Maytag Case Analysis
Case Nineteen: Maytag Corporation 2002: Focus on North America
In the beginning, Maytag was extremely competitive and popular. The company made its mark as the high quality, high price home laundry appliance maker. They were successful with making themselves leader in washing machines. As time passed, Maytag began to lose their competitive advantage. Maytag was slow to develop new innovations and models which cost the company to lose its leadership of the industry. This loss was very hard to recover from due to new competitors beginning to arise in this industry. At the Maytag shareholders' meeting held on May 9, 2002, many shareholders were anticipating an interesting meeting. There were many questions that needed to be answered and Ralph Hake would be the one to answer the questions and ease the shareholders' mind. Ralph Hake, Chair and CEO of Maytag Corporation, made his speech and voiced two goals. These goals were to return the corporation to the historic earnings levels under Leonard Hadley and exceed those earnings. These goals would take the effort of everyone within the Maytag Corporation to make this possible. His speech spoke of problems that the company had encountered and was addressing. They were not going to let the company lose anymore customers or market share. Does Maytag Corporation have what it takes to succeed in this increasingly competitive industry? Is this a good time to buy or to sell Maytag stock? This was is the mind of one shareholder who seems to have doubts in the company. These doubts were spurred due to the fluctuating profits, market share, and stock prices over the past years. Stock prices was at a high of $70 in mid 1999 but dropped to under $30 during the fourth quarter of 2000. Currently the stock was selling at $46.07. This fluctuation had the shareholder worried. These changes over the years were due to many things. Maytag tried to become an international competitor, but it was not as
In the beginning, Maytag was extremely competitive and popular. The company made its mark as the high quality, high price home laundry appliance maker. They were successful with making themselves leader in washing machines. As time passed, Maytag began to lose their competitive advantage. Maytag was slow to develop new innovations and models which cost the company to lose its leadership of the industry. This loss was very hard to recover from due to new competitors beginning to arise in this industry. At the Maytag shareholders' meeting held on May 9, 2002, many shareholders were anticipating an interesting meeting. There were many questions that needed to be answered and Ralph Hake would be the one to answer the questions and ease the shareholders' mind. Ralph Hake, Chair and CEO of Maytag Corporation, made his speech and voiced two goals. These goals were to return the corporation to the historic earnings levels under Leonard Hadley and exceed those earnings. These goals would take the effort of everyone within the Maytag Corporation to make this possible. His speech spoke of problems that the company had encountered and was addressing. They were not going to let the company lose anymore customers or market share. Does Maytag Corporation have what it takes to succeed in this increasingly competitive industry? Is this a good time to buy or to sell Maytag stock? This was is the mind of one shareholder who seems to have doubts in the company. These doubts were spurred due to the fluctuating profits, market share, and stock prices over the past years. Stock prices was at a high of $70 in mid 1999 but dropped to under $30 during the fourth quarter of 2000. Currently the stock was selling at $46.07. This fluctuation had the shareholder worried. These changes over the years were due to many things. Maytag tried to become an international competitor, but it was not as