In April, 2012, as Spring brought the thaw from Winter to Danbury, CT, Ethan Allen’s Chairman and CEO Farooq Kathwari pondered whether a thaw in the cold cold “Great Recession” in the American economy would follow. Over the course of the recession, Ethan Allen (EA) had suffered from a substantial reduction in annual revenues from over $1 billion in 2006 to under $700 million in the 2011. But the firm had also taken a number of steps to position itself to rebound when the economy recovered. Kathwari was confident the firm was now a more focused operation and prepared to reach its goal of doubling revenues (although a firm time frame to reach the goal had not yet been articulated). There were a number of new initiatives underway at Ethan Allen including an Express delivery program and a foray into e-commerce. Kathwari would still need to make difficult decisions about whether to broaden the firm’s target customers, how the product mix might evolve and how e-commerce could fit into the company’s future.
As the 2012 Big 10+ Case, Ethan Allen hosted the student teams for a private tour of their Easton store location as well as sent senior management to participate as judges in each round of the competition. VP of Finance & Treasurer, Dave Callen also participated in an hour long Q&A session with the participating teams to provide insight into the daily operations of EA.