Staples Strategic Audit

The Board of Directors consisted primarily of Gerry Wiegert, John Pope, and Barry Rosengrant. Gerry was the President, so it was typical for him to be a part of the board. John Pope was a financial consultant; therefore, he was adequate to be the financially literate person on the board. Barry was in real estate, but he was a consultant of Vector Car which gave him some knowledge of the company. Dan Harnett and George Fencl were also a part of the board for some point of time; they also had adequate knowledge to be capable additions to the board with their knowledge of law and

Another central feature of the board of directors is the question of whether the CEO is also the chairman of the board. When the CEO is also the chairman this is often referred to as “CEO duality”. In the US the CEO is often the chairman of the board. Studies have shown that the board in most cases

Common stockholders are the basic owners of a corporation, but few stockholders of large corporations take an active role in management. Instead, they elect the corporation’s board of directors to represent their interests. Board members seldom get involved in the day-to-day management of the company. They establish the basic mission and goals of the corporation and appoint

How did the corporation perform the past year overall in terms of return on investment, market share, and profitability?

In January 2012, newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson introduced a plan to rebrand the department store chain into a 21st century retail powerhouse. Launching of the new J. C. Penney brand identity was set to occur over four years and would include a new logo, a new in-store experience featuring new and transformed brands, and most importantly, it would change the way that the company priced merchandise. Unfortunately, J. C. Penney suffered a 25% sales decline in the first year and Johnson was fired after only 17 months.

Interface: The lay-out of Target.com and the mobile extension of the website as well as Target’s mobile app and its coupon app Cartwheel (currently under beta testing) need to be intuitively designed to allow for easy navigation, selecting and comparing products and making payments.

Joshua Kennon (2007), stated that “The board of directors is the highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded company and is usually made up of the directors who are elected for a specific number of years by the shareholders”. According to Wikipedia,” A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization”.

2. Acquisitions Staples’s revenue was twice the OD’s revenue, OD could merge with Office Max in order to compete with Staples at the same level. In addition, after that the alliance could integrate the source effectively and efficiently and cut more operating cost.

Hanesbrands Inc. implemented strategy to have Richard A. Noll to hold the Chairman and CEO position. Considering that the Board of Director acts as an advisor and counselor to the CEO and senior management and oversees their activities and performance, this policy has a disadvantage for the company because it can lead to conflict interests. It is still a weakness of this policy, although this weakness is minimized by the rule that the non-management directors will undertake a formal evaluation of the CEO annually and the Compensation Committee along with other independent directors should be responsible for reviewing and approving the compensation program for the CEO (Hanesbrands Inc. Corporate Governance Guidelines, 2016).

First of all, in Walmart, the Board of director is the most powerful governing authority who are responsible for setting the framework and management structure in general. It is committed to be operated in fairness and integrity in order to ensure the shareholders’ trust. Board of directors’ internal duty is to control mechanisms for good governance are adequate. This includes setting up legal existence, establishes company’s vision, key mission, strategic direction, selecting and appointing chief executives, governing the organization via policies and objectives to guide other agencies following up. All strategic decisions of the corporation would be raised and agreed by the board, such as hiring a CEO, approving to do a major financing or acquisition. Its primary responsibility is protecting shareholders’ asset as well as

The board will help set strategies, direction, vision, hire/fire top management, monitor and supervise top management, oversee the use of resources, and care for shareholders' interests (Wheelen & Hunger, 2006, pp. 36-37).

Gap’s current objectives and policies include ethical sourcing, better employment practices, and community involvement. These objectives and policies are captured by the following statement:

Staples is a comprehensive strategic management case that includes the company’s year-end 2010 financial statements, organizational chart, competitor information and more. The case time setting is the year 2011. Sufficient internal and external data are provided to enable students to evaluate current strategies and recommend a three-year strategic plan for the company. Headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, Staples’s common stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbol SPLS.

There is extensive research on board composition and the importance it places on different aspects of organisation performance. (Kang H, et al 2007).

S: 1. Product diversity: HP not just do the software and hardware but the whole rang of service to design, implement and IT infrastructure. Right now HP is dominating the market of printer with 40% market share. The product diversity enables the company to hold its position even in the time of recession.