Hello, my name is Kaitrin Polich, and the person I chose to do my research paper on is Martha Stewart. I researched her because I am interested in her and her work. I am interested in her because she is an incredible businesswoman who is very successful. Martha Stewart is an American media businesswoman. She is best known for her lifestyle brand consisting of television shows, cookware, cookbooks, and more.
Martha Stewart was born Martha Kostyra, on August 3, 1941, in Nutley, New Jersey. She was born the second of six children. At the age of 13, she started modeling. She appeared in fashion shows as well as print advertisements and television shows. While she was in high school she spent most of her time organizing birthday parties and babysitting.
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Martha Stewart attended Barnard College in Manhattan. While there she earned a degree in European and architectural history in 1962. While at Barnard, she met a Yale law student, Andy Stewart, and they got married in 1961. Six years later, after having their first child, Alexis, Martha Stewart went to work as a stockbroker for the boutique firm of Monness, Williams, and Sidel. She worked there until 1972, when their whole family moved to Westport, Connecticut, and remodeled a farmhouse.
After she restored the farmhouse, she decided to focus on cooking. She started a catering business in the late 1970s, after starting her catering business she soon became known for her menus. Within only ten years her business became very popular and well known.
She then published her first book called Entertaining. Her book became a bestseller. She then published cookbooks and planning books. Along with her fame came a divorce. Her marriage to Andy ended in 1990. In 1991 she released her first magazine, Martha Stewart Living. Stewart's lifestyle empire soon grew to include two magazines, a checkout-size recipe publication, a popular cable television show, a syndicated newspaper column, a series of how-to books, a radio show, an Internet site, and $763 million in annual retail sales.
Martha Stewart made financial headlines, in June of 2002, this time for rumors of insider trading. Stewart was under investigation for selling hundreds of shares of ImClone Systems just prior to the Food and Drug Administration's refusal to approve the company's new cancer drug. The value of the stock dropped markedly after the FDA's announcement. Due to the investigation, Stewart resigned from the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange in October, just four months after she had joined. In June 2003, a 41-page indictment charged Stewart with securities fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and making false statements to prosecutors and the FBI. She pleaded innocent to all charges and stepped down as chair and CEO of her Omnimedia empire. In February 2004, a judge dismissed the securities fraud charge, but a jury found her guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements. Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and fined $30,000 that July. She served the first part of her sentence at a minimum-security prison in Alderson, West Virginia, in October 2004.
Martha Stewart was released from prison on March 4, 2005, just after NBC announced she would host two new shows. Her shows were a daytime talk and how-to show. Stewart finished her sentence by serving five months of house arrest at her home in Bedford, New York. Stewart continues to be a television presence, appearing as a judge on Chopped, Bakeaway Camp, and more. In the fall of 2010, she launched a new series on PBS called Martha Stewart's Cooking School. Which is still on the air today.
In conclusion, I chose Martha Stewart because she is a smart and successful woman. Martha Stewart is a formidable and extremely successful entrepreneur, who has built an entire product and media empire around her own image. Whilst she has been undoubtedly successful in her various pursuits, recent events bring to the forefront the need for the company to make significant strategic changes. These include moving away from one-person-centered product lines and an organization built around the personal image, to one that embodies the ideals Ms. Stewart represents, and recasting the company's image in light of these changes so as to make it more competitive in the long term.
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