Business Challenges

Business Challenges

Becoming a CEO of a company whether it's big or small, is a huge task to take on, but can be the most rewarding depending on how your company does. Either way when going into such a job, in which you are so powerful, you have to think of each and every challenge that you come across within your job. Challenges that your company will face can vary in many different ways, from environmental issues, to social issues, economic issues, as well as many more

For my company, Staples, I have worked in the store since I was 15, going through quite a few managers. Luckily I got to meet people very high in the corporation, such as the president and vice president of the company, and I could see how stressful their jobs have been. As being the CEO of Staples there are many problems that can come into effect. First thing that comes to mind is competition. Our competitors Office Max, and Office Depot are our biggest threat in the office supply business. Our company holds about 1100 stores, while they have about 700 each, and each day they take away business from us. We have to fluctuate our prices with what's popular for that time of season, such as pens, notebooks and computers for back-to-school, and make sure our prices are more convenient for the customer.

The second dilemma that comes to mind is geography. Considering we have over 1000 locations, we have to figure out where the appropriate places for a new store would be. For instance if we only have 2 stores in Maine, we can't put them together, yet we need to put them in a somewhat populated place, that would be most convenient for the business customer. For us, globalization is not a very big problem considering that we only have one store in France, one in Germany, and two in Puerto Rico.

As for a third challenge is technology. Everything is becoming on-line, and on the Internet. Some people can't go out to the store everyday do but something they need, and each store can't carry every product. So as a CEO the best solution is to put them online so people can shop at home, and have the products shipped to their doorstep. Also by having staples.com available in store, if the store itself is out of a product, just order it.

As a CEO our fourth and probably most important challenge is keeping each store so that it can be most effective. For instance, in Staples,