Dillard 's, Inc.

Macy’s, Inc. goes all the way back to 1858 and would end up being one of the most successful and biggest department stores in the retail industry across the globe. The total revenue of the first day of the company was a whopping $11.06. However, at the end of the first year, the store earned a profit close to $90,000. In 1877, R.H. Macy & Company had occupied eleven different store locations and was considered to be a full department store.

A Broad Cost Leader strategy maintains a presence in all segments of the market. The company will gain a competitive advantage by keeping R&D, production and material costs to a minimum, enabling the company to compete on the basis of price, which will be below average. Automation levels will be increased to improve margins and to offset second shift/overtime costs.

remained flat in the last three years despite rising healthcare and other costs. The company repor ted

The objective will be to evaluate the company’s operational strengths and weaknesses based on the following:

In business, three major strategies comprising of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies exist. The focus strategy emphasizes on providing services and products to a specified buyer group or market segment within a given geographic market. The differentiation approach is often defined as provision of services or products that are perceived to be unique in the market place. Wal-Mart emphasizes on the long-term strategy of cost leadership. Through this strategy, the company ensures that it offers customers with quality products at relatively lower prices than other providers in the industry. Through overall cost leadership strategy, Wal-Mart has been offering better quality products at a lower price than any competitor can offer. For the organization to achieve this goal, it has developed long-term supply chain management, which ensures that products are made available to the market at the required time (Enz, 2010).

Costco offers its members variety of products at low prices resulting in high sale volumes and rapid inventory turnover which help Costco to manage the payments before the due date. With this good practice, Costco is able to keep a good relationship with its suppliers and vendors and has exclusive long-term contracts with competitive prices. Moreover, Costco also concerns about its members’ satisfaction by offering many support as well as the excellent customer service (Costco: 10K, 2017) Wal-Mart focuses on cost leadership strategy.

In closing, Team C has evaluated Walmart’s annual report to identify relevant strategic planning initiatives as well as to gain a better understanding of how the Walmart organization uses strategic planning to their benefit. We have discovered the extreme efficiency of using such a tool as cost leadership, and how Walmart uses this tool to dominate the competition and strive as the industry leader in providing quality products at discount prices. This combination proves to maximize profits as Walmart continues to effectively utilize global sourcing policies while minimizing the collective risk associated within.

Hollister Co. founded in 2000 is a retail store chain providing customers with high-end fashion at affordable prices. It is a division of Abercrombie and Fitch with the revenue of $1,5 billion in 2010. The brand is aimed at attracting teenage customers with casual wear of the Southern Californian style. Hollister is also notable for being once ranked as second best clothing brand for teens in the US among many other companies on the market.

Walmart’s business strategy is to keep costs low and pass the savings down to the customers. Walmart accomplishes this strategy through several means. First, Walmart cuts costs in its procurement channels. Walmart cuts out the manufacturers’ representatives and works with suppliers directly. In doing so, Walmart saves 3-4% on costs. Also, Walmart is able to use its IT networks to make sure the company orders the right about of inventory from suppliers so that the Walmart stores experience neither overstock nor stock-out. Second, Walmart keeps its labor costs low. Walmart maintains a frugal culture for all employees. For example, executives at the company are prohibited from accepting meals and gifts from third parties. Additionally, Walmart provides store workers with wages and benefits that are below those given by competitors. Third, Walmart invests in ways to cut distribution costs. For example, Walmart mastered the large-scale “cross-docking” to transfer merchandise directly from inbound trucks to store-bound trucks without storing the good in its distribution centers. Through these innovations, Walmart has been able to save 3-4% on

The project I choose is Ben and Jerry 's Inc. Ben and Jerry’s is a Vermont-based manufacturer of super-premium ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet, was founded in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. The company was originally started by two childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield –hence the name Ben and Jerry. They started up their small ice cream shop with a modest $12,000 investment. Ben and Jerry’s is now a leading ice cream manufacturing company known worldwide for its innovative flavors and premium all-natural ingredients made from fresh Vermont milk and cream. Mr. Cohan and Mr. Greenfield wanted to make sure they would use local products from their home state. Ben and Jerry’s operates in the highly competitive super premium ice cream business. Super premium ice cream is largely characterized by a greater richness and density than other kinds of ice cream and commands a relatively higher price –to outweigh the costs of making such an ice cream.

Wal-Mart's stance on not allowing unions can also be accredited to their cost leadership approach. When I outline Wal-Mart's business policy at the start of this essay, I suggest that they were a central-control based organisation that tried to ensure it controlled all aspects of the firm. This is linked to cost leadership, by having tight control they know exactly where money is going and where it is coming from which allows for better development of efficiency.

It was this strategy of having the lowest prices in town that has set Wal-Mart apart from all competitors. The company has stuck to the vision of Sam Walton by offering the lowest prices to the consumers in the retail industry.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. established a competitive advantage in providing consumer goods at lower prices than competitors in the discount retailing industry. Wal-Mart’s adoption of a cost leadership strategy attracted price sensitive customers to purchase the lowest priced goods in the market. In order to buy in volume at attractive prices, the company built their own warehouse to store an extensive range of products upholding Wal-Mart’s sustainable competitive advantage. This allowed the cost of goods sold amount to three-quarters of discounting revenues, reducing its cost of operations in exchange for larger market share and higher profits (HBS, 3). The strategy attracted masses of consumers providing a no frill service by achieving higher economies of scale at the same time maximizing sales volume and inventory turnover, while minimizing expenses. Wal-Mart gained a sustainable competitive advantage in their ability to keep prices lower than competitors because of their accumulated lower cost per unit fixed costs allowing the store to benefit from the economies of scale.

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, believes that “Give what customers want, and a little more” helps an organization to become successful (“10 Rules for Building a Business,” n.d.). Influenced by Walton, Walmart set its mission as “Saving people money so they can live better” as it knows that customers want to have a great shopping experience while saving money. To achieve its mission, Walmart applies cost leadership strategy. Cost leadership strategy is a strategy that an organization competes on the basis of having the lowest cost in its industry. Walmart has using this strategy for more than 50 years since it established. In fiscal 2016, Walmart continue to reducing its cost by starting a cost analytics program in Canada and the U.K. to provide merchants with tools and cost visibility to lead fact-based negotiations with suppliers (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.,

To maintain lowest prices possible, the leadership of Walmart in four countries has been focusing on low cost everywhere within the organization and Barney & Hesterley (2006), Lumpkin, Droege & Dess (2002) and Akan et al (2006) regard it as a distinctive cost leader. By maintaining a low cost of