Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies Essay

Macy’s Inc. is one of the oldest enterprises in the United States, belonging to the department stores industry. (Hoovers.com) It is a national brand, owning 850 department stores. During the development of the company, there had several key decisions that were beneficial for the company. However, in recent years, the competitions in department stores industry become more and more serious.

Unlike Starbucks, Macy’s is not doing very well, as evidenced by the fact they announced last month the impeding closure of 68 stores (Peterson, 2017). The company has been struggling for a few years with the growth of the internet and online businesses such as Amazon making their brick and mortar stores impractical in modern times. While the number of stores may not seem like as much of a problem as it is, as other companies have had to close down more in recent years or go out of business in general, this is a symptom of larger problems in both the company and the industry.

The industry we have chosen is the department store-retail industry. Within this industry, we have chosen the department stores of JCPenney and Macy’s. We find this industry, as well as these two companies, interesting from a strategic perspective. JCPenney has recently undergone a massive strategic restructuring in regards to its pricing, brand offerings, and store layout, pushing it away from the typical department store strategy of discounts and coupons. Its new strategy has become much closer to Wal-Mart’s strategy of every day low prices. Macy’s, on the other hand, has restructured with a push from the economic

This report presents data describing the differences amongst the two department stores, their fundamental visions, and comparative statistics. Macy’s or Dillard’s: Differences amongst these competitors There are several aspects you can analyze from each department store. Major pieces do set each one apart from the other. Brand names carried by Macy’s and Dillard’s from an average shoppers point of view can go completely unnoticed unless price is involved. For trend shoppers brand names can either make or break a retail store. It can easily determine if he or she will walk to Macy’s or Dillard’s because they already know the store does or does not carry that brand. This is consistent with each department throughout both stores and

The business that I chose to research is General Electric. GE is one of the oldest and largest businesses in the United States. They are ranked #26 largest firm in the U.S and the 14th most profitable. GE is a massive, diversified and profitable conglomerate with a lot of very good but unrelated businesses. GE has expanded to incorporate television, airplane engines, medical devices, household appliances and commercial financing. Analyzing GE’s business-level strategy is somewhat difficult being that GE has so many different divisions. Any of these products would serve as a large and viable business on its own but

The Macy’s Corporation was founded in October 1858, and they are headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The corporation focuses on internet sales in the United States, and they employ 166,900 full-time employees. Macy’s sells a range of merchandise, everything from apparel and accessories for men, women, and children; cosmetics; home furnishings; and other consumer goods. Similar to Kohl’s, Macy’s sells a special range of clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry and footwear. As of January 20, 2016, it operated approximately 900 locations in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico under the Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s Outlet, Macy’s Backstage, and Blue Mercury names; as well as Websites, including macys.com, bloomingdales.com, and bluemercury.com (M Profile | Macy 's Inc. Common Stock - Yahoo! Finance). In addition, Macy’s operates as a

Through the 70’s the company continued to grow. In 1974 annual sales hit $130 million. By 1980 Nordstrom was the third largest specialty retailer in the country. Sales hit $407 million and in the next few years, sales continued to rise. Nordstrom’s success was due to many factors. Shoes accounted for about 18 percent of total sales. In addition Nordstrom consistently maintained huge inventories and selection, which were usually twice the size of other department stores. Anchor malls seek the company, as a cornerstone of downtown renovation projects or as an added jewel for high end shopping customers. By being able to expand not only by adding locations, but also by expanding merchandise sold, Nordstrom became a dominant force in the industry and strengthened their market share position.

"We think of Macy’s today as the Great American Department Store because we have kept alive our heritage while also changing for the future, " (2016, Lundgren). When Macy’s first started, no one would have guessed that it would become one of the world’s largest retail operations in the world. The success of the store lands on many people’s hands. If they know how to work the system, they can help the company grow. Some of the people who are involved in making the company successful are first line mangers, even the top managers are involved. In this case they didn’t work very good making decisions which led Macy’s to go down as a company.

Macy’s Inc. is a well-established, historic and profitable company that is known as a quality yet affordable department store. Macy’s is an American icon; therefore our objective is not to change this image, but to modify it to appeal to a more youthful market.

This report presents the financial analysis of Macy’s Inc. The company’s financial position is gauged using ratio analysis and suggestions on improvements are provided. The ratios will be compared to one of its top competitors Dillard’s. Using 2014 key financial statements such the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, and key statistics found on yahoo finance. It also analyzes the company’s historical stock prices and will compute the stock average, standard deviation, and beta over a 60 month period and compares it to the market average. It then will transition into reviewing future growth estimates and will use the constant growth model to compute the company’s fundamental value. Also, it will review analyst opinion

From the result of the questionnaire, Macy's is a company that has the flexibility to be local in its operations but also possesses the financial acumen to compete globally. This is apparent within its organizational structure that centers on a bureaucracy with limited layers of management. This structure allows the business to flourish in the highly competitive retail environment by being more efficient than its competitors. By processing decisions faster with a flatter organizational structure, Macy's Inc. can bring

The annual report and 10-K filings were obtained from macys.com. The financial statements included in the annual report are as follows: consolidated statements of operations, consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of changes in shareholders’ equity, consolidated statement of cash flows, and notes to consolidated financial statements. In the report, Macy’s Inc. recognizes several competitors which are Bed Bath & Beyond, Belk, Bon Ton, Burlington Coat Factory, Dillard’s, Gap, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Limited, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks, Sears, Target, TJ Maxx and Wal-Mart. The top three

Macy’s Department Stores Incorporated or Macy’s is an American based retail chain of departmental stores. It is currently operating under two brand names the Macy’s and Bloomingdale in over forty five states of America. The company specializes in the range of products including jewelry, furniture, house hold items, footwear, clothing and other related items.It also offers online shipping services to the clients in large numbers of countries. The company currently operates in four business segments including Macy’s, macy.com, Bloomingdale’s and Bloomingdales.com (one source, 2011).

Macy’s has been around for 100 years, currently operating over 700 stores nationwide, and exploring the idea of expanding globally. A company that has that much experience, assets, and capitals are not likely to be bankrupted. With that being said, the current path and strategy that Macy’s is taking now is slowly killing the company. Their revenue stream has been decreasing to be multiple reasons, controllable and non-controllable. Macy’s should redesign their strategy to reach new markets because their current one is not responding to them as much. As many selections as there are in Macy’s, I think that they should try and carry more at a cheaper rate to encourage the loyal customers for that brand to go to Macy’s. I think the lead time for

Macy’s, Inc. is a department store company that currently operates over 800 stores under the names of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s Outlet, and their newest acquisition Bluemercury, which offers luxury beauty products and spa services. All but one of its stores are located in the United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Additionally, Macy’s sells its merchandise via their websites and mobile applications. According to their 2014 annual report, Macy’s had sales of $28.1 billion last year.