Executive Summary
1-2
1.0 Company Background
1.1 H&M History
1.2 Products, Strategy, Vision and Mission Statement
2-3
2.0 Strategy Planning
2.1 Establishment & Effectiveness of Vision, Mission and Goals
2.2 External Analysis 2.2.1 Opportunities 2.2.2 Threats
2.3 Internal Analysis 2.3.1 Strengths 2.3.2 Weaknesses
2.4 SWOT Analysis
2.5 Benchmarking
2.6 Hierarchy of strategy
2.7 BCG Matrix
4-9
3.0 Conclusion
3.1 Advice
3.2 Future Plan
Reference
History of H&M
H&M were established in Vasteras, Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson. World events and trends of monumental significance have occurred, since the little Swedish ready-to-wear chain developed into a multinational concern with stores in 18 different countries. When their store opened in Stockholm's kungsgatan, there was a queue one kilometer long and the traffic police were forced to intervene.
H&M stands for Hennes and Mauritz, it is a Public Limited Company, whereby all the stores are owned and solely run by H&M. Business forms such as joint ventures and franchising are therefore not possible. H&M are regarded as a high street fashion retailer, aimed at 'everybody' - and always with the best prices. They are recognised for inexpensive but trendy clothing. They currently have 901 stores located in 18 countries, employing 39,000 employees. The focus on foreign markets began with a store in Norway in 1964, and due to this inter? national status they currently occupy market share allover the world.
By 1961 H&M opened a store in Norway and by 1964 in Denmark, they were quick to keep up with changing trends. In 1974 H&M was listed on the stock exchange, and they opened stores in Europe. By the 1980's H&M began focusing on internationalization with a new managing director Stefan Persson. Stores were opened in Germany and the Netherlands and the share prices rose. H&M got their first in house designers with pupils hand-picked from the fashion and tailoring colleges in