Clothes R Us

Case Analysis

By Group – 5
Sahith Anne (A002)
Dakor Gupta (A013)
Abhinav Reddy (A025)
Sabitra Rudra (A026)
Clothes R Us - Overview
 SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths Weaknesses
1. Strong reputation 1. Store office operations
2. Leading retailer between 1990-1997 2. Circuitous authorization methodology
3. Highly knowledgeable product 3. Outdated product line
managers 4. Flawed revenue growth strategy(failed
4. Nation-wide operations(42 states) to factor in key issues)

Negatives
Positives

Opportunities Threats
1. Leverage IT at store level
1. Gap Inc. ,Eddie Bauer , and Pluto
2. Optimize authorization process
2. Walmart in the low price segment
3. Improve Customer interaction- CRM
3. Depreciating gross margin
implementation
4. Dismal sales and attrition
4. International markets
5. Burgeoning debt
 What was the schedule and cost impact of the
first set back, the delay in the GUI sign-off?

▸ The first set back, the four week delay in the sign off of the GUI,
really has several implications.
▸ Financially, with a financial loss of $92,000 to $288,000 per
week, that four week delay had a huge financial impact on the
project.
▸ This set back left several different activities to hang and wait
until that sign off was obtained. GUI is a requirement that the
preceding activities require to be able to proceed.
 From Network diagram what events will be
impacted by each event?

Phase Delay in Weeks Reason for Delay Impacted

Phases
Requirements 4 Approval of GUI Design
Design 4 Attrition of Product Managers Code
Test 4 Incompatible OS Version Deployment
Deployment 4 WorldCom’s debacle -

Requirements – Architecture S/W, Architecture Data, Config Environment

Design – Architecture Design Always on Networks, Tech Mgmt. &
Operations
Test – Dev Training Environment, Production Environment
Deployment – Deploy Training, Deploy Store Systems
What is the earliest point the first two events could have
been detected? Did the first event show up at the point of
inflection

▸ The earliest the two events could have been detected would be during the Planning
phase.
▸ They could have reduced the delay by –
1) Incorporating a slack
2) Understanding the requirements of clerks
and store manager regarding the design of GUI

Point of Inflection – June

6
What are the impacts for the risk events of the overall program?
Low Number High Number

Severity Low impact High impact

Occurrence/Likeliness Not likely to occur Inevitable

Detection Very likely to be detected Not likely to be detected

SEVERITY X OCCURENCE X DETECTION = Risk Priority Number

7
What could be done to minimize future impacts

8
Recommendations