Walmart: A Case Study in Strategy Essay

Wal-Mart is a brand that is well known around the world, especially in the USA. It has gradually developed into the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart’s globalization efforts have been happening rapidly. But have they been successful in all aspects of their international expansion or not? This is the main thought that is going to be discussed in this essay. The questions I will be looking at are based on a case called “Wal-Mart takes on the world” from the book of International Business The Challenge of Global Competition eleventh edition – Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor, and McNett. Questions are the following:

1) Should Wal-Mart be expected to protect small businesses in the communities within which it operates?

Whether it's a brand new 59” LCD widescreen television or merely a pack of gum, each purchase you make from a Walmart store inadvertently results in a higher price paid; both within your community as well as the greater world around you. Relying entirely upon you-the ever consuming scavenger – to fuel the bustling utopia of the manufacturing industry, exists Walmart. More importantly, Walmart relies upon the oblivion towards matters outside of our own lives that we as society generally project. However, by looking past our own greed in a world full of price cuts and sales, we can expose Walmart for what it truly is; an entirely corrupt corporation feeding off of countries' vulnerabilities and reaping the benefits.

Yes, I do believe Wal-Mart is doing enough to become more sustainable. Wal-Mart is one of the most powerful companies internationally. As with all things that come with power, Wal-Mart’s business practices are scrutinized thoroughly. This includes their relationships with suppliers, employees, consumers, and the environment. In recent years, the environment has become such a big issue that Wal-Mart, as well as other companies have had to respond to this growing concern.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

Wal-Mart’s toughest competitor today is Amazon. Amazon is the world’s leading e-commerce retailing company. Amazon started as an online book merchant but quickly expanded into a host of other product categories. The company model sells, publish, market and advertise their products where the consumer can buy from the comfort of their own home. Most of which can be delivered within 48 hours. The company sells millions of products each and every day to its consumers. Unlike, Wal-Mart who sells just new products, Amazon sells brand new products along with used products from three parties. The model sells standard products by publishing and advertising goods on the internet. Amazon also sells and markets their own innovative technology such as the

From the beginning, Walmart did not have many threats. However, not only the competition is different, several global retailers such as Target, Carrefour, Costco, and Amazon, are working hard to keep efficiency. They are trying to work together to shrink the prices difference between them. Walmart has facing difficulties from every single angle. Not only the company has internal labor relation problems, but also it has some external threats from its competitors. The company must work hard to get possible solutions against its competitors, and to solve any internal problems regarding its labor relations. Even though Walmart does not have any problems

Consumers have access to company information such as financial searches, finding employment, emailing the company about problems, learning of any recalls of products sold, etc. WEAKNESSES Capital Market Stakeholders: ▪ Are global, but have a presence in only 14 countries worldwide. Some international business environments make it difficult to obtain the scale and results desired by Wal-Mart. They seek markets where there is a potential for that market to become a top three retailer. This opportunity did not exist in certain international markets, causing Wal-Mart to divest its operations. Product Market Stakeholders: ▪ Regardless of being the world’s largest grocery retailer and despite IT advantages, this could leave it weak in some areas due to the huge span of control. Since Wal-Mart sells products across many sectors, it may not have the flexibility of some of its more focused competitors. ▪ Has earned much negative publicity for strong arming tactics and squeezing suppliers of profit margins by threatening to take its business elsewhere. Opposition has been mounting against Wal-Mart and it is increasingly challenging for the company to expand at its current rate, both in the United States and abroad. This is due to opposition to Wal-Mart’s practices in regards to relationship issues with employees, communities, and governments. In the last few

Walmart is successful by following a cost leadership strategy. Their sales revenues were $375 billion in 2008 but their profit was

Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) were introduced in 1980 with the purpose of saving energy. They initially were very expensive and consumers were aware of many flaws that made them hesitant to purchase the bulbs and bring them into their homes. The positive effects of switching from alternative bulbs to CFLs were overshadowed by media attention highlighting the issues that remained unresolved. Wal-Mart pushed promotional programs in 2007 that were very successful. They introduced a private label at a lower price, offered online ordering, posititioned the products well, installed interactive displays and engaged with new partners to promote energy efficiency. In 2009 the CFLs were redesigned and

Assessment of Walmart five force models: Walmart is one of Target Corporation 's closest rival which needs to address the pressure imposed by the external environment factors. Walmart has a global presence and broader market compares to Target. According to Panmore Institute (2015), Walmart lacks in negotiating term with buyers and suppliers that need a long-term strategy for withstanding intense competition. Further, it needs to address withstanding a substitute from online retailers, the substitution, and a new entrant. All these factors do affect success rate of Walmart and Porter Five Forces external factors analysis on the retail industry, makes it clear for long-term viability, and it needs to develop gradually. The competitive advantage strategy of the Walmart needa to continue since the strategy addresses the concerns on its rivals and any threat of new entrants. Being one of the largest employers, any investment or improvements in its human resource become competitive advantages. Walmart also has very strong technology that can be enhanced to automate its global supply chain, distribution and other internal processes (Panmore Institute, 2015). --

Wal-Mart’s primary competition in US includes department stores of the likes of Target and Kmart. Costco offers competition to Sam Club format of Wal-Mart. In niche small markets, dollar stores are offering strong competition to Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, now it is branded as Walmart is the world largest public multinational corporation by revenue in 2010, which runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores worldwide. Walmart focuses on the improvement of sales, constant reducing costs to offer goods at the best price, the adaptation of efficient distribution and logistics management systems to ensure the constant flow of the goods and the use of innovative IT and systems to accurate efficient operating processes.

We would like to show our gratitude to Resp. Prof. Mr. Sham Sharma, for providing us with the golden opportunity to prepare an intellectual report, on Distribution & Logistics Management of “wal-mart”.

3. Truly offering customers the lowest prices which translates the company’s goal’ save money, live better’