...Kera Cleary Business-127 Case Study- Barnes & Noble To which environmental forces is Barnes & Noble responding? Barnes & Noble are responding to external environment. When Leonard Riggio opened Barnes & Nobles he wanted it to be more of a social gathering verses just a bookstore. It was a BIG HIT, one of a kind. 1995 Amazon.com emerged. In 1997 Mr. Riggio launched the barnesandnoble.com in order to keep up with the customers wants. This is a continual battle Barnes & Nobles is fighting, constantly changing their company to fit the world around it. What is appealing to customers about ordering online? Online ordering is appealing to customers because the convenience! Convenience of not leaving your house. I can shop in my PJ's, if I wish and nobody will see to judge. No other shoppers to get in your way, always happens when you're in a hurry. If you live in a small town, your shopping may be limited to a few stores. Online shopping gives you access to all stores or sites that distribute product online. What is appealing to customers about electronic books? Electronic books are appealing to customers for a few reasons. No books cluttering your space. Environmentally friendly. You can shop for books at home and have them instantly. No books to tote around. I feel convenience plays hand in hand with e-books as well. Cleary 2 Interview ten other students using the survey that follows. Total your response and prepare a...
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...Barnes & Noble does business -- big business -- by the book. As the #1 bookseller in the US, it operates about 650 superstores throughout 49 states and the District of Columbia under the banners Barnes & Noble, Bookstop, and Bookstar, as well as about 200 mall stores using the names B. Dalton, Doubleday, and Scribner's. The company's GameStop subsidiary is the #1 US video game retailer with about 1,500 stores under the names Babbage's Etc., GameStop, and FuncoLand. Barnes & Noble owned about 75% of online book seller barnesandnoble.com after purchasing Bertelsmann's interest in 2003; Barnes & Noble then purchased all remaining shares and took the company private in May 2004. Barnes & Noble dates back to 1873 when Charles Barnes went into the used-book business in Wheaton, Illinois. By the turn of the century, he was operating a thriving bookselling operation in Chicago. His son William took over as president in 1902. William sold his share in the firm in 1917, to C. W. Follett, who later built Follett Corp, and moved to New York City, where he bought an interest in established textbook wholesalers Noble & Noble. The company was soon renamed Barnes & Noble. It first sold mainly to colleges and libraries, providing textbooks and opening a large Fifth Avenue shop. Over the next three decades, Barnes & Noble became one of the leading booksellers in the New York region. Freshman Leonard Riggio, who worked at a New York University bookstore to help pay for night school. He studied...
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...The Merger of Liberty Media and Barnes and Noble, Inc. [pic] [pic] Introduction Liberty Media has chosen to try to inquire Barnes and Noble. The price that has been offered to inquire this company is $17 per share or $1 billion. In the following we are going to discuss whether or not this inquiry is one that will be good or one that will be bad. We will determine if this industry is attractive to enter/maintain business in, we will this is a smart move financially and how much this inquiry will affect the current business practices, and lastly, we will use value chain analysis to determine if this was an overall smart move for the company. Industry Attractiveness Market Size and Projected Growth: The industry of books and media is one that is quite large there are many other book and media companies out there. Barnes and Noble has been trying to expand their business opportunities, buy expanding online operations by creating the world’s largest eBook store, and by developing the NBOOK which is the worlds most advanced eBook reader. Barnes and noble also is the world’s largest seller of magazines offering more than 5,000 titles. The company has tried to expand the company as much as possible by again expanding digital operations, and by expanding there publishing operations the company has recently acquired spark notes.com and sterling publishing. If the company continues to inquire upon more...
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...Barnes & Noble: Managing the e-Book Revolution The matrix shows high digitization in the products and processes of companies offering eBooks The matrix shows high digitization in the products and processes of companies offering eBooks Digitization of Products and Processes in eBooks market High | | EBooks and reader devices(Kindle, Nook) | Low | | | | Low | High | In a world of tablets and smartphones, people tend to feel confused whether a dedicated e-reader is the right choice. E-Readers give the ability to carry thousands of books on the go saving paper and helping to make this planet greener. The big question is whether a dedicated e-reader is better than multipurpose tablets and smartphones. There are many advantages these e-readers have against tablets: 1. They are easier on the pocket since they turn out be lot cheaper than tablets 2. They are portable and lighter 3. They have more comfortable screens to read from and do not cause LCD burnout unlike iPads and other multipurpose devices Tech savvy readers involved in long reading sessions and who are interested in a wide variety of books can be the target segment for these e-reader devices. While eBooks will help independent publishers to make their content more popular by selling it in eBook format, however the e-book industry also poses a threat of piracy to major US publishers since the e-book content is prone to be hacked and pirated in multiple forms. The publishers still have a...
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...I previously was employed at a well known national chain known as Barnes and Nobles. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Barnes and Nobles it is a local book store in my local neighborhood. To me this chain is undoubtedly one of the world’s largest book sellers especially since there main competition, Borders has closed down. The customers who come into our store have certain expectations and needs that they all expect to be fulfilled. The customers expect the staff to be knowledgeable, helpful, detailed, clean, and organized. There are many other customers who expect the employees to have a wide knowledge on the products they sell. Now based on my personal experience, Barnes and Noble used a modified Windows type operating system commonly referred to as Book Master. This operating system is used to organize, maintain, and categorize Barnes and Nobles entire inventory. This system also allows the employees to search for books in the database as well as if the book is in any other store if our store is sold out. “In addition the staff is able to place orders for customers and we are able to provide lots of other useful information based on the customers inquiries” (Barnes and Noble, 2012). Barnes and Noble maintain a large system of managers throughout the company. Even the lowliest employees were introduced to the higher ups within the company which does not happen very often in many businesses. Every employee was given a detailed work book regarding our roles within...
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...Barnes & Noble: Ethics and Compliance Barnes & Noble is the second-largest retailer of magazines in America carrying at least 5,500 magazine titles and nearly 1,000 newspapers. This store not only sells books, but has a lounge that you can sit and sip your favorite beverage, read, plug your tablet in, purchase electrical devices and find whatever book you are looking for. They have approximately 27% share of the eBook market and sell three times the eBooks as compared to hard copies on online. Organization's Financial Environment As with any major international corporation, Barnes & Noble has extensive ethical procedures that detail everything from acceptable behavior between employees and their interactions with customers to their compliance procedures with the Security and Exchange commission (SEC). Several procedures are in place in order to stay in compliance with the regulations set by the SEC. The senior financial officers and chief executive officers at Barnes & Noble are held responsible for the complete and correct disclosure of the company's financial reports. Dedicated to the accurate and honest reporting of their financial information, Barnes & Noble stays ready to make the important business decisions that keep it a leader in retail sales. In further compliance with SEC regulations, Barnes & Noble has an audit committee whose main function is to monitor the integrity of the entire financial reporting process. A second responsibility of this committee is...
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...Barnes & Noble, incorporated on November 19, 1986 and today is one of the largest book retailer in the United States. The company is known for its large upscale bookstores, many of which encompass a café serving Starbucks Coffee and discount on books that are rated bestsellers. In addition, it is a Fortune 500 company and is a traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "BKS." Barnes & Noble significantly impacted the bookselling industry by making it easy and convenient for consumers to purchase books or obtain access to magazines, books, newspaper, digital media, music, DVD’s and other educational products fast and easy. The offers many options for the reader, such as the purchase of books in Barnes & Noble retail stores, online, or through products such as the NOOK eReader. As of January, 25, 2014, the Company operates 663 retail bookstores in the United States. In this reading we will analyze the company’s annual report and discuss the following: the company’s total assets, its significance, the amount of cash or equivalent and the amount of accounts payable the company had, the net revenues for the last three annual reporting period, changes in dollar amount from 2011 to 2012, total assets from the previous year and current assets as of 2013. Most importantly, why the information provided would be important to a potential investor or employee. In 2011, Barnes & Noble reported total assets valued at $3,596,466 and in 2012...
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...Annual Report Workbook Getting under the hood of an Annual Report and knowing what’s inside by Donald Bittar Introduction You can use this workbook for analyzing many companies and saving your analysis for each one, like many professionals. Just like them, over time, you can compare a company’s actual performance to your analysis and predictions. Saving your analysis sheets can help sharpen you analytical skills. The questions in the workbook are numbered the same way as they are in the book, ‘Getting Under the Hood of an Annual Report’. As there are no questions in the first chapter of the book, the workbook starts with Chapter 2. It will make it easier for you to relate the questions in the workbook to those in the book. Your input to the workbook will appear in a dark green font while the questions appear in blue. The different font colors can make it easier for you to see your work. You’ll need to do some number crunching to complete your annual report analysis. The Big Calculating Tool, located on your CD, can save you a great deal of time and make the number crunching nearly painless. Every ratio and calculation for the book is included in the Big Calculating Tool. You’ll have more time for analysis if you use the Big Calculating Tool. Table of Contents Chapter 2 4 Question 2.0 – What do you want to learn about company and why? 4 Question 2.1 - Fundamental Information Set For Your Company 4 Question 2.2 - The Marketplace...
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...Barnes and Nobles A.Market: Identify the market you are designing for I.General Pleasure Reading Because now a days many people generally have some sort of device that lets them to connect to the internet. With this ease of access to the internet many people can read digital copies of books and not have to actually carry around the physical copy. They can even have multiple books on a single device since text files do not take up that much space. B.Form factor: Chose the form factor that will make it successful V.Other form (Application) Because so many people have different devices. I use a cellular device that had Google Play, while the rest of my family uses the Iphone app store. By making the e-reader an application this will allow it to be used on almost any device that can support the software. C.Feature: Select the feature(s) that will help make it successful VI.Other feature (Ease of UI, and Built in Bookstore) If I had the opportunity to create an e-reader app I would make sure that the UI would be so user friendly my grandparents would know how to operate it. A UI that actually shows a picture of the front on the book you want to read would be ideal. Also, having a bookstore directly linked with the e-reader would make buying books simple and easy. D.Digital Rights Management: What DRM capabilities I.No DRM Because if someone were to purchase a book from the app bookstore it should be theirs and they should...
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...Barnes and Noble Problem Identification & Analysis: Barnes and Noble have major issues of concern they need to address immediately to ensure their survival as a company. First issue of concern is that profit margins are decreasing for Barnes and Noble at their brick and mortar stores and their online sales are decreasing. Competitors such as Amazon are currently stealing market share causing all their profits to fall. Barnes and Noble needs to evaluate “key determinants of success in an industry may be used to identify a firm’s internal strengths and weaknesses. By scrutinizing industry competitors as well as customer needs, vertical industry structure, channels of distribution, costs, barriers to entry, availability, of substitutes suppliers, a strategist seeks to determine whether a firm’s current internal capabilities represent strengths or weakness in new competitive areas” (Pearce 180). Barnes and Nobles should reach out to consumers at their brick and mortar stores to help market its eBook to consumers. All employees need to be thoroughly trained with their most popular eReader the Nook to provide customers with a clear understanding of the products capabilities. By marketing these products inside current stores, Barnes and Noble will reach a diverse customer group. Ultimately this will allow the company to gain a competitive advantage over rivals such as Amazon. This competitive advantage will most likely stabilize or even increase...
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...Barnes & Noble Case Study 1- A. Use the Value chain Model and competitive force model the impact of the internet on book publishers and retail stores such as B&N. Value Chain Porters’ Competitive Forces For the book selling industry, the information technology which the e-book arose from has affected the five forces in the Porter’s five forces’ model. * The introduction of substitute is strong * The customer has more information available that strengthen the customer force. * The competition is high as all other companies started to use the technology available to achieve competitive advantage. * The barriers to enter the industry have been weakened Book Publisher: * Reduce the printed books * Increase the cost of the investing in technology (support Activity in the value chain) in order to produce electronic books and enhance the technology associated with it. * Change the pricing strategy. * The new market entrants of electronic books (i.e Amazon, Apple..etc) caused a decrease in the demand for the physical books. Book retail Stores (B&N): * Reduction in the demand for the physical books * Reduce the cost of shipment, distribution..ect. (Outbound logistics) * Reduce the space using in the bookstores. * Adopt new technologies in promoting the sales of books. (Invest in technology to improve value chain) * Increase the cost of technology investments. * Adopt new strategies in marketing...
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...ASSIGNMENT 1: E BUSINESS NAME: AKINOLA OGUNDIMU NAME OF INSTITUTION: STRAYER UNIVERSITY NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: DR LISA WITZIG COURSE TITLE: BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DATE: APRIL 30, 2011 1. Discuss the pros and cons of Amazon’s growth and diversification of business and specialization, and make recommendations about what Amazon could have done differently. As a company strives for growth in any industry, at some point they will face the challenge to diversify or not. Diversification is a risk management technique that allows companies to mix a wide variety of investments in a portfolio, if one investment fails then the other’s success make up the difference. Amazon is widely known to use the internet as the sole method for selling extensive selection of goods to its consumers. Amazon has grown from a book seller to a virtual Wall Mart of the Web selling diverse products. Amazon’s growth and diversification of business offers the following advantages: 1. Cost Leadership is pursued by Amazon.com by differentiating itself primarily on the basis of price. Due to this strategy, Amazon.com always makes sure that it offers the same quality products as other companies for a considerably less price. 2. Cost Savings: Amazon’s business strategy has helped it reduce costs associated with operations and staffing. A reduced cost gives increased revenue. 3. Provides current and prospective customers with different design, quality or convenience. Amazon.com always selects...
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...Course Project Diagnostic Paper On GameStop, Inc. Keller Graduate School Of Management 1. Executive Summary GameStop Corporation is the world’s largest software, and accessories retailers in the world. GameStop, formally known as Babbage’s was a small retailer that started in Dallas, Texas. Babbage’s brought out a small electronic retailer called Software Etc., a deal in which Leonard Riggio, created Babbage’s Etc. LLC. This began a series of mergers. Babbage’s Etc. was sold to a well known company called Barnes & Noble in 1999. Next was a merger with Funcoland, Inc., which was also purchased by Barnes & Noble in June of 2000. Babbage’s Etc. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Funcoland. Funcoland changed their name to GameStop by the end of 2000. I was a sales associated before the merger with GameStop, and eventually was promoted to General Sales Manager, which lead me to run 4 different stores during this transition, because a few of the old managers were let go during the mergers. I will focus my research on the merger and how it affected the employees of the companies that were taking over by GameStop. 2. Literature Review * My observation of Babbage’s was there were no benefits for full-time employees, no incentives if the employees sold beyond the company’s expectations, long work hours for non-management employees, and low morale. * During the merger into GameStop there was a lot of resistance from employees all over the country...
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...Economics is the social science that studies the choices that individuals, businesses, government , and entire societies make as they cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile those choices. Summary of the Article The purpose of this report is to evaluate E-commerce structure and strategy of Barnes & Noble and Amazon. As e-commerce market is highly competitive, it is important for the company to develop an effective strategy in order to gain customer’s loyalty, remain profitable and maintain the company’s image This is investigates success of three online book websites and how or if they have expanded their markets. Amazon.com is the largest online book retailer and now is the largest online retailer. Barnes & Nobles is now expanding to other markets to stay competitive. Borders.com is just standing there ground with books, magazines, etc. This articles compares and contrasts the business of all three. It investigates information from the 2009 annual report of Amazon.com and answers questions related to it. It expounds on the brand and identity of Amazon.com and its furthered channel of distribution. It also gives opinion on Amazon.com’s future market in retailing. Relationship of the Article It is related with Macroeconomics Market because Macroeconomics is concerned with the aggregate performance of the entire economic system and demand and supply on a national or global basis . 1) Resources Allocation Methods ...
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...market share in today’s market. The first issue is that Barnes & Noble is facing a reduction when it comes to their profit margins and this is because there is an increase in their competition such as their major competitor which is Amazon. Another issue that B&N is facing is its decline in their physical book sales because with the new technology many customers would rather purchase digital books instead of physical books. Identify the root problem components The first issue with the profit margin, Barnes & Noble needs to increase the way they distribute their products. Currently, Barnes & Noble is facing major competition from Amazon.com both with physical book sales and digital book sales and this is due to the similarity in products and the increasing popularity of online commerce. Barnes and Noble needs to try and utilize their current assets to be able to keep their consumers interested. One of the main...
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