Boots Strategic Planning and Implementation

Competitive analysis is an essential part of strategic marketing where companies continuously monitor the business activities of its competitors gathering and analyzing industry information keeping up with the current trends and developments providing a perspective on the probabilities and possibilities of the future (Brannon and Divita, 2015). Athletics Supreme faces competition from its top three competitors. Dick’s Sporting Goods has made adjustments and shifted sales to meet changing trends in the area of sports now catering to serious athletes and children, and young adults at all levels of play. Foot Locker, Inc. is a leading retailer in athletic shoes and apparel mostly operating specialty stores malls across the United States. Walmart

What are the key elements of lululemon’s strategy? [If you have previously covered the Under Armour case, which features of lululemon’s strategy stand out as being different from the strategy at Under Armour?]

An athletic shoe company can also diversify its company through concentric diversification. This type of diversification can help companies conquer instance two of leverage existing competencies and capabilities by expanding into businesses where these same resource strengths are key success factors and valuable competitive assets. The company can increase its production portfolio by adding new products, which will allow them to fully utilize the potential of the existing technologies and marketing system. This method will allow them to also become more financially efficient because they are using the resources that are already available to them.

Boots is a pharmacy chain operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Thailand mainly. Its headquarters are in Nottingham and it is part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance. Boots aims to be the leading healthcare and wellbeing products provider in the markets it covers. In the UK alone it operates 2500 stores enabling it to be the market leader. The company is founded in 1849 and went several downturns before attaining the stage of market leader it occupies today. The alliance that owns both Boots is public and traded in NASDAQ, employs 400,000 people and had a revenue of USD 117B in 2016. Boots goal is to assert itself in the healthcare products market and ensure quality services for its clients.This report will cover the operational aspect of Boots and its potential areas of its growth. This report will also cover the organizational construction of the company, the strength of its business model and what sets it aside from other companies operating in the same sector.

“We believed from the start that if we brought the customer quality merchandise at the right price and offered excellent service, we could change retailing in the United States. Today, we are the model of what retailing should be.” – Bernie Marcus

Costco’s competitive advantage is partnering with venders, yet it is highly safeguarded from public release. Very little is known about the process as to how Costco partners with vendors. The ability to have good relationships with vendors allows Costco to maintain their stagey by

| |core values include the following: Excellent customer service, Taking care of our people, Giving back, Doing the "right" |

Among many companies presently operating in the US market, I choose to analyze the CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) and Omnicare, Inc. (NYSE: OCR). CVS Health Corp., formerly known as CVS Caremark Corporation is an American retail pharmacy company, established in 1963 with headquarters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, which operates in the industry of Healthcare Services (Pharmacy services and Retail Drugstore). Stimulated by the aspiration of assisting its customers in improving their health and quality of life, CVS, through its owned subsidiaries and third-party organizations alongside its own stores provides a range of quality products and services, administering a business activity constituted of three major operating segments including:

Strategic planning can dictate the success of any organization if properly planned as well as the failure of an organization if not implemented as planned. Strategic planning is all about making choices. It is a process designed to support leaders in being intentional about their goals and methods. Simply stated, strategic planning is a management tool, and like any management tool, it is used for one purpose only—to help an organization do a better job. This portion of the strategic plan will explain why an

CVS Health, the nation’s second largest pharmacy retail store (trailing Walgreen Company) was founded locally in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1963. The original store name was not far off: Consumer Value Store, serving as a discount health and beauty aid store. The store we know today sells prescription drugs in addition to an extensive assortment of general merchandise, such as: beauty products and cosmetics, film and photofinishing services, seasonal merchandise, and greeting cards. CVS Pharmacy also sells convenience foods and products online through CVS.com. Furthermore, CVS operates ‘Longs Drugs,’ 40 pharmacy retail stores in Hawaii.

What this alliance does for both parties is that their alliance reaches across the country and benefitting not just them but the costumers. As for CVS and Target’s alliance it created a “store-within-a-store concept” (Bomey, 2016). This creates additional customers traveling within Target to pick up their medications and while waiting, they will have a chance to shop around Target, which will draw more revenue for them. Teaming with Target allowed CVS to use their financial resources wisely because they already was receiving seventy-one percent of its retail pharmacy revenue in 2014 (Bomey, 2016). CVS has the capability, financial resources and retained earnings. Retained earnings or profit that a firm made earlier in its history and invest in itself (Barney & Hesterly, p.

We are continually guided by our mission to meet the specific needs of each of our specialities. Our staff is constantly updated on the latest logistics services while promoting quality customer service.

In this assignment I am going to describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities within Boots. I will then compare the challenges to Boots business activities in two different economic environments.

Referring to De Wit and Meyer (2010) “To create a competitive advantage, alignment must be achieved among all three elements of a business system. They are a superior Value Proposition, ability to actually develop and supply the superior product offering and the resource base required to perform the value –adding activities”. These three components can be seen through considerable Pep Stores business system which conducts their daily activities. By aiming Operational Excellence they were prominent on:

VF Corporation, headquartered in Greensboro, NC, is a large lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories conglomerate, home to many popular brands that are recognized globally. VF Corporation is a global force of over 30 “diverse” and “iconic” brands that are well positioned internationally to serve customers and consumers (VF Corporation, 2016). The purpose of this analysis is to provide an overall outlook of the company and to create a strategic plan for the future of the corporation. Conclusions based off of the research into the financials, key strategies, SWOT analysis of VF Corporation will be discussed in order to form a strategic plan for the future of VF Corporation.