Sears Business Scandal

An implicit theme of this case that I want students to recognize is the contrast between the persistent and vigorous efforts of David Sokol to “get to the bottom” of the suspicious items he uncovered in JWP’s accounting records versus what Judge William Conner referred to as the “spinelessness” of JWP’s auditors. The JWP audits were similar to most problem audits in that the auditors encountered numerous red flags and questionable entries in the client’s accounting records but, for whatever reason, apparently failed to thoroughly investigate those items. On the other hand, Sokol refused to be deterred in his investigation of the troubling accounting issues that he discovered. The relationships that existed between members of JWP’s accounting staff and the Ernst & Young audit team apparently influenced the outcome of the JWP audits. Of course, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

The culture of Sears has also changed quite a bit. According to a Sears insider, "The culture of the company has improved drastically over the past five years…We have put a lot of new management in place and devoted ourselves to nothing but retail." Sears has also made it a point to make sure that women are placed in management positions. Their progressive environment makes it possible to advance just as easily as their male counterparts. There was some complaint about wanting to be a little more diverse so Sears has also implemented a diversity-training program.

Sears, Roebuck and Co began in the 19th century and sold farm supplies and consumer items as a small mail order company. The first Sears retail store opened up in Chicago on the 2nd February 1925 in the building named the Merchandise. This store had included a soda fountain and an optical shop. The first detached and separate retail store opened up on the 5th October 1925 in a city called Evansville in Indiana. During the summer season in 1928 3 more Chicago department stores opened newly, one on the 63rd and Western a second on the south side at Kenwood and 77th, and the third at north side at Lawrence and Winchester Street. In 1929

All organizations will encounter strategic challenges over their duration of years in business. These challenges will come at all different levels across the company. Knowing that these challenges have happened in the past and will happen in the future, it is important to see how an organization will react to overcome the challenges.

The Molex Corporation is an electronic connector manufacturing firm, which is based in Illinois. This company is facing a financial reporting problem in which the financial statements were overstated. Joe King ,the CEO of the company, was appointed in July of 2001, and was responsible for managing and inventory control, among other very important duties. Diane Bullock was hired in 2003, to replace the previous CFO. Both Bullock and King were being accused of what? by the external auditors, Deloitte & Touche, for not disclosing an 8 million pre-tax inventory valuation error.

Although this practice was not fraudulent, the plaintiffs insisted that Campbell had a responsibility to record a reserve or allowance in anticipation of substantial customer returns likely to result from theses “sales.” Despite the fact that a large percentage of product sold under guaranteed sales contracts was returned, the company’s accounting staff apparently never recorded appropriate reserves for those sales returns. The plaintiffs charged that PwC must have known about Campbell’s bogus sales, but

As the founding attorney of Schreiber/Cohen, LLC, in Salem, New Hampshire, Jeffrey A. Schreiber devotes his legal practice to creditor debtor rights for businesses, business litigation and matters related to business and corporate law. He primarily represents clients in Salem or the surrounding area. The cases that Mr. Schreiber accepts typically involve matters such as consumer and commercial collections, crisis management and commercial bankruptcy* or reorganization. He has been rated AV-Preeminent** by Martindale-Hubbell, [1] and he has been named a top-rated lawyer by both The Boston Globe and The American Lawyer.

On August 4, 2008, Eric Myers had given Starbucks his two weeks notice the same day TooJay’s informed Myers that the employment offer was withdrawn. According to TooJay’s Management Corporation, the decision to withdraw the employment offer was based on the results of the consumer report information. Myers was guided to contact the human resources department to discover why he was denied the continuance of his new position and what had transpired in the decision process. The human resources department informed Myers that he was not hired for the position because of the bankruptcy he recently filed, and TooJay’s had a policy to not permit the hiring of any person who had filed for bankruptcy. Myers wrote a letter to the CEO of TooJay’s Management Corporation asking to reconsider the decision to rescind the acceptance offer, regardless of filing for bankruptcy.

MCI senior officers were concerned with the increasing amount of bad debt due to the number of delinquent Accounts Receivables (AR). A reasonable course of action may have been to improve on the collection of AR. However, the officers were more concerned with their stock portfolios. The officers sought to improve the reputation MCI. The company was attracting a takeover bid that would increase the value of the company’s stock, consequently enriching their own self interests.

The Sears Canada situation has put the former and current employees at the risk of not getting their full pensions and other benefits paid as promised by the company. This problem was raised due to the underfunding of the pension plan by the company. this deficit has but over 16,000 former and current Sears Canada employees at risk of not getting their full pensions. (MacDonald, 2017) This is due to the pensioner not having any priority’s when a company goes through their bankruptcy process. In order to help those who are affected by this, the government should take actions towards protecting and preserving the pension of the employees. The help of the government would help reduce other problems that will arise due to employees not getting their full pension. Such problems that would arise are; the burden on taxpayers to pay for the loss of the employees and how it is unfair and unethical for the employees to suffer from the company’s faults.

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.

In 2001, the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Williams Company was in financial distress. The primarily energy-industry company was struggling with a shrinking energy trading market, which was marked by distressed entities such as Enron’s broadband unit and Global Crossing. Williams also suffered internally with a floundering telecommunications division and a plummeting stock price. These issues led credit rating agencies Moody’s and

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

Sears Holding Company (SHLD) was once a very successful organization. Prior to the 1980’s, SHLD managed to generate revenue and compete among the top retailers in America (Kim, 2014). However, in more recent years, SHLD has become subject to scrutiny among industry’s critics. As of late, SHLD has made several attempts to revive their organization. These attempts involve SHLD implementing corporate, business and functional leveled strategies within their organization.

Sears is facing a huge problem when it comes to making profits anymore and they are continuing to shut down stores. They have already shut down over 100 locations due to them not being as successful as they used to be. They also have a failed stock, drained all their resources, and they are loaded with debt. This company is not able to pull through and make profits anymore because their CEO is not capable of making changes to the company to bring it out of it. He sees that the company is not as presentable as it used to be and it does not have the same appeal. People are not going to want to go to a store where it does not have anything to offer anymore. How can sears become profitable again if they are in such debt and trouble with stocks