Effective, strategic leadership evaluates an organization’s products, markets, and competition in order to promote opportunities and growth. A corporation’s leadership assesses the current and futurist markets and competitive position with multiple tools, such as the Grand Strategy Matrix (GSM) and The Boston Consulting Group Matrix (BCG) to determine the best strategies for forward propulsion of the organization (GSM 2010). According to Steve Riggio, Barnes & Noble's (BSN) Chief Executive Officer, evaluation is necessary to determine the near and distant future of BSN as competition strengthens, technology advances, and changes occur in the book industry. Employing the Grand Strategy Matrix allows focus on the speed of market growth and
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Assuming the market growth of hard copy book-based products continues to decelerate, the competitive Barnes and Noble organization falls into the fourth quadrant of the grand strategy mix. Another assumption that the infatuation with electronic readers, the convenience of downloading books, and the economical value of electronic products to consumers persists; the growth market for published hard copy books will continue to decelerate. Internal evaluation of existing products and resources must occur, as BSN cannot stimulate market growth single-handedly. Propelling the company forward, strategic leadership of BSN must consider diversification of current products while making an allowance for the possibility of joint ventures (GSM 2010). As market growth slows for the printed books, the possibility for online sales or downloadable books continue to slowly improve, Barnes and Noble must intensify the promotion of the technological product. Improvement of the Nook, BSN’s electronic reader, and advancing in the electronic college textbook market diversifies the existing products, allowing for increased sales and revenues. As BSN’s strongest competitor, Amazon, controls the market on multiple items such as home, garden, groceries, clothing and much more, it is not fitting for BSN to jump into products that are not already accessible without …show more content…
Determining which BSN products are dogs, question marks, stars, or cash cows allows strategic leadership to develop management plans for future growth of products and revenue. Specifically, the dogs, the products that are slowing the company down and will not improve the company growth, exist as the music business within the BSN stores. As technology has created downloadable music, selling tunes or music in the brick and mortar stores continues to dwindle. The market share, percentage available, remains small as multiple organizations are taking a piece of the pie in downloadable music. Barnes and Noble should delete the option of selling music in stores, thus realigning the revenues from the savings in this particular area. Existing cash cows, products providing easy money with little or no promotion exists for BSN as the coffee shops existing within the storefronts. Minimum marketing is required for these cafés that provide a destination for consumers who ultimately spend more money in the store once they are enjoying a cup of coffee or such. Capitalizing on the storefront as a destination with promotions and activities directs foot traffic into the stores for human experiences that are not available on line. Continuing to harvest the café will benefit Barnes
Assuming the market growth of hard copy book-based products continues to decelerate, the competitive Barnes and Noble organization falls into the fourth quadrant of the grand strategy mix. Another assumption that the infatuation with electronic readers, the convenience of downloading books, and the economical value of electronic products to consumers persists; the growth market for published hard copy books will continue to decelerate. Internal evaluation of existing products and resources must occur, as BSN cannot stimulate market growth single-handedly. Propelling the company forward, strategic leadership of BSN must consider diversification of current products while making an allowance for the possibility of joint ventures (GSM 2010). As market growth slows for the printed books, the possibility for online sales or downloadable books continue to slowly improve, Barnes and Noble must intensify the promotion of the technological product. Improvement of the Nook, BSN’s electronic reader, and advancing in the electronic college textbook market diversifies the existing products, allowing for increased sales and revenues. As BSN’s strongest competitor, Amazon, controls the market on multiple items such as home, garden, groceries, clothing and much more, it is not fitting for BSN to jump into products that are not already accessible without …show more content…
Determining which BSN products are dogs, question marks, stars, or cash cows allows strategic leadership to develop management plans for future growth of products and revenue. Specifically, the dogs, the products that are slowing the company down and will not improve the company growth, exist as the music business within the BSN stores. As technology has created downloadable music, selling tunes or music in the brick and mortar stores continues to dwindle. The market share, percentage available, remains small as multiple organizations are taking a piece of the pie in downloadable music. Barnes and Noble should delete the option of selling music in stores, thus realigning the revenues from the savings in this particular area. Existing cash cows, products providing easy money with little or no promotion exists for BSN as the coffee shops existing within the storefronts. Minimum marketing is required for these cafés that provide a destination for consumers who ultimately spend more money in the store once they are enjoying a cup of coffee or such. Capitalizing on the storefront as a destination with promotions and activities directs foot traffic into the stores for human experiences that are not available on line. Continuing to harvest the café will benefit Barnes