Dawson Lumber Company Limited

In the 1800s the lumber industry was very big thing. A man named Frederick Weyerhaeuser and one of his business partners started investing money in the lumber industry. He started by buying up a lot of timberland in Wisconsin to harvest. Once all of the white pine in Wisconsin was gone, he moved his business to Minnesota, and the industry boomed!

Background: This story takes place in Ruddock a town in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. In the year 1892, two men founded the Ruddock Cypress Company. They built a sawmill business and established a town to serve their business; the town became Ruddock. In 1902, the sawmill burned down and was later rebuilt. By 1910, the town had a population of 700.

Although the Canadian Bank oligopoly has traditionally been uncontested, the environment in which they operate is experiencing significant change. In order for retail banks to remain relevant in a decade, they must make significant changes to their business model. International political landscape tensions hinder international ambitions of banks and while the increased regulation is viewed as an additional burden, it is currently one of the rare forces keeping new entrants from dominating the entire industry. The Canadian population is facing a significant shift affecting the banks environment, their customer base includes an increasing proportion of millennials, women and visible minorities. Canada has the second largest population of foreign born habitants, and due to mass migration this trend will intensify.

Two-year decrease of liquidity measures including current ratio and quick ratio reveals the problems concerning company’s short-term solvency and liquidity. Butler Lumber Company’s current ratio decreased to 145.05% in 1990 from the level of 180.00% in 1988. The same decrease happened to quick ratio (decreased from 88.08% in 1988 to 66.92% in 1990). As the short-term lender, Northrop National Bank should have noticed that Butler Lumber Company’s ability to pay its bills over the short run without undue press needs to be carefully examined. The decrease of current ratio also implies the decreasing level of company’s net working capital, which is another sign of lower level of liquidity.

Lorman Lumber is a publicly traded company with widely held shares. Its Yamica location in rural Oregon is one of the company’s largest. The purpose of the plant is to process and treat wood, which it does through a number of facilities. The Sawmill began producing lumber products in 1947, which it does by peeling, milling, and chipping raw wood. Lorman has a known record of producing good profits, and will often pay out generous performance-based bonuses to executives. Although the Yamica plant is somewhat outdated, it is still considered to be efficient and profitable. Starting in 1968, the company began using new methods to condition and pressure-treat wood products through the

Lowe’s is the 14th largest retailer in the United States and is presently planning aggressive expansion, opening a new store on average every three days. Lowe's revenue growth is primarily a function of penetration of the market increase resulting from a burst of new locations instead of the same store sales. Although Lowe’s has grown tremendously, it remains half the size of Home Depot and has serious debt burden that increases its risk level drastically. Lowe’s is Home Depot’s largest competitor because both companies have the same products, services, and enormous warehouse formats. In this major retail market Lowe’s and Home Depot stores go toe

David C. Shaw prepared this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The author does not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The author may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The

Dicks Sporting Good is the largest and most profitable publicly held specialty sporting goods retailer in the nation. In 2012, they strengthened their competitive position by expanding their store network, enhancing the customers shopping environment, growing their own private brand portfolio and upgrading several of their key technology systems. They have also set the stage for future growth by opening a fourth distribution center, breaking new ground with the “Untouchable” marketing campaign and fueling the market research engine by testing new retail concepts. For the last three years the store profits grew tremendously. The initiatives drove sales up and they were able in 2012 to have $345 million in cash and cash equivalents and no outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility (DKS Annual

1. Productivity of the crew would be below standard. I believe for the productivity to be below standard because they were sent to this crew because of their lack of work. Just because they have been assigned to another crew, does not mean that they will begin to work well right away. When compared to the Equity Theory, I believe there to be positive inequity for the three men assigned to the new group. For being assigned to the group due to lack of work, it is unfair to have a higher pay grade than those who have been in the company for a longer period of time and who are doing their job correctly. This may cause issues with subprofessionals being motivated to work to their full

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.

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

1. At the start of the 21st century, RBC was Canada’s leading bank and largest bank in terms of assets and market capitalization. It was a full-service bank with five main lines of business: personal and commercial banking, insurance, wealth management, corporate / investment banking, and transaction processing. The commercial bank of RBC (Royal Bank) accounted for nearly 50% of the company’s net income and had an extensive delivery network with branches, Automated Banking Machines (ABM’s), point of sale terminals, mobile sales staff, and 1.4 million online banking customers and 2 million phone customers. The bank also had an extremely strong international network.

The existence of lumber is prominent in nations with broadly large forests which are found worldwide since forests cover the earth. Although lumber is manufactured all over the world, Canada is the largest producer of lumber, due to its abundance. The world leaders in softwood lumber include the United States, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Austria, and Chile (Nag, 2017). These are generally the countries with greater forest areas. The uses of wood in furniture, buildings, bridges, and as a source of energy are widely known. As reported by Stats Canada, the United States manufactured more than 54 million cubic meters of softwood in 2014 (Stats Canada, Forest industry Contribution Report). Despite the report being several years older,

Monmouth Inc. is a leading producer of engines and massive compressors used to force natural gas through pipelines and oil out of wells. It is has dependence on sales to the oil and gas industries, the earnings of which is fluctuated owing to cyclical nature of heavy machinery and equipment sales. Anyway, the company’s amount of earnings growth and sales are above average in long-term view. From the last three acquisitions the company adhered to only leading companies in their respective market segments. The fourth company on the list of acquisition was Robertson Tool Company.

According to our textbook (Lawrence & Weber, 2014) the definition of corporate power is “The capability of corporations to influence government, the economy, and society, based on their organizational resources” (p. 53). After reading the discussion case I would characterize Timberland as exercising their corporate power in a very sensible and impacting manner. When it comes to making a difference in society Timberland has made it their mission since day 1. In 1918 Nathan Swartz entered the shoe industry with a company by the name of Abington Show Company, which he eventually ended up purchasing in 1955 (Timberland A). Upon purchasing Abington Shoe Company he brought his family on board and in 1978 he decided to officially change the company name to The Timberland Company (Timberland A). On the Timberland website their mission statement reads, “Our mission is to equip people to make a difference in their world. We do this by creating outstanding products and by trying to make a difference in the communities where we live and work” (Timberland, C).