...Understanding Family Enterprises Book Review Assignment October 2, 2015 L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they’ll always come back for more” (pg.14) was the Golden Rule of, L.L. Bean’s founder, Leon Leonwood Bean. Growing up in Maine, Leon, more commonly known as L.L., started his outdoor supplies company with the foundation of his newly created Maine Hunting Shoe and the idea that people like him would like the same things as him. The business started in Freeport, Maine, a small shoe factory town, as a small retail store and catalogue in 1917, and continued to earn a name for itself and grow as the years went on. It is said that L.L. grew a “loyal following” (pg.12) and people were interested with what was going to come out of his company. L.L. accomplished his goals and eventually passed the company down to his son and then his grandson. This book is a story by his grandson, Leon Gorman, about the start of the company, his journey through it, and the company present day. Although L.L. Bean, a well-known brand now, has gone through many ups and down since it’s small town origin, it has still kept the gold rule of its founder, which has helped it remain successful. Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s grandson, and graduate from Bowdoin University, begins his story about his family enterprise by telling us how he was introduced into the business and the factors that led to the success...
Words: 1800 - Pages: 8
...------------------------------------------------- L. L. Bean: Where do we go from here? Introduction In the clothing and sporting goods industries, there are many companies fighting for not only survival but also for a market share. With so many companies all selling similar products at similar prices, what is it that a company can do to successfully and positively differentiate itself from the competition? Since the products are virtually the same in terms of use and style, it boils down to the following: Who has the better quality product? Who has the best customer service? Who can get me my purchase the fastest? With the introduction of L.L Bean, a mail-order sporting goods company in 1912, it became clear that the answer to the preceding questions is L.L Bean. L.L Bean became known for its customer service and high quality products, offered at a reasonable price. While under control of Leon L. Bean, the company was able to introduce the brand to America and through customer satisfaction of both products and services, the company flourished, earning revenues of $2,000,000. After Leon’s passing in 1967, the company was handed over to his grandson Leon Gorman, who took the company through a transitional period. His additions of more free catalogues and additional catalogues for the Christmas and summer seasons increase sales from $3 million in 1967 to $30 million in 1975. Over the next 5 years, L.L Bean saw tremendous success, growing rapidly while still maintaining the...
Words: 1806 - Pages: 8
...customer service? Who can get me my purchase the fastest? With the introduction of L.L Bean, a mail-order sporting goods company in 1912, it became clear that the answer to the preceding questions is L.L Bean. L.L Bean became known for its customer service and high quality products, offered at a reasonable price. While under control of Leon L. Bean, the company was able to introduce the brand to America and through customer satisfaction of both products and services, the company flourished, earning revenues of $2,000,000. After Leon’s passing in 1967, the company was handed over to his grandson Leon Gorman, who took the company through a transitional period. His additions of more free catalogues and additional catalogues for the Christmas and summer seasons increase sales from $3 million in 1967 to $30 million in 1975. Over the next 5 years, L.L Bean saw tremendous success, growing rapidly while still maintaining the tradition of being a quality and customer oriented company. Through the increases in the buying list, output of catalogues including the Christmas and fall editions as well as mini catalogs, L.L Bean saw sales quadruple to $120 million in 1980. From a positive perspective, the company is succeeding financially. With increased sales, the hiring of new executives and managers, and maintain a strong quality focused vision, L.L Bean continues to reap the rewards of their hard work. L.L...
Words: 1796 - Pages: 8
...1. Target Company & Marketing Program L.L Bean, Inc. is an American brand founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean, beginning as a one-man operation making a signature Bean Boot in the basement of his Freeport, Maine home. The signature boot was produced, shipped, and soon 90% of the initial batch was returned as damaged. With Leon’s firm belief in keeping customers satisfied as a guiding principle, the company’s lifetime guarantee quickly got its start. A satisfied customer is the company’s main mission, which has been the reason the global organization has accumulated annual sales of $1.61 billion. L.L Bean expanded its product line, and now prides itself as being customers one stop shop for quality outdoor and indoor apparel, outdoor equipment, footwear as well as bags and luggage. Their products are recognized around the world for their practical design and high quality with over 140,000 items stocked for catalog, web site and stores. The company devotes significant time and energy to product research, testing and development including lab field testers and employee and customer feedback. There is no surprise the company is praised for its quality since prototypes for new products are tested, revised and retested until they meet not only customers requirements but also company standards. L.L Beans marketing strategy that started with updated product catalogs mailed directly to customers has now been modified to meet the demands of consumers and take advantage of...
Words: 2803 - Pages: 12
...L.L. Bean Inc. Case Study Situation L.L. Bean, Inc. is an organization that has always experienced rapid growth. The company’s simple focus on customer service, and delivering value has been its business philosophy from the very beginning. This is an evaluation case. Though growth is something all companies strive for, L.L. Bean finds itself in a situation where it wonders how it can keep up with such rapid growth without straying too far from its identity. Questions This situation raises many questions. The protagonist, Leon Gorman raises many questions that are directly related to the situation: 1. How can sales projections be achieved, and how sales growth be achieved while maintaining and enhancing product quality and services? What are we doing well? Where can we improve? 2. Is it possible to develop human resources to meet growth needs? And is the needed at talent available locally in Maine? 3. Is it possible to achieve the productivity levels needed to meet projections? 4. Can the company continue as a family-owned business with growth, given potential estate and management succession problems? 5. Can the company maintain its image, and not change the essential nature of the business? 6. What criteria about our business do consumers like best (and least)? Price? Product? Delivery (place)? Hypothesis After conducting a preliminary review of possible criteria (e.g. from exhibit 4: price, variety, customer service etc.), current practices, and...
Words: 1795 - Pages: 8
...1. How successful has L.L. Bean been? L.L. Bean has been emerging as the market leader in mail-order companies that are specializing in outdoor apparel and equipments. As recorded by the company’s Customer Awareness Survey, it is the most well-known mail-order company setting the pace in the market with the reputation of having efficient delivery of good quality good s to the customers. From 1976 to 1980, the number of new L.L. Bean customers had been increased to 650,000; by 1980 sales had risen to over $120 million. 2. What are the reasons for L.L. Bean's success? a. Clear company positioning and strict compliance to that positioning: L.L. Bean provides high quality outdoor wears at fair price with great customer services. b. It treats its customer with genial care and consideration like treating them as friends and neighbours especially with its free shipping and handling fee for customers‘ convinience; c. Staffed with professional personnel d. Great effort in marketing management and the notion of using ‘word-of-mouth’ as one of the marketing idea is really effective 3. What is happening to the business, both positively and negatively? Positively: the sales have been increasing after years of operation and innovation; increasing amount of inquiries from across the country and international distributors to invite L.L.Bean to conduct their business there. Negatively: The transitional period when the company suffered from shortage of young talents, out-dated...
Words: 497 - Pages: 2
...Case Assignment 1 L.L Bean as a company has been very successful in current and past business operations, management , sales and growth. It all started from one man in his brother’s basement, where out of the 100 products he first sold, 90 were fully refunded because of work defects. That is in 1912. From that is has gone, to about 1.2 billion dollars in sales in the 1980s. As a business, it has constantly grown (never showing a setback) to the giant it is today, so L.L Bean is and will be very successful. To track how L.L Bean has been successful you have to track the changes, opinions and attitudes introduced by each phase of the business. We start with the entrepreneurial phase. Unlike most businesses, L.L made his hunting and sporting apparel to the belief that if he would use it , then the general public would use it (rather than finding a solution for the general public itself). Other then that it was the first president’s philosophy that got the company where it was when he died. His philosophy was to not treat the customer as a customer but “ as an actual human being” . That meant getting “reasonable” profits so that they would keep coming back for more. The transitional stage was where Leon Gorman ( grandchild of L.L Bean) made a lot of changes for or with his grandfather till his death. Leon saw and took advantage of opportunities that he saw in the market and increased productivity by introducing new technology. This was opposite to his grandfather’s way of...
Words: 574 - Pages: 3
...L.L Bean Case Study 3 1. What item costs and revenues are relevant to the decision of how many units of that item to stock? The two main basic components that are relevant in determining how many units of an item that L.L Bean should stock are the overstock and the under stock. L.L. Bean calculates their overstock by finding the difference of how much the item cost by the liquidation value. L.L. Bean calculates their under stock by finding the difference of the price they are selling the item for by how much the item cost. 2. What information should Scott Sklar have available to help him arrive at a demand forecast for a particular style of men's shirts that is a new catalog item? Sklar needs the data from past demand of similar shirts across all catalogs. Using this past data, Sklar and colleagues could create a standard demand level for those types of shirts. Sklar could conduct market research to its customers by giving them different options of possible future items, including this new shirt, to see what people are willing to buy. 3. How would you address Mark Fasold's concern that the number of items purchased usually exceeds the number forecast? L.L Bean could look at the incentive structure for the managers based on how well the inventory of new items is managed. If managers are given incentives for well-managed new items, it would give them more of a reason to align with the forecasts developed by the buyers. Therefore, this would reduce the probability...
Words: 376 - Pages: 2
...L.L Bean, Inc. Item Forecasting and Inventory Management 2012/24/11 Q1. How do LL Bean use past demand data and a specific item forecast to decide how many units of that item to stock? Evaluate the LL Bean's forecasting system (i.e., merits vs. shortfall). One of the most important decision making process in business is forecasting. It can help to make your business more profitable. You should be able to guess how many units of that item to stock based on your past data and predicting future demand. Following two processes used by L.L. Bean, to find how many units of that item to stock: First, they used forecasting to predict for that specific item for upcoming season, which is named “frozen forecasting”. It is based on the book forecast and past demand data, which provided by forecasting department. Second, they used historical forecast errors, namely the A/F rations, which mean actual demand multiplied past season’s forecast. L.L. Bean estimates the range of inventory that the product will be in the upcoming season after converting the point forecast into demand distribution. For instance as the article shows that if last year new products had this ration between 0.7 and 1.6 then where frozen forecast is 1000 that means the new product could have an actual demand for the upcoming year of 700 to 1600 units. In order to find out how much profit each unit brought in compared to how much the unit would lose if it was liquidated, they used profit margin calculation....
Words: 852 - Pages: 4
...Curse of the ethical executive Why “corporate social responsibility” is not a welcome fashion The Economist, Nov 15th 2001 | From the print edition IT IS more than 200 years since Adam Smith observed that people enjoy their daily bread thanks not to the benevolence of their baker, but to his selfish pursuit of profit. In that observation and its implications lies the case for market capitalism. In their economic lives, people behave as though they had no regard for the public good. Yet the outcome, through the operation of the invisible hand, serves the public good better than any social planner could ever do. Nowadays the triumph of the market is taken for granted. But this victory is far from complete—because Smith's insight is, even now, not widely believed. Social progress is still thought to issue not from profit-seeking behaviour, nor even from enlightened government policy (current orthodoxy, after all, frowns on too much of that), but from the benevolence of the baker. Companies are enjoined to do more than serve their customers and make money. Instead they must be “good corporate citizens”; they must attend to the needs of their “stakeholders”; they must contribute to “sustainable development”; they must strive to “raise standards” at home and abroad. Increasingly, companies respond to these admonitions, or affect to, with zeal. So firmly has this view taken root that only a brave man would be willing to go on record against it. In a new booklet for the Institute...
Words: 973 - Pages: 4
...½ cup canned black beans, rinsed 2 tbsp salsa Heat skillet on medium setting. Using a paper towel lightly coat with olive oil. Scramble eggs. Add black beans until heated. Fold egg, beans, salsa and cheese into tortilla warp. Heat in oven at 170ºF or microwave for faster prep until warmed. Frittata with goat cheese, roasted tomato & rocket 4 large egg whites (or ½ cup egg whites) Olive oil cooking spray 2 tbsp fresh tomatoes, roasted 2 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled Quick on-the-go chicken Wrap 3 oz. grilled skinless and boneless chicken breast 1 cup baby spinach or any greens ½ red pepper, cut in strips 1 Tbsp vinaigrette salad dressing of your choice 1 7” whole wheat wrap Chop chicken and toss with vegetables and dressing. Place meat, vegetables and spinach onto tortilla, fold and enjoy. Quinoa Salad 1 ½ cups Quinoa, washed and drained 1 ½ cups water ½ cup green bell pepper, diced ½ cup roasted red peppers, packed in oil or water, chopped ½ cup red onion, minced 1 ½ cups sweet corn, fresh, canned or frozen ½ cup green peas, fresh or frozen 1 cup fresh basil, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil ¼ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed 15 ounces navy beans or garbanzo beans, drained 1 Tbsp plum vinegar, or to taste Place quinoa, water, corn and peas in a sauce pan. Cover. Simmer on low for 12-15 minutes. Remove and place in bowl. Fluff with fork and cool. Add red onion, basil, roasted peppers and beans. Blend the lemon juice...
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
...Bean Beatle Competition Lab RESULTS: In the two control petri dish that consisted of 20 beans with eggs previously on them, the females laid two to three eggs. In the two control petri dish that consisted of 20 beans without eggs previously on them, the females laid to 2 to 6 eggs. The average number of eggs laid on the eggs that already had eggs on them was 1.25 eggs and the standard error was 0.5522. The average number of eggs laid on the eggs that did not already have eggs on them was 6.91667 and the standard error was 0.9728 (Figure 2). A comparative t-test was performed and from it the t-value, degrees of freedom, and p-value were determined. The t-value, for two-tailed distribution, was 2.20099, the degrees of freedom was 11, and the p-value was 0.00033 (Figure 1). DISCUSSION: Our hypothesis was accepted because the female bean beetles preferred to lay eggs on the beans without eggs rather than the beans with eggs already on them; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected, because the p-value, 0.00033, was less than 0.05. This research is important because it tells us more about the ovipositional preferences of the female bean beetles. Larvae can’t move from the egg which is deposited, so the bean determined the future food resources that is available for their offspring, which would affect the the influence of the growth or reproduction; therefore, minimizing competition of resources between the offspring. It also important to know how if intraspecific...
Words: 547 - Pages: 3
...“There’s nothing bigger than a man who learns to grow.” This sentence appeared in the story “The Growin of Paul Bunyan”. I agree with this statement because it’s not an easy choice to make. Actually, who of us would request something harder vs. easier? Therefore, the bigger man does the harder stuff. If everything was easy, life would be boring. Some examples from the story are on page 21. “Paul learns how to plant seeds to grow trees.” This was big for Paul because he decided to challenge himself and learn something new. Before he was chopping down all the trees. As soon as Johnny Appleseed could get a sapling growing, Paul would chop it down. My second example I found, is on page 18. “Paul likes chopping trees because it makes him happy”....
Words: 349 - Pages: 2
...Jack and the Beanstalk summary Jack and the beanstalk is the story of a young boy living with his widowed mother in a tiny house. Their only means of small income is a cow. When this cow stops giving milk one morning, Jack is sent to the market to sell it. On the way to the market he meets an old man who offers to give him tiny, little magic beans in exchange for the big, healthy cow. Jack takes the beans but when he arrives home without money, his mother becomes furious and throws the beans out the window and sends Jack to bed without supper. While Jack was sleeping, the bean grows into a gigantic beanstalk. Jack wakes up to behold an enormous beanstalk. He climbs the monumental beanstalk and arrives in a land high up in the sky where he follows a road to a gigantic house, which is the home of a giant. He enters the immense castle and asks the giant's wife for food. She gives him food, but the giant returns and senses that a human is nearby. The giant says he smells the blood of an Englishman and would want to grind his bones to make bread. However, Jack is hidden in a closet by the giant's wife and from there tiny Jack heard the giant sit down at his monstrous table. His wife serves him from a huge bowl and he drank from his very big wine glass. Afterwards, the giant asks for his hen that lays golden eggs. The giant watched as it laid dozens of large admirable golden eggs before he sleeps off snoring. Jack steals the hen which lays big golden eggs. He is almost caught...
Words: 339 - Pages: 2
...kiwi, plums” and so on (choosemyplate.gov). Make sure when you are picking out your fruits to go on your plant you need enough for half of your plate. Vegetables, are the next thing that needs to have half of you plate. “100% vegetable juice counts as two serving” (V8.com). Your vegetables consist of “dark green vegetables, such as Bok Choy, broccoli, collard greens, and dark green leafy lettuce” (choosemyplate.gov). Starchy vegetables consist of “green bananas, green peas, green lima beans, plantains, and potatoes” (choosemyplate.gov). Red & orange vegetables consist of “acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, hubbard squash, pumpkin, red peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and tomato juice” (choosemyplate.gov). Beans and peas consist of “black beans,black-eyed peas (mature, dry), garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, lentils, navy beans, pinto beans, soy beans, split peas, and white beans” (choosemyplate.gov). Then there is your other vegetables such as “artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bean sprouts, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, green...
Words: 316 - Pages: 2
