Sears Holdings Corporation Strategic Plan

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

WalMart's (NYSE:WMT) expertise in discount retailing is globally recognized, as is their supply chain and extensive logistics capabilities. What differentiates WalMart from the many other discount retailers is their extensive reliance on buyer personas or representations of their customers. All aspects of the WalMart value chain are predicated on serving their customers as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. WalMart has also created an extensive information systems network that includes satellite uploads of data on a daily basis from their thousands of retail locations to their Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters (WalMart Investor Relations, 2013). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the mission, vision and strategy of WalMart from the perspective of improving its customer service while also taking into account its financial position. To accomplish this, objectives are provided, combined with performance measures and expected levels of performance as well. All of these factors taken together provide senior management at WalMart with insights into how they can profitably improve customer service.

Our recommendation is to take Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) private through a private equity buyout. After doing so, we recommend implementing a centralized management structure and recruiting retail-savvy executives for the upper management team. We then recommend focusing on increasing value by capitalizing on SHLD’s real estate holdings through leasing agreements and increasing partnerships with complementary enterprises. Also, we recommend improving employee retention rates and retaining exclusive rights to private brands. Finally, we recommend focusing on a long-term strategy to continue to maximize SHLD’s ecommerce platforms. We believe these recommendations will lead to long-term stability through increases in customer base and

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 letter to the shareholders, Kmart Chairman Edward Lampert and President and CEO of Kmart Julian Day established other goals of the organization: "to focus our initiatives, merchandise assortment and associate goals on the four key areas of stores, markets, customers and profitability" (www.kmart.com). After Mr. Lambert took control after Chapter 11 proceedings, Kmart slashed inventory, squelched capital spending, reorganized the overall organization, and sold Kmart 's best locations for the cash to maximize profitability (http://epnet.com).

Through analysis, it is evident that the company must be restructured entirely through the implementation of a differentiation strategy. This strategy will focus solely on transforming the company into a retail chain providing competitively priced appliances, electronics, furniture and home décor. While maintaining a strategically competitive price point, Sears will be able to maintain competitive prices to draw consumers

Sears began as a small retailer but as the years have gone by, they have become

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.

With the exception of ROE, most financial ratios and even absolute values bear testimony to Wal-Mart’s recognition as the leader in the retailing industry. The reason behind Sears’s higher ROE can be explained by a comparison of the 3 ratios that constitute the ratio known as DuPont identity that is profit margin, asset turnover and equity multiplier. While both firms had similar profit margins, Wal-Mart’s asset turnover was 2.8 compared to Sears’ 1.1 due to the firm’s effective utilization of assets and lease agreements to facilitate revenue generation.

There were also proprietary brands that were held by both Kmart and Sears, and with the merger it would be easier to get those brands out to the target demographics. Making each

Sears Holding Corporation is the fourth largest retailer in the United States and Canada. Its subsidiaries include Sears, Roebuck and Co. as well as K-Mart. The closing of the merger between Sears and K-Mart took place on March 24, 2005. Sears has more than 4,000 retail stores across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Sears offers products and services through over 2,700 branded and affiliated stores. Sears operates 894 broad-line stores and 1,354 specialty stores. Sears’ broad-line stores are mall-based locations. The specialty stores include Sears Hometown Stores that are mostly independently owned, Sears Home Appliance Showrooms, Sears Hardware Stores, Sears Auto Centers,

Due to slow sales and less traffic at both Sears and Kmart, the two have decided to merge creating one entity named Sears Holdings. Kmart has agreed to buy Sears for $11 Billion. This puts Sears Holdings at the third largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although Wal-Mart is a direct competitor with Kmart, Sears Holdings goal is not to compete with Wal-Mart directly, but find areas that have been overlooked by other retailers, and take advantage of the expanded line of products the new company has to offer. Sears has had higher sales than Kmart, so hundreds of Kmart’s will be transformed into Sears stores. As of now, most of Sears 870 stores are only found in malls. The new strategy would be to open Sears stores in current

The Home Depot bought more than 18 stores and Sears bought 45 for about $524 million. In that same year, Kmart Holding Corporation completed transactions to become a part of Sears, Roebuck and Company now known as Sears Holdings Corporation. Sears Holdings is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SHLD. As of 2004 Kmart had 1,422 discount stores, 58 Kmart Supercenters totaling 1,480 stores. 1,323 of those stores were leased and 157 are company owned. Following the takeover, about 400 of Kmart's nearly 1,500 stores will be converted to Sears's outlets over the next three years.

will save of challenges and cost in the long run. Both companies possess strengths that helped The Sears Roebuck Co. And Kmart Holding Corp. Companies were an unsuccessful acquisition. The CEOs of Sears, Roebuck, and Kmart Holding, planned to merge into a fifty-five-billion-dollar retail company believing it would produce stronger brands, greater productiveness in operations and higher returns than either company could achieve alone. At the time of the merger, both companies were struggling. Some of their problems were the recession, poor investments, and shrinking revenues. They also could not keep up with superstores like Walmart. With this union, they would both benefit different ways. Kmart was going to benefit from the planned cost sharing of several of Sears proprietary brands as well as grant freedom to obtain significant profit and cost synergies including merchandise and non-merchandise purchasing, distribution, and other SG&A expenses. Sears would move out of malls, and would benefit from Kmart’ store's locations were are in the high-income customer target of Sears. Moving out of malls meant that Sears would sell some of it real estates which would have brought money to the company. Two struggling companies coming together potentially make a bigger struggling company.

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