Essay About The Corporate Information Management System...
1. Essay about The Corporate Information Management System...
L.L.Bean is the industry leader in providing to its customers, outdoor equipment and apparel. With
growing competition and a stagnant economy, the company must continually work to maintain sales,
profits, and customer loyalty. L.L.Bean does this by focusing on the competitive forces prevailing
throughout the business environment. These forces include new market entreats, the power of the
buyer and the supplier, the growing threat of substitute products, and their competition.
L.L.Bean's Competitive Forces
L.L.Bean works hard to reduce the threat of new entrants to the marketplace by erecting barriers to
entry. L.L.Bean accomplishes this by offering products or services that are difficult to displace in the
eyes of customers. L.L.Bean ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The Competitive Forces of L.L.Bean are fulfilled in the company's logistical and order fulfillment
capabilities. L.L.Bean has a 650,000 square foot warehouse that houses the infrastructure to
expediently move its inventory of 4 million items from a 25 shipping dock facility, through a built in
Federal Express distribution system. These attributes are the company's critical source for
competitive advantage, along with its incomparable customer service, increased productivity,
enhanced flexibility, and improved quality–of–work life for Bean employees, and incorporating
cutting edge technology for a strong business and IT strategy, the company has successfully initiated
certain strategies to counter the competitive forces from Porter's five forces model by using Porter's
four competitive strategies, basically focusing on differentiation, utilizing better product/service
industry wide (L.L.Bean et al, 2010). Customers often have substantial power to affect the
competitive environment. This power can take the form of easy consumer access to several retail
outlets to purchase the same or similar products or services (Pearlson & Saunders et al., 2009).
L.L.Bean has, from the beginning, recognized that the customer has many options in spending. This
recognition of the power the customer holds is reflected in
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2.
3. Fundamental Pillars Of Xerox
Xerox is a global corporation that operated in offering document management solutions and
business process since the year 1906. It provides services, document technology and expertise
ranging from small businesses to large companies. Xerox have some insights into their business
areas by offering two types of services, which are Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and
Document Technology and Document Outsourcing (DO). BPO service offerings are brought to
market through industry business. Xerox goods at managing transaction–intensive processes which
includes the services that provide multi–industry offerings, such as human resources, finance and
accounting, customer care, and transaction processing. Meanwhile, it also provides industry–focused
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There are two board approaches of TQM, which are hard approach and soft approach (Hill, 1991).
The hard approach used the statistical methods to emphasize continuous improvement and get better
result of productivity and profits whereas soft approach is to create strong organization culture and
meet customers' demand by focusing on leadership, employee involvement and culture change
(Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2009). So, there are three TQM fundamental pillars according to most TQM
approaches, which are top management commitment, continuous improvement and employee
involvement (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2007). Top managers can improve the performance and
effectively change the culture of an organization (Kaynak, 2013) in ensuring the successful
implementation of TQM (Coulson–Thomas, 1991; Doyle, 1992). Xerox's top management used the
benchmarking strategy which is a " standard or point of reference in measuring or judging quality,
value, etc " (Webster, 1979) to incorporate ideas into own operation by identifying and learning the
best perform critical business functions of other organizations. For examples, Xerox studied the
ideas from Cummins Engine Company to improve production scheduling and ideas from L.L.Bean
for improving the distribution system (Camp, 1992). Besides, top managers of Xerox were required
to promote and ensure their employees stay on track with the new quality strategy in their routine
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4.
5. L. L Bean Supply Chain
All retailers have a common goal in mind, and that is to make a profit. Companies earn a profit by
first connecting customers with products, which can lead to an exchange of product for money.
Without the ability to connect customers with products, no money exchange is possible and no profit
is earned. It is, therefore, immensely important for retailers to have the right products, in the right
quantities, at the right locations, and at the right time. Inventory Management Systems provide
companies like L.L.Bean with the necessary information to achieve just that. L.L.Bean's advanced
inventory management system (IMS) connects customers with products, irrespective of the location
of the product or the customer (Hoffsess, 2015).
The key to
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6.
7. L Bean Essay
L L Bean has the ability to use analytics for point advantage and know what to do to get to next
level, but still lack the ability to define competition hence it's in Stage 4 of the analytical
competition pyramid. Few examples to illustrate its Stage 4
1) It has enterprise analytical team who capture data from all channels for retail
2) The analytical team has required investment in hardware, software as well in human resource to
do their job
3) Ability to project trends in terms of order volume, average order value per customer, unique
customer visits, etc., to the level of individual hour based on past data, industry trend and impacting
business environment factors
4) Analytical projections are used across departments on a daily basis ... Show more content on
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Data is fed into centralized data logging system and reporting tools to derive actionable reports
3) Multiple targeted promotion is used to lure customers. For example Single Use Promotion code
(SUPC) is used specifically to target customers based on activity like abandoned cart, checkout
drop, product view, customer review lookup etc.,
4) Ability to display different marketing content based on geographic information and climatic
condition. Based on average temperature of a place, the websites home page banner varies from
sweater to down jackets during winter
5) Personalized message and recommendation to customer based on previous purchase history and
activity on the site
At L.L.Bean analytics is used o following areas internally
Merchandizing o Used by merchandizing team to evaluate a successful launch of a product. o Used
to position the product in the store and website based on trend, sales and inventory position. o
Analyze the results of A/B testing during pre–launch of products and provide improvement feedback
to designers
Finance o Used for budget allocation o Used for financial projection and
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8.
9. L Bean's Inventory Strategy
At the core of L.L.Bean's pricing and promotion strategy lies its inventory strategy. L.L.Bean's
inventory strategy segments its products into 'core' and 'non–core' items. Core items are products in
constant high demand, those the company never want to be out–of–stock. These include items like
Bean Boots, the Deluxe Book Pack, their Barn Jackets, and the ever–popular Boat and Tote bag.
These items sell year–round and are not influenced by seasonal shopping behaviors (Cooke, 2011).
Non–core items are often seasonal in nature, which means it has fluctuating demand. Unlike core
items, non–core products have a 'shelf–life', a limited time–period during which they are ordered
and stocked for sale. L.L.Bean creates a "sales and inventory lifecycle"
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10.
11. “Marketing, Consumerism, Materialism and Ethics: the...
INTRODUCTION
Gone are the days when "buyer beware" was the trend. The sellers used to dictate their terms as the
competition was less. But after the Liberalization, Globalizations and Privatization in 1991, more
companies entered into India. This changed the situation form "Buyer's beware" to "Sellers beware".
It became more difficult for the companies to sustain in the cut throat competition. They had to shift
their focus from product centric to customer centric. Companies had to think smart instead of
working hard. There was a need of decisive plan of action to survive in the market.
The quality of the product was taken for granted by the customer and with competition heating up
companies had to differ themselves from their ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In order to address these challenges, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on
marketing ethics over almost 50 years offers a citation analysis and develops a unique marketing
ethics impact factor (MEIF). We contribute to the field in three important ways. First, it presents a
state–of–the art picture of marketing ethics research. This provides an account of the research focus
in each decade, assesses the importance of specific topics in the debate and identifies existing
research gaps. Second, we identify the most influential papers and researchers in the marketing
ethics area. Third, we evaluate the most important journals in terms of their impact on marketing
ethics. To this end, we have developed an MEIF. This improves the ability to judge a journal's
influence on this particular sub–discipline.
Does the Individualist Consume More? The Interplay of Ethics and Beliefs that Governs
Consumerism across Cultures
Abstract: Individualism leading to more consumerism seems to be a bit of truism nowadays in the
media. The USA is particularly indicted for being too individualistic and consumerist. Past research
has mostly indicated a positive relationship between the two. However, past research has not
suggested a negative association between individualism and consumerism. This paper offers support
for such a negative relationship by showing that an individual's ethical values can temper the
consumerist nature of individualists. Data
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15. Ll Bean Case
L.L. Bean, Inc. Case Study Paper
L.L. Bean, Inc. was started in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean to sell his invention of the Main
Hunting shoe and was marketed to sports hunters via a mail order circular. Leon Gorman, L.L.'s
grandson, succeeded him as president in 1967, and continued to build the company with his
Grandfather's golden rule in mind, "Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your
customers like human beings, and they'll always come back for more" (Schleifer, 1993). The
company would continue to grow into a major catalog distributor, manufacturer, and retailer of
outdoor sporting merchandise (Schleifer, 1993).
The catalog has been the driving force of sales for L.L. Bean and is released throughout the year in
several versions: spring, summer, fall, and Christmas. Full catalogs, consisting of all the available
merchandise items offered were sent to regular customers. Potential customers, discovered through
purchasing ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Bean is an application of a probability distribution based on prior year demand errors. The errors are
applied to each item, both "never out" and "new" items for the current catalog. There is no
consideration of the impact of applying this distribution is calculated with prior year "new" item
data and applying it to current year "new" items, should be a major issue of concern for
management. The demand forecast method should be able to help control inventory levels, Stuart
Dunkin (2013) states, "An inventory replenishment system that is based on a demand forecast
(demand driven) can reduce the risk of lost sales while improving service." L.L. Bean's current
inventory control does not control the risk of lost sales, Rol Fessenden, L.L. Bean's Manager of
Inventory Systems, recognizes the current difficulty they have with predicting customer demand,
and that the high demand items they are unable to get more inventory for, ". . . leave us just turning
customers away" (Schleifer,
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16.
17. Ll Bean Supply Chain Analysis
L.L.Bean's supply chain faces numerous global challenges. These challenges are not unique to
L.L.Bean and affect almost all players in the global marketplace. The first issue facing L.L.Bean is
the continued volatility of customer demand for premium products. While US markets have shown
strong economic recovery, other global markets are still battling recovery (Gyorey, Jochim, &
Norton, 2010). This results in restrained global spending, a substantial challenge for L.L.Bean who
distributes their catalogs to over 170 countries ("About L.L.Bean: Company Information", 2015).
The next global challenge facing L.L.Bean is the ever–increasing number of global competitors in
the market. L.L.Bean faces growing competition from both foreign retailers
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18.
19. Successful Entrepreneurship: The Case of L.L. Bean
In the topic of successful entrepreneurship, L.L. Bean would definitely be one of the top examples
that it was one of the largest mail–order companies in the area of outdoor equipment in history.
From the start in 1912 with a borrowed $400 and only one product offered in the United States, the
business had grown to sell more than...
1. How successful has L.L. Bean been?
It sold more than 1000 outdoor equipment, such as hunter boots and camping tools, targeted to both
men and women. The company had a growth rate of over 25% between in 1967 and 1975 and its
return on equity was over 30% between 1975 and 1980.
In 1980, sales increased to $120 million and the number of buyers increased to 2.1 million. More
than 26 million catalogs were ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Bean carried. In order to stand out from the competition, L.L. Bean needs to consider a plan for
business growth.
2. Catalogue saturation
With an extensive growth rate, all mail–order clothing and footwear buyers had already reached
33%. It was hard to manage the large number of orders and increase this number any further.
3. New–buyer growth
Although the number of new buyer had been growing since 1961, the growth rates were slowly
decreasing with 32% in 1977, 11$ in 1978, 14% in 1979, and 8% in 1980.
4. Response Rate
Customers started to show less response from rental lists. It had 2.98% in 1978, compare to 2.48%
in 1980.
5. Marketing costs
L.L. Bean needed to maintain the brand awareness and find ways to connect to the customers. To do
so, the company had been spending a lot of money on advertising. The advertising budget went from
$250,000 in 1975 to $1 million in 1980, and was projected to rise in the future. L.L. Bean needs to
increase the gross margin or lower operation cost in order to maintain current revenue level.
6. Seasonality
Due to climate change throughout the year, sales generated from the catalogue were high in the fall
then in the spring. To attract more sales, L.L. Bean needs to find a way to increase the sales in the
spring in order to avoid merchandise overstock, which counts towards inventory cost.
4. How would you respond to the questions Mr. Gorman poses at the end of the case?
In order to find the best
22. L. L Bean Company Background
L.L Bean, is an American mail order, family run, retail company that focuses on outdoor activities.
Founded in Freeport Maine by a man named Leon Leonwood Bean who put his life's work into his
company. With both a passion for the environment and doing good for your customers, L.L Bean
became one of the most successful companies in the Industry.
History
Leon Leonwood Bean was born in a small town in Maine in 1912. At just the young age of 6, Leon
was left orphaned and found nature to be his outlet. Leon was known as L.L. Bean and "do one to
others" was the way of life. When he was 13 years old, he went on his first hunting trip where he
gained pleasure in the woods that would last a lifetime. After attending College at Kent's Hill
Commercial College, L.L. worked as a clerk in his brother's shoe store. When things got going, they
eventually opened a second shop in Freeport Maine called Bean Bros where L.L was hired to
manage. During his time at Bean Bros, no adequate footwear kept hunter's feet both warm and dry
from the cold. L.L. decided to have a cobbler sew a rugged leather upper onto a waterproof rubber
bottom. This was one of the first Maine Hunting shoes ever created. In 1912, L.L. launched the first
Maine Hunting Shoe, believing strongly in the Golden Rule, that would be used as a foundation for
his business.
L.L. was extremely ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Bean, like many other companies, has governing bodies in place. Currently, the company has a
board of directors, family council, family office and top management. Under the management of
current CEO Stephan Smith, these people execute the day to day operations of the company. The
board of directors consists of 10 family members and three independent non–family members.
These people develop the long–term strategy for the company's future. The Family governance
council represents all the family members who have ownership within the company. This group
discusses issues like return on investment, mission and purpose
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23.
24. Descriptive Essay About Myself
With my green plastic safety scissors from my pencil case, I hid under the craft table in my living
room and sawed off my blonde bangs until there were only millimeter long blonde sprigs of hair left
sticking from the top of my forehead.
This was just the first of many times that I tried to change my appearance to escape the shadow of
my sister and become my own unique person.
At the age of four, I lacked any formal hairdresser education so my DIY haircut forced me to wear
many wide headbands to hide the hideous sprigs of butchered hair, but in my mind my mission was
successful, because I finally looked different than my sister.
Anna, my identical twin, looks exactly like me, except for the odd freckle, our slightly different nose
structures and the slight chip on her upper left tooth. I can always tell us apart so I hardly notice that
I basically have a clone following me around all the time, but for others knowing which twin I am
proves challenging. It didn't help when my mom dressed in matching outfits from head to toe. For
my first Halloween my brother dressed up like a firefighter and Anna and I were his dalmatians,
then he was a farmer and we were pigs.
When we turned five we decided to pick out our own clothes. In kindergarten Anna and I decided
that she would only wear pink, purple and orange while my wardrobe would only contain blue,
green and yellow clothing. This color coding system worked for the next five years and from my
L.L.Bean velcro sandals to my
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25.
26. Supply Chain Management
Mark Cronin
MBA 600 – Production & Operations Management
Final Project Report – June 2, 2003
Supply–Chain Management
Executive Summary – By adopting five new proposed initiatives, the L.L.Bean Factory Store
Division can
provide brand appropriate product to customers and it can also improve its in–stock position and
inventory turns while reducing costs in the Supply–Chain and management of corporate
inventory. If we leverage a Special Purchase strategy and negotiate with existing vendors to sell
us all their manufacturing defects of existing L.L.Bean products at an agreed upon reduced rate,
we can provide better costs for the full price products and higher cost recoveries for deleted
merchandise. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
During the past year (Fiscal 2002), our division undertook a strategic initiative to
transition from marketing itself as a separate or sub–brand to being the liquidation channel for the
L.L.Bean brand. This was no small feat and a point that should not be glossed over or taken
lightly in an organization as large as L.L.Bean. There were many meetings at all levels of the
company to help employees, who were still with the company after two major downsizing
periods, understand the significance of this change in philosophy. There are currently four sub–
channels used to achieve the liquidation and inventory
management goals of the L.L.Bean Factory Store Division:
27. 1.) Mail Order 2.) E–Commerce 3.) Outlet Stores 4.) Off–Site Sale Events
Current sources of product for the Factory Store Division are discontinued merchandise,
customer returns not suitable for full price sales and special purchases.
Special purchases can be defined in the following categories:
Overstocks, Cancellations and Irregulars – This is L.L.Bean labeled product available to the open
market by our vendors.
Manufacturing Irregulars – All saleable irregulars produced in L.L.Bean manufacturing facilities.
Make Ups – Excess fabric, yarns and materials owned by L.L.Bean made into product under the
"L.L.Bean Factory Store" label.
Program Buys – Product programmed
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28.
29. L.L. Bean Essay
L.L.Bean started from making a hundred pair of boots, to becoming one of America largest mail
order retailer of high quality outdoor goods and apparel for men, women and children. Leon
Leonwood Bean founded L.L. Bean in 1912; the company headquarters is in Freeport, Maine. Leon
Leonwood Bean founded his business on a belief in honesty, commitment to quality, customer
satisfaction and a passion for the outdoors.
Leon Leonwood Bean was an avid outdoorsman that decided that he could improve on the typical
hunting boots. He had a local shoemaker stitch a pair of waterproof shoe rubber to leather tops. Then
he field–tested them himself to see first hand if they was any good. In 1912 he sold 100 pairs of the
boots and "attached a tag ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
That store draws over 3 million visitors each year. L.L. Bean had that only retail store until 2000
when it open a store in McLean Virginia at Tysons Corner Center an upscale mall in Northern
Virginia. I visited that store in McLean Virginia just last week when I was in that area on leave. It
was the best store that I have ever been to for the following reasons. It was very clean and had wide
isle that more than one person could walk through and stop to look at the stuff with out having
people run in to you or you have to move so people could go around you. It had very good lighting
so you can see what you were looking at. Plus it had an indoor trout pond and waterfall. My sister, a
manger at Saks Fifth Avenue store in Virginia, was with me and even made the comment that the
L.L.Bean 4
store was very well set up with nice wide isles and the sales people were friendly and very helpful
when you asked them a question. We had went to the store to see what it was like and so I could
look at one of the only three L.L. Bean retail stores, the other being at Columbia, Maryland about 50
miles from the store in McLean, Virginia. She had told me that L.L.Bean had selected this area
because of all the catalog business that it did in this area. L.L.Bean had done its marketing research
before making a move to open up a retail store outside of its flagship store in
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30.
31. Ethical Dilemmas In REI
Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) specializes in outdoor apparel and equipment as a
national retail cooperative. As a cooperative for this firm, 5.1 million members consist of the
consumers themselves and in turn receive a percentage of the firm's profits every year, receive
discounts on goods, and engage in board member voting. All in REI generates $1.93 billion in
revenue. The community is also highly valued with devotion towards philanthropic activities and
advocacy programs. REI was founded in the 1930s by Lloyd Anderson, his wife and 21 fellow
mountain climbers in order to provide business to local mountain climbers at reasonable pricing.
Today it has expanded to become the largest consumer cooperative in the U.S. Customer satisfaction
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A perfect example of the ethical culture it promotes is when it announced that it would give nearly
all over its 12,000+ employees the day off on Black Friday and pay them to be experience the great
outdoors (Cornelius). This was the first time it closed its doors on Black Friday, but I believe it was
a result of the ethical culture that had developed over REI's long business lifetime.
REI as a whole is an outstanding outdoor–recreational retail company with very few issues to
address. It is able to afford selling higher–priced goods due to its core values that sync with the
majority of its customers. REI's generosity and ethical treatment of its customers further enhances
its appearance and reputation, despite that unsavory individuals can abuse the return policy. Quite
possibly the only issue that REI would have to face is ensuring that when it expands operations, it
mitigates the waste output in the
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32.
33. Sloan Style, Inc.
Sloan Styles,Inc. Gary Sloan menghabiskan musim panas diantara studinya dua tahun di program
MBA disebuah sekolah bisnis terkenal, bekerja di perusahaan Sloan Styles Inc. milik ayahnya yang
beroperasi sebagai supplier pakaian wanita. Gary direncanakan bergabung di perusahaan setelah
lulus. Dia tahu sedikit tentang bisnis bahwa ayahnya telah memulai pada tahun 1975 dan berjalan
sangat sukses sejak itu. Sebelum Gary akan mengambil keputusan mempengaruhi perusahaan yang
akan datang dia telah banyak belajar. Bisnis di tahun 1999 terlihat ada masalah serius yang
mempengaruhi kelangsungan hidup dimasa yang akan datang. THE COMPANY Sloan Styles Inc.
adalah perusahaan baru yang berdiri di Inggris adalah perusahaan keluarga dan beroperasi ... Show
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Pendapatan dan keuntungan mencapai rekor sebesar $ 46 juta dan $ 2.6 juta khususnya tahun 1993.
Kemudian pada tahun 1994, salah satu Account Utama memutuskan untuk keluar dari pakaian
wanita dan hanya berkonsentrasi pada pakaian pria. Akibatnya, SS kehilangan penjualan hingga
$7juta. Laporan terbaru menyebutkan bahwa total penjualan untuk tahun ini menurun, hingga hanya
menjadi sebesar $2juta. Usaha untuk membangun penerimaan kembali melibatkan perluasan
kekuatan penjualan, penambahan iklan merk, dan menyewa tambahan desainer. Penambahan Biaya
tetap mengakibatkan laba menurun $2 juta dibanding tahun 1993. Informasi sejarah finalsial terpilih
tersaji sbb : (000 omitted) Selected Historical Finalcial Results ($000) | | 1976 | 1983 | 1991 | 1993 |
1994 | Net Sales | $ 257 | $ 4,919 | $ 28,653 | $ 45,905 | $ 43,727 | Cost of Sales | 197 | 4,043 |
23,220 | 36,595 | 35,062 | Gross Margin | 60 | 876 | 5,433 | 9,310 | 8,665 | Other Expenses | | | | | |
Selling | | | 1,213 | 2,135 | 2,897 | General | 37 | 574 | 2,686 | 4,107 | 4,451 | Interest | | 58 | 249 | 413 |
627 | Profit
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