Key Issues, Problems And Decision Making - 1272 Words

Section 2: Key Issues, Problems and Decision Making This was a very important time for Lands’ End as very key changes were being made in the organization. The company had introduced a new customized Chino program in 2001 with a further addition edition of shirts in the following year. This was done to take advantage of the web based service it was already providing and to make more efficient and profitable sales. This helped an increase in sales of 40% as compared to previous years and what was interesting to note that at that time, none of the company’s competitor were offering this service, showing that technology was giving Lands’ End a competitive advantage. In addition to this the new partnership in 2001 with ASI was also added on to†¦show more content†¦Therefore it was hard to believe that Lands’ End could maintain its competitive advantage through just use of superior technology. Maturing growth in the USA and abroad had forced the company to reduce its number of catalog pages and mail fewe r books. Lands End was reaching logical limitations of what the catalog could do for them The last key issue was the company’s decision to be acquired by Sears at $1.9 billion where it had the exclusive right to sell Lands’ End product in its retail stores. This new horizontal integration had left a big question on whether Lands’ End will be able to earn profits under this new organization and whether any conflict will arise with this new establishment. At that time the company was facing declining sales in catalogs and already was in talks with Sears in the previous years’ believing that the retail stores would be a key addition to the platform for selling its products. The retail stores would be used to showcase the Lands’ End products and if any product found unsatisfactory through catalog and online purchase could be returned through these stores as well. There were a number of key decisions that were needed to be made in order to ensure a successful future of Lands’ End. The first was that should Lands’ End continues t o partner with ASI as they had started providing similar services to Lands’ End competitor and helping them achieve a much cheaper and better product. Currently ASI