netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Leadership Style at Barnes & Noble : Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States,[4][5] operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered in 122 5th Avenue in lower Fifth Avenue in Lower Manhattan, New York City.[6] Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton Booksellers stores in malls until they announced the liquidation of the chain. The company is known for large, upscale retail outlets, many of which contain a café serving Starbucks Coffee, and for competitive discounting of bestsellers. Most stores also sell magazines, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, gifts, games, and music. Video games and related items were sold in the company's GameStop retail outlets until October 2004, when the division was spun off into an independent company. Barnes & Noble is also known for selling the Barnes & Noble Nook, as well as various incarnations of its mascot, a teddy bear named "Barnsie".
The company operates 717 stores (as of October 30, 2010) in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in addition to 637 college bookstores, which serve nearly 4 million students and 250,000 faculty members across the country.[7]
Having begun his career with brand management gigs at Seagram Universal and Guinness, Lynch has also held positions at HSNi, where he was executive vice-president for marketing and general manager of HSN.com, and at Palm, where he was a vice-president and general manager. From 2004 to 2008, he was CEO and co-founder of gifts.com. In March 2010, Barnes & Noble named Lynch its CEO. He had previously been president of Barnes & Noble’s online business.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that it has named William J. Lynch, Jr. as President of its online business, Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), effective February 2, 2009.
“He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”
Mr. Lynch joins Barnes & Noble from HSNi, where he was Executive Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of HSN.com. From 2004 to 2008, he was Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of gifts.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC.
“William brings a broad array of skills to Barnes & Noble,” said Steve Riggio, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”
From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Lynch was Vice President and General Manager, E-Commerce, for Palm Inc., where he oversaw Palm’s Web properties, including: Palm.com, the Palm Online Store, the Palm Software Connection and the Palm.Net wireless ISP. His earlier career included brand management positions at Seagram Universal and Guinness.
Mr. Lynch graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from the Columbia School of Business.
Barnes and Noble Pushes Books
Conceptual Application? by Rusty Korhonen
Barnes and Noble’s strategy is simple; capitalize on a customer demand for inexpensive books. This was a cost leadership and a differentiation strategy. Barnes and Noble identified a gap in the publishing industry, which primarily focused on blockbuster types of books and marquee authors that “rocketed to the best seller list” that the publishing industry in turn sold at a premium. These best sellers were not big profit sources for Barnes and Noble, in contrast Barnes and Noble identified, perhaps through its process of data mining and customer focused research, that its customers wanted less expensive books. Barnes and Noble hoped to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie; research showed that the number of households that purchased hardcover books actually declined and book sales dwindled throughout the industry. Barnes and Noble created a capability and possibly a core competency through its discovery of this demand and the intimate knowledge of its customer’s demands.
The cost leadership strategy consisted of publishing less expensive books that their customers demanded. By publishing these books internally they increase their profits. Differentiation was also prevalent in this strategy. Barnes and Noble focused outside of best seller categories, which account for only 3% of their sales, and thus they didn’t compete with their high profile publishers. This also allowed Barnes and Noble to retain the magnet of best selling books that attracted customers to their stores. The focus of publishing classics, atlases, illustrated coffee table books, and niche publishing markets such as out of print books, allowed Barnes and Noble to reconfigure new value and will eventually affect the share price.
Barnes and Noble’s strategy was sound and with the reallocation of resources should be poised to succeed. The conservative implementation of this strategy doesn’t commit all of Barnes and Noble’s resources at once and the success of the self published illustrated “coffee table” books points toward the success of this deeper venture into publishing. The mistakes made by Tommy Hilfiger Corp and Borders aren’t good comparisons because the venture of Barnes and Noble focuses on a market niche. Hyperion Robert Miller’s comments that “the niches Barnes & Noble is targeting will still leave room for general-interest publishers.” I agree with Mr. Miller’s assessment that Barnes and Noble’s move is savvy "since they don't pay a 50% markup [to a publisher], they can apply that advantage to price and still make more money than publishers selling the same Charles Dickens title." This makes solid business sense and the by not alienating the best selling publishers it stands to loose little.
Barnes and Noble also leveraged its buying power to force changes on the publishing industry. Some of its current supplier publishers are adapting to this demand as Stuart Dolgins aptly described his firm’s changes to accommodate Barnes and Noble’s demand, "we're competing against ourselves, but if I didn't do this
The company operates 717 stores (as of October 30, 2010) in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in addition to 637 college bookstores, which serve nearly 4 million students and 250,000 faculty members across the country.[7]
Having begun his career with brand management gigs at Seagram Universal and Guinness, Lynch has also held positions at HSNi, where he was executive vice-president for marketing and general manager of HSN.com, and at Palm, where he was a vice-president and general manager. From 2004 to 2008, he was CEO and co-founder of gifts.com. In March 2010, Barnes & Noble named Lynch its CEO. He had previously been president of Barnes & Noble’s online business.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that it has named William J. Lynch, Jr. as President of its online business, Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), effective February 2, 2009.
“He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”
Mr. Lynch joins Barnes & Noble from HSNi, where he was Executive Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of HSN.com. From 2004 to 2008, he was Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of gifts.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC.
“William brings a broad array of skills to Barnes & Noble,” said Steve Riggio, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”
From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Lynch was Vice President and General Manager, E-Commerce, for Palm Inc., where he oversaw Palm’s Web properties, including: Palm.com, the Palm Online Store, the Palm Software Connection and the Palm.Net wireless ISP. His earlier career included brand management positions at Seagram Universal and Guinness.
Mr. Lynch graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from the Columbia School of Business.
Barnes and Noble Pushes Books
Conceptual Application? by Rusty Korhonen
Barnes and Noble’s strategy is simple; capitalize on a customer demand for inexpensive books. This was a cost leadership and a differentiation strategy. Barnes and Noble identified a gap in the publishing industry, which primarily focused on blockbuster types of books and marquee authors that “rocketed to the best seller list” that the publishing industry in turn sold at a premium. These best sellers were not big profit sources for Barnes and Noble, in contrast Barnes and Noble identified, perhaps through its process of data mining and customer focused research, that its customers wanted less expensive books. Barnes and Noble hoped to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie; research showed that the number of households that purchased hardcover books actually declined and book sales dwindled throughout the industry. Barnes and Noble created a capability and possibly a core competency through its discovery of this demand and the intimate knowledge of its customer’s demands.
The cost leadership strategy consisted of publishing less expensive books that their customers demanded. By publishing these books internally they increase their profits. Differentiation was also prevalent in this strategy. Barnes and Noble focused outside of best seller categories, which account for only 3% of their sales, and thus they didn’t compete with their high profile publishers. This also allowed Barnes and Noble to retain the magnet of best selling books that attracted customers to their stores. The focus of publishing classics, atlases, illustrated coffee table books, and niche publishing markets such as out of print books, allowed Barnes and Noble to reconfigure new value and will eventually affect the share price.
Barnes and Noble’s strategy was sound and with the reallocation of resources should be poised to succeed. The conservative implementation of this strategy doesn’t commit all of Barnes and Noble’s resources at once and the success of the self published illustrated “coffee table” books points toward the success of this deeper venture into publishing. The mistakes made by Tommy Hilfiger Corp and Borders aren’t good comparisons because the venture of Barnes and Noble focuses on a market niche. Hyperion Robert Miller’s comments that “the niches Barnes & Noble is targeting will still leave room for general-interest publishers.” I agree with Mr. Miller’s assessment that Barnes and Noble’s move is savvy "since they don't pay a 50% markup [to a publisher], they can apply that advantage to price and still make more money than publishers selling the same Charles Dickens title." This makes solid business sense and the by not alienating the best selling publishers it stands to loose little.
Barnes and Noble also leveraged its buying power to force changes on the publishing industry. Some of its current supplier publishers are adapting to this demand as Stuart Dolgins aptly described his firm’s changes to accommodate Barnes and Noble’s demand, "we're competing against ourselves, but if I didn't do this
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