Best Buy, one of the biggest consumer electronics retailers in the world, provides products from smartphone, computers to large electronic appliances. It aims at offering a large variety of products with outstanding customer service at a comparably economical price. Yet, it has been facing internal and external challenges in the recent years. Bottom line and the share price are slightly catching up after a fall in 2013 but still barely satisfying the shareholders and customers are changing their purchasing habits which may threaten its future. In the following, the strategic and operational plan taken by Best Buy would be indicated to have a clearer picture of current situation. Then the assumption of Best Buy made will be discussed and necessary new assumption would be elaborated. After that, new operating metrics are suggested. At the end, three financial management decisions and recommendation are provided as well. Strategic and operational plan Strategic planning directs every movement in a business and is very essential to business performance (London 2002, pp.26-33). The strategic plan and operational plan are extracted from Best Buy Form 10K to better clarify the current situation and future direction of Best Buy. Strategic plan Strategic plan reviews the mission and vision of a company (Armajani 2012). For Best Buy, it aims at providing customers the latest devices and services at an attractive price at any time via multi-channel. And apart from just selling, it provides technical services and warranty of products in order to further improve customers’ experience to which the company highly valued (Best Buy 2014, p.25). With the performance fell beyond expectation, Best Buy announced The Renew Blue strategy in 2013 th... ... middle of paper ... ...67. Schneider, B. 1991, "Service quality and profits: can you have your cake and eat it too?", Human Resource Planning, no.14, pp.151-157. Seitz, P. 2011, Best Buy Results Fall Short; Price Competition Takes Toll Amazon Price-Check Specials The consumer electronics retailer said running twice as hard just to stay in place, Los Angeles. Seitz, P. 2013, Best Buy Set For Price Battle This Holiday That Will Hurt Profit Margins 'In this to win,' says CEO on aggressive competition with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Los Angeles. Seitz, P. 2014, Best Buy Turnaround At Issue After 'Shocking' Holiday Miss CEO: Firm 'Outcompeted' Retailer slashed prices vs. Amazon.com, Wal-Mart; aims to boost online sales, Los Angeles. Williams, P. & Naumann, E. 2011, "Customer satisfaction and business performance: a firm-level analysis", The Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 20-32.
BestBuy really needs to know the expectations of consumers to be able to align on the same distribution line than its competitors that continue to cut its market shares by offering the same products at very competitive prices. There is no doubt about the threat that may represent specially Wal-Mart for BestBuy, its "Every day low price" slogan speaks for itself. Today, quality’s problem is used as a marketing argument, but it’s not over true even though Walmart some low quality products. We have to notice that most of the producers of nowadays ’technologies are Asian countries as proof, IPhone and well-known brands technologies have always been manufactured in China. So the quality problem is not really the problem BestBuy is facing because there is no doubt that Wal-Mart and BestBuy have the same suppliers since everyone claims to offer high quality electronics. The first thing to do is to figure out how Walmart makes the difference by lowing its fixed and variables costs to better maximize profit even though offering low cost product. I think BestBuy needs to review its employees ‘training budget since they already have a good knowledge about the product they offer. As cited on page 22-4, even though its revenue grow, at the same time its net income and operating
Strategic planning is crucial for the success of all business endeavors. Analyzing currents trends in technology, consumer markets, competition, and the workforce can play a pivotal part in whether or not the organization can survive. Overtime, strategic planning strategies must be modified in order to compensate for changes in the industry. Goals and strategic planning often necessitate change to ensure that the organization is performing at peak level, while offering the most beneficial and quality services to consumers.
Due to the fact that Best Buy is non-collusive, they face a kinked demand curve that ultimately determines the firm’s relative market share. The demand curve consists of an elastic and inelastic portion. Oligopolies avoid both portions, where in the elastic portion, competitors keep prices low to steal customers, and the inelastic portion where price war occurs since competitors also lower prices, resulting in no gain in demand.
Best Buy’s History & Main Characters: Best Buy is Minneapolis-based and is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. Throughout Best Buy's 37-year history, the company has maintained the tradition of making life fun and easy for customers and employees, while providing a significant return to partners and investors. It has 80,000 employees and over 550 stores in the U.S., in addition to the brands Best Buy Canada, Future Shop and Magnolia Hi-Fi. Their leadership is led by Dick Schulze, Founder and Chairman, Brad Anderson, Vice Chairman and CEO, Al Lenzmeier, President and COO, and Darren Jackson, Executive Vice President of Finance and CFO. Chairman Dick Schulze founded Best Buy in 1966 with the Sound of Music, an audio component systems store in St. Paul, Minn. In 1973, Vice Chairman and CEO Brad Anderson joined Sound of Music as a salesperson. The company quickly expanded into video products and computers, was renamed Best Buy in 1983, and became a public company in 1985. Best Buy’s revenues for fiscal year 2003 were $20.9 billion and net earnings of $622 million. It was ranked number 91 on the Fortune 500 in 2003 (Bestbuy.com). Best Buy stores are redefining the way customers shop by offering an unparalleled assortment of affordable, easy-to-use entertainment and technology products and services available through its network of more than 550 retail stores in 48 states and online at BestBuy.com. Best Buy is scheduled to open 60 new stores in fiscal 2003 and is on track to have 650 stores by fiscal 2005. Magnolia Hi-Fi is a high-end electronics retailer specializing in audio and video solutions for homes, ...
...strategy when the initial downsizing failed to take them out of the red or gain back lost market share.
The ecommerce industry is growing faster than ever. TJ Maxx needs to start focusing more on ecommerce not only to keep up with competition, but also to make sure they do well during weak economic periods. ecommerce, overall, tends to do very well during lackluster economic times. TJ Maxx will be able to cut costs more easily the more they expand their ecommerce business. Our business idea will allow them to expand their ecommerce as we will take over their website and delivery. TJX Companies’ three ecommerce sites accounts for only about 1.0% of the company’s total sales. However, the online channel is a key growth driver and TJX is taking initiatives to improve its online business. The ecommerce sales
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
Through strategic purchasing, the company is able to offer the latest in designer clothing, shoes, accessories, baby products, and home furnishings at great
Until Best Buy 2020 results and effectiveness have been measured, it’s premature or more accurately not possible at this point in time to determine since the company’s focus is to position itself to be able to accommodate the changes in technology to support its customer base. 7. Does your company have a cost-leadership position in this business? If so, identify which cost drivers it uses effectively to hold this
The best companies embrace change and make plans to create a future for their business like Amazon did. Amazon did not have to wait very long for their strategy to take affect because that the way that the future of business was going. All they did was waiting until the demand flourished and took over the book giant’s like Barnes and Noble and Borders market share. This proves that Amazon did their research and plan accordable so that their demand matches their supply. This also shows the type of value chain process and evaluation that they did in order to continue to conduct business which is quite genius. Their demand has increasable giving them many opportunities to expand. ...
Best Buy has grown as a company since 1966 to today. They sell much more products than they did in the past. Best Buy today sells several of things like TV’s, cameras, movies and games, mp3 players, DVD and Blu-ray players, and the list could go on. They sell more than just electronics. They sell items for the home and office, small and large appliances and fitness technology. Best Buy even offers services like Geek Squad, repair for all sort of items, delivery and installation; trade in center (only in certain areas) and cell phone services (AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Boost Mobile, and T-Mobile).
He started with a price matching guarantee policy, both in the store and online. Also, lowering prices to become even more competitive with online and discount retailers. The concept of show rooming was also nixed. Show rooming is where customers could try out products in the store, then go purchase the products online at a cheaper price. To improve the financial position of the company, Best Buy launched a plan called "Renew Blue" to strengthen business by cutting costs and increasing the supply chain. Since the launch, the company has stabilized comparable sales, increased the non-GAAP operating income rate 110 basis points from 3.4% in fiscal 2013 to 4.5%* in fiscal 2017 and grew the non-GAAP EPS from $2.54 in fiscal 2013 to $3.56* in fiscal 2017, at an average rate of 9% per year. In addition, they have increased the non-GAAP return on invested capital (ROIC) 810 basis points from 10.8% to 18.9%*(2017 Regular Meeting of Shareholders, n.d.). Best Buy’s exclusive brands, Insignia, Dynex, Init, Platinum and Rocketfish, give the company an edge over competitors by increasing differentiation and margins. A global sourcing office in China designs, develops, tests and purchases its own line of brands, manufactured under contract by vendors based in southeastern Asia. Best Buy intends to drive the sales of exclusive brands so that their contribution to total sales
Currently Bed Bath & Beyond’s primary competitor in ecommerce is Amazon.com (Gurdus, 2017). This company is an online shopping tycoon that has become increasingly popular in the past few years (Hampton, 2017). Amazon has an enormous selection of products, from clothing to household decor items, which poses a threat to Bed Bath & Beyond (Amazon, 2017). Additionally, Amazon also has a service, Amazon Prime, that allows subscribers to have unlimited free two-day shipping, as well as the ability to stream movies, tv shows, and music for free (Amazon, 2017). Due to this, companies such as Bed Bath & Beyond have seen a decrease in online and in-store sales.
Wal-Mart is coming off a disappointing third quarter when its largest revenue generator, sales from U.S. stores, dropped 0.3%. The company also has forecasted flat earnings during the critically important holiday season. While lowering its full-year forecast, Wal-Mart still expects to see modest sales growth in FY2015 through the opening of smaller, more targeted stores, and its longtime strategy of lowering prices. However, there is some doubt whether these measures will be enough to stave off Wal-Mart 's competitors. Costco NASDAQ: COST is coming off a big year with more than $100 billion in revenue, 5% growth in U.S. store sales, and 7% growth in international sales. As Costco continues to challenge Wal-Mart domestically and internationally,
Once plans have been developed, an organization must address how management will be accomplishing be those plans. This involves operational plans that must flow from strategy; specify resource, time issues, and commitment of human resources. Operational plans at the lower - levels of the organization, have a shorter time horizon, and are narrower in scope (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113). A good example of this is Wal-Mart's main strategic goal. It is to provide quality merchandise at an affordable low cost to consumers. Its operational goals focus on efficient logistics requiring technology and inventory management systems to help reduce costs so it can be passed on to the customer. Operational plans are derived from a tactical plan and are aimed at achieving one or more operational goals (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113).