Bus369: Field Experience in Business

Today we visited one of Credit Suisse’s offices in Raleigh.  The office is one of Credit Suisse’s 5 COEs, or Centers of Excellence.  After being founded in 1856, Credit Suisse is composed of two primary divisions or functions: private banking and wealth management. They have 530 offices in 50 countries, filled by approximately 46,000 employees, with 1,200 located in the Raleigh Center of Excellence, which opened in 2005.  Of these employees, approximately 40% are located in the home market (Switzerland), and approximately 24% are located in the Americas.

What is Credit Suisse’s mission?  Throughout the presentation, it was refreshing that no one showed the class a generic or formulaic mission statement or slogan.  From what I inferred from the presentation and conversations, I believe that Credit Suisse’s mission within the financial sector is to foster loyalty among existing clients while expanding its business further (2 COEs opened in India, as well as business in Brazil).  I would add that they have a very strong emphasis on going about their business within all financial regulations, globally and domestically (we spoke about the Basel 3 being a liaison between international trade/financial regulations).

Who is Credit Suisse’s customer?  Unlike many of the businesses that we have previously visited, Credit Suisse’s clients are composed of both organizations as well as private individuals.  While there are different divisions that are charged with taking care of corporate accounts or personal/private investments of individuals, we were told that many of their “high net worth” clients are often somewhere in between a personal client and a corporate client, because they are usually somewhat financially invested in their respective organization.   Statistically, Credit Suisse has over 2 million private clients and over 1 million corporate clients currently.  Internationally, the focus changes as well to adapt to different client demographics (US focuses on local market, Switzerland on private banking).

What does the customer value from Credit Suisse’s services?  When I look at my personal “brand equity” or perception of Credit Suisse, even within its own financial sector, I associate it with reliability, consistency, and reputability.   Besides Switzerland being known for its private investments sector, Credit Suisse is perceived, at least among my friends and I, as one of the top wealth management/investment organizations in the world.  Also, I believe that the customers find Credit Suisse attractive as an organization because of their global presence (as previously stated, offices in 50 different countries).

What are their results?  Credit Suisse has been reporting very consistent and solid earnings over the past few years.  They are not growing as fast as many other companies we have visited, but they by far one of the largest and most significant organizations that we have visited already.  They have been headed in a positive trajectory, but the consistency is most likely what the organization values as of right now (it could be different with a smaller firm)

What is their plan?  Going forward, Credit Suisse does not seem to want to change or expand at the same velocity as some of the other places we have visited.  Specifically as a financial service, Credit Suisse has done well to maintain a positive and relatively consistent trajectory, and has not had any issues with financial regulation like other organizations (J.P Morgan cough), and while I am sure they will be expanding in the future, they already have a well-established global presence.

Follow

What is VF’s mission?

The mission of the Jeanswear department at VF is to become the leading Jeanswear and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering our customers branded product solutions at compelling value. The mission of the company is to target the correct market customer for each of their styles of jeans and produce results that will allow the revenue of the company to increase steadily.

Who is VF”s customer?

The VF customer is a very specific target market. Although the Jeanswear products are sold to various retailers, including mass retailers, western retailers, and department stores, each sale in each style of market attracts a specific type of customer. The Jeanswear customer who shops at Wal-Mart may value a different style of jeans product than the customer who shops at Macys, and also will be willing to spend a different amount of money. The customer is a cowboy, an American citizen, and people who love the great outdoors.

What does the VF customer value?

The VF customer values the authenticity of the wrangler, lee, and other various brands. People buy the VF products so that they can live vicariously through the meaning behind the designs of the products. Men who buy the Wrangler Western line are men who typically work on farms or fully embrace the lifestyle involved with living in the west. These customers value the authenticity of the designs of the products and also the quality that goes into each design.

What are VF’s results?

The company has met much success so far. Having been in business for nearly 115 years, their profits have continued to grow as well as the lines of products that they have acquired. With billions of dollars in income each year, the VF Corporation has pulled in nearly 2.2 billion dollars in revenue from just the Jeanswear department alone.

What is VF’s plan?

The plan for the company is to continue meeting the success it has currently. The way that they run their business has obviously worked for them for all of the years that they have been up and running and they plan to continue to meet that same success. With projections to produce nearly 3 billion dollars in business in the coming years rather than just 2.2 proves that the company has plans to continue expanding and acquiring addition brands.

Follow

Today we were able to visit the VF Corporation in Greensboro, North Carolina. The office we visited was the corporate headquarters for VF Jeanswear that includes the brands of Wrangler and Lee. Most of the presentation focused on the company of VF and used Wrangler as a example. We were able to get a very detailed look as many people gave a presentation. We were able to hear from the CFO, someone from strategy, merchandising, marketing, and chain of supply. It was a look into how major companies functioned. One thing I noticed that it seemed like there was a lot of turnover as out of the seven people who talked, about 5 had less then five years at the company. This turnover means that the company wasn’t doing well. It was a said that it was a 69% increase in the company stock.
The mission of VF Corporation and VF Jeanswear is to provide the right product, at the right price, at the right time for their customers. VF is focused on the profitability of their 36 brands. Part of the mission of VF is to increase the brand awareness and get a following for the brand that will increase the sales. Wrangler and Lees have decent brand recognition but VF still wants to improve the image of the company and the brand. VF’s plan for the future is to create a direct to consumer store. This will help the profitability of the brands and the company. VF has enough brands to create a big store that would be popular. The problem is that it costs too much to run the store so VF is also looking into expanding the online store for their brands and products. The customers of VF are a ton of different demographics. For VF, mainly retail stores and big department stores are the main customers for the brands. The stores value the quality of the product, the ability to make money off the product, and finally the exclusive rights to a product. For example if a certain type of Wrangler jeans is sold at Wal-Mart then a store like Kohl’s or Macy’s wont want to compete with the low prices of Wal-Mart. The retail stores value the ability to be the only ones to sell a brand or product in order to avoid competition.

Follow

VF’s mission
VF Corporation was founded in 1889, there’s always had a passion for the real letter makes and believes that the deep understanding of the need to the consumer. This is very proven through VF’s success through the years. Recently brands like Timberland vans Wrangler North face and a great selling points for the company. Because they have so many brands they are able to market to a wide range of customers.

VF’s Customers
Since VF has so many different lines of clothing and footwear it can reach customers in all walks of life, in fact VF has even started to make a name for herself as an international company. VF is devoted to its customers and satisfying its customers needs, in order to do this it has to constantly innovating, new products and new trends different fashions.
VF’s Customer Values
Yes customers value quality products, products that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. VF prides itself in being on the cutting edge of the fashion industry at all times. For example bands has become the skate shoe of choice, creating a clothing line as well, and a recent years has become even more fashionable. Wrangler’s timelessness as a jeans maker ensures the company’s continued success because genes never really go out of fashion.
VF’s Results
As a result VF is worth over $11 billion, and it prides itself as being one of the most diversified apparel and footwear companies in the world. PF attributes the success to a highly diversified highly effective business model. VF covers apparel from outdoor to sports to jeans wearing casual to footwear and imagewear.
VF’s Plan
The goal of VF has always been to exceed customer expectations. To satisfy the school it looks for associates who are like-minded with the company. People who are passionate about the fashion industry and want to deliver a superior product. Currently the fastest growing division in VF is the outdoor and sport division. This division consists of Reef Timberland vans JanSport and The North face. In the future these brands should see the most growth.
“With a goal of reaching $17.3 billion in revenues by 2017 – driven primarily by strong growth from our highly profitable Outdoor & Action Sports, international and direct-to-consumer businesses – we expect our earnings per share to reach $18.00.

During the next five years, we are targeting a 300 basis point improvement in gross margin, to 49.5 percent, and a 250 basis point increase in our operating margin, to 16 percent, when compared to our 2012 results.

Our international business, which is expected to grow at an average compounded annual rate of 13 percent, should reach 43 percent of total VF revenues in 2017, up from 37 percent achieved in 2012. Additionally, our direct-to-consumer business is targeted to reach $4.4 billion by 2017, and should account for 25 percent of VF’s total revenues by the end of the next five years.” (VF website)

Follow

What is VF’s mission?

VF Corporation is a worldwide leader in branded jeans, footwear, and other apparel.  The VF Corporation has been around for 115 years, and prides itself on the values of passion, commitment, innovation, and vision.  VF Jeanswear conducts their business according to the following mission statement: “We will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.”

Who are VF’s customers?

VF does not deal directly with shoppers but sells their merchandise to various retailers, the largest being Walmart, Kmart, and Target.  VF has three separate marketing units: Mass, Middle, and Specialty, each with different retail stores selling different VF brands and products.

What do VF’s customers value?

VF customers value the quality of the merchandise they are purchasing for the price they are paying.  With the slogan “We fit your life”, VF knows how important it is for their products to meet the everyday needs of their customers in order to keep them happy and loyal.  One of the presenters made an interesting point today about marketing the VF brand: “It’s not what we say it is, it’s what they say it is.  VF values their customers’ opinions and wants to always meet their apparel needs.

What are VF’s results?

At a net value of over $11 billion, VF Corporation is the world’s largest apparel company, and they have been surpassing their desired growth rates year after year.  VF has representation in over 60 countries and produced 486 million units last year alone.  With their stock price at an increase of 69%, they have been experiencing nothing but success and have brought in a significantly large amount of business in the last few years.

What is VF’s plan?

VF Jeanswear understands that maximizing business today is critical for future growth.  At around $2 billion now, VF Jeanswear has a goal of becoming a $3 billion company within the next five years.  Their Five Year Plan includes lifestyle brand extension, bringing in new consumers such as women and Hispanics, and creating new wholesale accounts and channels.  VF Corporation as a whole hopes to reach $17.3 billion by 2017 and also to continue to expand geographically.

Follow

Today we drove over to the corporate headquarters of jeanswear for the VF Corporation, which is located in Greensboro. We had the opportunity to hear multiple employees speak on their positions in the company, as well as, how their respective departments contribute to generating profit and customer satisfaction. Organized in 1899, VF is a worldwide leader in brand lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products.  The company is organized by five dfferent coalitions: outdoor & action sports, jeanswear, imagewear, sportswear, and contemporary brands. They produce 28% and source 72% of 450 million units annually across 36 brands. Having about 57,000 employees in 150 different countries, VF produces about 60% of their products internationally, the premier locations being Mexico, Honduras, and Bangladesh. VF Corporation has recorded $10.9 billion in revenue and $1.5 billion in operating income for this past year.

The mission of VF Corporation is to create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering consumers brand product solutions at compelling value. Their goal is to constantly exceed the expectations of their consumers, shareholders, and business partners. By using deep research and insights, the innovative company combines the art and science of apparel in an effort to create products that excite customers and inspire brand loyalty.

VF Corporation’s customer base extends to people all across the globe seeking to purchase quality lifestyle apparel. Typically these customers buy the company’s five largest brands, The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Wrangler, and Lee. VF’s sales are highly diversified as 25% occur via e-commerce or owned stores (~1,100) and 40% of sales occur outside the United States. The business has 32 distribution centers that provide their products to big-business customers such as Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Kohls, Macys, Sears, and JC Penney, who then sell the products to individual customer. Tractor Supply and Boot Barn are examples of smaller companies that also purchase certain products from VF.

The customers of VF Corporation value a unique, quality product that caters to their individual style. A great example of this is Wrangler’s “U” shaped jeans as they provide more comfort and durability for an outdoorsy type person. Another example is how they produce three different types of Wrangler jeans to appeal to the western look. Their customers also value having a variety of color combinations (about 760,000) and textures to choose from when purchasing the products. Furthermore, they value having an influential voice in what they what from VF’s brands. As Chris stated, the company’s brands are “what the customers say they are”.

The results show that VF Corporation does an excellent job of living up to what they promise and that they remain the best in their field. In 2012, the company recorded revenues of 10.9 billion dollars and operating income of 1.5 billion dollars. If this isn’t profitable enough, those numbers are both expected to grow, estimating nearly 17 billion dollars in revenue by 2019. Producing about 15 units per second, VF corporation stands as one of the most efficient manufacturers in their field as well. Even during tough economic circumstances, the company’s stock continues to grow, having gone up an astounding 69% in the last year. Because VF never accepts to be less than the top two in what they do, their results should be just as good in the future.

Before VF creates a plan, they focus on addressing the “Who, What, & How”. Because there is not big business in the department stores, yet still significant growth opportunity, VF Corporation plan is to generate revenue quicker through improving their action sports department and turn profit into acquisitions. Chris said that the strategy for meeting this goal is to find a way to appeal to new customers, make lifestyle brand extensions, generate new wholesale accounts, and provide directly to the customer. He provided us with a pyramid looking graph that showed how the company moves forward, which entails maximizing what already exists, building leverage, igniting expansion, and exploring new possibilities. VF is also seeking to turn the jeanswear department into a 3 billion dollar business.

Follow

Today we visited VF Jeanswear headquarters and not only learned about VF Jeanswear but also VF as a whole. VF is a global apparel company that is made up of many different brands. There brands are known all over but I had no clue certain brands were owned by them.
What is VF Jeanswear’s mission?

Their mission statement is “we will create the leading jeans and lifestyle Apparel Company in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value”. VF’s mission statement is very true for what they offer and they work hard to accomplish their success.

Who is VF Jeanswear’s customer?

VF attracts a variety of customers. They have over 30 brands associated with their company that vary in categories from jeans to shoes to outerwear. VF Jeanswear on the other hand attracts a multiple people in the same group. Mostly men in the forty-age range, handy around the house, love sports and being active. They advertise to the all around American man. VF Jeanswear also has a separate advertising for the more western side of their customers. They split this category up into three sections; authentic western, new western, and retro western. Each section has separate advertising, endorsers, and ads.  VF Jeanswear also thinks that is important to please the customers that they attract and not change to attract different customers. They believe that they need to listen to which group their customers say they attract rather than what customers they would like to attract.

What does their customer value?

The customer values the quality of the jeans at a reasonable price. VF Jeanswear thinks that it is important to stand by its value of their jeans they promote. These values are that the jeans are durable comfort, last long, rugged, and deliver the spirit.

What are VF Jeanswear’s results?

VF Jeanswear has been a very successful company and continues to see success. They sell 486 million units per year, which is about 15 units per second. VF Jeanswear is the largest jean producer. Mexico produce 22% of their product, china 21% and the rest is varied throughout. VF Jeanswear makes about a little over 2 billion dollars in revenue. Their revenue has been increasing over the years showing a positive increase for the future.

What is VF Jeanswear plan?

VF Jeanswear plans on increasing their revenue to $3 billion by 2015. They have a five-step process to achieve this goal and maintain success. The five steps include core business, direct-to-consumer, new wholesale accounts and channels, lifestyle brand extensions, and new consumers. By focusing on each one of these steps they hope it will increase their success and profit. VF also hopes to gain more brands and cover more categories of clothing. For example they are trying to produce more shirts and shoes. They believe by expanding distribution, and extend the brand will increase their revenue faster.

Overall I thought this visit was very interesting. I enjoy country music and am an equestrian so I am very familiar with the wrangler brand. I thought it was a great marketing tool to give us all a gift. It makes them a favorable company. I thought that the steps they are taking to gain more success will be very beneficial to the company.

Follow

What is VF’s mission?

Today we visited VF Jeanswear, a division of VF Corporation located in Greensboro NC, organized in 1899. VF Jeanswear’s mission is: “We will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.” VF Corporation has become the largest producer of jeans in the world and a worldwide leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products. It was interesting to learn that so many different brands are all essentially part of VF Corporation. Companies owned by VF Corporation consist of: Wrangler, JanSport, North Face, Nautica, Vans, Timberland, Lee, Eastpak, and many more.

Who are VF’s customers?

VF has a variety of customers world-wide, but they mainly sell to five different categories; the Mass marketing, Lee, Specialty Western, Rock and Republic, and Mexico/Canada. However, we did not really go into Rock and Republic, and Mexico/Canada because they do not make near as much revenue for VF Jeanswear as the other three markets. VF sells to superstores including Walmart, K-mart and Target, and department stores including Macy’s, Sears and Kohls, and they also sell to specialty stores. VF has a highly diversified customer base, with about 40% of sales outside of the United States and about 25% of sales through e-commerce or owned stores (about 1,100 stores).

What do VF customers value?

VF customers value a high quality product, and VF as a whole offers a wide variety of options at an impressive range of prices and in a wide range of stores. VF customers also value receiving their shipments on time, and as we were told today, they sent about 600 trucks to Walmart alone on Black Friday so that they would have enough product. This is very important, because if they did not deliver their product on time they would be losing profit, and creating tension with Walmart or whatever company they are dealing with.

What are VF’s results?

VF Corporation has a total of 29,300 employees, and in 2012 VF totaled $10.9 billion in revenue and had an operating income of $1.5 billion. VF is traded publically and their stock went up 69% last year. VF Jeanswear totals $2.2 billion in revenue and produces 170 million units annually, while VF Corporation totals 486 million units annually. They told us that averages to about 15 units per second. They also told us that half of VF Jeanswear’s business comes from their Mass marketing. VF has 29 manufacturing facilities and nearly 1,900 contractor facilities in 60 countries.

What is VF’s Plan?

VF’s plan for future success is always to find ways to make quality products at cheaper prices. VF is always looking for new consumers, for instance they have a much higher male consumer base than female base, though both number have grown drastically in the last 5 years. They told us of their supply chain goals; Growth, or possibly downsizing in China’s case, Speed, Service, Cost, GM, Asset efficiency, Innovation and Sustainability. And seeing as they have been around for over 115 years now, they are doing a pretty good job.

Follow