Lululemon Athletica’s Product, Employees And Public Relations Issues Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

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Situation analysis:

Lululemon is well known for its success in making athletic products for men and women. The company was founded in 1998 by Wilson. Wilson came up with the idea of providing athletic wears for women and men to perform yoga. Wilson soon opened a clothing design studio in 1998 that also sold yoga apparel and offered yoga classes. In the year 2000 Wilson opened first real store.

lululemon case solution

The mission statement of the company is “creating components for people to live longer healthier and fun lives.” Many praised Wilson and his idea and the success of his idea can be evaluated by his net worth which is estimated to be $2.9 billion in March 2013. The success of Lululemon can be seen by the increase in its net revenues of more than $1 billion in 2012.

The company in the start was moving slowly and the company was growing is a positive attitude. The founders of the company were of the view that they provide their products to the people who wants to stay fit and live a better life.

The company following their mission statement also employed people who were yoga practitioners, but later on the company managed to hire people who used to run and were interested in performing yoga. The idea behind this was that the people practicing yoga were too slow to perform effectively so they hired people who run fast and have an interest in yoga.

Lululemon outsource the manufacturing of its products and it has about more than 50 manufacturers around the world but almost 60% of the supplies come from 5 primary suppliers. However the company does not have any long-term agreement with any of its suppliers, although there is a high risk of relying on a limited number of suppliers. The company is more focused on the women and preaches a healthy and a happy life.

The company in 2012 faced accelerated profits and experienced a rapid growth. The company opened 211 stores by the year 2013 and included more than 6000 employees to the company.

Public relations issues:

In the year 2013, the company experiences some public relations issues. The company entered into many conflicting issues as the statements quoted by the founder of the company like his statement about the Japanese people, child labor, plus-size customers, feminism and women’s bodies.

On many occasions the company faced bad publicity because of the company’s founder statements that were published in number of newspapers and magazines. His statement also got criticized on the social media as well.

Employee and Ambassador Relations:

Many of the employees of the company felt that there was a lack of motivation for them in the company. There were issues with the culture of the organization and the employees felt that their importance was not acknowledged. Wilson once stated that the yoga employees hired were too slow to perform effectively so the company shifted to hire employees who are runners and have interest in yoga so that they work fast and effectively for the company. Employees ranked the company at 3.3 at a scale of 5 which was very low and very discouraging for the management of the company.

Lululemon also launched a program of ambassadors comprising of the local and elite ambassadors. The local ambassadors of the company were not so satisfied with the company. This can be reflected by the two local ambassadors who cut ties with the company and shared their view on a blog which stated many issues and the main point of their statement was that the views of the company and their practices do not match with the principles of yoga.

Product quality and sourcing issues:

The company experienced some bad quality issues. This was reported that in 2013 the company produced a well-known brand of women pants which were actually see through and was not up to the quality levels of the company. The company estimated that the company has to either pay for about 17% of those pants or have to replace all of them.

The company investigated that the issue occurred because of the poor quality material used by the suppliers but the suppliers replied that the quality used was up to the standards but some how this happed.....................

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