Business Strategy Questions-
1- Macro environment of Fashion: Emerging issues analysis of the global fashion industry, (don’t talk exclusively about Michael Kors)
– Global and regional analysis (also emerging regions such as Brazil or Chile) no one country only, also when talking about China try to find which areas in China i.e. Shangai- Consumer behaviour in each region- Chinese woman are highly engaged into fashion
– Emerging issues (just look for the ones which are crucial for the future of the industry, there are short product life cycle in fashion industry)- metrosexuality- sociocultural behaviour – innovation – changing in the structure of the fashion industry- what are the leading group doing- emerging SME- fashion retail- patterns of competitions- M&A/ Strategic alliances/ acquisition growth
– Disruptive trends changing how consumer approach to fashion (social media, online consumption, 3D printing)
– Market opportunities analysis(MOA)
2- CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities): still industry related not company related!! (Search: journal of business ethics)
– Stakeholder engagement: (based on ethics) who are the key stakeholder of the fashion industry- focus on external stakeholders therefore you need to focus on supply chain engagement (brutality towards animals, experiment on animals, child labour) and customer engagement – what are the costs of poor engagement
– Reputation management(is all about customers’ trust)
– Cause related marketing:(marketing for ethical and social issues) CSC is made for building trust by engaging the ethical values of people- spending money on CSR doesn’t make direct profits but build trust and so is cause related marketing – global fair labour associations- indifferent supply chain
3- Organizational/Microanalysis of Michael Kors
– Don’t use SWOT
– Don’t do a descriptive value chain! Do a strategic evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of MK value chain and compare it to a direct competitor (similar size)
– VRIO model
– Financial analysis (4-5 ratios and areas from brand equity to financial performance, market share, debt structure, shareholder values in the 10 years, profits) always do it in 5-10 years and compare to competitors
4- Strategic Recommendations
– Diversification strategies MK should apply: innovation, diversification, M&A, growth/downsizing strategy.Following is the link for
Financials, where you can download what is necessary- http://investors.michaelkors.com/financials/annual-reports/.
