Word: retailing
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Music isn't the only formerly flush - now flagging - industry out there (hello automobiles, journalism, finance, retail, publishing, etc.), but it might be the most stubbornly responsible for its own demise. As Steve Knopper writes in Appetite for Self-Destruction, his chronicle of the music business' downfall, it's not as if record labels hadn't seen this sort of thing before. In the early 80's, the industry. hurting from the collapse of disco, was saved by the advent of compact discs, which prompted fans everywhere to repurchase crisp, digital copies of albums they already owned on tape...
...brand equity. It was a nonsensical way of saying that having a company's name on hundreds of buildings and sports stadiums made customers more comfortable being customers. Decades of advertising did that for Citi and B of A. The credit crisis has not entirely ruined those reputations. Citi retail customers in Italy probably don't worry about the hundred dollars they have in the big bank. It is simply very difficult to see how the "body of the brand" can be exhumed...
What can Inaugural buzz do for J. Crew's bottom line? Compared with most retailers, the company has stayed strong since the economic downturn began. "J. Crew continues to be one of the few retailers offering differentiated and unique merchandise to customers," analyst Christine Chen wrote this month in a report for Needham and Co. CEO Mickey Drexler, ex-chief of the Gap, has jump-started the brand by revamping the quality of its merchandise. But the economic downturn has not left J. Crew unscathed - profits fell 6% through the first three quarters of fiscal 2008. "It's a huge...
...face of the struggling, bailout-needy Citigroup. The former CEO of Time Warner Inc. (TIME's parent company) became Citi's Chairman just days after the company announced an $8.3 billion fourth-quarter loss - its fifth quarterly loss in a row - and revealed that it would separate its retail banking business from the risky assets dragging it down. Citi may be taking on water faster than it can dump it out, but Parsons is no stranger to financial struggle. When he took over AOL Time Warner in 2003, the media conglomerate was $27 billion in debt and the Securities & Exchange...
...domestic innovation, and the leader was Walter Wriston. The bank's CEO from 1967 to 1984, Wriston changed the y in City to an i. After years of success, though, he left the bank with billions in bad loans to Latin America. Only profits generated by the U.S. retail-banking and credit-card juggernaut built by Wriston's protégé John Reed--combined with a certain amount of forbearance by bank regulators and a lot of cash from Saudi Arabia--enabled Citi to survive. Reed then agreed to a 1998 merger with Travelers Group, which necessitated congressional repeal...