Sears Holdings Analysis
| Sears Holding Company | Individual Paper | | Gregory A. Squires | 10/15/2010 |
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Contents HISTORY 4 Vision Statement 10 Mission Statement 12 Key Leaders 16 Organizational Culture 20 Organizational Structure 23 NAICS/SIC Codes 26 General Environmental Forces 28 Porter’s Five-Forces Model 35 Key Competitors 40 Competitive Profile Matrix 43 General Discussion on Stakeholders 46 Top 70 Stakeholders 47 Nutt&Backoff Model 53 Finn stakeholder Model 55 Internal Assessment 57
HISTORY Sears was started by Richard W. Sears in 1886. While working as a North Redwood, Minnesota freight agent, a local jeweler gave him an unwanted shipment of pocket watches. He sold the watches to store owners who then sold them at retail prices. Sears then ordered and sold more watches and by his sixth month, had made $5,000. He subsequently quit his railroad job and founded R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis (Sears History, 2009). Within a year’s time, Sears had moved into Chicago in 1887 be in a more convenient location for shipping and communications. At this time, Sears was just in the business of selling watches, but as time went on, people were coming in for watch repairs which he knew nothing about. Instead of turning potential business away he adapted and hired Alva Roebuck, a watch repairman from Indiana. Sears’ competitive advantage was the fact that he could sell his watches at a lower cost. He did this by buying up discontinued lines from manufacturers and passing on the discounts to customers (Sears History, 2009). In 1888 the company published its first mail-order catalog. It was eighty pages long and contained both watches and jewelry. The catalog then grew to over three hundred pages by 1890. By this time the catalogue added clothing, durable goods, bicycles, sewing machines, firearms, sporting goods, and buggies. In an effort to establish his company as the low cost leader in the eyes of the consumers, in the
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Contents HISTORY 4 Vision Statement 10 Mission Statement 12 Key Leaders 16 Organizational Culture 20 Organizational Structure 23 NAICS/SIC Codes 26 General Environmental Forces 28 Porter’s Five-Forces Model 35 Key Competitors 40 Competitive Profile Matrix 43 General Discussion on Stakeholders 46 Top 70 Stakeholders 47 Nutt&Backoff Model 53 Finn stakeholder Model 55 Internal Assessment 57
HISTORY Sears was started by Richard W. Sears in 1886. While working as a North Redwood, Minnesota freight agent, a local jeweler gave him an unwanted shipment of pocket watches. He sold the watches to store owners who then sold them at retail prices. Sears then ordered and sold more watches and by his sixth month, had made $5,000. He subsequently quit his railroad job and founded R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis (Sears History, 2009). Within a year’s time, Sears had moved into Chicago in 1887 be in a more convenient location for shipping and communications. At this time, Sears was just in the business of selling watches, but as time went on, people were coming in for watch repairs which he knew nothing about. Instead of turning potential business away he adapted and hired Alva Roebuck, a watch repairman from Indiana. Sears’ competitive advantage was the fact that he could sell his watches at a lower cost. He did this by buying up discontinued lines from manufacturers and passing on the discounts to customers (Sears History, 2009). In 1888 the company published its first mail-order catalog. It was eighty pages long and contained both watches and jewelry. The catalog then grew to over three hundred pages by 1890. By this time the catalogue added clothing, durable goods, bicycles, sewing machines, firearms, sporting goods, and buggies. In an effort to establish his company as the low cost leader in the eyes of the consumers, in the