Shoe Carnival Strategy and Business Model

Executive Overview

Shoe Carnival is a U.S. family footwear retailer headquartered in Evansville, Indiana. Founded in 1978, the company built its business around off-mall stores that sell national footwear brands at accessible price points, with a value-oriented, event-driven shopping experience. Over time, it has evolved from a single-banner chain into a multi-banner platform that includes Shoe Carnival, Shoe Station, and Rogan’s. That matters strategically because the three banners let the company serve different geographies, income levels, and shopping missions while still leveraging centralized merchandising, vendor relationships, and retail operations.

Shoe Carnival competes in the fragmented specialty footwear market, where national brands, store convenience, local fit, and promotional discipline all matter. Its core categories include athletic, casual, dress, sandals, boots, and children’s footwear, plus accessories. The business is primarily U.S.-based and remains store-led, but management has also invested in e-commerce, customer relationship tools, and omnichannel capabilities. Public disclosures through 2024 show a company focused on market-share gains, disciplined inventory management, store productivity, and selective acquisitions. The most recently available annual revenue was about $1.2 billion in fiscal 2023, reflecting a sizable national platform but still leaving room for consolidation and regional expansion.

Shoe Carnival at a Glance

Logo
Common name	Shoe Carnival
Full legal name	Shoe Carnival, Inc.
Headquarters	Evansville, Indiana, United States
Ownership	Public company; widely held, with no controlling shareholder publicly disclosed
Ticker	SCVL
Exchange	NASDAQ
Market Cap	#N/A
Revenue (FY2024)	#N/A
Founding / major historical milestones	Founded in 1978; initial public offering in 1993; transformed from a single-banner retailer into a multi-banner platform with the 2021 acquisitions of Shoe Station and Rogan’s
Industry or industries	Specialty retail; family footwear retail; omnichannel consumer retail
Key products or services	Branded athletic, casual, dress, sandal, boot, and children’s footwear; footwear accessories; in-store and online retail
Geographic footprint	United States; nationwide store base with especially meaningful presence in the Midwest, South, Southeast, and upper Midwest
Business segments as officially reported	One reportable segment: family footwear retail, operated through multiple banners and digital channels
Company website	https://www.shoecarnival.com/

1. What Is the Strategy of Shoe Carnival?

Public filings and management commentary through 2024 suggest that Shoe Carnival’s strategy is to build a larger, more resilient family footwear platform rather than remain only a promotional legacy chain. The company’s strategy can be understood as combining branded footwear value, banner diversification, disciplined inventory management, and selective acquisitions to take share in a fragmented U.S. market.

1. 1a. What is the winning aspiration of Shoe Carnival?

   Shoe Carnival’s winning aspiration appears to be profitable market-share growth in family footwear. In practical terms, winning means becoming a larger national platform for branded footwear across multiple customer segments while protecting margins and cash generation. Management has consistently emphasized profitable growth, market-share gains, and long-term value creation rather than unit growth for its own sake. The acquisitions of Shoe Station and Rogan’s also indicate that Shoe Carnival wants to be viewed as a consolidator and banner manager, not just a single-format retailer.

2. 1b. Where does Shoe Carnival play?

   Shoe Carnival plays in U.S. family footwear retail. Its focus is branded athletic, casual, dress, seasonal, and children’s footwear sold directly to consumers through stores and digital channels. It does not try to compete across all of apparel retail; instead, it concentrates on footwear and related accessories. Within that space, it plays across several customer and geographic pockets: value-oriented suburban and small-market customers through the core Shoe Carnival banner, somewhat more affluent customers in the Southeast through Shoe Station, and upper Midwest family footwear customers through Rogan’s. The company’s physical footprint is predominantly off-mall, which positions it around convenience and neighborhood accessibility rather than destination mall traffic.

3. 1c. How does Shoe Carnival plan to win?

   Shoe Carnival plans to win by offering recognizable national brands at compelling price points in convenient local stores, supported by a promotional but disciplined retail model. Its advantage is not luxury exclusivity or lowest-cost private label; it is a combination of brand access, value positioning, family-oriented assortment, and localized convenience. The company also appears to be widening its playbook by using different banners for different customer economics. Shoe Station gives it a less promotion-dependent format with exposure to higher-income shoppers, while Rogan’s adds regional density and a strong service-oriented family footwear proposition. That banner portfolio helps Shoe Carnival compete more flexibly than a single-format chain could.

4. 1d. What capabilities must Shoe Carnival have in place?

   To execute this strategy, Shoe Carnival needs several capabilities that are more important than they might first appear in retail:

   • Vendor management and merchandising: securing assortments from major footwear brands, balancing athletic and casual demand, and maintaining the right size curves and seasonal depth.
   • Inventory planning and allocation: putting the right product in the right stores, keeping turns healthy, and avoiding margin-destructive markdowns.
   • Banner-specific operating know-how: preserving what makes Shoe Station and Rogan’s work while still capturing scale benefits.
   • Store real-estate judgment: choosing off-mall locations with good local demographics and traffic.
   • Omnichannel execution: linking store inventory, e-commerce, fulfillment, and customer communications.
   • M&A integration: absorbing acquired chains without breaking customer loyalty, store productivity, or vendor relationships.

5. 1e. What management systems does Shoe Carnival require?

   The company needs tight retail management systems rather than abstract strategic frameworks. That includes merchandise planning calendars, store-level productivity metrics, markdown controls, inventory-turn targets, labor scheduling discipline, and cash-focused capital allocation. Because Shoe Carnival sells branded goods in a competitive market, execution errors show up quickly in gross margin, clearance activity, and working capital. A multi-banner structure also requires systems that let management compare store economics across banners without forcing every concept into the same mold. Inference from public disclosures suggests that the company must continually balance centralized buying and financial discipline with decentralized brand and field execution.

2. What Are the Current Strategic Initiatives of Shoe Carnival?

Based on public disclosures through 2024, Shoe Carnival’s current strategic initiatives are relatively clear and practical:

• Expand the multi-banner platform. Shoe Carnival has been using Shoe Station and Rogan’s to broaden its customer reach beyond the legacy Shoe Carnival format. This is not just a branding exercise; it changes the company’s addressable market and lets it compete in regions and income bands that may respond differently to promotions and merchandising.
• Open, relocate, and optimize stores. Management has emphasized selective new stores, relocations, and fleet optimization. For a footwear retailer, this is a portfolio-quality initiative as much as a growth initiative: better boxes, better trade areas, and better banner fit can improve both sales productivity and margins.
• Use acquisitions as a strategic lever. After the 2021 transactions, M&A became an explicit part of the growth narrative. The company appears interested in regional family-footwear assets that can add density, local customer relationships, and complementary demographics.
• Improve merchandise mix. Public commentary has highlighted the importance of athletic footwear, casual trends, kids, and national-brand assortment. The underlying initiative is to carry the categories and brands that drive traffic while limiting overexposure to slow-moving or heavily markdown-dependent inventory.
• Build customer loyalty and omnichannel engagement. The company has continued to invest in digital commerce, customer data, targeted marketing, and omnichannel shopping capabilities. For Shoe Carnival, digital is not a separate business so much as a tool to increase convenience, frequency, and conversion.
• Protect margins through inventory and expense discipline. Retail margins in footwear can move quickly with promotions, freight, and clearance. Shoe Carnival has therefore put meaningful emphasis on planning, allocation, markdown discipline, and cost control.
• Preserve financial flexibility. The company has historically highlighted liquidity, shareholder returns, and disciplined capital deployment. That matters because a retailer with cash flexibility can act on acquisitions, store projects, and vendor opportunities when weaker competitors cannot.

3. What Is the Business Model of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival is a direct-to-consumer specialty retailer. Customers buy branded footwear and accessories through stores and online channels. The model is transactional rather than subscription-based, but it is still highly repeat-driven because footwear is a recurring purchase category for families.

• What customers actually buy: athletic shoes, casual shoes, dress shoes, sandals, boots, children’s footwear, and related accessories from national brands.
• Recurring or repeat-driven versus one-time: revenue is mostly repeat-driven. Families replace shoes seasonally; children outgrow sizes; school, sports, work, travel, and weather create recurring demand. Fashion or occasion purchases are more episodic, but the category overall supports repeat traffic.
• Revenue model: store and e-commerce transactions. There is no meaningful subscription layer; economics depend on unit sales, average ticket, mix, and markdown discipline.
• How pricing power works: pricing power is moderate rather than absolute because many of the products are branded and price-transparent. Shoe Carnival’s leverage comes from assortment, convenience, localized service, promotional cadence, and banner positioning more than from unique product IP.
• Why the business mix matters: banner mix, category mix, and customer mix matter materially. A banner that serves higher-income customers or carries a healthier mix of in-demand athletic product can support higher average selling prices and lower promotional intensity.
• What drives gross margin: vendor terms, merchandise mix, freight, shrink, markdowns, and clearance activity. In footwear retail, inventory mistakes usually show up in gross margin before they show up anywhere else.
• What drives operating margin and cash generation: store occupancy leverage, labor productivity, disciplined overhead, inventory turns, and working-capital management. Cash generation improves when the company buys well, turns inventory efficiently, and avoids excess markdowns.

4. What Products and/or Services Does Shoe Carnival Sell?

Shoe Carnival sells branded footwear first and foremost. It is not a broadline apparel retailer; footwear is the center of the customer proposition.

• Athletic footwear: typically one of the most strategically important categories because it drives traffic, brand relevance, and average ticket. Athletic demand also influences vendor relationships and allocation quality.
• Casual and comfort footwear: an important category for everyday wear and a meaningful source of family repeat purchases.
• Children’s footwear: strategically important because it brings families into stores repeatedly and supports back-to-school demand.
• Dress, seasonal, and occasion footwear: includes sandals, boots, and dress shoes. These categories are often more fashion- and weather-sensitive.
• Accessories: socks, hosiery, shoe-care items, and selected add-ons. Accessories are smaller than footwear in revenue terms but can help basket economics.
• Retail services: fitting, in-store assistance, local availability, and omnichannel fulfillment. These are not stand-alone service lines, but they are part of what customers buy when they choose a specialty retailer over a marketplace.

From a strategic perspective, the most important offerings are the categories and brands that drive repeat family traffic and support full-price sell-through. The newer growth story is less about a radically different product set and more about selling a similar category mix through banners with different local positioning and customer economics.

5. What Are the Key Competitors or Peers of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival faces direct competition from family footwear chains, athletic specialists, sporting-goods retailers, mass merchants, and online marketplaces. The competitive set varies by customer mission and local market.

Local independents and regional chains also matter in footwear because fit, service, and local brand loyalty remain relevant. That is one reason Shoe Carnival’s acquisition strategy can be attractive: regional banners often have stickier local customer relationships than national retailers expect.

6. What Is the Marketing Strategy of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival’s marketing strategy is built around value, branded product, and local shopping convenience. Historically, the core Shoe Carnival banner has used a lively promotional identity that reinforces the idea of getting well-known brands at compelling prices. That makes marketing a meaningful supporting capability, though not the sole differentiator.

• Promotional marketing: price events, seasonal campaigns, and deal-oriented messaging remain central, especially for the legacy Shoe Carnival banner.
• Loyalty and direct marketing: customer databases, targeted email, digital offers, and other retention tools help drive repeat purchases in a category with natural replacement cycles.
• Digital performance marketing: search, online merchandising, and site/app traffic generation support e-commerce and store research behavior.
• Vendor-supported marketing: branded footwear retail benefits from co-op support and product storytelling from key vendors, especially in athletic and trend categories.
• Localized store marketing: because the company operates neighborhood stores, local relevance still matters. Traffic depends not only on national campaigns but also on being top-of-mind in the surrounding trade area.

The banner portfolio also shapes marketing. Shoe Station is generally positioned less as a carnival-like promotional event and more as a strong local footwear destination with broader family appeal. That difference matters because it lets the company market more precisely by customer segment rather than forcing one message across the entire fleet.

7. What Are the Key Customer Segments of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival serves a broad consumer base, but several customer segments appear especially important:

• Value-oriented families: the classic Shoe Carnival customer is looking for recognized brands, acceptable price points, and the convenience of buying for multiple family members in one trip.
• Parents shopping for children: this is a strategically important segment because children’s sizing changes create natural repeat demand and strong back-to-school traffic.
• Athletic and casual footwear buyers: customers shopping for everyday sneakers, comfort footwear, and active lifestyles are a major demand driver.
• Higher-income suburban households: this segment is more important under the Shoe Station banner, which expands the company’s reach beyond its historical value-first base.
• Convenience-driven omnichannel shoppers: customers who browse online, check local inventory, and choose whichever fulfillment method is easiest.

The business is diversified across age and gender categories, which helps reduce reliance on any single fashion niche. The biggest concentration is not industry-specific, as in business-to-business companies; it is instead tied to the health of the U.S. consumer, family spending, and category demand for footwear.

8. What Is the Sales Model of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival uses a direct retail sales model. It sells to end customers through physical stores and its e-commerce channels rather than through wholesale intermediaries.

• Store-led sales: stores remain the core channel. The off-mall format is important because it supports convenience, family shopping, and local repeat visits.
• E-commerce: online sales extend assortment reach, support convenience, and capture customers who begin their shopping journey digitally.
• Omnichannel: digital and physical channels are designed to work together rather than operate as isolated businesses. For a footwear retailer, store inventory, local availability, and returns convenience can materially improve conversion.
• Banner-specific go-to-market: the company sells through multiple banners with different positioning, which affects merchandising, price perception, and customer acquisition economics.

This channel structure matters strategically. Stores create customer intimacy and immediate fulfillment; digital improves convenience and data capture; a banner portfolio broadens market coverage. It also creates consultant opportunities around store productivity, CRM, fulfillment economics, and real-estate decisions.

9. In What Geographies Does Shoe Carnival Operate?

Shoe Carnival is primarily a U.S. retailer. Its operations, stores, and customer base are concentrated domestically rather than globally.

• Headquarters: Evansville, Indiana.
• Store footprint: nationwide across the United States, with especially meaningful presence in the Midwest and South for the legacy Shoe Carnival banner, Southeastern density through Shoe Station, and upper Midwest presence through Rogan’s.
• Digital reach: e-commerce broadens access beyond immediate store trade areas but remains tied to a domestic fulfillment and customer base.
• Operational footprint: the company operates corporate, store, and distribution functions in support of the retail network; public disclosures indicate a primarily domestic infrastructure.

The domestic focus has two strategic implications. First, it avoids the complexity of international retail expansion. Second, it ties results more directly to U.S. consumer demand, domestic competition, and local real-estate economics.

10. Who Are the Owners of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival is a publicly traded company. Based on public filings available through 2024, ownership is broadly dispersed and no controlling shareholder has been publicly disclosed. The shareholder base is primarily institutional, with firms such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and Dimensional Fund Advisors commonly appearing among larger holders in public ownership filings. Directors and executives also own shares, but the company is not structured as a founder-controlled or dual-class entity.

11. How Is Shoe Carnival Organized?

Officially, Shoe Carnival reports one retail segment, but practically it is organized around multiple consumer-facing banners and centralized retail functions.

• Banners: Shoe Carnival, Shoe Station, and Rogan’s.
• Centralized functions: merchandising, finance, real estate, supply chain, digital, and corporate administration benefit from scale and shared capabilities.
• Field operations: store operations are inherently decentralized, with regional and store-level execution affecting service, labor productivity, and local assortment effectiveness.
• Management structure: the company needs to balance enterprise discipline with banner-specific positioning, especially after acquisitions.

This is an important distinction: legal segment reporting may be simple, but the real economics of the business are shaped by banner mix, store fleet quality, and category performance.

12. How Does Shoe Carnival Operate?

Shoe Carnival’s day-to-day operations follow the logic of branded specialty retail. It buys footwear from vendors, plans assortments by banner and season, allocates goods to stores and digital channels, sells through a store-led network, and manages markdowns tightly to protect margin.

1. Merchandise planning: teams forecast category demand, choose brand and style depth, and build seasonal assortments.
2. Sourcing and buying: the company purchases from branded footwear vendors, where access to in-demand product can be strategically important.
3. Allocation and replenishment: inventory is distributed to stores and online channels based on size curves, local demand, seasonality, and sell-through.
4. Store execution: associates drive selling, fitting, merchandising, and service. In footwear, store presentation and inventory accuracy matter because customers often shop by exact size and immediate need.
5. Omnichannel fulfillment: online orders, returns, and inventory visibility must be coordinated with the store network.
6. Markdown and clearance management: slow-moving inventory has to be cleared without letting promotions overwhelm the margin structure.

The biggest operational performance drivers are inventory accuracy, in-stock levels on important brands and sizes, labor productivity, and the ability to react quickly when fashion or seasonal demand shifts.

13. What Are the Growth Opportunities for Shoe Carnival?

Management’s public priorities and the structure of the market suggest several plausible growth opportunities for Shoe Carnival:

• Further expansion of Shoe Station: this appears to be one of the most attractive opportunities because it extends the company into trade areas and customer segments that can support higher average selling prices and a somewhat different promotional mix.
• Selective regional acquisitions: the family footwear market remains fragmented. Shoe Carnival can use acquisitions to add density, new banners, local customer relationships, and experienced store teams.
• Store portfolio optimization: relocations, remodels, and better site selection can raise productivity without requiring dramatic increases in overall square footage.
• Omnichannel and loyalty gains: improved personalization, customer retention, and digital convenience can lift purchase frequency and reduce wasted marketing spend.
• Merchandise mix improvement: winning share in athletic, kids, comfort, and other high-traffic categories can improve both sales and gross margin.
• Vendor relationship deepening: better access to key brands and launches can support traffic and reduce dependence on weaker product lines.
• Market-share capture from weaker channels: department stores and smaller independents have ceded share in many markets, creating openings for a well-capitalized specialist.

The main constraints are also clear: consumer spending pressure, promotional intensity, vendor allocation risk, freight and labor costs, and the challenge of integrating acquired banners without diluting what made them successful.

14. What Is the History of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival was founded in 1978 in Evansville, Indiana by David Russell. The company grew around an off-mall family footwear concept that combined national brands, value pricing, and an energetic in-store promotional atmosphere.

• 1978: founded in Evansville, Indiana.
• 1993: became a public company, giving it access to capital for broader expansion.
• 1990s-2010s: expanded the Shoe Carnival banner across multiple U.S. markets and built a recognizable family-footwear retail model.
• Digital era: added e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities as consumer shopping behavior evolved.
• 2021: acquired Shoe Station, a move that broadened the company’s reach into higher-income Southeastern markets and altered its long-term growth profile.
• 2021: acquired Rogan’s, adding a respected upper Midwest regional chain and reinforcing the company’s multi-banner strategy.

The key strategic change in Shoe Carnival’s history is that it has moved from being mainly a legacy chain operator to being a capital allocator and portfolio manager of family-footwear banners.

15. What Are the Key Suppliers to Shoe Carnival?

For Shoe Carnival, the most strategically important suppliers are branded footwear vendors rather than commodity manufacturers. Public assortments and company disclosures make clear that national brands are central to the customer value proposition.

• Branded footwear vendors: relationships with companies behind brands such as Nike, Skechers, Adidas, New Balance, Crocs, Birkenstock, Puma, and Hey Dude are strategically important because these brands often drive traffic and pricing realization.
• Accessory suppliers: socks, hosiery, insoles, and shoe-care vendors support basket-building and add-on sales.
• Logistics and freight partners: transportation providers matter because footwear is seasonal and delays can cause missed selling windows.
• Technology and commerce vendors: e-commerce, point-of-sale, marketing, analytics, and inventory systems are operationally important even though they are not visible on the sales floor.

Supplier structure matters because many major footwear brands manage distribution carefully. Access to the right product at the right time is a competitive advantage, and any deterioration in vendor relationships can affect sales, full-price sell-through, and brand credibility with consumers.

16. What Are the Key Brands Owned by Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival does not derive its customer appeal mainly from owned product brands. Its most important owned brands are retail banners. The merchandise brands on the shelf are largely third-party national labels.

Branding is strategically relevant here not because Shoe Carnival owns famous shoe labels, but because banner identity affects customer expectations, local marketing, store economics, and acquisition optionality.

17. How Does the Supply Chain of Shoe Carnival Function?

Shoe Carnival’s supply chain is the bridge between branded vendors and local consumer demand. In a footwear retailer, supply-chain quality shows up in in-stock levels, seasonal timing, and markdown outcomes.

• Sourcing flow: product is purchased from vendors and moved into distribution and store networks for sale across banners and digital channels.
• Seasonal planning: key buying periods align with back-to-school, holiday, spring/summer sandals, and cold-weather categories. Missing the season can destroy economics.
• Allocation: footwear requires careful size management. Demand is not only about style but also about having the right size curve in the right store.
• Replenishment and fulfillment: replenishment needs vary by category, while e-commerce adds order-picking, shipping, and returns complexity.
• Inventory risk management: too little inventory means lost sales; too much means markdowns. That trade-off is central to the company’s operating model.

Supply-chain reliability and flexibility matter strategically because Shoe Carnival sells a mix of fashion-sensitive and replacement-driven product. The company does not need the manufacturing complexity of a footwear producer, but it does need strong planning and logistics discipline to keep branded product available without overbuying.

18. What Is the Finance Strategy of Shoe Carnival?

Shoe Carnival’s finance strategy appears centered on balance-sheet flexibility, disciplined working capital, and capital allocation that supports both shareholder returns and strategic optionality.

• Maintain liquidity: footwear retail requires seasonal inventory investment and benefits from financial flexibility when acquisition opportunities arise.
• Protect profitability: finance discipline in this business means close control of markdowns, expense ratios, and inventory productivity, not just headline revenue growth.
• Invest selectively: capital is directed toward stores, technology, banner expansion, and integration where management believes returns are attractive.
• Return cash to shareholders: Shoe Carnival has historically used dividends and share repurchases as part of its capital-allocation toolkit.
• Keep M&A optionality: a healthy balance sheet supports the company’s ability to act as a selective consolidator in regional family footwear.

In other words, finance at Shoe Carnival is not just about preserving a conservative posture. It is a strategic enabler for acquisitions, store portfolio moves, and resilience during more promotional retail periods.

19. What Major Acquisitions Has Shoe Carnival Made?

Acquisitions have become an important part of Shoe Carnival’s strategic evolution, even though the company is not a serial roll-up in the most aggressive sense.

• Shoe Station (2021, closed): this acquisition expanded Shoe Carnival into a banner with different customer economics and strong Southeastern positioning. Strategically, it gave the company a growth vehicle beyond the legacy chain and broadened its addressable market.
• Rogan’s (2021, closed): Rogan’s added upper Midwest density, an established family-footwear concept, and local customer loyalty. It also strengthened Shoe Carnival’s multi-banner approach and regional diversification.

The broader lesson from these deals is that M&A at Shoe Carnival is about portfolio reshaping and capability expansion as much as scale. The company appears most likely to pursue regional banners that fit its operating model, add geographic density, or bring a differentiated local brand.

20. How Companies Like Shoe Carnival Leverage Independent Consultants through Umbrex

Umbrex has built a global community of more than 8,000 independent management consultants based in over 50 countries. These consultants are alumni of McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and other top firms. Companies like Shoe Carnival use Umbrex when they want that level of training and problem-solving skill without hiring a full consulting team with the associated overhead. For a retailer pursuing banner expansion, M&A, omnichannel improvement, and margin discipline, independent consultants can be especially useful on focused, high-value projects.

• Store portfolio strategy: evaluate which markets, trade areas, and store formats are best suited for Shoe Carnival, Shoe Station, or Rogan’s.
• M&A screening and due diligence: identify attractive regional footwear chains, assess strategic fit, and build synergy cases.
• Post-merger integration: create integration plans for banners, back-office functions, merchandising processes, and supply-chain networks while preserving local brand equity.
• Merchandising and category strategy: refine the mix across athletic, kids, seasonal, and comfort categories to improve sell-through and gross margin.
• Vendor and brand relationship strategy: support negotiations, vendor scorecards, and allocation planning for critical branded suppliers.
• Loyalty and CRM redesign: improve customer segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and personalized offers to raise repeat purchase frequency.
• Omnichannel economics improvement: optimize the roles of stores, e-commerce, and fulfillment methods to raise conversion and reduce cost-to-serve.
• Inventory planning and supply-chain optimization: improve forecasting, size-curve allocation, replenishment, and markdown management.
• Store labor productivity and field operations: redesign labor models, store operating routines, and district management rhythms.
• Capital allocation and performance dashboards: build practical tools to compare banner-level returns, prioritize investments, and track strategic initiatives.