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I. Executive Summary
Sears began as a small retailer but as the years have gone by, they have become the second largest retailer of the national chains. In the environmental analysis you will discover that Sears' marketing toward women differentiated them from their competitor's and increased their sales as well as their market share. They have had many social/cultural problems that they have had to overcome, such as problems with stakeholders. There has also been a change in the company culture that has improved the mood within the company. In the SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will be discussed. These would include employees, competition, global marketing, and the repercussions that
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(www.vault.com) They are also giving incentives to customers to get them to shop at their stores. These include buying clubs and a gift registry service.
Sears is a corporation who's CEO is Arthur Martinez. He has turned the company around in most recent years. Sears has adopted new more relaxed policies on employee relations. The employees have gone from conservative dress codes to "business casual" although they still "suit up" when meeting clients. (www.vault.com) Sears has also 4
implemented flextime and has allowed telecommuting to salaried employees. They also reward the work of their employees when they meet company goals in a variety of ways such as giving them bonuses. The culture of Sears has also changed quite a bit. According to a Sears insider, "The culture of the company has improved drastically over the past five years
We have put a lot of new management in place and devoted ourselves to nothing but retail." Sears has also made it a point to make sure that women are placed in management positions. Their progressive environment makes it possible to advance just as easily as their male counterparts. There was some complaint about wanting to be a little more diverse so Sears has also implemented a diversity-training program.
I feel that Sears would be a great place to work. They
Sears is similar to any other organization, and that they are also seeing challenges at the corporate level of their business. A challenge that they have to face is ensuring quality and variety of the products that are being sold in their stores. This is an issue that could lead to great declines in sales if not properly handled. Many individuals do not take into consideration all the different aspects that happen
A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a situational analysis in which internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, and external opportunities and threats faced by it are closely examined to assist management with planning and course correction (BusinessDictionary.com). Managers can use the results SWOT analysis to determine how competitive the organization is in its industry and to develop an effective organizational strategy. Though commonly associated with for profit organizations, SWOT analysis also are carried out by public institutions such as, hospitals, government agencies, and schools. The County College
Our recommendation is to take Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) private through a private equity buyout. After doing so, we recommend implementing a centralized management structure and recruiting retail-savvy executives for the upper management team. We then recommend focusing on increasing value by capitalizing on SHLD’s real estate holdings through leasing agreements and increasing partnerships with complementary enterprises. Also, we recommend improving employee retention rates and retaining exclusive rights to private brands. Finally, we recommend focusing on a long-term strategy to continue to maximize SHLD’s ecommerce platforms. We believe these recommendations will lead to long-term stability through increases in customer base and
A SWOT analysis is a tool used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. A SWOT model measures what an organization can or cannot do as well as the possible opportunities and threats. This is done by taking data from the organization’s environment, analyzing the information and separating it into the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats). When this is completed the analysis can create a plan for the organization to achieve its goals, and identify what difficulties must be overcome to attain
All companies have core competencies that they use to differentiate their company, product, or service from the competition, Sears is no exception. Also, it is common for a company’s core competencies to change, as their industry progresses through phases and shifts its emphasis between product and process innovations (Regis University, 2011), Sears is no exception. Yet, when a company’s core competencies become misaligned and no longer supports their strategic intent the business is in danger of becoming obsolete (Regis University, 2011), as their customers no longer perceive the unique benefits the company has
Over the last few years, it has been predominantly evident that Sears Canada has been not performing relevant to the standards present within the competitive industry. The market of retail department stores has dramatically changed since the time the corporate entity first began. To stay relevant within today’s retail industry, Sears Canada has to change their current operations. In today's market, the power of value-driven consumer products has been dominating the industry due to their affordable prices and emphasized popularity. Sears Canada has failed to distinguish themselves within the industry as either an affordable or a high quality department store. With emerging high-end retailers like Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the rise of online discount retailers like Amazon and eBay, Sears can not afford to flood both market segments. This has become a major issue that Sears Canada is facing, as the company will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors by focusing their resources in the home improvement industry.
Since 1992 when Arthur C. Martinez was brought on board to head Sears’s retailing operations, credit sales, especially through the use of the company’s own proprietary credit card, boost the sales of the company greatly from 1993 to 1997. The new card accounts between 1993 and 1996 were increasing by roughly a 50% rate every year. Besides the company’s own credit cards, the third
Sears began as a small retailer but as the years have gone by, they have become
SWOT analysis provides a structure for analyzing either your own strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats you face, or in a work context for analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats a business or event faces. Ideally it is one step in a process which helps you to
The following pages focus on providing a strategic analysis of Sears Holding Corporation. The introduction reveals the issues that the paper addresses. The Company Presentation section reveals important facts in Sears' evolution. The Strategy Debates Section discusses theoretical issues applied to the situation of Sears. This is followed by the Strategic Decisions section that provides a series of recommendations that can help Sears improve its situation. The Implementation Challenges section provides important issues that can be considered challenges of strategic implementation.
Sears Holdings is a relatively new company, having only been created in November of 2004 (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). At that time, Kmart Holdings purchased Sears, Roebuck, and Co. The corporation decided it would operate stores under both names, and the merger was officially completed in March of 2005. The shareholders voted to close the deal, or it would not have been able to take place. Now the company is called Sears Holdings, and it operates both Sears and Kmart stores (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). The company also markets both brands without blending them or favoring one over the other. There were several reasons why the companies chose to combine.
The retailer will continue to see aggressive competition from Target, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Home Depot and Lowes. These companies are some of the national retailers that Sears will have to contend with in order to survive. According to Sears Holding 2011, annual 10K Report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Home Depot and Lowes are the company’s most fierce rivals of the major appliance category in which Sears accounts for nearly “16% of its entire revenue” (p.5). This fierce market positioning battle between its competitors will be a major obstacle for Sears to overcome. Sears continues to try to move forward as the company’s efficiencies in fixed assets continued
Due to slow sales and less traffic at both Sears and Kmart, the two have decided to merge creating one entity named Sears Holdings. Kmart has agreed to buy Sears for $11 Billion. This puts Sears Holdings at the third largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although Wal-Mart is a direct competitor with Kmart, Sears Holdings goal is not to compete with Wal-Mart directly, but find areas that have been overlooked by other retailers, and take advantage of the expanded line of products the new company has to offer. Sears has had higher sales than Kmart, so hundreds of Kmart’s will be transformed into Sears stores. As of now, most of Sears 870 stores are only found in malls. The new strategy would be to open Sears stores in current
Wal-Mart is one of the top 10 largest corporations. Wal-Mart must predict what is needed and wanted in communities. Executives have to be able to see the needs like in Brazil. Wal-Mart has gone in and created social retailing school and provide skills and services in
Strength: I believe one of Sears’s holdings most important strength is that they are a solid retail association since they provide the U.S. and Canada with over 3,847 stores. Furthermore, Sears has the lead in the market position, giving them another great strength. Moreover, they have balanced products combination, which help them with their strengths as well. Consequently, I believe Sears’s expansive product offering is a strength that helps them do their tasks so