Sears Business Case Study : Sears's Retail Business?

Question 1: What were the rights of Walmart, the employer, during these two organizing drives?

the superior tracking capability of RFID chips would reduce shrinkage and other forms of loss by up

Sears and Wal-Mart are both nationwide retailers, but their similarities are only skin deep. Sears started to lose its dominance in the early 1980s. In an attempt to boost the dwindling market share, Sears started to issue proprietary Sears Card, which gave customers payment flexibilities. A new slogan focusing on the "softer side of Sears", and a revised product mix, were created to appeal to the middle-class female shoppers.

All companies have core competencies that they use to differentiate their company, product, or service from the competition, Sears is no exception. Also, it is common for a company’s core competencies to change, as their industry progresses through phases and shifts its emphasis between product and process innovations (Regis University, 2011), Sears is no exception. Yet, when a company’s core competencies become misaligned and no longer supports their strategic intent the business is in danger of becoming obsolete (Regis University, 2011), as their customers no longer perceive the unique benefits the company has

In the case presented both AFLAC and L.L. Bean had their own distinctive ways of utilizing their products in order to enhance the total compensation for its employees. The factor that has deterred more employees away from their current employer is that of benefit packages, and reward systems. As stated by () “compensation affects a person economically, sociologically, and psychologically. For this reason, mishandling compensation issues is likely to have a strong negative impact on employees and, ultimately, on the firm’s performance” (p.313). Many felt just a bump in pay wasn’t enough to substantiate their hard work or the efforts that the performance efforts provided to their organization. As stated by () “the right total rewards system a blend of monetary and non-monetary

On July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh who was only six years old and his mother, Reve Walsh, went shopping to a Sears Department Store located in a shopping mall in Hollywood, Florida, where he disappeared on that same day. His mother left him unattended for about eight minutes at a video game display inside the Sears Department Store and warned him not to wander around, but when she had returned from inquiring to purchase a lamp, Adam was not there anymore. Mrs. Walsh was only about 150 feet away from him when Adam was kidnapped in front of a lot of customers and employees of the Sears store. The movie focuses on the hopelessness of the John and Reve Walsh as they discover that the authorities and the own police department were not being helpful to

As Director of Human Resources for Wilson Bros, the conclusions that I draw with respect to the status of the company’s compensation strategies is that they lack security for their employee’s compensation and lack flexibility to the changing economy, competitive environment, and growing organizational needs.

The company that I have chosen for this assignment and project is Lowe 's Companies, Inc. Lowes strongly focuses on the mission statement “helping the customers to improve their homes”. The company started in 1921 as a small store in North Carolina. Great success and high demand of Lowe’s products led to an increase in the number of stores. By 1955, there were five more functional stores. Rapid growth took place around 1960s. Carl Buchan was one of the founders of Lowe’s, who died in year 1960. Exactly a year later in 1961, the company went public. This was the time when Lowe’s was given its name. Initially it was called North Wilkesboro Hardware Company. By 1979, Lowe’s established more than 50 stores in the United

The following pages focus on providing a strategic analysis of Sears Holding Corporation. The introduction reveals the issues that the paper addresses. The Company Presentation section reveals important facts in Sears' evolution. The Strategy Debates Section discusses theoretical issues applied to the situation of Sears. This is followed by the Strategic Decisions section that provides a series of recommendations that can help Sears improve its situation. The Implementation Challenges section provides important issues that can be considered challenges of strategic implementation.

Sears Holdings Corporation is a company that came from two very well known organizations, Sears and Kmart. Both companies go back even farther than the 1900s and unfortunately both companies experienced financial difficulty at one point. With the merger Sears Holdings Corporation has the experience of both organizations as well as their different style of operating. Along with an improved customer base and a new outlook Sears Holdings Corporation is experiencing financial growth.

This report is intended analyze and compare the operating profitability of Sears, Roebuck and Co. (SRC), and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WM) for the accounting periods of 1996 and 1997.

1. What ratios are MOST important in assessing current and predicting future value creation for Sears? For Wal-Mart?

In 1897 Sebastian Spering Kresge opened five-dime stores in Memphis and Detroit with John McCrorey as his partner. Two years later the partnership broke up and each person kept one city. Mr. Kresge kept the Detroit store and began expanding from there onward. In 1912 the company became incorporated as S.S. Kresge and was the 2nd largest dime store chain with 85 stores and annual sales of more than $10 million. In 1918 S.S Kresge was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Throughout the decades, Kresge rapidly expanded eventually opening the first Kmart store in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. By 1966 there were more 160 Kmart stores in the US and Canada. In 1968 Kmart began airing TV commercials. In the 1970s, Kmart continued to expand

Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) were introduced in 1980 with the purpose of saving energy. They initially were very expensive and consumers were aware of many flaws that made them hesitant to purchase the bulbs and bring them into their homes. The positive effects of switching from alternative bulbs to CFLs were overshadowed by media attention highlighting the issues that remained unresolved. Wal-Mart pushed promotional programs in 2007 that were very successful. They introduced a private label at a lower price, offered online ordering, posititioned the products well, installed interactive displays and engaged with new partners to promote energy efficiency. In 2009 the CFLs were redesigned and

A. Wal-Mart realized through third party studies and internal research that the Chinese customer were significantly more cost-sensitive than those in other countries and that there existed a strong, established culture of frequently shopping around to find the absolute lowest prices. Through these studies, Wal-Mart also realized that customer satisfaction level greatly influenced customer loyalty in China. The greatest determinant of this satisfaction was made up of perceived value. The perceived value is composed of three sub factors: (1) Product price, (2) Relative price and (3) Promotion. The other factors for customer satisfaction in descending order of its importance are Image,