Newell Rubbermaid Essay

Newell Company’s main corporate-level strategy as defined by Dan Fergurson was “build on what we do best”. The company focused on growth through strategic acquisitions of firms that sold low cost and high volume products to large retailers, but that were underperforming due to high operating cost. After an acquisition, Newell would then change the existing operational systems of the firm to align it with its corporate structure. The aim was to

The firm has decided to increase the debt finance component portion from 20% to 30% which is a good decision since the interest payments are 100% tax deductible. The appropriate capital structure would be to

The company is equally endowed with qualified and skilled employees at all levels. This explains the reason why the company has consistently registered high efficiency and productivity in its operations. Mike Ulman, the chief executive officer and Mr. Thomas Engibous, who is the Chairman, head the company. The company has expanded significantly and currently it has footing in 11,106 locations globally. Firms competing within this industry obviously must focus on several factors in order to be successful and achieve profitability. If you focus on their primary activities for their value chain analysis a few major things you need to focus on are their logistics, marketing, how they operate, and customer service. For their logistics, they offer free shipping to anywhere depending on how much you spend and where you are. Therefore, they must have a large and quick distribution facility that can handle large orders efficiently, but also increase their

The company employs and trains skilled sales personnel to promote its items. Besides, direct sales branches are strategically located in high traffic zones to attract more potential buyers and strengthen revenues. The company manages its supply chain effectively. It produces annual publications of supplier codes of conduct, a move that increases brand recognition. The company enjoys implausible trade name trustworthiness, implying that many people will

Best Buy Co., Inc. is currently the world’s largest retailer for consumer electronics. The company has 1,400 brick and mortar stores and is a popular online retailer as well. The stores serve as display room for various online retailers. Best Buy consumers can purchase electronic products such as mobile, corded and cordless phones, televisions, cameras, personal computers, laptops, appliances and more (David & F.R., 2015). Today’s society relies on convenience and technology, forcing companies to implement new ideas and projects in an effort to maintain their ability to compete with other companies. For continued success the company must look at the internal and external issues the company may face as well as their competitors and their best practices that are contributing to their success.

This diversification approach allows them to enjoy economies of scale and also economies of scope, by offering differentiated products of a similar or even in the same category to answer different customer needs. Operational efficiency logistics to reach nearly 100% first-pass line fill and expanding global presence help the company improve and expand with their customers. The acquisition of brand name products, changing in cost structure to improve operation margins to minimum of 15% and achieving critical mass protecting its shelf space at each category. Many of the retail customers will ask Newell competitors if they ship like Newell, this proves the level of customer service and efficiency that Newell reached and all these results in decrease of cost; however increase in WTP.

Does Newell have a successful corporate-level strategy? Does the company add value to the businesses within its portfolio?

Newell Company created corporate advantages by following the company’s mission and philosophy. The philosophy "Build on what we do best" was started by CEO Mr. Dan Ferguson. This philosophy can be described as Newell focus on selling multiproduct to large mass retailers with high-volume and low-cost. Their mission is "Newell is a manufacturer and full-service marketer of consumer products for serving the needs of volume purchasers.” The company’s philosophy and mission has a great influence on its

According to Turban and King (2003), internet technology renders retailers an additional channel for branding, transactions and customer relationship management, the adaptation of which may drive down retailers’ transaction costs, and ensuring faster and higher quality of customer interactions, resulting in enlarging the existing markets and consumer base. M&S realizes this and have tried to sell clothing via high street stores as well as via internet though they have experienced cost cutting, rationalisation and management changes in order to revive their business in recent years. Internet technology might enable sustainable competitive advantage, but problems remain on how to physically organize their online retail operations.

Being the senior Project manager for Walmart my foremost responsibility is to present the best of the firm on technological grounds as this platform is the revenue generator for the firm. It’s the face of what the firm sales. There are many ways through which we can expand the E-commerce business like in addition to using software packages and external service providers, businesses are relying more heavily on fast-cycle techniques such as rapid application development, joint application design, agile development, and reusable standardized software components that can be assembled into a complete set of services for e-commerce and e-business. These helps in forming the base for building systems that can respond to rapidly changing business environments, including Web applications. Also one of the things being that

Charlotte Beers has a vision; however, she cannot convey this message personally to the whole Ogilvy & Mather organization (O&M). Appointed CEO after a hostile takeover, Beers was faced with the challenge of uniting a multinational, autonomous corporation under her concept of Brand Stewardship. David Ogilvy founded the company, that later merged with Mather & Crowther, which became one of the leading advertising agencies. O&M had offices worldwide, focusing on local as well as global advertising campaigns that used the influence of a multinational corporation with the appeal of local intricacies. The culture of O&M was such a large part of the company that any change was deemed as a personal attack on the employees.

In order to achieve its goals clear guidelines were set that specified the degree and timing of acquisitions – focusing only on companies that exhibited stable earnings or earnings countercyclical to the gas transmission industry. Cooper focused on acquisition targets that possessed strong assets with high quality manufacturing and market-leading positions. Cooper continued to refine this acquisition model seeking companies with stable earnings using well-known technologies that served a broad customer base. Furthermore, Cooper focused on firms with high quality products and recognized brand names.

Cooper’s corporate strategy is diversification through acquisitions and mergers. This diversification is in both related and non-related businesses to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the natural gas industry. Cooper’s started acquiring low-technology manufacturing companies. The companies were premium-quality products with strong brands names mainly still own by the original family owners that have seen

Doing these acquisitions at some certain stages were important to diversify GE technologies and maximize its market share (Immelt, 2005), however, the balancing between growing organically by empowering the company from within and acquiring some companies is even more important for setting up the company directions. Since more than half of the company revenue is derived from its financial services (Company Data 2008), this brings the argument onto the table about the nature of the company making it a financial company with a manufacturing arm.

In assessing current research in the area of e-commerce platforms, the role of integration strategies and their effect on the maturation of the entire e-commerce is readily apparent. The text indicates how pervasive the adoption of Web Services are for example in integrating diverse systems and