Question: On June 23, 2006, Federated Department Stores Inc. announced a deal to sell its Lord & Taylor department chain of stores to the property investment group NRDC Equity Partners LLC. (NRDC is a partnership between Apollo Real Estate Advisors L.P. and National Realty & Development Corp.)
Prepare an executive summary for the board of directors of NRDC with your suggestions on the future direction of Lord & Taylor's retailing strategy. At a minimum, include the following in your analysis:
1. Retailing strategy for Lord & Taylor that addresses both uncontrollable and controllable factors
2. Strategy to include direct marketing with details
3. Short- and long-term factors that need to be considered when developing a forecast model for the apparel retail industry