Word: gap
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When the retail world's bright lights gathered Jan. 15 at investment bank Financo's annual dinner in New York City (a can't -miss annual event for the apparel crowd), the gossips, according to Fortune.com, had one juicy no-show to chatter about: Where was Gap CEO Paul Pressler? Fashion insiders had been numbering Pressler's days for months. And sure enough, after nearly two years of limping sales and yet another holiday season in which the Gap's big idea (more hoodies?) drew yawns from shoppers, Pressler agreed a few days later to step down...
...departure--"a mutual agreement between him and the board," according to a Gap spokesperson--marks a low point in the history of a brand that not so long ago epitomized smart, affordable fashion. Named for "the gap in the market it hoped to fill," the Gap had something for everyone. You got your khakis there; your grandmother got her cardigans; Sharon Stone got her outfit for the Oscars. So what went wrong...
Perhaps it was just too much of a good thing. When Pressler joined Gap as CEO in 2002, he took over the reins of an unwieldy empire, home to the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic brands. The kingdom had become so enormous--$16.3 billion in sales at its peak, with 2,994 stores--that the only way for Gap to keep growing was to push clothes with broad appeal that could sell millions and millions of units. But once everyone had bought a pair of khakis, a white button-down and a few pocket Ts, what next? Pressler...
...credit, Pressler did rid the company of most of the $3.2 billion debt he had inherited by tightening inventory, closing underperforming stores and managing the supply chain more efficiently. And while Gap's stock still lags its competitors', the company's shares rose 66% on Pressler's watch. "Under his leadership, the company has meaningfully improved its operations, strengthened its balance sheet, greatly enhanced its online presence and improved our standing as a global corporate citizen," Robert Fisher, son of Gap's founders, told TIME in an e-mail...
...been playing catch-up with places such as China, which used SEZs to kick-start its own incredible economic expansion almost three decades ago. India attracts barely 10% of the foreign direct investment figure for China (although the two count investment in different ways), and wants to close the gap as rapidly as possible. Early last year, the Congress-led government passed a new SEZ law designed to speed up India's economy, in particular its manufacturing sector, by offering further incentives to prospective investors. Since then, hundreds of companies have applied to set up SEZs, with the government...