Strategic Management. Levis Case Analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, language: English, abstract: In 1995, women's jeans were a $2 billion fashion category in the US and growing fast. Levi- Strauss was the market leader, but its traditional dominant position was under heavy attack. Standard Levi's women's jeans, sold in 51 size combinations (waist and inseam), had been the industry leading product for decades, but "fashion" was now taking over the category. Market research showed that only 24 percent of women were "fully satisfied" with their purchase of standard jeans at about $50 per pair. "Fashion" in jeans meant more styles, more colors, and better fit. All of these combined to create a level of product line complexity that was a nightmare for manufacturing-oriented, "push based" companies like Strauss. By 1995, Strauss operated 19 Original Levi's retail stores across the country (2,000 to 3,000 square foot mall stores) to put them in closer touch with the ultimate customers. However, this channel was a very small part of their overall $6 Billion sales, which were still primarily to distributors and/or independent retailers. Shows Levi's financial footprint. Strauss was as aggressive as most apparel manufacturers and retailers in investing in process improvements and information technology to improve manufacturing and delivery cycle times and "pull-based" responsiveness to actual buying patterns. However, the overall supply chain from product design to retail sales was still complex, expensive and slow. In spite of substantial improvements in recent years, (including extensive use of "EDI", there was still an eight-month lag, on average, between ordering cotton fabric and selling the final pair of jeans. The industry average lag was still well over twelve months in 1995. The financial footprint for one pair of women's jeans sold through the normal wholesale channel compared to one pair sold through an Original Levi's
About the Author: Dr. Khaled Bekhet obtained his DBA in Business Management from Maastricht School of Management (MSM), Netherlands. He also obtained his MPhil in Management from MSM. Moreover, Dr. Bekhet obtained his EMBA from Alexandria University, Egypt in 2009, and he is currently a member of the International Advertising Association (I.A.A.). Dr. Bekhet has co-authored and published several research papers on how business organizations face different structural challenges that deter their development. Dr. Bekhet proposed a conceptual approach that takes into consideration the relationship between the individual leader's personal qualities, leadership styles, and the degree of control over decisions and emotions in adversity times. Dr. Bekhet is currently the adjunct assistant professor in Strategy and Managing Leadership in Organizations at the American University in Cairo - School of Continuing Education (SCE), and at ESLSCA Business School in Egypt, there are the best educational institutes in Egypt. His research is situated in the field of Organizational developments & Leadership, with a special focus on Leaders' performance measures and strategic planning techniques in several industries such as manufacturing and services industries. Prior to that, Dr. Bekhet worked for 2 years (2015-2017) at Antalya Bilim University (ABU), Turkey, as full time Assistant Professor in Management. Khaled teaches several courses on Strategic Management- Preliminary and advanced level, Leadership styles, Business Entrepreneurship and International Business. He teaches the courses "Contemporary Management", "Strategic Management & Business Strategy", "Leadership in Organizations" at AUC and ESLSCA. As professional certified trainer, Khaled also organized Several workshops for Multi-national organizations in Strategic planning using the latest simulation games, Managerial Skills development, Design Thinking and Problem Solving Techniques for middle and top management levels and professionals in collaboration with AUC. Khaled worked for two NGOs in Turkey and Egypt, his responsibilities tap on extensive travelling to more than 50 countries and many years of experience in management, leadership, export business and Marketing management fields in various manufacturing organizations.