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Build a Bear Workshop Essay

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Build-A-Bear Workshop Build-A-Bear Workshop Trying to make people smile is part of the credo at Build-A-Bear Workshop. The company was founded in 1997 by Maxine Clark who is the Chairman and Chief Executive. Maxine started Build-A-Bear Workshop or BBW, after working in corporate America for 20 years for the retailing industry. She wanted to create a retail environment that inspired the imagination, creativity, and memories for children and families. Flash forward to 2012 and BBW has become the only global company that offers customers the opportunity to create their own stuffed animals in a retail environment. BBW offers an exciting in store experience, coupled with top notch customer service and high quality products. BBW is the …show more content…

One of their alternative strategic operation plans has already come to fruition. BBW announced in late 2010 that they have partnered with a children’s licensing company called Squared Entertainment. In this agreement, Squared Entertainment will be helping Build-A-Bear create a stronger external licensing program that includes merchandise to be sold outside of their retail locations. The merchandise will include DVD’s, apparel, books, and accessories. In addition to this, new programming will be created to expand upon some of the holiday edition Build-A-Bear characters. BBW’s operations strategy is going to continue to expand by adding more new global retail locations as well as in the U.S. As stated by Axler (2010), “The company has decided to increase capital spending by $4m to $12m from last year’s level of $8m for upgrades to infrastructure as well as the opening of 3 new stores, two stores in the UK in the fall and one new format store in the US” (para. 7). The BBW retail locations are operated by teams of associates. Each associate has a title like Bearitory Leader or Honey Manager. As stated by the Build A Bear website, (2012) “We are an organization that values teamwork. We listen and learn from each other, and we reward and recognize great accomplishments and extra

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