Internal Control and Home Improvement

Lowe’s began in 1921 in North Carolina by a man named Lucius Lowe. Lowe’s has been publicly held since around 1961. Lowe died in 1940 and the business was sold to his brother Jim Lowe. In 1943 Lucius Lowe’s son in law, H. Carl Buchan became partners with Jim Lowe. Around 1952 Buchan became the sole business owner when Jim Lowe died. Buchan seen the potential the business had and wanted to expand the

When companies target consumers who are uninformed, they feed lies to the consumer, tricking them into buying something that they didn't want or even need. An example is when fast-food restaurants advertise a humongous burger. A consumer is intrigued with the size of this burger.But when they eventually purchase this burger, they are unsatisfied with the comparison of the advertisement and the actual product.

Established as the older company of the two, Lowe’s ranks forty-second as a Fortune 500 company. Established in 1946 as a small hardware business, Lowe’s has grown into a 40,000 product, global market enterprise that consist of 1,710 stores nationwide expanding into the countries of Canada, Mexico and Australia (Lowe's Internal, 2010) Home Depot, founded in 1978, is the fastest growing retailer in the United States. Ranked twenty-ninth as a Fortune 500 company, Home Depot continues to remain the number one do-it-yourself retail store in America. These two companies may sell products of the same nature, but comparing their Code of Ethics is their way of setting themselves apart. (Home Depot Internal, 2009)

In the United States, The FTC (federal Trade Commission) has the authority to impose penalty against advertisers whom violate Federal Standards for truthful advertising. The FTC considers a message to be deceptive, if they include statements that are likely to mislead reasonable customers and the statements that are likely to mislead reasonable customers and the statements are an important part of purchasing decision. A failure to include important information are also considered deceptive. Also, the FTC also looks at so-called “implied claims,?” Claims that you don’t explicitly make but that can be inferred from what you do or don’t say.

Lowe’s is continuously being threatened by Home Depot in losing market shares. It is a constant battle; Lowe’s and Home Depot are expanding substantially in attempts to take over territory claimed by the other as well as unclaimed territory. The biggest weakness for Lowe’s is its lack of customer service. Customers are leaving Lowe’s in search of credible, knowledgeable service which is found at Home Depot.

The home improvement sector of the economy is large with two major players in the industry and with many smaller local and regional competitors. These two major competitors are Home Depot and Lowe’s. These two companies account for over $110 billion in total sales each year. Even though sales have gone down over the past few years due to the downturn in the economy they have not gone down nearly as much as home sales and this is due to more people deciding to do more home improvements to their own home then buying a new home. Both of these companies have been able to keep up sales and increase them year over year by improving current

Lowe’s Companies, Inc., is a $26.5 billion company that employs 122,000 people. It is the world’s second largest home improvement retailer and the 14th largest retailer in the United States as well as the 30th worldwide. Lowe’s owns 854 stores in 44 states and serves eight million do-it-yourself and commercial customers weekly. Headquartered in Wilkesboro, N.C., Lowe’s has been in business for 57 years and publicly held for 41 with stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LOW. The company offers products and services in home improvement, home décor, home maintenance, home repair and remodeling and lawn and garden.

Lowe’s home improvement stores were founded by veterans James Lowe and his brother-in-law, Carl Buchan, after both served in the U.S. Army during

Lowe’s is currently ranked number two in the Home Improvement Industry by revenues. In 20161, Lowe’s generated $ 65,017 million in revenues, which was an increase of 10.06% from the previous year.

Lowe’s Home Improvement is one of the two largest home improvement stores in the United States. The company initially began in 1946 in Willsboro, North Carolina, but has now become international, with stores in Mexico and Canada (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2015; Flavelle, 2007). The store initially began as a small hometown hardware store until a new owner envisioned a more focused product selection, home improvement, and eliminated wholesalers to deal with the product manufactures directly. While that narrow product line has continued to be the focus of the company you can now find over 40,000 products in the stores, the ability to order hundreds of thousands more through special order or a Lowe’s affiliate, and over 50 professional installation services available (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2015). As of 2014 the company had over 1,800 store and had revenues exceeding $56 million dollars (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2014).

Lowe 's is the world 's second largest home improvement retailer and the 14th largest retailer in the U.S. Lowe 's is in the midst of an aggressive expansion plan, opening a new store on average every three days. Lowe 's is an active supporter of the communities it serves. Through the Lowe 's Heroes volunteer programs and the Home Safety Council, it provides help to civic groups with public safety projects and share important home safety and fire prevention information with neighborhoods across the country. Lowe 's has been a publicly held company since October 10, 1961. Its stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares trading under the ticker symbol LOW.Lowe’s Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and Canada. The company provides a range of products and services for home decoration, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and property maintenance. It offers home improvement products in various categories, such as appliances, lumber, paint, flooring, building materials, millwork, lawn and landscape products, fashion plumbing, hardware, lighting, tools, seasonal living, rough plumbing, outdoor power equipment, cabinets and countertops, nursery, rough electrical, home environment, home organization, and windows and walls. The company’s products also include boards, panel products, irrigation pipes, vinyl sidings, and ladders. It serves

According to a company profile produced by Datamonitor, Lowe's is second in the market to Home Depot, has less sales per square foot than Home Depot, is not considered a to be a low-cost producer when compared to other stores in its class and risks saturating the market (Lowe's Companies, Inc., 2004). In order to combat these underlying causes of Lowe's problems, Lowe's will be focusing on various demographic trends (generational considerations), maintaining the quality of current store locations, opening up new stores, focusing on untapped markets and on expanding popular yet profitable product lines (Lowe's Companies, Inc., 2004).

The athletic shoes industry has been a very successful industry throughout the years. But with every successful industry there’s ethical problems that some companies create in the athletic shoes industry. That’s where the shoes company Skechers comes in. Skechers started a new campaign about their new shoe line up called Skechers Shape Ups. One of the campaign’s commercials has some ethical problems that violated one of the Standards of Practice of the AAAA which is, false or misleading statements or exaggerations, visual or verbal, that needs to be addressed to make sure that these ethical problems don’t happen again by the same company or other companies in the industry. Some might believe that the Skechers Shape Ups campaign

The most basic ethical concerns raised by advertising is sending consumers false information about a product or service as well as promoting a materialistic lifestyle that engages people, especially teens or young

As an external auditor employed by the International bank of Africa I will have to conduct an unbiased audit of the whole ERP system that the organisation runs its core banking activities. In this case the Temenos T24 Information system.