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Case Study

Bally S.A.: From core competencies to exceeding customer expectations

By Sandra Vandermerwe, Michael D. Oliff, Michael J. Stanford and Helen Bauer

16 pages

June 1994

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Reference: IMD-3-0559

In mid-1993, CEO Stefano Ferro and his newly appointed top management team were struggling to devise a strategy that would transform the conservative Swiss shoe retailer, burdened with an image that failed to capture the imagination of the growing population of young affluent consumers, into a quick and flexible company based on the concept of exceeding customer expectations. To achieve this, Ferro called a meeting of his management group to discuss the forthcoming transformation in the retailing industry, to assess Bally’s strengths, and to judge the ability of the company to cope with evolutionary changes. The questions on everyone’s mind: How could the company achieve a market position that its competitors feared and customers valued? What set of new competencies would the company need to exceed its customers’ expectations?

Keywords

Retail, Wholesale, Manufacturing, Structural Change, Transformation, Footwear, Clothing

Settings

Europe, Switzerland
1993

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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