Strengths And Weaknesses Of Sears Holding Corporation

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

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

Starbucks operates in 65 countries offering specialty coffee, tea, and food items to patrons through company-operated stores (Starbucks Corporation, 2014). Moreover, Starbucks sells trademarked items such as coffee grounds and pre-packaged drinks through grocery stores and similar channels (2014). In 2014, there were 21,366 stores globally (14,191 in America) (2014).

Over the last few years, it has been predominantly evident that Sears Canada has been not performing relevant to the standards present within the competitive industry. The market of retail department stores has dramatically changed since the time the corporate entity first began. To stay relevant within today’s retail industry, Sears Canada has to change their current operations. In today's market, the power of value-driven consumer products has been dominating the industry due to their affordable prices and emphasized popularity. Sears Canada has failed to distinguish themselves within the industry as either an affordable or a high quality department store. With emerging high-end retailers like Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the rise of online discount retailers like Amazon and eBay, Sears can not afford to flood both market segments. This has become a major issue that Sears Canada is facing, as the company will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors by focusing their resources in the home improvement industry.

By 30 June 2009, the company currently has 123 stores in Australia and New Zealand and management has

Sears Holdings Corporation, parent of Kmart and Sears, Roebuck and Co., is the third largest broad line retailer in the US. Sears Holdings is a leading supplier of tools, lawn and garden, home electronics, and automotive repair and maintenance. It supplies the Craftsman range of garage door openers.

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 is a relatively new company, having only been created in November of 2004 (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). At that time, Kmart Holdings purchased Sears, Roebuck, and Co. The corporation decided it would operate stores under both names, and the merger was officially completed in March of 2005. The shareholders voted to close the deal, or it would not have been able to take place. Now the company is called Sears Holdings, and it operates both Sears and Kmart stores (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). The company also markets both brands without blending them or favoring one over the other. There were several reasons why the companies chose to combine.

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,

The company I looked into is the Sears Holding Corporation. On http://searsholdings.com/invest/annual-reports there are annual reports that show how the company is doing and gives an investor the chance to see if they want to invest in this company. Sears has their annual report for 2015, and just looking at the common stock prices for high there is a loss of 20.99, and for low a loss of 15.08. The document also states that it” has not paid cash dividends over the most recent fiscal years and does not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future.” To many this would not look good if the common stockholders are not getting their dividends paid. The annual report also goes into Revenue and Comparable Store Sales and etc., none of the

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

There are many reasons as to why Sears is underperforming. Although it’s hard to believe at this point, Sears was once America’s largest virtual retailer. They eventually opened up storefronts and were once considered “light years ahead of its competitors.” But, this isn’t true to this day due to Sears failing to adjust their business strategy to keep up with their upcoming competition. For example, Sears focused on trying to be America’s largest brokerage by purchasing a real estate company.

a. Number of stores: In 1992 the company had about 140 stores in the Northwest and Chicago areas. By 2002 the company had approximately 5,886

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.