What should borders group do

Jan Announces cuts of 10 percent of corporate jobs. Shares jump. January Borders says it is delaying payment to vendors and landlords, among other creditors. February 4: Borders gets warning from New York Stock Exchange about low share price, says it could be delisted. February Borders files for Ch. As Borders and other online sellers stopped discounting and offering other incentives to purchasers, online sales were reduced substantially. In December , Borders management faced heavy criticism from shareholders Alan and Barry Lafer, who controlled approximately two percent of the Company shares.

The Lafer brothers had previously asked the Company to consider strategic options, including a possible sale of Borders Group, Inc. The Lafers accusations were fueled by the Company's slow growth during the previous fiscal year. During summer , Merrill Lynch had been hired to evaluate the options. Subsequently, the Company resolved to remain independent.

In renewed criticism, the Lafers charged that the half-time employment contracts of top executives weakened the Company's management capabilities. Part-time management leads to part-time results, they claimed. The Lafer brothers also accused management of errors in handling the Company's online expansion and the acquisition of the retail toy store, All Wound Up.

In March , Borders announced that Greg Josefowicz, the president and chief executive, would become chairman at the end of the year, replacing Robert DiRomualdo. After the realignment of online commitments and internal review of options and management, Borders Group's strategy in the new millennium was to continue growth and increase profitability by focusing primarily on its superstores and continuing to develop mall and kiosk bookstores.

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E-mail: Show my email publicly. Human Verification:. Public Comment: characters. In hindsight, it would have been far better for businesses like Borders to experiment with the value of internet to their customers—even if they ended up wasting their time.

Borders held back, Amazon charged forwards—and the rest is history. As a business owner, you must face the reality that your market can shift at anytime. While few industries will ever experience as radical a transformation as the book industry over the last fifteen years, the fate of Borders should serve as a cautionary tale for business owners everywhere. AWS Deloitte Genpact. Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:.

He was blunt with employees, acknowledging that he ultimately could not predict the future. Some chose to leave; others yet were let go. By August , the retailer only had about workers left at its corporate office. In one example, Edwards woke up one day and decided to take tags, which gave information such as which department books belonged to, off the books they were selling. Mike Edwards didn't know what to expect when he returned to Borders' flagship office after filing the paperwork to liquidate Borders.

But when he and then-CFO Scott Henry walked through the doors, they were greeted by hundreds of Borders employees, who applauded them for 20 minutes. There was a lot of pride in the brand. Most of the decisions that led to the end of Borders were made long before Edwards' plan to save the business. By the time he became CEO, the company had already spent years employing Amazon to sell its books online and had failed to seize on the e-book trend before it was too late.

You can be in the hotel business and then Airbnb can surround you with 20 properties with a great size at a lower cost. From experience, Edwards says crafting the right omnichannel experience for an over-stored traditional retailer is no easy task. Today, retail stores need to function with a level of exclusivity and experience. Otherwise, the brutal reality is that Amazon will cater to customers with a higher level of convenience and speed. And I learned a lot.

But his true passion has always been to run his own company, and Edwards now has a home as the CEO of eBags, an online seller of luggage and handbags. In making the decision to join the company, Edwards realized he was ready to be on the disrupting side of retail for a change. While it feels good to be in a position to drive forward mobile and omnichannel strategies, he acknowledges that retail is facing a difficult moment.

Whether you're in the online, omnichannel or traditional brick-and-mortar business, it's a time of constant transformation. Follow Corinne Ruff on Twitter. Retailers are navigating supply chain bottlenecks while consumers face renewed concerns over the COVID pandemic.