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Barnes And Noble Case Study Solution

Decent Essays

Barnes & Noble was originally founded as a book printing company in 1873 in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1917, the company opened its first bookstore in New York City. However, in 1974, the company fell on hard times and was bought by Leonard Riggio. Barnes & Noble eventually become the largest bookstore by 1996, offering discounted books. By the late 1990s, Barnes & Noble was faced with a new challenge, the Internet; customers were able to order their books cheaper online and read them without going to a physical bookstore. This forced Barnes & Noble to reevaluate its strategy and its future direction in order to stay competitive in the bookstore industry. Barnes & Noble narrowed its problems down into two major issues. The first issue was whether or not the company should split its two business lines, having one line for digital and online business and the other serve as the more traditional brick-and-mortar stores. The company also needed to determine the best way to allocate its resources so that it could compete aggressively in the market. The second issue facing the company was whether it was well suited to make these necessary changes independently or if it would need some allies in order to achieve success. Because Barnes & Noble was strictly a publisher and retailer, the company didn’t have the knowledge or experience to independently build an e-reader for the online market that could compete effectively; it needed to partner with another company that could build a

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