Analysis of the Organization of strategic audit of jcpenney

The mission of classical organizations like JC Penny’s chain of outlets (stores) is to secure its position and credibility in the market that the said Organization has been enjoying for long. The pioneer of JC Penny’s Company had developed the chain of stores with his extra hard-work and persistent struggle. He was the man of great courage, valor, and determination. He had built up the Whole Empire of his Giant alike business with his passion and craze to take his business higher and higher in the market. The present stake-holders and Heads of JC Penny’s company are also eager enough to keep the pace of their age-old chain of business sustained and developing by a constant input approach to their chain of outlets.

The present Heads, C.E.Os do believe in constant variations in terms of design, style, and presentation of their items on the shelves of their stores. Once, these stores were a part of the tradition of most of the Americans. The times they liked to shop their routine groceries, clothes, and furniture. In the modern ages, there are multiple shopping centers available all through the U.S which provides multiple opportunities to its customers to rush and come, shop and enjoy the multiple activities available in those centers by all the time (24/7). The real mission of all the key players of JC Penny’s is to showcase its all products in a new and innovative manner to attract its regular customers and let them not to leave them and go some other outlets in further.

Taking great care of its customers is the prime mission and objective of JC Penny’s company. The company does not compromise over the demands and requirements of its valuable customers as the company’s whole standing in the market depends upon its credibility and goodwill.

Vision of strategic audit of  jcpenney

The vision of JC Penny’s company is also very crystal clear as nothing is hiding in their minds as the major key-players of the said company are permanently making various strategies to sustain and enhance the turnout of its customers.

Globally known and recognized Research Analysis Devices are utilized and chosen to refine the novel ideas, present them in a new and qualitative manner. The ambitious and aggressive attitude will surely bring the expected customers to our premises of a business (such as the outlet's stores of us).

The administration of the company believes in designing creativity, creativity is the factor that keeps the customers motivated, energized, high-spirited with the running of time as well. In order to keep the customer more captivated and engaged with our outlets, the heads of the company are ready to entertain and refresh them to its full. They are an enthusiast to plan cultural activities and festivities for their valuable and regular customers.

Their grandparents were once the customers of the same store and now they have started buying their products in a very traditional manner. These customers need to be taken care of on a special basis. They should feel the age-long relations between them and their company which would ensure their permanency in the customer’s friendly zone. A Customer-Friendly Zone can only be created the time he is being cared to the level he feels extra comfortable with his company’s management. To improve and sustain the quality of its products, JC Penny’s management has decided to invite its customers to write down to their company all the suggestions and complaints about what they have in their respective minds.

The Heads of the said company have decided to prioritize the suggestions and complaints of the customers to be addressed and fulfilled fully in accordance with the will and pleasure of its customers. This would invoke a new spirit and energy in its customers to re-trust their company and start feeling their age-long bonding with their company.

Core-Values of strategic audit of  jcpenney

There can be many values and ethics of some company which has been playing its vital role

For a long time. Such companies are normally following certain rules and ethical codes, values for themselves. Core-Values of every single company is lying in its principles and norms. They should never ever compromise over the quality of the products being served to its valuable customers. The quality must not be provided at times but should be assured on a permanent basis to be developed and produced in a proper standardized manner with a sustainable approach towards the durability of that particular product so far.

Quality assurance is a mechanism that is claimed and repeated so many times orally. But the time it comes to practical assurance of quality in a certain product. It requires a lot of care and a sense of responsibility for it.

The sense of responsibility does require a lot of maturity in its handlers. The handlers/key players, Executives of the company need to be persistent in feeling their respective sense of responsibility. Developing a sense of responsibility makes you more dutiful, purposeful, target-oriented and challenging by nature. It also makes you explore new and new horizons of your care and maturity.

An ignorant sort of person can never feel a sense of responsibility. And would never be able to serve and lead the number of persons /masses/people in his life. Such type of person is never recommended to serve as Executives/Heads and C.E.O s in any company. Because dealing with customers requires extra care and an unusual sense of taking liability and responsibility.

The customer must have felt that nobody is more important and significant than him on the very premises of its commercial activities at certain outlets. In most of the marketing and public domain companies, customer-caring behavior is taught, trained and delivered on the prioritized level. As without customers and the support of the customer, the toll number of customers can never be increased nor improved.

It is only the customer itself who makes and damages the repute and credibility of its service provider by his conduct. If the primary or conventional customer is all satisfied by its company then there is the biggest chance of growth in the toll number of customers by the end of the day. So the real success of a key player’s values lies in its moral strength.

Moral values and ethical codes of him do let him achieve the hearts of its customers which is the ultimate goal of every single team leader indeed. The key player always needs to impress and morally attract his customers by knowing more and more of its desires. Providing the customer with great care and attention would change the customer’s behavior altogether.

In such conditions, the customer would never ever be in a position to part or leave its primary company. Every customer requires peace of mind, satisfaction, respect and honor, protocol, entertainment by its company.  

There are certain companies around the globe that provide extra promotional packages for long-term customers. The promotions are made to rejoice and entertain the conventional customers so that they may proudly quote themselves as old users of a certain product. The oldest the users become, the more they try to promote their old product/ company in all means.

Operating Guidelines of strategic audit of  jcpenney

There have been so many tools to move and shake the credibility of one’s products/services so far. Traditionally or modernly, the tools to grow your business do vary from person to person. There is no certain setup rules for the enhancement and growth of your business/market. It is the very choice of the leaders/heads of certain products/services to choose any of the tools in order to make his business grow. The rules are never followed in a very strict manner in practical business and commercial affairs. The only factor which is followed in the operational network of promoting one’s product/services is to serve the customer and please the customer.

The prior guideline being operated by any team leader is to facilitate and please the customer. The customer must feel a sense of pride for himself that he is the proud user or utilizer of certain products/services. This pride in the product would be invoked in him through the leadership and guiding quality of the product’s manager/introducer. This is the real leader who makes its customers feel great and different about their products/services.

It is also the prior responsibility of Team Leader/Head to please his customers to its full. The leader should try to make them feel out of this world. As they should think that they are the best buddies who are using such extra-super products/services so far. They should try to relate themselves more and more with their products/services. They must be felt that both customers and their relative products are nothing without each other. This is also the very responsibility of a leader /head to make his customers feel good and easy with their products/services and boring /incomplete without using these products/services. These are called the real operating guidelines issued and commanded by the Real Heads/Executives of JC Penny’s as well. They are all trying to make their services and products better to adequate the desires/requirements and needs of its valuable and regular customers in all means.

Core Competencies of strategic audit of  jcpenney

Although there are so many competencies seen and witnessed in the core management team of JC Pennies’ so far. Yet the best of its capacities and potentialities is power and courage to make the right decisions at the right times. Decision –making at its real-time, generally on time makes it the most beautiful and strong point of any organization’s leading team.  This is the very quality of decision making which makes you different, decisive, and well-administered, enlightened and foresighted in your approach.

The real Administrator and Team Player believe firstly in his own self. Then he takes the decisions on time by all the time. Suppose there is a need to launch a new design for the shelves which has already been created by the Graphic Designer so far. Then it is the very responsibility of a Team player to launch it in its Stores before the time the real opportunity gets out of the hands of Executives even.

For instance, In the Modern World, social media has emerged as an impressive tool to make our services/products famous all through the globe within no waste of time. At this step, even the role of the Leader comes first as he is the one who will make the decision to float multiple news/events and festivities timely on social media to keep his customers charged/energizes/ motivated and in high spirits.

Nothing can be better than the self capacities and competencies of Core-Team Players in any company. The same leading role is being well played by the team leaders of JC Penny’s as well which is worth appreciating in all means.

Goals of strategic audit of  jcpenney

Despite the alarming facts about our present Company, JC Penny’s decline in the Store’s industry, one must not be hopeless of its brightening future in the coming days. Its whole management/ leading team still believes in restoring it’s gone by glories with all enthusiasm. The Heads of JC Penny’s are of the opinion that this is all just a transitional period of jerks and recession. Otherwise, our chain of outlets is meant to make progress again in its market. JC Penny’s has been and will be a Success Story once again in the traditional and conventional market of U.S.A.

Its executives will keep no stone unturned to make it progress once again. In the days of crises even, our Morale is no less even and we are looking forward to our goals with full determination.

Current Problems that conflict with the Organization’s Core Values

No doubt that we had certain values which were our strengths once but today these stronger points are playing as our weaknesses in getting less attention from modern-day customers. For instance, we used to carry our own designs and styles in presenting our products all the time. These styles and designs permanency and difference was the soul of our attraction once. But in modern times, you need to change your design and style in almost every single month to avoid monotony and boredom among the customers so far.

In terms of mission, JCPenney has always believed in one firm statement which is; “To be the leading provider of style and value to middle America”. This undertaking is based on a significant matter which is solely the desire to take the company’s sales and profits at the sky-high limit. The spirit of this organization has always been to put the customer first and provide a service that one desires for itself. Hence, it describes the mission of the company which has only changed with time in a quite positive manner. In the previous mission statements given by the company did not pay heed upon capitalizing the important words like “We” “Customer” “Associates”, but these have been capitalized now. Thus, explaining the complete belief system of JCPenney into one line, which is only to provide the best.

Although, the motive behind the JCPenney’s mission statement is to deliver the excellent quality of product and service to its customers but still it needs to put a due effort in stabilizing its objectives and strengths. Due to these weaknesses, long-term survival is at the stake and steps must be taken in order to address and combat these issues. For which aspects like value chain and return profitability must be talked about more.

Current Organizational Level Strategies

In order to understand the current organizational level strategies, it is first important to understand the internal and customer environment of the company. Where the Internal environment keenly focuses on the utilization of exclusive in-house and selective distribution as well. An in-house distribution, all the international and private labels are being entertained whereas in the selective distribution all the national labels are housed. Thus, for the stocking, distribution, and utilization of the products, a product identification system is used called Radio Frequency Identification (RFI) system. JCP employs an efficient distribution system that has been combined by both strategy and practice to formulate an information system. This system is implied as one of the main striking strengths of the JCP Company. Along with that, the company has also worked on its effective internal systems. But the most significant relationship that this company has formed is its excellent customer relationships. It has introduced several customer rewards that can be availed on doing shopping through credit card systems. A number of customers have availed this offer and they are quite satisfied with it. This program allows the staff of the company to carry out research on consumer behavior and can verify their choices and likable environment.

However, for the Customer environment, the company has launched a full-fledged Business Improvement Plan. The consumption habits of each and every customer are recorded on the basis of its age, gender and relationship status. As the consumer is basically, the “buyer” for the whole family system thus their values and lifestyle depict the picture of their family orientation and the kinds of activities they are involved in.

Marketing Strategy of strategic audit of  jcpenne

There are four major areas of focus for the JCP company which are primarily based on the; associate focus, profit growth, sales growth, and customer relationship. All of these priorities are directly related to the mission statement of the company and relies on the CUSTOMER FIRST survey. A link to this survey is mentioned at the bottom of the receipt for the consumers to access it easily and give a rating to their overall experience in the store after shopping. This score is quite significant for the store and they are much eager to raise it each year. Recently, the company has been able to raise it from 60% to 65%.

 Another marketing aspect, noteworthy for this organization is to achieve the highest rating in the aspect of courtesy and respect. This area is directly correlated to the consumer’s associate behavior for which a Greet score has been launched. It checks whether the consumer was greeted upon the time of his arrival and departure or not. In this scenario, the score of 68% has been achieved up so far and another Thank you score has also been introduced. Up till now, this score has been raised around 95%, by saying Thank you to the customer after they check out. Besides these other objectives are also kept in focus to study consumer behavior and satisfaction. The ease to find out the merchandise in the aisles has also been rated in the store which has achieved 45% only up till now. Moreover, the pricing, signage, employee availability and speed of checkouts all have been rated and recorded where all of these must-have almost 55% score.

The four major aspects of CUSTOMER FIRST JCPenney have been working to lower the turnover rate to 60% whereas the consumer satisfaction level to 100%. It also provides incentives and certifications to the employees involved in the training programs. The concern for the organization is to retain the new hires as much as possible and making sure that employees are well equipped with the knowledge of policies.

Products of strategic audit of  jcpenney

The power brands which the JCPenney is recently focusing upon are as follows;

St. John’s Bay

A.N.A

Bisou by Michele Bohbot

Stafford o MNG by Mango

 Liz Claiborne 

Allen B. by Allen Schwartz

 Decree 

Arizona

 Linden Street

Cindy Crawford

Another mainstay of the company is to work on the strategy of offering good/better/best options to its customers. At first, the company was much more occupied on strengthening its promotional strategies but now the major concern is the in-house distribution and merchandise value. The company has started marketing endeavors with major promotional magazines like People’s Stylewatch.

In a World where changing priorities has been a matter of concern for major organizations, the JCP has stayed on its original goal. Thus, advertising with the comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ a mature and intelligent face was not its basic priority but the sexual orientation of the celebrity. This surely helped the company’s name to grab some eyeballs and the sales growth increased heavily.

Alignment with Goals Structure

The goals of the JCP Company have been changing dramatically with time as these reflect the image of the organization according to the prevailing times. The goal structure has been shifted from not only the promotional value but more inclined towards the customer target market, store environment as well as the image of the company.

The aim of the JCP is to be first and foremost for its consumers and to provide customer-oriented retail therapy to its buyers. A number of objectives have been set up the company to achieve these goals;

A keen focus on consumer loyalty and satisfaction

To raise the OSAT score by 70% at the end of each fiscal year

To make stores and merchandise more accessible to its customers

In order to achieve these goals, it is quite important for the company to listen to the concerns of the buyers. One of the majors complains area that has been identified is that the company has only focused on its promotional devices up till now which needs to be changed. Also, the quality of products and services has not been up to mark in recent times and the pricing system has been deranged.

Comparison with Competition of strategic audit of  jcpenney

The main competitors to the JCP in this respect have been Macy’s and Kohl where Macy’s has topped the race. In every way, Macy’s has proved to be efficient like pricing, profits and sales growth. Whereas, the JCP and Kohl have performed equally in all regards leading from the promotions, pricing, characteristics and the products available at the stores.

A strength for JCP in this scenario is the low pricing range for its products which are quite high in both Macy’s and Kohl. This has helped JCP to win a huge chunk of the buyers and clients as compared to the other two major store companies.

SWOT and GAP Analysis of strategic audit of  jcpenney

Strengths of JCPenney of strategic audit of  jcpenney

As JCPenney is one of the leading store organizations, it has quite major strengths that make it successful in the market world. These qualities not only help the organization to maintain its market share in the available markets but also help penetrate the new horizons.

Strong Dealership- The Company has managed to become a part of the vast successful markets and cultures to promote the company’s products

also invests in the training of new hires and employees  (Kalpande, 2010).

Skilled Workforce- The Company is investing a huge share of its profits in the training and learning capacity of its workforce so that they are well aware of its policies.

Reliable Suppliers- The Company has an excellent supply of raw materials which helps to overcome any issue available in the supply chain area.

High Customer Satisfaction- The company policies have always directed its employees to give their best in terms of serving the buyers.

Strong Distribution Network- The Company has managed to build a reliable distribution network for itself and so does the potential market.

Weaknesses of JCPenney

There are numerous areas where the company needs to focus upon. These are;

The attrition rate in Employees- The Company is suffering from a high attrition rate in its workforce which has led to the slow development in its employees.

Bad Quality Products- Although the company receives a good deal of raw materials still the products which the company has to offer are not very commendable and a lot of complaints are usually received from the consumer end.

Limited Product Range- There are huge gaps in the range and variety of products available at the stores. Hence, the customers do not get the choice to choose from a range of products which results in the failure of stores in market share.

Opportunities for JCPenney 

Taxation Policy- If a new taxation policy is introduced, it can help a lot for the company to raise its profitability.

Decrease cost of shipping- The Company can work upon finding new means of transportation for its goods and products so that it can save its major chunk of time and money not only for itself but consumers too.

Threats facing by JCPenney

Shortage of Workforce- There is a dire need of the women workforce in the global market hence posing threats for the JCPenney too.

Intense Competition- The number of store markets has been dramatically increased thus JCP needs to introduce more schemes to prove itself equal to the other market places.

Limitations for JCPenney

The SWOT Analysis does provide a fair share of the limitations present in the study. For JCPenney there are few given;

SWOT Analysis does not provide a full view of the competitive advantage or how to achieve it.

It is only a static assessment and does not involve the status quo in the changing of its perspectives.

It may give an over-emphasized view on certain aspects which may not be that critical.

Suggest and Evaluate Strategies

In order to make the company strategically stable, there are numerous factors that need to be focused upon. The new strategies introduced will help the company to walk on the steps of success by improving the financial expectations of the organization.

Financial Tactics- These include chores of daily work such as operation, marketing framework, and manufacturing with the help of efficient labor.

Task Ownership and Action Items- The action items must be recognized and identified in the case task ownership and strategic planning. Each employee must be trained according to the situations prevailing.

Deadlines and Milestones- Effective milestones and deadlines must be created for the employees and the workforce. These will help to get the results at the given time and schedules.

Resource Allocation- It must be the foremost part of the strategic planning instead of focusing on the cost’s reductions. This will help the company to reach sky-high success as it will control the overall picture of the market scenario.

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