Ask Financial Management Expert

Detailed Recommended Solution

Pick one solution (alternative) and detail the action steps (who will do what and when and how things will be done). Identify the human and estimated financial requirements. How long would implementation take? Why is this solution better than the other possible solutions? (how to bring radioshack back in business )

give me bullet points with not too long answers, accurate and dont just copy and paste info I'll report you

pick the action to take and show me each step to follow is just an idea what you think is best and how much money radioshack may need and how many people should be involved case

Radio Shack’s 60-year rise and fall is a case study in what happens when a company’s vision isn’t balanced by insight into its customer’s expectations.

When Charles Tandy bought a small-time chain of nine stores in 1963, advances in technology and automation pointed to a future where we would all enjoy lives of leisure, freed of the need to spend eight hours a day at the office. Radio Shack would become a place for tinkerers and hobbyists with lots of free time and a desire to explore the brave new world of technology.

Radio Shack employees were drawn from the same pool of hobbyists, so they were ideally suited to engage shoppers with enthusiasm and knowledge. By the mid-1970s, the citizens band radio craze had made the company incredibly profitable. At it’s peak, the company had 7,000 stores.

But as we all know, technology didn’t give us more free time. In fact, in 1979 the average American worker was on the job for 1687 hours a year. By 2007, that number had ballooned to 1868 hours – adding more than a month of extra work hours every year.

We can only speculate about what might have happened had Radio Shack focused on its origins when it jumped into the personal computer market in 1977 with the TRS-80. This was a time when computers were often assembled from kits, but Tandy chose to sell his pre-assembled in one box. Radio Shack had found success marketing to “do-it-yourselfers,” so why would they not continue to do so with their computers? It’s hard to say, but the TRS-80 is now barely a footnote in computing history, and marked the beginning of the decline for the corporation.

Over the next few decades, the company flailed about, expanding their product selections to focus more on consumer electronics and launching a mail-order catalog business. Their ability to solve a unique problem for their buyers continued to deteriorate, as there were plenty of other players in the consumer electronics space, and the Internet quickly made mail-order catalogs obsolete. Attempts to launch a “big box” electronics chain failed, and the company sold off the electronics manufacturers that made their house brands to focus on third-party products, with disastrous results.

By 2011, stock prices had fallen from $24.33 to $2.53 a share, and in January the company announced they were filing for bankruptcy.

Radio Shack is only one of many market leaders who lost their way as their vision came face-to-face with customer expectations. Similar failures to understand their target buyer and deliver on their specific needs have defeated behemoth companies like Unisys, Digital Equipment Corporation and countless others.

The changes that cause large, successful companies to fail are rarely sudden, which is why they are so easy to dismiss and also why they are so disturbing. Like Radio Shack, most companies have many opportunities to adjust their strategies to align with their buyers’ needs. Radio Shack might well have survived had they maintained their focus on their audience of electronics hobbyists and adjusted their strategies accordingly. Instead, they pursued a “me too” strategy that stripped them of their purpose, steadily reducing their unique product offerings to sell mobile phones and consumer gear that could be purchased anywhere. The hobbyists went elsewhere, and in the end, Radio Shack couldn’t serve any buyer better than some other store could.

It’s too late for Radio Shack, but it doesn’t have to be too late for your company. If you’re developing strategies without understanding your customer’s expectations, consider the possibility that you might be missing facts that will be retold in a story like this.

And beware of the online tools that help you build buyer personas without interviewing real buyers. As the people at Radio Shack can attest, it is incredibly dangerous to recycle your internal mis-perceptions into a new template and rely on your own hopes and vision.

Financial Management, Finance

  • Category:- Financial Management
  • Reference No.:- M92862004

Have any Question?


Related Questions in Financial Management

Assignment problems1 on the day harry was born his parents

Assignment Problems 1. On the day Harry was born, his parents put $1600 into an investment account that promises to pay a fixed interest rate of 5 percent per year. How much money will Harry have in this account when he ...

1 activities of a company that require the spending of cash

1) Activities of a company that require the spending of cash are known as: A) Uses of cash. B) Cash on hand. C) Cash receipts. D) Sources of cash. E) Cash collections. 2) Relationships determined from a firm's financial ...

Module discussion forumto prepare for this discussion

Module : Discussion Forum To prepare for this discussion, review "Basics of Speechwriting" and "Basics of Giving a Speech" in textbook Chapter 15. Then watch this video of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs giving the 2005 ...

Launching a new product linefor this portfolio project

Launching a New Product Line For this Portfolio Project Option, you will act as an employee in a large company that develops and distributes men's and women's personal care products. The company has developed a new produ ...

Question 1 discuss valuing bonds and how interest rates

Question : 1) Discuss valuing bonds and how interest rates affect their value. Also consider the importance of the yield-to-maturity (YTM). 2) Discuss common stocks and preferred stocks. Also, which common stock valuatio ...

Introductionlast week you determined the root causes of the

Introduction Last week, you determined the root cause(s) of the problem you are trying to resolve for your final paper. As a reminder, the decision you are working on is the one that you selected in week two. This week, ...

You have owned and operated a successful brick-and-mortar

You have owned and operated a successful brick-and-mortar business for several years. Due to increased competition from other retailers, you have decided to expand your operations to sell your products via the Internet. ...

You will be conducting an interview with a market research

You will be conducting an interview with a market research professional or a company representative. Use the results of your research to make specific recommendations on how market research can be applied to the Marketpl ...

Question 1 what is marketing research what are the two

Question 1: What is marketing research? What are the two primary types of research? Question 2: What factors influence marketing research? Question 3: The role of statistics in business decision-making? Assignment : Sele ...

Chapter 74 for commercial banks what is meant by a managed

Chapter 7 4. For commercial banks, what is meant by a managed liability? What role do liquid assets play on the balance sheet of commercial banks? What role do money market instruments play in the asset and liability man ...

  • 4,153,160 Questions Asked
  • 13,132 Experts
  • 2,558,936 Questions Answered

Ask Experts for help!!

Looking for Assignment Help?

Start excelling in your Courses, Get help with Assignment

Write us your full requirement for evaluation and you will receive response within 20 minutes turnaround time.

Ask Now Help with Problems, Get a Best Answer

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps even

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps, even when the institution is exposed to significant interest rate

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and coupon bonds. Under what conditions will a coupon bond sell at a p

Compute the present value of an annuity of 880 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 880 per year for 16 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As

Compute the present value of an 1150 payment made in ten

Compute the present value of an $1,150 payment made in ten years when the discount rate is 12 percent. (Do not round int

Compute the present value of an annuity of 699 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 699 per year for 19 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As