...provide a quality education to a diverse student population from Southeast Texas and beyond, resulting in well-rounded business professionals who are prepared to meet the challenges of a dynamic global environment while upholding ethical values and encouraging civic and social responsibility. The faculty promotes an environment supportive of applications-oriented learning by engaging in a balance of discipline-based, business pedagogy, and practice-based intellectual contributions. I. Catalog Description: The capstone course for the MBA. The course assumes that the company success depends upon formulation of an astute “game” plan and the ability to implement and execute that game plan proficiently. The purpose of the class is to enable students to “think strategically,” consider the total enterprise, and to make long-term decisions in a global market environment. A prerequisite for the Integrative Case Study. II. Prerequisites: - Student must be in last semester of course work and have approval of advisor. - Justification: This is a capstone course that draws upon all of the MBA core courses and stresses complex and interdisciplinary applications of the combined theories and experiences of these core courses. III. Course Learning Outcomes: This course has been developed to help you adapt to the rapidly changing markets, globalization, shifting government policies, new technologies and increasingly fickle consumer tastes, all which make the task of strategic...
Words: 4016 - Pages: 17
...Clarence Morris Case Analysis 1: Costco Wholesale MGT 442Strategic Management & Business Policy Dr. McDaniel The first Costco store began operations in Seattle in 1983, the same year that Wal-Mart launched its warehouse membership format, Sam’s Club. Jim Sinegal (CEO) and Seattle Entrepreneur Jeff Brotman (now chairman of the board of directors) founded Costco in 1982. Jim Sinegal derived the idea of a warehouse membership format while working out in San Diego as a manager for his mentor Sol Price’s Price Club. Sinegal had a special knack for discount retailing and for spotting what a store was doing wrong (usually either not being in the right merchandise categories or not selling items at the right price points). Sinegal was constantly improving store operations, keeping operating costs and overhead low, stocking items that moved quickly, and charging ultra-low prices that kept customers coming back to shop while at Price Club. The first Costco Warehouse opened in September in Seattle, Washington. By the end of 1983, two additional locations had opened in Portland, Oregon and Spokane, Washington. The fourth Costco warehouse opened in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1984 and by calendar year-end, there were nine Costco’s in five states serving over 200,00 members. In October 1993, Costco merged with The Price Company, which had pioneered the membership warehouse concept in 1976, to form Price/Costco, Inc., a Delaware corporation. In January 1997, non-warehouse assets were...
Words: 471 - Pages: 2
...Costco Companies Inc. – Case Analysis * Karthik Sundar (668943916) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Costco is a membership only club warehouse giant that operates globally. Most of its business is concentrated in the United States with its presence in a majority of the states. It is currently having good business figures of 115 Billion dollars in revenue and a net income of 15.3 Billion dollars. The following is a case study of the hurdles faced by the management at Costco during the period of 1998 when they had come up with a new venture of offering services to its customers. Costco’s sales driver is the fact that it sell a bulk of its products at very low margin to its customers. It is able to do so as it has a large inventory at each warehouse and operational costs aren’t very high. Despite having a large inventory, it has a high number of inventory turns at each of its inventories. Such operational efficiency helps them offer products at great prices to its customers. This value offered attracts a lot of small business and general public. Costco’s customers are a good mix of such business and general customers from the public. It operates on an exclusive membership with a member enrollment fee of 40$ during the period of this case (55$ currently). Major revenue generators are food and sundries amounting to about 60% of the sales at Costco. It has a good business model of operating at good efficiency, competitive pricing, commitment to the quality and great employee focus. A combination...
Words: 1485 - Pages: 6
...2015-03-16 Case Assignment & Guiding Questions for Case Analysis Prof. Park Strategic Management Course Requirements & Grading Attendance/Class Contribution Mid-term(in class) Real Case Analysis (Final Group Project) * replace the final exam * Adjusted by peer evaluation Case Report and Presentation (Group Project) * Adjusted by peer evaluation 20% 30% 35% 15% Total 100% 1 2015-03-16 Case Report and Presentation (Group Project) • We will discuss around 10 business cases in this class. • Teams will be assigned to analyze the case and present the results in class. • For your analysis, there will be guideline questions to discuss. • Presentation time: around 15-20 minutes • # of presenters: one or two students • Each team need to bring 2‐3 questions and lead class discussion. (After your analysis, you may have some questions that you want to share with classmates) List of Cases and Presentation Schedule Case Related Topics Presentation Day 4th Week(Mar 23) 5th Week(Mar 30) Smartphone War b/w 1 Samsung and Apple 2/3 Apple 2010 4 Costco 5-Forces model Internal analysis Differentiation Strategy Cost Leadership 6th Week(Apr 6) 8th Week(Apr 20 or 21) 9th Week(Apr 27) 10th Week(May 4) 11th Week(May 11) 12th Week(May 18) 13th Week(May 26) 13th Week(May 26) 5 The Walt Disney Company Corporate-level Strategy 6 Samsung Sony JVC 7 Daimler Chrysler 8 Two‐Sided Markets 9 10 Strategic Alliance M&A Platform Open Innovation Open Innovation P&G's...
Words: 799 - Pages: 4
...Appendix C: Organizational Analysis Costco Wholesale Corporation Introduction… The purpose of this Organizational Analysis is to discuss Costco’s current mission and values, provide a snapshot of their existing overall business model and the environment they are working in, and then discuss the key success factors required to succeed in their industry. Beyond that will be an examination of what resources (tangible, intangible, and human) and capabilities (functional and value chain) are needed to deliver on these key success factors, as well as analyze how Costco ‘stacks up’ to the competition in those areas. Finally there will be a discussion of what areas should be either improved or exploited moving forward to give Costco a more distinct competitive advantage (and therefore increased profits) in this industry. Mission, Values, and Strategy… Costco’s mission, quite simply, is to provide high quality merchandise at the lowest possible prices for its members, in an ethically responsible manner. Below is a copy of their mission statement directly off of the Costco website… The Mission Statement of Costco Wholesale: "Costco's mission is to continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices. In order to achieve our mission we will conduct our business with the following Code of Ethics in mind: • Obey the law • Take care of our members • Take care of our employees • Respect our vendors If we do these four things...
Words: 3826 - Pages: 16
...4/26/13 Industry: Variety Stores Sector: Retail Costco Wholesale Corp. Investment Thesis Key Statitisics 52 Week Price Range 50-Day Moving Average Estimated Beta Dividend Yield Market Capitalization (In Millions) 3-Year Revenue CAGR Trading Statistics Diluted Shares Outstanding (In Millions) Average Volume (3-Month) Institutional Ownership Insider Ownership EV/EBITDA (LTM) Margins and Ratios 60.00 81.98 109.75 104.26 0.68 $ 0.28 1.76% 47682 12% Costco is the second largest membership discount retailer in the U.S. Costco’s business segments comprised of Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary make its revenue more robust in a unstable economic environment Costco bolsters a significant portion of its income from membership dues, which it can increase a certain extent every year without significant loss in membership Five-Year Stock Chart 439.53 2.05 76.97% 120.00 45,000,000 40,000,000 100.00 1.01% 12.12 80.00 35,000,000 30,000,000 25,000,000 Gross Margin (LTM) EBITDA Margin (LTM) Net Margin (LTM) Debt to Enterprise Value 12.42% 3.82% 1.72% 20.00 40.00 20,000,000 15,000,000 10,000,000 3.11% 2008-05-02 2009-05-01 2010-04-30 2011-04-28 2012-04-26 0.00 2013-04-29 5,000,000 0 Adj Close 50-Day Ave 200-Day Avg Volume Forecast Summary UOIG Projections Net Sales ($M) EBITDA ($M) Basic EPS ($) Consensus Estimates Net Sales ($M) EBTIDA ($M) Basic EPS ($) 2012A $99,137.00 $3,667.00 $4.02 $99,137.00 $3,667...
Words: 11035 - Pages: 45
...STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS CASE: A-186A DATE: 06/19/03 CosTco WHOLESALE CORPORATION FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS (A) INTRODUCTION Margarita Torres first purchased shares in Costco Wholesale Corporation in 1997 as part of her personal investment portfolio. Between 1997 and 2002, she added slightly to her holdings from time to time when the company sold stock for what she felt was a reasonable valuation, and up to that time she did not sell any of her shares. Having watched Costco grow from 265 warehouses to 365 worldwide, and from sales revenue of $21.8 billion to $34.1 billion, she wondered what factors led to such successful growth. She also wanted to determine whether those factors would hold consistent going forward. At this point, Costco was one of a special breed of retailers called wholesale clubs. Unlike other retailers, wholesale clubs required that customers purchase annual memberships in order to shop at their stores. Costco operated a chain of warehouses that sold food and general merchandise at large discounts to member customers. The company was able to maintain low margins by selling items in bulk, keeping operating expenses to a minimum, and turning inventory over rapidly. Costco’s closest competitors were SAM’S Club (a division of Wal-Mart) and BJ’s Wholesale, which both operated as wholesale clubs. Other competitors included general discounters (such as Wal-Mart), general retailers (such as Sears), grocery...
Words: 12628 - Pages: 51
...Costco Inc. 2012: A Wholesale Membership Industry Analysis Using the Porter’s Five Forces Model Costco’s Company Background Costco is the third largest retailer in the U.S. as well as the seventh largest retailer in the world. It is leading the discount warehouse and wholesale club segment of the North American retailing industry. As of 2012, Costco had a total of 598 warehouses internationally. Costco’s fiscal 2011 total revenue was $88.9 billion and net income was $1.46 billion. Additionally Costco had $1.9 billion of membership fees revenue acquired from 25 million households and 6.4 million businesses making it the leader in the wholesale, membership industry. The annual sales for one of Costco’s competitors, Sam’s Club, averaged $146 million with a $78 million average per store. Costco’s business model aims to generate high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover by offering fee-paying members attractively low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private-label products in a wide range of merchandise category. Rapid inventory turnover, low operating costs through purchasing high volumes, efficient distribution, and reduced merchandise handling costs are the major factors that make Costco profitable with relatively lower gross margins than other wholesale competitors. Also, the membership fee required from customers is a major revenue source thataccounts for approximately 70 percent of its total revenue annually. Additionally, Costco...
Words: 2955 - Pages: 12
...Project Feasibility GEANINA POPESCU CASE STUDY PREMIERE MOISSON BAKERY ELEMENTS OF THE SOLUTION Introduction Dear Madams, Sirs The attached report contains PM Consulting Inc’s study concerning the opportunities of implementation and distribution of the Premiere Moisson Bakery products. As required the options of a product market expansion were considered and they were analyzed for their present and future economic feasibility. Based on the information that you provided to us, we concluded that there is a market for your products and that the project will be financially feasible. We will recommend as a go to seek and negotiate partnership in the cities of Ottawa and Quebec however we recommend that the United States should be approached in an ulterior phase at a future date. SITUATION We, PM Consulting Inc were able to identify three specific phases of Ms Lilian Colpron business evolution. These are: 1. Liliane Colpron started her own business at the age of 30 years while having three children and being divorced. She started by negotiating a partnership with a French baker and she opened a little bread shop. She learned how to make and bake bread as well as how to package and deliver bread. Liliane Colpron owned this little bakery for twelve years and then she sold it when she was making sales of $1,000,000 per year. 2. Once the frozen raw bread dough was starting to be the new “it” on the market, Liliane Colpron decided to exploit this new...
Words: 6830 - Pages: 28
...Professor: Wayne Forrester Class: Business 481 Semester: Fall 2012 Section: E Company Report: Costco 1. Dameon Jame Background 2. Chandra Willie Mission/Code of Ethics 3. Brian Sanichar Strategy 4. Gopal Mohan Marketing Strategy 5. Anwar Rahman Financials 6. Airon Melo Financials/Competition 7. Sohani Somai Current Status of Costco 8. Kyle Hecter Recommendations Dameon James Background Costco Wholesale Club wasn’t always the wholesale club company that generated $71 billion dollars in 2008 as well as having 544 warehouses in 40 states; Like any other company, Costco was a blueprint waiting to dominate the wholesale industry. The Person that came up with the membership warehouse concept was Sol Price. The very 1st price club per say was conducted in San Diego California on Morena boulevard at an airplane hangar in 1976. Sole Price started to experiment with discount retailing called Fed-Mart and that is where future CEO Jim Sinegal got his start as he was employed at the fed-mart loading mattresses earning only an abysmal $1.25 an hour while attending San Diego Community College at the same time. Soon after that, Price decided to sell away fed-mart to focus more on his new empire, which was the San Diego Price Store in which Jim Sinegal tailgated with him to help him build that empire. This proved to be a successful move as within the next few years, the Sol Price club stores rose to the top of the list as the number one leader in...
Words: 4710 - Pages: 19
...opportunities and executing effective strategies to capitalize on them. It has over 10,800 stores worldwide. Businesses have to face the challenge of too many competitors, partly originated by the globalisation, all competing for same objective of making highest profit. So, increasingly companies are not merely asking themselves the management question of ‘Are we doing the right?’ but are having to regularly ask ‘Are we still doing it right?’ They have been seeking a more holistic means of doing this than traditional means of delivering products and services to the customers. In a volatile world, decision makers need options on the future and the ability to change direction as strategic opportunities. Although, business as usual (BAU) performance change is providing a short term success but they are typically faced with a less than perfect processes to make investments. In this case analysis, we are trying to summarise the current situation facing the firm by analysing the general environment, industry, competitor, swot analysis with the recommendation and conclusion. 2.0 External Environmental Analysis Wal-Mart is a household name in the retailing industry. It is one of the few companies that have managed to...
Words: 8726 - Pages: 35
...Best Buy- Circuit City Case-17% 1. Be an informed consumer evaluate where the replacement of highly paid workers with lower paid worker did or did not cause Circuit city to perform so poorly. How confident are you in your evaluation? Why? In evaluating whether or not the replacement of highly paid workers with lower –paid worker at Circuit City caused them to perform poorly I found several factors that lead me to believe this to be true. Circuit City started off being the number one retailer of electronics. It was faced with competition from Best Buy and other large retailers such as Wal-Mart. Circuit City was forced with making changes within the company to keep their position within the market that they didn’t take. In 2003 Circuit city announced the layoff of 3900 workers, following this announcement opening stock price from 2001 to 2003 declined significantly. Also, in 2007 Circuit City fired 3,400 of the highest paid store employees at that same time their customer satisfaction index declined. Circuit City’s compensation strategy was in direct correlation to the business tactic, it rewarded its knowledgeable top performers. Circuit City never considered that by eliminating top earning sales people for less experienced sales people that it would have an indirect effect on the company as a whole. No longer to do they employ skilled and knowledgeable professionals whom customers relied on. Ultimately, managing total compensation strategically means fitting the compensation...
Words: 1238 - Pages: 5
...Security Analysis: WMT Group 2 Report Date | S & P Value | Last Price | Intrinsic Value | Economic Moat | Recommendation | 11/29/2010 | 1,187.76 | $53.85 | 60.93 | Wide | Hold | I. The Theme Wal-Mart was built to save people money so they can live better. Hints to their slogan: “Save Money. Live Better.” Their mission has allowed the company to grow around the world. The culture and the values of their employees help strive for success of Wal-Mart while serving over 200 million customers and members each week(Wal-Mart Annual). We strongly believe that Wal-Mart is the best- positioned global retailer and that they will continue to progress. Cost leadership is the corner stone of how Wal-Mart goes to market. Doing our analysis of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., we gathered our information and different figures from the Hoover’s online through the Willis library’s website, Reuters.com, and Morningstar.com databases which gave us insight to several financial aspects of the firm, including its stock, cash flows, risk, dividends, sales, earnings, debt, and overall performance. II. Business Analysis Profile of the company “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.” Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton, summarized his vision back in 1962 for a new type of discount store that consumers would appreciate. As an owner of a much smaller discount store Walton...
Words: 5804 - Pages: 24
...the company to grow around the world. The culture and the values of their employees help strive for success of Wal-Mart while serving over 200 million customers and members each week(Wal-Mart Annual). We strongly believe that Wal-Mart is the best- positioned global retailer and that they will continue to progress. Cost leadership is the corner stone of how Wal-Mart goes to market. Doing our analysis of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., we gathered our information and different figures from the Hoover’s online through the Willis library’s website, Reuters.com, and Morningstar.com databases which gave us insight to several financial aspects of the firm, including its stock, cash flows, risk, dividends, sales, earnings, debt, and overall performance. II. Business Analysis Profile of the company “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.” Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton, summarized his vision back in 1962 for a new type of discount store that consumers would appreciate. As an owner of a much smaller discount store Walton had the experience, did the research, and then put up 95 percent of the startup costs for his new company in which he and his wife truly believed in. The first store opened in Rogers, Arkansas and was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., on Oct. 31, 1969(Wal-Mart Corporate). The 1970’s and 1980‘s marked a period of rapid growth of the company. Wal-Mart...
Words: 5767 - Pages: 24
...Bus. 463 Project Report, Extended Geo Mean, Jensen-Alpha Measure April 1st, 2013 Table of Contents Client Description……………………………………………………………………………………3 Discussion of Models……………………………………………………………………………...4 Markowitz Model………………………………………………………………………..4-5 Single-Index Model………………………………………………………………………..5 Geometric Mean…………………………………………………………………………….6 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………6-7 Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………7 Appendix A………………………………………………………………………………………………8 References……………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Client Description Joe Schedin is 45-years-old, who has spent the last 18 years working for Costco as a meat cutter. He will be switching jobs as he wants to do something new and more exciting so he will be able to contribute $110,000 to add to the current portfolio. He wants to be able to retire in 20 years, by age 65, and would like to have at least a million dollars for retirement as well as a surplus of greater than or at least $40,000 in order to pay for his new step-son’s college fund. He would like to be able to only use about half of the retirement to live off of, and keep the rest either invested in his portfolio, or set up college funds, IRA’s, etc. to help his family with his grandchildren and give them a chance for a higher education. With this information I was able to calculate a yearly rate of return needed to generate at least $1.1 million dollars with the initial investment of $152,212, compounded over...
Words: 2210 - Pages: 9
