Successful corporations in today’s business world must be able to employ different levels of planning in order to achieve goals put in place by senior management. Wal-Mart has many different levels of management planning in place to follow through on its goals and objectives. There are many factors that influence Wal-Mart’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. Although Wal-Mart has been a very successful corporation throughout its existence, it has had to absorb the impact of legal issues, ethics, and corporate responsibility in its management planning. In Wal-Mart’s strategic planning stage, they are highly regarded as visionaries. One thing that Wal-Mart prides themselves in is the fact that they develop …show more content…
Wal-Mart also has a green goal. It claims that their environmental goal is to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, to create zero waste and to sell products that sustain our natural resources and the environment(Wal-Mart website 2008).
Conclusion
Wal-Mart is certainly credited with changing the retail world as we know it with its low prices and big stores with huge selections but it has come at a price. They have struggled with issues that question the ethics as a company and legal issues that question how they manage people. These issues will continue to hurt their organization unless a complete change in management thinking and actions are changed. As a socially responsible organization, their management planning in this area is second to none. Lets hope they take the same effort in improving their image when it comes to ethics and legal issues.
References
Willing, R. (2001, August 13). Lawsuits a Volume Business at Wal-Mart. USA Today Retrieved April 28th, 2008 from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/08/14/walmart- usat.htm
Sustainability- Wal-Mart website(2008). Retrieved April 28th, 2008 from:
In terms of labor Wal-Mart ensures that the salaries its pays are typically above minimum wage, with regular semi-annual pay raises. Wal-Mart complies with all labor laws of the United States and has set the standard for many of its competitors. Walmart has also made many triumphs in striving to create zero waste, to operate with 100% renewable energy and sell products that sustain our resources and the environment. Walmart realized the effect the company was having globally which prompted them to continue to work with others to pursue improvements in economic, environmental and social outcomes. Walmart has realized that they can make a difference and work hard to create and be the difference. They have become the most trusted retailer
Wal-Mart is one of the top 10 largest corporations. Wal-Mart must predict what is needed and wanted in communities. Executives have to be able to see the needs like in Brazil. Wal-Mart has gone in and created social retailing school and provide skills and services in
One of the largest retailer in the United States is known to many of us as Wal-Mart; boasting over 3,500 domestic stores in the United States, with continued growth in their numbers…and about 1,300 locations in Canada, Mexico, the UK (only Western), Germany, Asia and South America (Mergent). Many of these stores include Supercenters, Sam’s Clubs, and smaller Neighborhood Market centers. Wal-Mart primary focus is on based on six strategic merchandise units: grocery, entertainment, hardlines, health and wellness, apparel, and items for the home (Mergent). Since the begininning of the company in 1962, Wal-Mart has skillful continued growth and prosperity. Its long standing history of profitability and prominence thoughout North America, are key indicators of its future success.
Walmart could improve their stores in several ways but “Walmart has committed to use their strengths to help others by addressing social and environmental issues in collaboration with customers, suppliers, governments, non-profits and other stakeholders.” (Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart foundation and sniper vise president of corporate affairs at Walmart). “We believe business exists to serve society. Our commitment to global responsibility goes beyond philanthropy- it is a whole company undertaking that is women into our day-to-day business activities, creating value for business and society” (Kathleen McLaughlin).
Many reports have been written documenting the economic and eventual social and environmental degradation which occurs when Wal-Mart “comes to town”.
Wal-Mart has faced many issues in the past while overcoming many of them throughout the years. It has dealt with issues of creating a systematic procedure that smoothes the transition process of goods all over the world to each of its locations, and it has had to face opposition from many competitive forces as well as push through internal control issues with labor unions.
According to Walmart Corporate (2011b) Wal-Mart as well believes in and observes the environmental conservation and provide the
As well, the world’s economy is not at its best moments, people become more preoccupied about price, and use this as the number one shopping criteria. On top, Wal-Mart has the ability to diversify their products and service offerings. They could add travel agencies, kindergartens, cleaning services, tax services and much more. Another good opportunity is to improve in the areas they were criticized before, such as employee benefits and medical coverage, employees’ wages and even environmental issues as pollution. Wal-Mart could also focus on its online sales, as it is becoming the new shopping trend. Many opportunities await this retailer in the future.
Wal-Mart’s environment consist of its culture, ethics, and social responsibility. The internal environment consist of factors that affect Wal-Mart from within the store. Wal-Mart’s mission statement is, “We save people money so they can live better.” (Farfan) Wal-Mart values their mission and objectives by continuously competing with competitors and keeping their prices low. With that being said, Wal-Mart’s first level of organizational is behavior. “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life”, is the purpose of the company. Wal-Mart has three beliefs respect for the individual, service to our customers, and striving for excellence.
In 2014, Walmart announced a new president and CEO, Doug McMillion. McMillion had the duty of taking over the world’s largest company in respect to revenue, $473 billion, and the world’s largest private employer, 2.2 million associates. As it turned out, under McMillion’s leadership, in 2015 Walmart experienced the first decline in its annual sales ever. Many people had predicted that Walmart’s better days had been behind them when McMillion became president. As a result of this decline in annual sales, people questioned whether or not Walmart could return to the usual type of growth in sales it had essentially earned every year since it’s founding in 1962. To answer this question, some possibly issues with the management and strategy of Walmart’s business needed to be looked at in depth. Some of these most important issues included: the recent increase in retail sales of the online market compared to the discount retailer market, the state of Walmart’s international business, and the lacking performance of Walmart’s Discount Store, SAM’s Clubs, and Neighborhood Markets compared to their Supercenters.
With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.
This section will examine Wal-Mart 's company strategy in several sections. Three elements of successful strategy formulation and a fourth element, which exemplifies the implementation process of company strategy, will be looked at. Followed by this, an analysis of key factors contributing to this strategy will be detailed. These include looking at Wal-Mart 's competitive strategy, the CEO 's leadership, and company strategy strengths and weakness assessment.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the largest retail company in the United States. Their corporate strategy is four parts: Dominance in the retail market, expansion in the U.S. and International markets, creation of positive brand and company recognition and branch out into new sectors of retail.
* In the past two decades Wal-Mart has been the leading domestic retailer. In 2002, Wal-Mart stood atop the Fortune 500 for the first time. Wal-Mart’s top ranking reflects the rise of retailing as one of the most important global industries, as well as the company’s individual excellence and consistent performance. In 2001 the company had higher sales than the next four largest global retailers combined. The sales differential against U.S. based retailers is even more pronounced, as Wal-Mart top line in 2001 was more than four times that of the second largest retailer Home Depot. Its primary success has come from its excellence in customer service, supply chain management, and ability
In today's world management must consider a wide variety of factors in order to establish an effective management plan. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest company and number one retailer, with this success a company this large needs to not only to look internally for solutions to their management objectives, they must also look outside of their business for additional resources. With the increase of technology and the easy access to virtually any information, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. must be prepared to react to the multitude of demands made by consumers and suppliers. The rapid change of the retail industry from brick and mortar stores to Internet purchases