www.springs.com

Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to the position of CEO. A priority on her agenda was to hone in on the company's information systems (IS) strategy and determine both the breadth of expenditures and the pace of innovation necessary for coming years. Springs Industries, Inc.-a $2.2 billion textile company headquartered in South Carolina,-produces home furnishings under such well-known brand names as Wamsutta and Springmaid and major licenses such as Disney, Liz at Home, and Bill Blass. Springs' customers, mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target, expected suppliers to keep inventories precisely tuned to consumers' purchasing trends. Many suppliers were developing sophisticated information technology (IT) systems for analyzing mega-retailers' point of sale (POS) data. To increase profitability, Springs had to quicken the pace of its application of new technology and sources of information to marketing, customer service, and inventory management. Bowles was navigating the 110-year old company through massive change as it entered a business environment where electronic commerce and marketing were key sources of competitive differentiation.