...Clothes 'R' Us Point-of-Sale Initiative: Managing IT Programs by Mark Jeffery, Joseph F. Norton, Derek Yung, Alex Gershbeyn Source: Kellogg School of Management 22 pages. Publication Date: Jan 01, 2006. Prod. #: KEL304-PDF-ENG The case concerns a real $25 million program consisting of nine concurrent projects to deliver and implement a custom-built in-store customer relationship management (CRM) system and a new point-of-sale system in 400 stores of a national retail chain. The name of the company has been disguised for confidentiality reasons. Once deployed, the new system should give Clothes R' Us a significant strategic advantage over competitors in the marketplace; it will increase in-store manager productivity, cut costs, and ultimately drive increased sales for the retail chain. The program is in crisis, however, because the product managers have just left to join a competitor. The explicit details of the program are given, including examples of best practice program governance and the real activity network diagram for the program. Detailed Excel spreadsheets are also provided with the actual earned value data for the program. Students analyze the spreadsheets and the data given in the case to diagnose the impact of the most recent risk event and past risk events that occurred in the program. Ultimately students must answer the essential executive questions: What is wrong with the program? How should it be fixed, and what is the impact in time and money to the program...
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...University of Budapest Marketing Department Clothes ‘R’ Us Point-of-Sale Initiative [pic] Duzsek Réka, oso9ef MSc Marketing Consumer Relationship Management Course leader: Agárdi Irma November 28, 2012 Clothes ‘R’ Us was a leading apparel store in the United States with more than four hundred national stores. They offered hip, but affordable clothing for men, women and children. Between 1990 and 1997 the company had great financial growth, but this revenue growth began to slow down in 1998. By 2000, Clothes ‘R’ Us had over-expanded and had the worst gross margins in the industry. In 2001 to reduce costs and regain its competitiveness they started to analyze the problems within the company. They closed unprofitable shops and opened new, profitable ones. To restructure the whole back-office process they wanted to introduce a new POS and credit system in every retail stores. 1. How does the POS Initiative fit into the strategy of Clothes 'R' Us? The strategy of Clothes ‘R’ Us was to increase the revenues and to stop the declines and the POS system was an important point of this strategy. The goal of the POS system was to free up the store manager’s time, to get him work in the store, instead of the back office. This reduces costs and helps the useful allocation of the human resources. The workflow study, mentioned in the case, showed that this could reduce the store manager’s time spent...
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...1 Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT Department of Business Administration Garment Industry Analysis in China Case Study on YiChang Richart Factory Limited Degree Thesis of 30 credit points Service Science LIU XIANG & XING ZHENZHEN Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60 Information@kau.se www.kau.se Supervisor: Lars Haglund 1. ABSTRACT Purpose - In manufacturing industry, China is the most powerful all over the world. The garment industry is one of the most important parts in the market for manufacturing goods. And for the garment industry, China is the largest export country in the world. When we go shopping, we can see a lot of tags about ―made in China‖. Referring to China’s exporting capability in the garment industry, we want to find out why most of international clothing companies choose China as their manufacture market for their production basement. And whether the ―made in China‖ tagged in clothes is influencing consumer behavior or not. Moreover, the authors would like to provide some feasible suggestions on the management for the Chinese garment manufacturers, especially in the labor force problem. Methodology - This paper mainly takes the methodologies of literature review, both qualitative and quantitative analysis in case study, and questionnaire survey. The literatures reviewed here include company articles, academic papers, books, and website information. And in consumer...
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...characteristics of successful brands 2.3 Brand equity 2.3.1 Brand awareness 2.3.2 Perceived quality 2.3.3 Brand loyalty 2.3.4 Brand association 2.4 Consumer buying behaviour 10 10 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 19 2.4.1 Models of consumer behaviour 2.5 Summary 20 23 Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Theoretical backgrounds 3.2.1 Review of different research traditions 3.2.2 Quantitative versus qualitative analysis 3.2.3 Reliability and validity of data 3.3 Justification of research method 3.4 Sampling 3.5 Interview schedule 3.5.1 Stage one 3.5.2 Stage two 3.5.3 Stage three 3.6 Administration 3.7 Analysis strategy 3.7.1 Grounded theory and its relationship to qualitative data analysis 3.7.2 Within-case and cross-case analysis 3.7.2.1 Within-case analysis 3.7.2.2 Cross-case analysis 3.8 Summary 24 24 24 24 25 26 27 29 31 31 32 34 34 34 34 35 36 37 37 Chapter 4: Research findings and discussion 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Backgrounds of respondents 4.3 Effect of clothing brand...
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...A case of a patient, Miss. Tracy Rewini, of age 66 years, suffering from advanced stages of cervical cancer which is already spread to her liver, pancreas and bowel has been presented for us to do critical analysis, case study and to prepare a plan of palliative care for her. Miss. Rewini has been suffering with this disease since three years. Cervical cancer is special type of cancer which is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) that affect cells of the cervix- lower part of the uterus which connects vagina (Bosch, Manos, Munoz, Sherman, Jansen, Peto, & Shan, 1995). It is caused when abnormal cells grow out of control on cervix (Stewart, & Kleihues, 2003). The care plan is discussed in following part of essay. As Miss Rewini is Maori women,...
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...CASE STUDY 5.1 Using the ‘Technology as Experience’ Framework Introduction To show how the Technology as Experience framework (introduced in Chapter 5) can be used to think about and inform design, two case studies are presented here. Both used it to guide their initial ideas for the design of two different websites: (i) an online fundraising site and (ii) a site that reviews men’s clothing, intended to appeal to men who do not enjoy shopping. Both were written by students as part of a graduate course in Human-Computer Interaction and hence it should be noted are only hypothetical websites (see the end of the case study for the assignmenti ). The first was written by Heather Collins when she was a graduate student at Indiana University. She used primarily the sensory and compositional threads of the framework, leading to insights on how fundraising organizations can maximize their website to tell a compelling story to a potential donor that is balanced in content and emotion. Her design combines elements of storytelling, appropriate emotional triggers, and a welcoming atmosphere to encourage potential donors to act by making a donation, volunteering their time, telling their friends, or attending a related event. Through this process, the donor can create a meaningful connection to a cause or problem directly impacting their community. The personal connection makes the online donation experience pleasurable for the user. The second was written by Aaron Loehrlein when he was also...
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...CASE STUDY 5.1 Using the ‘Technology as Experience’ Framework Introduction To show how the Technology as Experience framework (introduced in Chapter 5) can be used to think about and inform design, two case studies are presented here. Both used it to guide their initial ideas for the design of two different websites: (i) an online fundraising site and (ii) a site that reviews men’s clothing, intended to appeal to men who do not enjoy shopping. Both were written by students as part of a graduate course in Human-Computer Interaction and hence it should be noted are only hypothetical websites (see the end of the case study for the assignmenti ). The first was written by Heather Collins when she was a graduate student at Indiana University. She used primarily the sensory and compositional threads of the framework, leading to insights on how fundraising organizations can maximize their website to tell a compelling story to a potential donor that is balanced in content and emotion. Her design combines elements of storytelling, appropriate emotional triggers, and a welcoming atmosphere to encourage potential donors to act by making a donation, volunteering their time, telling their friends, or attending a related event. Through this process, the donor can create a meaningful connection to a cause or problem directly impacting their community. The personal connection makes the online donation experience pleasurable for the user. The second was written by Aaron Loehrlein when he was also...
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...Case study analysis CASE METHOD EXERCISE: ABERCROMBIE & FITCH (by Meg Connolly, in Marketing Ethics: Cases and Readings (2006), edited by Patrick E. Murphy and Gene R. Laczniak) Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) of today differs dramatically from the original waterfront shop in New York that carried high-quality clothing suitable for camping, fishing and hunting. The A&F of 2002 can be found in virtually any major mall in America, and its target market includes preteen and teenagers. Indeed, the shift has been rather dramatic, and it could certainly be asserted that the direction A&F has recently headed strays substantially from the original vision of its founders. The style of clothes offered by A&F could be described as worn, casual, and rather rugged. Some critics contend the merchandise at A&F is seemingly overpriced considering that it is arguably no more unique than any other store of its kind geared toward the same market. One aspect of A&F that does make it unique from other stores, however, is their catalogue that was first published in 1997 and comes out four times a year with a spring break, summer, back-to-school, and Christmas issue. The Quarterly is a magazine-hybrid that, in addition to the clothing portion of the catalogue, has interviews with actors, musicians, directors and even some famous scholars. Fashion legend Bruce Weber does many of the photographs that appear throughout the magazine, and “these photos depict young, healthy, presumably red-blooded...
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...KEL304 MARK JEFFERY AND JOSEPH F. NORTON Clothes ‘R’ Us Point-of-Sale Initiative: Managing IT Programs Overview Marcus Nord, a program manager for Clothes ‘R’ Us, had an urgent update for the program management team and Nancy Orlin, the company’s chief information officer (CIO). Nord had just learned that four of the six product managers had unexpectedly quit. For Orlin, this was yet another obstacle that was making this program one of the hardest she had managed in her career. In Orlin’s twenty-year tenure at the company, she had managed many technology projects that were vital to the company’s strategy. Despite the extensive use of information technology (IT) at Clothes ‘R’ Us, Orlin could not recall anything that compared to the scope of the enterprise technology initiative currently being put into place. For the past several months, several of her project teams had been working at a breakneck pace to deliver a state-of-the-art point-of-sale (POS) system for the retail stores. The POS system was a key piece in the overall revenue growth strategy for the company, and was intended to combat the Clothes ‘R’ Us declines in both year-to-year same-store sales and sales growth relative to its competitors. Orlin heard the distressing news about the product managers leaving the company just a few days before a review meeting with the executive oversight committee. In preparation for the meeting, Orlin called a meeting of her leadership team for a review of the overall program...
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...education, finances, family, spiritual belief, career, and college success. In order to be successful in life, it’s highly important to value all aspects of personal responsibility. First, the nature of personal responsibility transitions from childhood to adulthood. As kids growing up the parent’s are held responsible for their children and well being. The time will change into the hands of your own, in which nobody is accountable for your own actions anymore. Parents for the most part have a major responsibility role when shaping our children in early stages as well as their attitudes, behavior, ethnicity, morals, values, and spirituality. The childhood and adolescence stage incorporates the primary roots that are grounded within us. As kids develop into young adults, parents’ have the best interest to know when their young adults are mature enough for certain criteria. For example, the Georgia Law states that he/she must 16 years old to test for class D license. Now parents must take responsibility to make the better judgment as when to allow their young adult permission to drive freely. In Georgia, it’s not mandatory or required, but a privilege to have a license. We as individuals mature differently and must gain all knowledge from our parents, mentors, teachers, and pastors. Also, the spiritual belief helps individuals to define themselves into their own divinity. As an individual, it’s important to have your own knowledge and understanding to your spiritual...
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...Amazon Case Study Assignment Questions: 1. What is Amazon’s business? [answer this question with a bulleted list] a. World largest online retailer b. Selling products like books, digital movies/music, electronics/computers, clothes, toys, other home essentials and etc c. In-house consumer electronics d. Cloud computing services 2. What are the business needs/problem that are addressed in the case? [use a table here with column one being the need/problem and column to a bulleted description of the need problem] |Needs/Problems |Description | |To give customers a good experience and good prices in terms of |To operate Amazon’s own warehouse | |book selection |To control the transaction from start to finish | |Building Amazon’s own warehouse |Expensive to build and expensive to operate | | |Not much stock | | |The warehouse is totally computerized | | ...
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...HBR CASE STUDY Offered a lucrative deal to outfit consumer goods with RFID tags,a technology executive wonders: Would he be providing a valuable custonner service? Or committing a heinous invasion of privacy? None of Our Business? by Roberta A. Fusaro E S W THEM the moment he came A out of the parking garage. Across the street, about two dozen protesters crowded close to the main entrance of the exposition center, heckling conference goers as they streamed inside. Fired up with anger and caffeine (almost all clutched steaming cups of coffee-it was still early on a Friday morning), they shouted through bullhorns and waved placards with messages like "Get Off My Frequency!" and "Mind Your Own Business!"When two women in charcoal-gray suits walked out the center's doors, a protester broke away and followed them down the sidewalk, trying to press pamphlets into their hands. A police officer ordered the crowd to stay behind the barricades, but his commands were inaudible beneath the sounds of traffic and civil insurrection. Dante Sorelia shook his head. "How the hell did we reach this point?" he thought as the walk light beckoned him forward. As CEO of a technology firm, Dante was an old hand at privacy debates. Such intense, public hostility, however, was a fairly recent development. His Manhattan-based company, Raydar Electronics, was among the top five makers and integrators of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers in...
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...CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY The environment in which the fashion industry operates the world over has become turbulent, unpredictable and therefore, difficult to exert managerial control. Cultures around the world are constantly influencing each other; hence, the world’s cultures are changing fashion constantly. Also, social, economic, political and legal factors keep changing than before. Competition in the fashion industry is so rife such that the survival of fashion organizations cannot be guaranteed (Stuart, 1995). During the last decade, the developments of new technologies all over the world and growing globalization of countries economies have produced the fastest changes ever. The fashion industry in Ghana, especially, the clothing sub sector (which is the focus of this study) has not been without the effect of economic, political, social, cultural and legal pressures brought to bear on all organizations. In recent years, protectionism has given way to globalization. With that change, Ghanaian clothing sector of the fashion industry has had to compete with imports from low wage countries. Retailers, unencumbered by protectionism, have also seized on the opportunity, often choosing to go directly to offshore manufacturers. As retailers become larger and more globally connected, they continue to build global brands marketed around the world. In doing so, they eliminate many Ghanaian clothing companies from their supply chain. The result has been major market...
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...504-009-1 04/2004-5188 Unilever in Brazil: Marketing Strategies for LowIncome Consumers This case was prepared by Pedro Pacheco Guimaraes, INSEAD MBA 2003, and Pierre Chandon, Assistant Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. We thank Laercio Cardoso and Robert Davidson from Unilever Brazil for making this case possible. We also thank Fernando Machado (INSEAD MBA 2003), Mauricio Mittelman (INSEAD PhD Student), and Luca Lattanzi (INSEAD Executive MBA 2004) for their comments. Copyright © 2004 INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. PERMISSION. N.B. PLEASE NOTE THAT DETAILS OF ORDERING SE EU INSEAD CASES ARE FOUND ON THE BACK COVER. COPIES MAY NOT BE MADE WITHOUT RING HOU SE CL Distributed by The European Case Clearing House, England and USA. North America, phone: +1 781 239 5884, fax: +1 781 239 5885, e-mail: ECCHBabson@aol.com. Rest of the World, phone: +44 (0)1234 750903, fax: +44 (0)1234 751125, e-mail: ECCH@cranfield.ac.uk. All rights reserved. Printed in UK and USA. Web Site: http://www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk. EA RO PEAN CA 504-009-1 INSEAD 1 5188 After three successful years in the Personal Care division of Unilever in Pakistan, Laercio Cardoso was contemplating an attractive leadership position in China when he received a phone call from Robert Davidson, Head of Unilever’s Home Care division...
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...INDIAN DETERGENT INDUSTRY: NEED FOR NEW VARIANT TO TAP POTENTIAL GAPS DR. RITESH K. PATEL Assistant Professor, PG Research Center for Governance Systems, Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, Email: visit_ritesh@yahoo.com, Mo.: +91-9687100199. ABSTRACT The market of synthetic detergents was valued at about Rs 112 billion as of 2012-13 with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%. Out of this, the machine wash or automatic sales has been dominated by powder detergents, with a 98% share in the market, which has a size of Rs. 18700 Million. However, a much bigger segment of the market is the non-automatic or the hand-wash category, which has a size of Rs. 85466.8 Million and is also dominated by the powder detergents but by a smaller percentage compared to the machine-wash category, about 68%. The remaining contribution comes from the bar detergents. Within the machine-wash category, the highest growth has been contributed by the powder detergents, a CAGR of 9.5% since 2005, with the other sub-category within the machine-wash category being liquid detergents. Also, the hand-wash detergents have shown an impressive growth rate of 8.8% CAGR since 2005, which has contributed to the growth in the overall detergent market. Based on the literature review and scope of the research problem, two decision problems and four research problems were identified. The former pertained to factors affecting consumers’ preference for detergents, while the latter focused...
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