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Headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, TJX Companies is a discount apparel and home fashfons retailer in the United States and abroad. The company owns T. J. Maxx, Marmaxx, Home Goods, TJX Canada, TJX Europe, and Sierra Trading Post. It operates about 1,100 T. J. Maxx stores, 950 Marshalls, 450 Home Goods, and 4 Sierra Trading Posts in the United States alone. TJX's annual sales of nearly $30 billion are up 50 percent over the past 6 years and company profits have tripled to over $2.1 billion. Scanned with CamScanner Regarding its corporate stratcgic planning and evaluating process, TJX is one of the most secte. tive of all pebblically held retailers. As discussed in this chapter, there afe numerous advantages and dixadvantages of being secretive rather than open in revealing corporate strategy. TJX's CEO, Cated Meyrowitz as well as her top executives, rarely give intervicws and never discuss corporate stralegy. TJX does not talk about its corporate strategy in part because rival firms are cager to learn this infice. mation in onder to deplicate, imitate, undernine, and replicate. However, recent research by Fortune reveals that "excellent inventory control" is a secret to the strategic success of TJX. including the following practices: 1. Turn imventory over quickly. According to Momingstar. TJX turns over imventory every 55 dayx, versus 85 days for its pecr proup. TJX is structured to buy quickly and sell merchandise. The conpany vhipped about 2 billion units to its stores in its 2014 fiseal year (which ended on Fehruary 1h. up from 1.6 billion in fiscal 2010 , Oftentimes, merchandise is sold before TJX has paid its vendors. Quick inventory tumover keeps new merchandise on the floor so customers rarely see the same items on repeat visits. TJX trains employees to "bay when you see it; otherwise it will be gone," 2. Provide "value, trendy merchandise," not "cheap, leftover merchandise." 3. Promote the "treasure hunt" experience rather than catering to lower-income customers. Even high-income customers love the treasure hunt experience in TJX stores. 4. Train buyers extensively and then give buyers autonomy to negotiate millions of dollars of purchases from suppliers. Purchase inventory year-round, continuously rather than seasonally, and purchase as close to the time of need as possible to negotiate a better price and be assured of the latest fashion trend. Negotiate low prices for purchases even if it means oftentimes purchasing "all available items in a category." Despite performing considerably better than it rival firms, TJX faces heightened competition in the off-price retail industry. For cxample, Nordstrom (JWN) is rapidly expanding its Rack stores, opening 27 off-price new stores in 2016. Macy's (M) opened four pilot off-price stores in fall 2015 , and Neiman Marcus, Saks, and Ross Stores (ROST) are boosting their presence is off-price retailing. 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of keeping the strategic-planning process secret vs. placing the firm's strategic plan on the corporate website and discussing strategies and planning publically? ( 2 main advantages and 2 main disadvantages) 2. Does type of industry even matter in keeping the strategic-planing process secret? 3. Rank order the four "secret" practices listed above in terms of how important you think the items are to TJX's overall success. Rank the four items from 1= most important to 4 = least important