The Legend Of The Polo Empire

1. What is the key goal that guides the decisions of financial managers? What challenges do financial managers face when they try to find the best sources and uses of funds to meet this goal?

Financial Management: “The process for and the analysis of making financial decisions in the business context.” (Cornett, Adair, & Nofsinger, 2016, p. 5).

The role of the wealth manager is not to simply sell a financial product to a prospect. Instead, a wealth manager’s first concern is developing a comprehensive understanding of the client, a client-centric approach to providing financial solutions. Next the wealth manager must match the right solutions to the client’s needs and desires and ensure he or she receives an exceptional service experience. After that, product and service sales opportunities will naturally follow. Making the transition is clearly a trade-off between short-term results and long-term success. Financial security through goals-based wealth management. As a wealth manager with Merrill Lynch,

Describe the duties of the financial manager in a business firm. Financial managers measure the firm's performance,

One of the most successful clothing brands in the world, Polo Ralph Lauren has built its success around more than just its line of luxurious designer clothes, but the company is one of the top marketing designers also. It was awarded “ Luxury Brand of the Year” in 2010 by the Luxury Daily. A company that was founded by a man named Ralph Lifchitz, better known as Ralph Lauren of the Bronx, New York in 1968. Since the age of 12, Lauren’s had a strong appeal and taste for looking classy. He would spend the money he earned working with his father after school, purchasing expensive suites. In his latter years, while working for a company called A. Rivetz & Co., Lauren began designing wide ties, the beginning of what latter evolved into the

The wealth management or financial planning professions provide financial planning services and investment advice to clients for high net profit. The essential goal of any financial profession is to sustain and increase the long-term wealth of their clients. Since they manage huge amount of money for other people, they must also be ethical, trustworthy and free of any criminal record involving robbery, fraud or intentional mismanagement. Thus, they should understand complex financial documents, financial regulations and legal restrictions, not only good command of investments and financial planning.

As financial manager, my role is a complex one covering many different areas of my clients finances. My role requires me to have a full understanding of the finances and how my company is ran. I am responsible for managing the budget and allocating funds amongst the different departments in relevance to importance, in order to keep the company running successfully. Choosing to invest in a company is a huge decision , requiring a rigorous amount of research. This research is done in order to determine whether the companies are a good fit for each other. The amount of research conducted can make the difference between my investor increasing their profit and losing money.

Ralph Lauren Corporation provides design, marketing and distribution for people lifestyle products in four categories: apparel, home, accessories and fragrances. Heather Drew Maher, JD, ARM, Vice President, Risk Management and Claims Counsel at Ralph Lauren.

Many children, including myself, have once played the game Marco Polo. Although, I have always been curious, who exactly is Marco Polo? My fascination of Marco Polo warped into a fixation of his travels. Marco Polo was born in Venice in the year 1254. His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who had seats in the great nobleman council of Venice (Polo IV). According to his records, he had traveled thousands of miles with his father and uncle.

R A L P H L A U R E N “What I do is about living.” -Ralph Lauren “The clothes that I design and everything I’ve done is about life and how people live and how they want to live and how they dream they’ll live. That's what I do.” Ralph Lauren Company Overview Ralph Lauren was founded in 1967, by Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Ralph Lauren. It engages in the distribution premium lifestyle goods such as: Home goods, Apparel, and Accessories/Fragrances. Within the Ralph Lauren group are private brands, including Polo by Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco and Denim & Supply RL, to name a few. As of May 2015, Ralph Lauren reached a market cap of $12 Billion, with sales reaching $7.6 Billion internationally. Ralph Lauren is ranked #89 on FORBES LISTS

The designer has always been keen on sports, branding his first full menswear line “Polo”. During 1969, showcasing the designers line for the first time Bloomingdale store sold Lauren’s men line exclusively; making Lauren the first ever designer to have work being displayed at their own in store boutique. In 1971, Ralph Lauren introduced his womenswear label launching a line of tailored shirts for women. Introducing the Polo player emblem to the world for the first time, the women’s collection was launched the following year displaying the emblem on the shirts cuffs. Around 1973, Lauren designed costumes for many film productions such as “The Great Gatsby” and “Annie Hall”, His designs had a major influence on the way millions dressed.

Ralph Lauren employs a business level strategy of Focused Differentiation. Differentiation is value as perceived by customers through unique features and characteristics of an organization 's products rather than by the lowest price (“Generic Competitive”, 2017). This is done through providing high quality, unique features, exceptional customer service, innovation, or advanced technology, etc. (Baba, 2015). RL’s focus on differentiation is described best on their own website when they state “Ralph Lauren is one of the world’s premier luxury lifestyle brands, universally recognized and associated with distinct design and quality” (“Ralph Lauren Investor”, 2017).

Casual wear was also a big seller for the RL brand, epitomizing the preppy chic look that was popular in the 80s. The brand went on to launch women’s wear and Ralph Lauren home – bed sheets, towels and furniture all with the classic American style that the Polo/Ralph Lauren brand was known for. “The fall 1987 product list of the Ralph Lauren Home Collection alone numbered 2,200 pieces.” (Ralph Lauren The Man Behind the Mystique p. 4)

I believed financial sector is one of the fastest growing and most influential elements in our modern society and economy. Financial professionals help companies and organizations stay on top of their own finances, which is a top priority in the wake of the recession. The growing of financial services in the world has brought massive opportunities to utilize newer principles, methodologies, tools and practices in the field of finance. It is this challenging field in which I would like to gain expertise.

The return on equity, ROE, is as high as 20.69% (above 15%). It illustrate that the RL Corporation uses the investors’ money pretty effectively. As of return of assets, equals to 13.10%, which reveals how much profit a company earns for every dollar of its assets. Both ROE and ROA for RL Corporation seems really good and they provide a picture that managers are doing a good job of generating return from shareholders’ investments.