Company Brief: Coach, Inc - Essay Example

The company was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Coach, Inc. engages in the design and marketing of accessories and gifts for men and women in the United States and internationally. The company’s primary products include handbags, women’s and men’s accessories, footwear, wearables, business cases, sunwear, watches, travel bags, and fragrance. Its accessories product line comprises of novelty accessories; women’s and men’s belts, women’s money pieces, wristlets, and cosmetic cases; men’s leather wallets and card cases; novelty accessories, such as electronic, time management, and pet accessories, as well as key fobs and charms. The company’s wearables product line consists of jackets, sweaters, gloves, hats and scarves, including both cold weather and fashion goods for women. Its business cases product line includes computer bags, messenger-style bags, and totes for men. The company also offers luggage and related accessories, such as travel kits and valet trays; jewelry, including primarily bangle bracelets; and fragrance comprising perfume sprays, purse sprays, and perfume solids. As of June 28, 2008, the company operated 297 retail and 102 factory leased stores located in North America; and 149 Coach-operated department store shop-in-shops, retail stores, and factory stores in Japan. Coach, Inc. sells its products through company-operated stores in North America and Japan, the Internet, and the Coach catalog, as well as through indirect channels, such as department stores in North America, international department stores, freestanding retail locations, and specialty retailers. The major competitors of this company are: Dooney & Bourke Inc., kate spade LLC, Michael Kors (USA), Inc. etc. The direct competitor comparison has given below from which its situation may understand: “ DIRECT COMPETITOR COMPARISON ”   COH Pvt1 Pvt2 Pvt3 Industry Market Cap: 4.82B N/A N/A N/A 113.51M Employ­ees: 5,600 1041 N/A 351 568 Qtrly Rev Growth (yoy): 11.20% N/A N/A N/A 4.50% Revenue (ttm): 3.26B 6.20M1 84.00M2 8.80M1 497.88M Gross Margin (ttm): 75.14% N/A N/A N/A 40.32% EBITDA (ttm): 1.25B N/A N/A N/A 45.10M Oper Margins (ttm): 35.06% N/A N/A N/A 6.14% Net Income (ttm): 774.06M N/A N/A N/A N/A EPS (ttm): 2.218 N/A N/A N/A 0.67 P/E (ttm): 6.65 N/A N/A N/A 7.80 PEG (5 yr expected): 0.47 N/A N/A N/A 0.47 P/S (ttm): 1.35 N/A N/A N/A 0.41 Pvt1 = Dooney & Bourke Inc., Pvt2 = kate spade LLC, Pvt3 = Michael Kors (USA), Inc. Reference: 1) Information about the Coach, Inc. is available at, http://www.coach.com/. SWOT ANALYSIS of MICROSOFT (Task-2) Microsoft is one of the most giant companies of the world. The market share of this company in the computer sector is above 60%. Microsoft is the company, which makes a great revolution by making the operating system called Windows. The SWOT analysis of this giant company has discussed below: Strengths: Applications and operations divisions along with recently created online service network divisions (MSN). Relatively rapid product development processes that allow for timely updating and release of new products. New product, Neptune, is a Window's interface and is an example of smart software and still now there is no competitor for windows Vista and XP. Software products have high name recognition, broad-based corporate and consumer acceptance (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access), and numerous powerful features that are in use worldwide, thereby promoting standardization and competitive advantage through their ease of integration and cost-effectiveness. Windows 95, 98, 2000 series, and Windows NT are globally known as the PC desktop operating system with a market share of about 88%. Weaknesses: Dependency on hardware manufacturers to pre-install Microsoft's PC operating system. Development of Xbox and Zune runs very slowly. Falling sales in the operating systems and server software sectors Little or no significant presence in the wireless market and Windows CE has been disappointing MSN yet unable to be key player in the Internet space Products have a single application focus and do not work well with or on-top of other products. Peripheral player in the Internet space and few products for Internet applications. Failure on the part of leadership to anticipate the impending growth or popularity of the Internet. Marginal or insignificant presence in the wireless market, WAN and Windows CE. Opportunities: Cheaper global telecommunication costs open new markets as people connect to the Internet. Mobile phone applications and exploitation of personal digital assistants represent a growth industry so that strategic alliances could provide Microsoft with opportunity in a market where it currently has little or no significant presence The popularity of Zune and Xbox is increasing. The third world countries are now going to computer literate, this will be a new market for Microsoft. New generations are very fond of entertainment, so the sales of Xbox may increase. The demand for personal computers in American and global markets remains strong despite the growth and increasing popularity of personal handheld devices. Local language adaptations are bound to favorably sustain growth. In India for example most of the population uses Hindi language and applications software in Hindi is a certain bet for success given the population and economic growth process in the offing. Cheaper Internet connectivity and global telecommunication costs open new markets and opportunities. Broadband access and affordable wireless communication tools does present a plethora of opportunities for making gainful strides in these key areas. Strategic alliances with Mobile phone applications and exploitation of personal digital assistants provide Microsoft with opportunity in a market where it currently has little or no significant presence Threats: The change in Microsoft’s operating system is so faster, its hard for third world country’s to cope with the change, and Microsoft may loose market share. Between 1993-95, Sun Microsystems, Netscape, Oracle, IBM, AOL, and other companies moved into the Internet space and defined it while Microsoft failed to anticipate its growth or popularity. Rapid development of mobile devices that will displace/replace personal computers and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Platform is not so stronger. Day by day Google comes more and more popular than MSN. Internet explorar is always threatening by Mozilla, Firefox etc. And G-mail is getting popularity over Yahoo mail because of users switching tendency. Computer viruses are mainly targeting the Microsoft’s operating system and office package, as it’s the most used operating system and office package. Recommendation: While Microsoft is growing financially today, the company is also faced with numerous problems and challenges nowadays. Alongside this apparent success is a different aspect of the company. Numerous competitors have frequently sued Microsoft. To fully combat the problems Microsoft should take some course of actions, as Microsoft should adapt stringent maintenance and reliability on its products. It must implement measures that would help curb the effects of computer viruses and the company must employ stiff computer firewalls against hackers and identity thieves. In relation to the challenge posed by Linux and the advent of open source system, Microsoft can use and improve its quality management and maintenance with regards to a proper operations management. First, Microsoft in order to survive, must step up its quality management in relative to its products and softwares. Stepping up the level of quality management is not only improving the excellence and superiority of its products but also listening to the desires and wishes of the costumers since they are ones that must be satisfied by the company. Microsoft must replicate the steps and actions that they took that enabled their Xbox to be a success. It must listen to feedbacks from the publics regarding its products and implementing these feedbacks as a solid answer to the expansion of Linux. Read More