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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Improving Store Liquidation

  Nathan Craig, Ananth Raman, Nathan Craig and Ananth Raman

  Store liquidation is the time-constrained divestment of retail outlets through an in-store sale of inventory. The retail industry depends extensively on store liquidation, not only as a means for investors to recover capital from failed ventures, but also to allow managers of going concerns to divest stores in efforts to enhance performance and to change strategy. Recent examples of entire chains being liquidated include Borders Group in 2012, Circuit City in 2009, and Linens 'n Things in 2008; the value of inventory sold during these liquidations alone is $3B. The store liquidation problem is related to but also differs substantially from the markdown optimization problem that has been studied extensively in the literature. This paper introduces the store liquidation problem to the literature and presents a technique for optimizing key decision variables, such as markdown, inventory, and store closing decisions during liquidations. We show that our approach could improve net recovery on cost (i.e., the profit obtained during liquidations stated as a percentage of the cost value of liquidated assets) by 2 to 7 percentage points in the cases we examined. The paper also identifies ways in which current practice in store liquidation differs from the optimal decisions identified in the paper and traces the consequences of these differences.

  Citation:

  Craig, Nathan, and Ananth Raman. "Improving Store Liquidation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–096, May 2013.

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Improving Store Liquidation

  Nathan Craig, Ananth Raman, Nathan Craig and Ananth Raman

  Store liquidation is the time-constrained divestment of retail outlets through an in-store sale of inventory. The retail industry depends extensively on store liquidation, not only as a means for investors to recover capital from failed ventures, but also to allow managers of going concerns to divest stores in efforts to enhance performance and to change strategy. Recent examples of entire chains being liquidated include Borders Group in 2012, Circuit City in 2009, and Linens 'n Things in 2008; the value of inventory sold during these liquidations alone is $3B. The store liquidation problem is related to but also differs substantially from the markdown optimization problem that has been studied extensively in the literature. This paper introduces the store liquidation problem to the literature and presents a technique for optimizing key decision variables, such as markdown, inventory, and store closing decisions during liquidations. We show that our approach could improve net recovery on cost (i.e., the profit obtained during liquidations stated as a percentage of the cost value of liquidated assets) by 2 to 7 percentage points in the cases we examined. The paper also identifies ways in which current practice in store liquidation differs from the optimal decisions identified in the paper and traces the consequences of these differences.

  Citation:

  Craig, Nathan, and Ananth Raman. "Improving Store Liquidation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–096, May 2013.

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2011 version)

  Cleveland Clinic: Improving the Patient Experience

  Ananth Raman and Anita L. Tucker

  Healthcare has traditionally focused on medical outcomes and financial performance. The big question is always, "How much is it going to cost?" What would happen, though, if healthcare also considered the question of "How does the patient feel?" This case looks at the Cleveland Clinic's attempt to answer the latter question by attempting to institutionalize empathy as part of its delivery of care.

  Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Improvement; Service Delivery; Value Creation; Personal Characteristics; Human Needs;

  Citation:

  Raman, Ananth, and Anita L. Tucker. "Cleveland Clinic: Improving the Patient Experience." Harvard Business School Case 612-031, February 2013. (Revised from original September 2011 version.)

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