...b. Yes. In my opinion, Saks’ zero-tolerance policy for employee theft was reasonable and effective way for internal control. Even though the case presented only one instance when Fierro was caught stealing, the fact that he was caught already tends to lead someone/management or gives the management a notion to believe that he had probably stole before or will probably do it in the future. The zero-tolerance policy might seem harsh, however it has its advantages that are hard to calculate. The policy might have resulted to the termination of a top performing employee but it sent a message to the rest of the employees exactly how serious the company is concerning employee theft. Forging signature and theft are both criminal offenses. Hence, even if the loss that Saks has suffered was relatively trivial/small ($9.85), Fierro should receive appropriate sanctions for his actions for he clearly violated some provisions of the company’s employee handbook. Such policy is also a way to maintain strict code of conduct among Saks’ employees and promote a sound control environment that advocates an honest culture of integrity and ethical values. The policy may not be cost-effective in the short-run since sales may decrease due to Fierro’s termination, as he was a top performing salesman. However, in the long-run, the policy can prevent future losses from employee theft. The long-run savings can outweigh the short-term losses. In my opinion, the store’s zero-tolerance policy for...
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...market. Three dominant members of this group are Saks Incorporated, the Neiman Marcus Group, and Nordstrom. Through e-commerce strategies we will be able to see the similarities and differences in these firms’ core competencies and business strategies. Background Since 1998, Saks Inc. has opened forty-seven new stores. Their capital spending has increased to over $1.4 billion and they have upgraded or remodeled the majority of their stores. Saks Inc. has also reorganized into two distinctive groups; the Saks Department Store Group (SDSG) and the Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprise (SFAE). Saks Department Store Group targets the traditional department store. Their motto is "The Best Place to Shop in Your Home Town". The Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprise targets the luxury marketplace. Their motto is "The Most Inviting Luxury Experience". Both divisions of Saks are better strategically positioned to target their group of customers. As mentioned, Saks is divided into two divisions. The Saks Department Store Group's strategies are having merchandise incentives, an enhanced shopping experience, and focused marketing. These strategies present customers with ideas of what they need to have or what is in style. The idea is a floor presentation that places the customer in a situation where they feel they would lead a better life if they owned the item being displayed to them. One of the key aspects of this strategy is product differentiation. Saks stores must be able to offer customers items...
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...Week 4 You Decide 1. Who specifically should Premier Portraits target with the new branding message? With the quality of the prints that Premier Portraits is going with I would recommend them market the new branding to high-end personal photographers that would service the higher end clients such as corporate big wigs and sports personal. These types of people are the people that can afford to spend the added cost and are also the people that would appreciate the added touches. 2. What product should Premier Portraits really offer to this market? Premier Portraits should offer this group the chance to capture the magic of childhood and the memories of today with a Catherin Portraits. Catherin Portraits can be offered in ways that depict the family’s children at major milestones like babies, toddlers, toothless, graduations. This would then follow the client into their professional career for when they when big games, or land huge business deals. 3. What value should the company’s online presence deliver? Since clients like to know that they are working with professionals. So you would need to be able to tell your client with confidence what you can do for them simply in two sentences, you look like a specialized expert who knows what they are doing and in turn, they can trust you to do it. You need to know where to target so you spend your efforts wisely. By developing specific content, programs and case studies for targeted segments, you will...
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...Auditor Independence “Independence” refers to a person not being influenced or controlled by other people but free to make his or her own decisions or example, an independent auditor does not have any business dealings with the clients’ companies. Owing to many incidences of financial scandals worldwide, it is now crucial to ensure that financial statements of companies are properly audited by auditors. Corporate reporting should comply fully with financial reporting standards and international auditing standards. To be an independent auditor, one must not have close relationship or direct connection with the company directors and shareholders. Besides, an independent auditor must not have relatives or close friends working in the company. If auditors have direct relationship with the client companies, their board of directors or shareholders, the danger is that their judgments and opinions will be severely impaired or affected. One of the most high-profile auditing scandals in recent times is the one involving the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. The scandal came out in the open on 12 October 2001 due to the non-transparency of the company’s financial statements. The financial statements did not clearly reflect its operations and used accounting loopholes. Its poor financial reporting allowed Enron to cover up billions of dollars in debt from failed projects and deals. Enron’s auditor, Arthur Andersen had provided...
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...Message | : | Key facts of the case Comptronix Corporation provided contract manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers in the electronics industry. The company was formed in the early 1980s and suffered several years of losses until receiving an infusion of capital from a venture capitalist in 1987. The company went public in 1989. Three of the senior executives at Comptronix fraudulently issued financial statements for 1989, 1990, and 1991, before confessing in 1992 to their shenanigans. The chief executive officer (CEO), the chief operating officer (COO), and the controller/treasurer, who were all founders, colluded to record fictitious assets and profits by overriding existing internal controls. Top company executives began the fraud by understating cost of goods sold and overstating inventory in the interim financial statements filed in Form 10-Qs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Due to concerns that the auditors might detect the interim misstatements, the executives reversed those transactions at year-end but then booked fictitious sales and receivables to overstate annual assets and income. To make the fictitious sales and receivables appear legitimate, top management prepared and recorded cash payments for fictitious equipment purchases and then re-deposited those cash payments as cash receipts from the fictitious accounts receivable customers. Top executives were...
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...but with a great potential for an international expansion is the luxury specialty store, Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue has an extremely high brand loyalty and enjoys stores in the best locations in New York City. However being an upscale store, it is constantly under the threat of economic slowdowns, product substitutions and of course competition! Therefore a market expansion strategy across international shores would present an ideal opportunity to Saks Fifth Avenue to build on its brand equity and continue its conquest for growth. These market entry strategies will depend on a number of factors – Expansion into emerging economies Vs Developed nations, Logistical issues, Price sensitivity, Culture of economies and many more. Furthermore, it may be advisable to pursue a combination of market entry techniques at different stages in the international expansion plan to ensure that a consistent brand message is being delivered. Some market entry strategies suggested are as follows – * Direct Exporting - This may be an initial test to understand the customer’s perception of Saks and how they value it. The advantages of this technique include relatively easy entry, low risk and low advertising investments. Disadvantages include low market coverage. * Licensing – Saks Fifth Avenue owns several private label brands including a line of menswear called The Men's Collection. Saks can look to license the manufacturing of some of these lines to offshore markets with an...
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...your answer with facts from the case. The main business need in Sears Toronto is customer retention. The Elf initiative was launched to help increase the number of repeat customers that come into Sears. The case study stated that it was not enough to just satisfy customers because satisfaction doesn’t necessarily guarantee customer retention. By providing the customers with shopping experience that is tailored to their needs Sears hopes to be able to build he type of repeat customer base that Saks Fifth Avenue has. By addressing this issue half of issues at Sears would be solved because it cost more to get new customers than it does to retain customers. 2. Where did the “ELF” concept come from? Was this the first use of elves or personal shoppers? In not, how are personal shoppers used in other companies? The Elf concept came from the personal shopper idea. This concept had mostly been exclusive to high end retailers such as Bloomindales and Saks Fifth Avenue. Stores like Saks use personal shoppers in many ways. They have private sessions with wealthy clients who don’t want to shop with the average customers. The sales associates are also encouraged to be personal shoppers by walking the customers to their destinations and assisting them in any and every department. Sears believed that by embracing this concept and bringing it to their stores would help build their repeat customer base. They decided to name them Elves because they wanted to play with the nostalgia effect...
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...APPLICATIONS – NORDSTROM Diagnosis Company Background Industry: Retailer (Upscale US department store chain). Founder: John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, US. Product: Footwear, clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, and fragrances. Number of location: 112 full-time stores, 69 Nordstrom Rack clearance stores, 2 Jeffrey Boutiques and 1 clearance stores Connecting with customer 1) Maintain "no question asked" return policy. 2) Sales representatives send thank-you cards to customers who shop there and have hand-delivered special orders to customer's homes. 3) Installed a tool called Personal Book at its registers that allow salespeople to enter and recall customer's specific purchases in order to better personalize their shopping experiences 4) Provides customers with multichannel for shopping, allowing them to buy something online and pick it up at a store within an hour. 5) Fashion Rewards Program, rewards customers on four different levels based on their annual spending. a. Customers who spend $10,000 annually receive complementary alterations, free shipping, a 24-hour fashion emergency hotline, and access to a personal concierge service b. Customers at the highest rewards level ($20,000 spent annually) also receive private shopping trips complete with restocked dressing rooms in the customer's specific size, champagne, and live piano music; tickets to Nordstrom's runway fashion shows; and access to exclusive travel and fashion...
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...for a sales clerk to do so; this helps CVS because it helps reduce the number of sales clerk they need to hire and in turn, reduces the amount of job openings available and saves CVS a substantial amount of money by not having to fill those positions. Although this increases their efficiency in check-outs, it does not, however, prove to be any more effective than allowing a sales clerk to ring up, because technology is not always reliable – they may have technical problems, or may not even ring up the sales properly – therefore, still needing an employee to finish up the transaction for them – sometimes frustrating customers, and costing the company more money to still hire more employees and fix those machines. Another instance, Saks Fifth Avenue, has been downsizing their company by...
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...* Carolina Herrera is a Goodwill Ambassador Celebrity Clients: The late Princess Diana, The late Jacqueline Onassis, Rene zellweger, Rebecca Gayheart, Laura Bush, Kim Cattrall, Oprah Winfrey Key Looks: Tweed suits, Ball skirts and crisp white dress shirts, elegant evening wear and cocktail dresses Known For: Designing Jacqueline Onassis wedding dress How She Got Started: 1980, Herrera brought 20 dresses that her and her Caracas dressmaker created. She borrowed a Park Avenue apartment and invited a couple of her friends to see what she had made; soon buyers for Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman were interested in her line and wanted to purchase them, but Herrera had created the line as a “test” and only had just the sample dresses, and not even a plan for production. Back in Caracas, she was introduced to Armando de Armas, owner of a Venezuelan publishing empire, who offered her financial backing. In a few months she opened her design atelier and showroom, Carolina Herrera Ltd, on Seventh Avenue. Major Accomplishments: * Appeared on the International Best-Dressed List annually from 1971 to 1980 * MODA award, Top Hispanic Designer, 1987 * 2004 she received the Council of Fashion Designers of America's (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year...
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...Jenner sisters proved that they are beginning to become a fashion empire as they venture little by little on every nooks and corners of the industry. Aside from the fact that these young ladies proved their position as sellable endorsers, these two who rose from one of television’s most successful reality shows of all time turned out to be a brand of their own that fans have a strong confidence on. A-listers as they are, Jenner sibs are definitely used on being surrounded by luxurious labels and are well versed with what’s high caliber from not. Their knowledge with what’s hot and what’s not has been long established as they are collaborations with some of the world’s high end brands come piling up. What’s good about their Kendall + Kylie...
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...Now that November has arrived, our focus has shifted from the pumpkins and costumes of Halloween to another notorious fall holiday: Thanksgiving. It's an American tradition in which families get together to enjoy each other's company, food, football and - shopping? As recent Black Friday sales have stores opening earlier and earlier on the holiday, there are a select handful of retailers who have decided to go against the grain and keep its doors closed. It all started with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), who not only decided to not be open on Thanksgiving - they are also paying their employees to take off on Black Friday. "We think Black Friday has gotten out of hand and so we are choosing to invest in helping people get outside with...
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...year. In 2007, sales increased 11%; that's on top of a 17% increase in 2006 and a rise of 18.4% in 2005. Gucci is a part of the Gucci Group, which has a number of fashion brands in its portfolio, including Yves Saint Laurent and Sergio Rossi. PPR, a French holding company publicly traded on the Euronext exchange in Paris, owns the Gucci Group. Complete List: World's Most Desirable Luxury Brands Video: CEO Spotlight: Gucci "Gucci manages to offer high fashion and very commercial items," says Michael Macko, fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue (nyse: SKS - news - people ). "That red and green stripe is some of the most iconic luxury branding ever created, and people want a piece of it." Behind The Brands Born as a leather goods company, Gucci is now most well known for its logo-ed handbags. When the company opened a new 46,000-square-foot store, the largest of its 233 worldwide, on the ground level of the Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue last month, they also launched a "Gucci Loves New York" handbag collection which sold out within two days of opening. Proceeds from the bags went to Playground...
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...Growing up, I aspired to be a princess. I assumed, like most rational five year olds, that not only was being a princess an actual career path but that it was the only career path for a girl like me. I could wear beautiful gowns, prance around in tiaras and tell people what to do. What’s not to love? Sadly, that dream came to abrupt halt when my mom found it necessary to inform me that I was mistaken, that the odds of me becoming an actual princess were quite miniscule. Luckily, children are resilient and I recovered from this heartbreak quite quickly. Through growth and maturity, I soon set my sites on higher aspirations and announced that I would be one of the following: a doctor, a lawyer, a fashion designer or a hybrid of all three. To most, that list of possible career paths might seem all over the place with very little, if anything, in common. However, most people would be wrong. All three potential careers were positions of leadership, of being in charge, something that appeals to me as much today as it did when I was five years old, dreaming of being a princess. Working in retail was never part of my long-term career goals until I attended the University of Montevallo. In fact, the idea of working in retail past the age of twenty-two sounded almost painful. Working on weekends and on holidays? Who would subject themselves to such torture? Yet, at the age of twenty I found myself enrolling in Montevallo’s Retail Merchandising and Business program with a smile on face...
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...1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 COMPANY’S BACKGROUND Estee Lauder Company was founded in 1946 by Estee Lauder and her husband Joseph Lauder. It is a manufacturer and marketer of four cosmetic product lines, which include skin care, makeup, fragrances and hair care products in the world. In U.S. prestige cosmetics category, Estee Lauder Companies has a market share of about 46 percent. In 1948, Estee Lauder established their first department store account with Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. During the next 15 years, the products were selectively distributed in other stores in the United States. By 1960, Estee Lauder was an international corporation selling their products in the famous Harrod’s Department Store in London. Within a few shorts, they opened outlets in Central America, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, New Zealand and Switzerland. The first Estee Lauder products sold were Super Rich All Purpose Crème, Crème Pack, Cleansing Oil, and Skin Lotion. Additional brands such as Aramis, a line of prestige fragrance and grooming products for men was launched in 1964, and Clinique, the first dermatologist-guided, allergy-tested, fragrance-free cosmetics brand was launched in 1968. Prescriptive, a color authority with an advanced collection of highly individualized products, was founded in 1979. Lab Series Skincare for Men, specializing in men’s treatment was debuted in 1987. Origins, a plant-based line of skin care, makeup, bath or body and sensory therapy product were...
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