Staples is one of the most successful companies that have reached a tremendous success in a relatively short period of time. To a significant extent, the success of the company was determined by the functional-level strategies developed by its founder, Tom Steinberg.
First of all, it should be said that since the beginning of the functioning of the company, Tom Steinberg has focused on the increasing efficiency of the performance of the company. To put it more precisely, he attempted to optimize the functioning of the company through the strategy of minimizing costs and maintenance of the high quality of its products. It is important to underline that the focus of the company on the direct delivery also contributed consistently to the increasing efficiency of the performance of the company. On the one hand, it provided the possibility to sell and deliver products directly to customers, while, on the other hand, it had increased customers’ loyalty to the company.
At the same time, Tom Steinberg focused on the improvement of the internal operating efficiencies. This means that he attempted to maximize the productivity and effectiveness of work of each employee within the company that produced a positive impact on the development of the company at large.
However, Tom Steinberg as well as his company could hardly achieve positive results without leadership competencies of the CEO. In fact, Tom Steinberg proved to be a real leader of the company. In addition, he also has demonstrated his flexibility, which became the characteristic of the entire company, since Staples has managed to adapt to the changing business environment and benefit from it.
Thus, the focus on the efficiency and strong leadership became the main factors that determined the success of Staples and its functional-level strategies.