales of just over $1 billion. The reorganisation plan announced in 2001 had begun to falter. The company was forced to take a hard look at every facet of the operation including costs, overheads, margins, sales, marketing and the product offer. John Ashcroft is an economist and expert in Corporate Strategy. The LEGO case study was developed in 2014 following the success of the Apple Case study.
At this time people wanted to spend their money instead of save it for hard times. Society’s hourly pay rate nearly double and tripled during this era. War factories transitioned from making war materials to making civilian supplies, which lead to the boost in our economy at the time. Today, effects of the Baby Boom have many factors that come into play that affect our economy. According to National Academy of Social Insurance “social security faces a financial challenge from the impending retirement of the largest generation in American history, the 76 million persons born in the “baby boom” years, from 1946 through 1964.
Synopsis of the Situation Mattel was once a giant not only in the toy industry, but across all industries worldwide. Damage to their image and brand name, decline in stock prices, impact of a changing external and global environment, slow market evolution, and product recall issues have sent the company on a rapid decline since 2007. (Trouble in Toyland). Key Issues Children across the world are not playing with traditional toys as much as in the past (Berk, C). The brand image of Mattel has taken a serious hit due to unsafe products and the product recalls.