The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc.: Challenges Facing a New Ceo Essay

- Retailing industry change, Large chains were expanding their market penetration by offering a more diverse array of product.

Although Vermont Teddy Bear is a company with a rich track record in the business of "last-minute gifts", its mission statement lacked its basic goals and philosophies that aim to shape its strategic posture.

Vermont Teddy Bear (VTB) has been found by John Sortino in 1981. This company has served as a gift delivery service with three main product lines: Bears (plush toys), PajamaGrams (apparel), and Calyx Flowers (gifts). All gift orders are made via four different channels (retail store, mail, phone, web order), each channel supported by different software. First, VTB’s customers design bears by selecting the colors and outfits from a menu of options.

By 1906 Sears was operating the largest mail order plant in the world, but that necessitated that the company’s focus shift from design dominance to products and process. Sears has entered the transitional stage of the Abernathy - Utterback Model. Sears is tasked with the need to handle mass orders economically and efficiently, and develops the ‘time scheduling system’, which brings chaos to the mail order industry and defines a significant core competence (Sears Archive, 2012). Around the same time, Sears’s customers are shifting their focus to quality, which drives the need to replace the fancy Sears catalog with a factual based catalog. Sears’s core competencies are innovation, mail order process, quality products, perceived value, and factual based advertisement (catalog).

Vermont Teddy Bear was founded by John Sortino, who began selling plush bears from a mall kiosk in Burlington and a few years later turned the company into a multi-million dollar business. Throughout the years, VTB has had some major successes, such as the implementation of its ‘Bear-Gram’ service, which allows customers to call a toll-free number and order a personalized bear. In addition, VTB has expanded beyond teddy bears and into other successful managed brands like flower delivery and clothing (pajamas). However, the company has also faced some adversity after going public including off-seasonal jams, partnership failures (Zany Brain), and a rise in competitors, which has reflected in VTB’s overall market share. Since then VTB has repurchased its stock.

growth rate. The first proposal is the Match My Doll Clothing line expansion, which is to expand a

bears on the streets of Burlington, VT. In the early years he opened a retail store in

In recent years, the company experienced a rapid growth and expects a substantial increase in sales in the spring of

FLD’s 1985 market share was 32.7% with sales of $135 million in that year. Total sales for the industry topped $620 million. (Refer to Attachment 1)

| Initiative: Continue to increase in their market share expansion plans by growing revenues and profits compared to previous years. Budget: Moderate; BRF has been providing food materials to

Large product offerings, with a recent increase of 40%. Majority of offerings are in high demand

Universal worked under the assumption that these strategies would not only increase the number of retail buyers but also move retailers to increase display space for Universal increasing Universal's ability to market their artist. (Smith, 2003).

Feasibility : the projected cash generation from the increase in brand value can be mapped out in to see whether this will be appropriate

There is a personal interest in this company as they just recently ended their contract with Busch Stadium, which is my place of employment. Build-a-Bear was able to negotiate a year by year agreement and a possible sponsorship with the St. Louis Cardinals, LLC for the future and this is what sparked my interest in the company their financial security.

In the USA, the summer camp industry is booming; despite the economic downturn, millions of American children head to camp each year to gain new experiences and meet lifelong friends. Camp Caribou, an all-boy residential camp located in Maine, is no exception, with over three hundred boys aged seven to fifteen visiting each summer. Camp Caribou employs around 120 seasonal staff for 9 weeks to ensure that they provide “unforgettable summers” to their campers. With no dedicated HR department, it falls to the camp directors and management personnel to tackle human resource management challenges which, due to the nature of the business, may not be present in other organisations. This essay aims to identify and discuss these challenges and their impact on the way Camp Caribou functions as a business.