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Staples Transforms Supply Chain Process to Maintain High Performance
Client Background
When the computer crashes as an entrepreneur is preparing for a crucial client meeting or the printer runs out of ink, business owners—big and small—know that they can count on Staples to head off a crisis, and keep their offices running smoothly. Staples invented the office supply superstore—and it was an entrepreneur who came up with the concept. In 1985, Tom Stemberg, a supermarket chain executive turned entrepreneur, struck upon the idea when his typewriter ribbon broke as he was preparing a business plan and he was unable to find a store that stocked the ribbon. That was when he realized that the business plan he should be pitching was for a supermarket for office supplies. This was in the early days of the personal computer revolution, and ten years before the dot-com boom, but Stemberg correctly foresaw the growth potential for a superstore that catered as much to the demands of a homebased business as Fortune®500 corporations. Two decades later, Staples is the world's largest office products company and number-one in sales and profits in the United States. Staples serves customers and businesses ranging from homebased businesses to Fortune®500 companies in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company operates more than 2,000 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order

catalog, e-commerce, and contract businesses. Its strategy of making it easy for customers to buy the products they need has fueled Staples’ highly successful expansion around the globe. But for this high-performance business, leading the market wasn't good enough.

Business Challenge
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the office superstore market exploded, with growth in the United States between a remarkable 20 to 40 percent. Staples

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