Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy brand names. There are four brand names included in Gap: Gap, GapKids, BabyGap, and GapBody. There are worldwide Gap headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, product development offices in New York City and distribution operations and offices coordinating sourcing activities around the globe (www.gapataglance.com).
Today there are more than 4,200 stores worldwide in operation by Gap Inc. If you are out of the country and want to shop Gap Inc., there are five countries outside of the United States: Canada, France, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. Banana Republic and Old Navy are only located in the United States and Canada. Gap Inc. employs about 165,000 people (www.gapataglance.com).
You can receive your product within seven to ten days or you can receive overnight shipping (www.gap.com).
The President and CEO of Gap Inc. is Paul Pessler (www.gapataglance.com).
Donald and Doris Fisher founded Gap Inc. in 1969, in San Francisco, California. Gap Inc. was originally a single store with only a handful of employees. They opened their jeans-only store the Gap, after “the generation gap,” and concentrated on selling Levi’s jeans. The Fisher’s were focusing mainly on the teenage generation, and they continued expanding throughout the 1970’s, and began making their own private-label clothing and accessories in 1974. The Fisher family hired a man by the name of Millard “Mickey” Drexler, in 1983. At the time when he joined the team, the Gap was “an undistinguished apparel chain” with sales over $480 million. He helped them make several profitable transactions (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
The Essay on The Gap Company Navy Stores
The Gap Inc. When I first thought bout what company I would like to research, I look down and fixed the collar on my shirt. Then it dawned on me that since I love fashion, I could do it on the gap. Who had the power (and the clothes) to make the NYSE take its first casual Friday The Gap - the ubiquitous clothing retailer that runs over 3, 300 stores, mostly in the US, but also in Canada, France, ...
The purchase of Banana Republic in 1983, only led to Gap furthering their expansion. The company continued to grow in the 80’s and 90’s. GapKids started in 1985, BabyGap in 1990, and opening its first stores in Canada and UK. In 1993, Old Navy Clothing Co. was marketed. The new chain was known for being ultra-hip and having low cost clothing. This new company brought in $1 billion in less than four years. This was a first for the industry. The peak of Gap’s success was in 2000, when the shares were selling at a high in February 2000 at $54 and revenues were also at their peak (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
Industry competition and its strategy to differentiate itself from “imitators,” Gap began to sell trendier items like leather jeans and sequin shirts. The attempt to appeal to the younger, trendier, “Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera” led market analysts to criticize the Gap because they had lost their identity. The company reported an $8 million loss, in 2001, this being “the most difficult year ever” (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
Gap’s primary competitors are Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, and J Crew. A&F sells men’s, women’s, and kids’ casual clothes and accessories, but they really target the college students. J Crew sells classic-styled jeans, khakis, and other basic items to young professionals through catalogs and websites. American Eagle Outfitters also sells casual apparel and accessories targeting men and women ages 16 to 34 (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
When it comes to advertising, Gap goes all out. In 1998 they spent more than $419 million on its ad campaigns. They got famous stars like L.L. Cool J and Aerosmith to star in their commercial. They target young people by getting popular people to be in their commercials wearing their clothing (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
Some strengths that Gap has are: they are worldwide, they are a modern clothing retailer (keeping up with trends), affordable according to income, and they specialize in more than just clothing for more than one age group. Old Navy has a wide variety of sizes, from a size zero to a size 20.
The Essay on Shares and Joint Stock Companies in the New Economic Model
Introduction Good morning, dear colleagues. I’m glad to see everyone here. Thank you for your coming. Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Elena Torlopova. I’m a freshman of the State University of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. I study at the department of the international economic relations. My aim for today’s presentation is to give you information about Shares ...
Gap and Banana Republic’s prices are very high and may not be affordable to all people. They have sweatshops that the children work in overseas. Due to the fact that Gap has so many different specialty stores like GapKids and BabyGap, it makes the company have more competitors, bring down the revenue, and for the future they may go out of business. The prices for those types of clothing are ridiculous. Who wants to buy their baby a fifty-dollar outfit? These are some of the weaknesses for Gap.
The major competitors of Gap are Abercrombie and Fitch, J Crew, and American Eagle Outfitters. These are huge threats to the company. Society is a threat because Gap is starting to stray away from their modern day jeans and casual wears to fit the view of how society should dress. Another example is the fact that there are so many different clothing department stores that you can’t really name distinct competitors. Other clothing stores such as JC Penney’s or Express are always a threat to Gap.
Gap has a lot of opportunities coming forth for them. They are trying to expand all three clothing stores into the rest of the world. They are trying to expand new product lines like maternity clothes and perfumes. Gap is also trying to expand their Internet business (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
Our financial assessment is on the attached sheets. The business is definitely profitable because the CEO is making $20,000 an hour. The overall outlook of the company seems like they will be making good progress. The original Gap has been around since 1969 and has been expanding ever since.
The investment potential of Gap is good. When we did the stock portfolio Gap Inc. was one of Emily’s stocks that she chose. Her rate of return for the period that we held the stocks was 12.96%. Every week the stock went up and she made $1.68 per share. She invested 25% of her stock portfolio in Gap and at the end of the month when it was time to turn in our stocks she made a total of $3,242.40. From the detailed statistics this stock would definitely be something good to invest in.
The Gap organization is a place where most people would like to work. The establishment makes a good amount of money and the pay is very good. The only problem is, is that they do make children work in sweatshops. People in Russian factories make 10 cents an hour and Asian women make less than a dollar a day working twelve-hour days, seven days a week. The president and CEO of Gap makes $20,000 an hour. Depending on how strong your morals are will depend on whether you are willing to work there or not. If you have strong moral values then you probably would not want to work at one of these clothing stores because they really do degrade people in foreign countries. If it really doesn’t bother you that people are working for nearly nothing then a job at this company would be great. They do give good benefits too.
The Essay on Downsizing Companies Employees People
Downsizing is framed within the context of removing or taking out employees witch are of much use to the company's work process, or their performance is not adequate. It is almost like upgrading your old pc, and taking out the old and obsolete parts. Many successful companies nowadays engage in downsizing as a purposeful and proactive strategy. Interestingly though, some studies have shown that ...
The plans and programs offered by Gap Inc.:
Health and Wellness
– Medical, Dental and Vision
– Health Care Flexible Spending Account
– Nurseline: A service that allows employees to speak with a registered nurse 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Peace of Mind
– Life Insurance
– Disability insurance
– Accidental death and dismemberment insurance
– Business travel accident insurance
A Helping Hand
– Employee Assistance Program: A confidential service that provides counseling resources to help employees and their families cope with personal problems. Also assists employees with referrals to childcare, eldercare, legal and financial resources.
– Home loans
– Moving and relocation assistance
– Travel assistance
Preparing for the Future
– 401 (k) Plan
– Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Self-Improvement and Career Pathing
– Tuition reimbursement
– Internal placement: Gap Inc. gives first priority to employees interested in transferring to other positions within the company to develop their careers.
– People Focus: An interactive Web site offering development resources, including training classes, leadership guides and management skills exercises.
Life Outside of Gap Inc.
– Paid time off: 20-35 paid days to use toward vacation, sickness or personal time in addition to seven paid holidays per year.
The Essay on How Do A Company Or An Organization Controls Risk
How do a company or an organization controls risk ? In what way can it protect its clients and even employees? There is a good and important step in any companys risk management. Careful screening of companys staff and volunteers is what needs to be done in order to minimize the risk and protect a company or an organization. One tool which can be used in this process is a background check. The ...
Family Time
– Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
– BabyLine pre-natal risk assessment service
– BabyGap for newborns and newly adopted children
– Adoption Assistance Reimbursement Program
– Phase Out/Phase Back program to assist new parents
Giving Back
– Gap Inc. employees are encouraged to take up to five hours a month of paid time of to volunteer with local organizations.
– For every fifteen hours of an employee’s time volunteered at a community organization, Gap Foundation will donate $150 to that organization.
– Gap Foundation matches-dollar for dollar-employee contributions to the charitable organizations of their choice.
Rewards & Recognition
– Gap Inc. has several bonus programs that reward eligible employees for individual performance and for supporting company goals.
– President’s Awards are given each year to outstanding employees who are nominated by their co-workers as the best of the best in their company.
Merchandise Discounts
– They offer generous employee discounts at Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy.
(www.esm.ucsb.edu).
The company does have an affiliated foundation. It was established in 1977. Gap Foundation is the charitable part of Gap Inc. The Foundation provides funding to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. The Foundation helps communities raise healthy, educated children. They support and encourage under-served youth (www.esm.ucsb.edu).
We as a group really didn’t understand the Foundation of Gap Inc. They say that the Foundation was formed to help with the funding of organizations for children. Why are they helping children in the United States but not over in other less fortunate countries. They have children working in horrible conditions in other countries and paying them next to nothing. Maybe they need to take away some of that money that the CEO makes every hour and give it to the less fortunate. This company is very two-faced and even though they have a Foundation to help people, they are hurting people even more.
Gap Inc. really doesn’t have that much room for improvement. They do use sweatshops and there are many protests due to that fact but other than that the company is in good standings. They are already a global company. Old Navy and Banana Republic could expand into other parts of the world besides the United States and Canada but Gap Inc. is already in different parts of the world. Their product lines are very sufficient and cater to the needs of many different people. Their financial situation is very good because if the CEO of the company is making $20,000 an hour then they must be doing something right.
The Term Paper on Diversity Management Employees Organization
Managing Workplace Diversity Index 1. Introduction Page 32. What is diversity? Page 43. What is Cultural diversity? Page 54. Can diversity be managed? Page 75. What is management of diversity? Page 106. Why does it matter? Page 107. Conclusion Page 118. Reference Page 12 Introduction As we enter the new phase of modern labor, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Employees now reflect ...
Gap Inc. is a very prosperous company. They do have some downfalls but that will happen with every company. The founders of this company were very lucky to have started such a great company. It has become one of the most prominent companies in America and is known internationally. Pretty good job for a couple that started off opening a company just to sell jeans!
