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Urban Outfitters

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Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study
Part 5: Managing a Business
Dr. Deborah Hill
December 15, 2009

As businesses today is about passion and creating new things. The word fun has become a big element in the business strategy of many highly successful businesses. Make fun an important part of your corporate culture to enable relentless innovation and create an inspiring culture.
1. Explain how Urban Outfitters’ management ensures that no two stores are the same.
Urban Outfitters ensures that no two stores are the same by knowing what is selling in the retail stores nationwide. In addition, Urban Outfitters has corporate directors which are in charged of what merchandise is brought and sold to the different stores. The store concepts, operations and products are very much integrated. Some stores are duplicated across the nation; Urban Outfitters does not have the same stores due to management and the company policy. John Kyees has stated that upper management is responsible for the mundane bones of the business, such as distribution and call centers, design at the store level. For example, director’s over sight the budgets for the store displayed at corporate level, but managers many of whom are artist and are very intelligent in interior design regarding specific store design. Moreover, in opening up new locations it demands that store managers and product developers are to be in teams to make sure each store is different. Their brand is to be unique even with the user experience within the chain. Urban Outfitters uses “found objects” to decorate stores to give it their own uniqueness; Today it is said that Urban Outfitters is the strongest it has been in its history. Each brand shares a unique concept, a compelling environment, and tremendous consumer loyalty and to achieve this takes talented and dedicated people as well as a strong management team.

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