Intercollegiate Retail Challenge 2011-12
The mission of the aspire2retail Intercollegiate Retail Challenge is to build awareness of diverse career paths in retail by engaging university students in a competitive, collaborative role play with support from retail executive mentors to implement a multi-tiered business strategy. Read more.Participating Universities:
- University of Arizona, Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing
- University of Florida, Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research, Warrington College of Business
- Georgia Southern University, Center for Retail Studies
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Kohl’s Center for Retailing Excellence
- Florida State University, The Center for Retail Merchandising and Product Development
- University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
2011-12 Challenge Overview
The Scenario:
You are a senior executive with a large, national discounter of men’s and women’s shoes and accessories, including handbags, hosiery, and small leather goods. The company, a reseller of branded footwear and products, is headquartered in Minnesota with bricks and mortar locations in the Midwestern U.S. and a promising emerging Ecommerce presence. Currently the company is sourcing 96% of goods from Asia, predominantly China.
Significant changes in economic and regulatory conditions have resulted in uncertainty about current sourcing and the need to improve cost and speed of moving goods to market. In addition, market changes such as fashion trends and advances in technology have made it difficult for retailers to be responsive to these needs.
Senior management is concerned that the currency market is likely to continue to fluctuate and can adversely impact the cost of production and profit margins. They fear that ultimately this will not allow them to continue to deliver on the the company’s stated objectives and promise to provide excellent service and deliver the right product at the right time at the right price. This uncertainty threatens an excellent record for customer service and satisfaction.
The company President has issued a directive to investigate the potential for the company to move the supply chain closer to home (Mexico, U.S. or other ports) to realize the ideal balance between cost management and risk factors. You and a team of five colleagues have been selected to undertake this task and make recommendations to the management team.
The Challenge:
- Clearly describe all aspects of your current supply chain and identify its important strengths and weaknesses.
- Compare and contrast moving the supply chain from Asia to a domestic or neighboring country, including all strengths and weaknesses of the new locale.
- Evaluate all aspects of the impact that product availability from the new location will have on your customers’ expectation of quality, cost, assortment, and convenience as increasing advances in multichannel operations continue to offer your customers new choices in how they compare, purchase and return merchandise.
- Propose a new marketing and advertising campaign to align with proposed repositioning of the supply chain and describe how it will strengthen your brand, secure your current customers and open new markets.
- Prepare a side-by-side comparison of compliance requirements in the current and proposed situation. Evaluate and summarize its findings in your final report.
- Present the financial impact of new logistics, technology, compliance, sourcing and marketing changes and demonstrate how those costs compare to your company’s current and anticipated situation over the next three years.
The Team Roles:
The six team members at each school will role play a different career perspective and will represent one of the careers listed below:- Logistics/Technology
- Finance
- Compliance
- Marketing
- Merchandising
- Sourcing
Each career position will have a retail executive from that area of operations in a national retail company who will serve as mentor to the team of six students playing his/her role.
Retail Executive Mentors:
- Dennis Cohen, Sr. Director, Direct Import/Own Brand Supply Chain, Office Depot
- Larry Azar, VP, Global Brands, Toys R' Us
- Betsy Spence, VP Integrated Advertising, Macy's
- Dean Schwartz, VP/GMM Lawn and Garden, Sears
- Pat Rislov, Director of Vendor Services, Kohl's and Jamie Brasington, Director of Domestic Transportation, Kohl's
- Judy Glynn, Controller, H&M
Challenge Judges:
- Blake Witters, Regional Director of College Recruiting, Macy's
- Larry Bergman, SVP, Director of Supply Chain and Operations, Boscov's
- Tom DeCaro, EVP Supply Chain, Michael's
- Gina Talarico, College Recruiter, Sears
- Liz Hanna, University Relations, Kohl's and Erica Trotta, University Relations, Kohl's
- Jane Baczynski, Manager, Campus Recruiting & University Relations, Toys "R" Us
- Lydia Schulz, VP & GM, Retail Industry, American Express
- Kathy Mance, Executive Director, NRF Foundation
