Introduction
A comprehensive analysis of the performance and status of a company is critical. Such analysis provides stakeholders of a company with important information that can aid them in decision making. This paper seeks to carry out a comprehensive analysis of Gap Inc. Company. The paper reviews the short-term and long-term management strategies and offers recommendations to ensure business sustainability in the apparel and clothing industry.
Overview of Gap Inc. Company
Gap Inc., established in 1969, is a multinational company that is based in California. The company trades in clothing and other accessories. The company was founded by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher, and it trades on the New York Stock Exchange with a ticker symbol of GPS. Currently, the company carries out its operations in six key segments, which are, Athleta, Piperlime, banana republic, Old Navy, and Intermix.
The brands of the company comprise of Gap, GapBody, GapKids, BabyGap, and GapMaternity. The company is the largest in the United States. The current number of employees stands at 136,000. It has approximately 3,400 outlets across the world with over 2000 outlets in the United States. Further, the company has more than 300 franchise stores located in regions such as Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Eastern Europe (Gap Inc. 13).
General short-term objectives and strategies
In order to ensure sustainable development and customer loyalty, Gap Inc. Company’s team of management strives to embrace ethics and the environmental concerns in their day to day operations. Besides, the company employs corporate social responsibility within communities to sustain and capture the market.
For instance, the company is associated with corporate social responsibility activities such as the Adopt Education initiative and series of financial support to adult and children homes across the globe (Gap Inc. 19). These activities increase the presence of the Gap brand in the regions it operates in.
Specific short-term objectives and strategies
The company has focused on internationalization and franchise strategies as part of the 2014 success parameter. The company plans to franchise its supply chain and human resource management in order to ensure efficiency in the use of factors of production and distribution channel, especially in the foreign branches by the end of the year 2014.
The company is in the process of introducing traditional marketing approach in foreign stores to make customers associate the products with their culture. Besides, the company constantly introduces new brands as a portfolio balance strategy. The company launched three new brands in the year 2013 alone (Gap Inc. 34).
General long-term objectives and strategies
The management of the company has focused on increasing its presence across the world. The team has been keen to ensure that the decisions made by the company do not impact on the community negatively because the company seeks to build a stronger relationship with the customers. Further, the management actively responds to customer needs and expectations across the world. These expectations are incorporated during product development and in the supply chain.
This strategy has significantly improved customer loyalty and competitive advantage of the company. Further, the management is focused on reaching out to the customers through an online platform. This has contributed significantly to the growth of sales of the company. The team of the management has continuously focused on the expansion of outlets across the world (David 32).
Specific long-term objectives and strategies
The management of Gap Inc. has concentrated on global expansion as their main strategy. Specifically, the management intends to achieve a growth that ranges between 10 to 15 percent by the year 2016. For instance, in 2013, the management exceeded its expansion targets.
The team had planned to open 275 stores while it opened 304 stores. Apart from expansion, the management has ensured that the quality and sustainability of their products are also growing, with the growth in the number of outlets. Further, the management is committed to growing the online platform for sale in order to improve the total sales within a margin of 30% by the year 2018 (Gap Inc. 37).
Recommendations and the rationale
Basically, a quality integration management system performs optimally via the integration of appropriate scientific methods and techniques. To enrich artistic managerial talents, scientific techniques come in handy to not only magnify the margins of success but also to ensure a smooth transition of ideas or events after another. Besides, to avoid an imminent failure, it is vital for the integrated management system for Gap Inc.
Company to focus on a defined edge since “proper tailoring of techniques and tools assume as an essential part of the regulatory strategy” (Bowman 9). Reflectively, the vertical integration management system will improve the supply chain, production, and distribution processes.
Therefore, the company should automate its supply chain to ensure efficiency between the input and output variables since the clothing industry is very dynamic (David 29). Besides, this process is inclusive of the scientific aspects such as the technical process of understanding the operations, their application, and evaluation criteria.
Works Cited
Bowman, Singh. “Corporate Restructuring: Reconfiguring the Firm.” Strategic Management Journal, 1.4 (2003): 5-14. Print.
David, Fred. Strategic Management Concept and Cases, a Competitive Advantage Approach, New York, NY: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.
Gap Inc. 2013, 2013 Annual Report. Web.
Gap Inc. 2014, Key Facts. Web.