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Walmart's corporate strategies
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Identify Wal-Mart’s corporate mission.
According to the Wal-Mart’s 2008 annual report from 22 Oct 2008, their mission statement is "We save people money so they can live better".
Identify what you believe the organization’s strategic mission is.
I believe in a strategic sense that Wal-Mart has chosen to make their stores the "one stop shop" for everything the common American household needs. To do this, they have developed strategically over the years by growing from their initial platform of "Wal-mart" (offering common retail merchandise at the lowest price available in a given area) to the stores they have today, which are all-inclusive supercenters that sell groceries, electronics, apparel, home improvement, pharmacy, automotive, and the list goes on. In doing so, they have strategically improved their economies of scale, which further improves their ability to be a low cost leader. Additionally, with a seemingly insurmountable foothold in the US market, they have expanded their strategy around the world to improve sales and buying power from suppliers. According to the text, while all of this financially based strategic maneuvering has been happening, they have also worked to improve the environment through waste reduction efforts, their image through revised pay and benefits to their associates, and their overall public perception through disaster relief efforts and revitalization of empty stores in underdeveloped areas of the country.
Have they changed their mission to meet changing needs?
While their mission hasn’t changed much over the years, they way they meet that mission has changed in my opinion. First, I remember the "buy America" push in its stores when I was younger. While I was too young to really understand what it meant, I see now how that strategy has changed in an effort to keep prices low; there are no more "buy America" signs in the stores, and their haven’t been in quite some time because, in order to be the low cost leader, they have to get their merchandise as cheaply as possible in order to "save people money so they can live better".
Additionally, their primary focus in the early years was to get stores everywhere they could to get their name out there and establish their market share. As I mentioned before, they have since expanded globally as a retail chain in an effort to expand influence and reduce the cost of goods sold. In doing so, they have attempted to improve the quality of the goods they sale to compete against Target, Kohl’s, and the like, which in effect furthers their mission of saving people money while also providing them value.
Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?
A prior market firm used by Wal-mart (GSD&M) warned Wal-mart of the public image issues they were facing and had not addressed, even though they had been advised of them for over two years. GSD&M wrote in one review to the company that “sadly, after two years of empty rhetoric and ineffective publicity stunts, we now know that Wal-Mart has not only needlessly hurt its Associates and their families, but has pointlessly hurt the image and success that Sam Walton built.” (wakeupWalMart.com, 2007). Wal-mart has acted in a manner that blends with the theory of egoism. This theory “sets as its goal the benefit, pleasure, or greatest good of the oneself alone.” (wofford.edu, 1997). “Egoist use personal advantage…as the standard for measuring an action’s rightness.” (Shaw, 2008, p. 45). Clearly Wal-mart today is acting with interests geared toward their personal advantage and not considering the wreckage it is leaving all around them.
Wal-Mart is, to some extent, a values-based corporation. The Wal-Mart Corporation takes a strong, direct stance on many issues. This can be seen in many items in which they refuse to sell, such as; music and games with explicit content, adult magazines, and the morning after pill. This shows character in the company because they are foregoing potential profits in order to enforce values that they believe in. Wal-Mart is probably making some people very happy by this moral stance that they have undertaken, and it gives a message to the public that Wal-Mart is not a heartless corporation like many others.
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Before Wal-mart, the trend in the American workplace was to internalize the cost of doing business. American companies tried to compete with everything from higher wages, to better health care benefits, to limiting the work-week to 40 hours. In its ruthless pursuit of cheaper products, Wal-mart has reversed the trend, by externalizes its costs anyway it can. These costs are first explicit in nature, by receiving tax breaks to operate in some cities or the tax dollars that Wal-mart employees utilize for health care/public assistance. The costs are implicit as well; these big box stores destroy local economies, are known as a bad neighbor and are also harmful to the environment.
and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages don 't even support those who aren 't trying to support a family. So who do they help? Walmart doesn 't provide adequate healthcare, the healthcare isn 't just for the family it is for everyone who would like good health. But while Walmart has its downs it also has a few pros, like their genius inventions such as the Telon, And their ingenuity have helped make and bring Walmart to the top. They have intelligently used their barcodes on products to bring about information, such as how many our soul, how many are expected to be sold, prices and even discounts. Then Walmart brilliantly patented the idea so if other competitors want to stay in the game, they have to buy this idea from Walmart just to keep up with Walmart. It 's pretty brilliant when you think about it. They also use a open price system where you are drawn into a department by the low prices they stick in front and you stay because you assume that other products in this department will have similar low prices, when in reality they might be more expensive than other
Walmart is one of the most successful franchises of all time and continues to take fire from multiple angles, whether it’s about the costing of jobs, the wages, the health insurance, the small business destruction, or the environmental impact, but can always back itself up by negating those claims with facts that proves that it is beneficial to the community.
There are several key competitive edges that keep Wal-Mart successfully maintaining its leading position in the industry. First of all, Wal-Mart’ multiple store formats allows Wal-Mart to extend their customer base. Since Wal-Mart opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, July 2 1962, it has extended its store number from 9 stores to a total 4,906 throughout the four types of store: (Discount stores, Supercenters, Sam’s club, and neighborhood markets) Wal-Mart is able to embrace more customers to fulfill all kinds of demand such as live supplies, groceries, pharmaceuticals, and entertainments. As a result, Wal-Mart’s sales and profit increase significantly. Backward expansion strategy is another key for its success. Unlike other retail stores, Wal-Mart opens its stores in small town first before entering into metropolitan area.
Walmart exclusively? It is a product of the times we live in and neither helps nor hinders. It's merely a part of a system of retail service that does exist and would exist with or without Walmart. The strange focus on places like Walmart but not Target or Home Depot or JCPenny or Kohl's always flabbergasts me. Like, because Walmart is the biggest, it's the guiltiest or something. Which is dumb. Nobody fucks workers like "softlines" retail. Walmart doesn't even come close.
Wal-Mart follows a lower cost competitive strategy and cost leadership. For Wal-Mart, strategic thinking is the process of continuously redefining its objectives. Competitive advantage over its competitors both actual and potential and management of risk to levels regarded as acceptable by the corporation’s main stakeholders.
Although Wal-Mart does not have a formal mission statement, listed below are their main components.
They continue to offer products that adhear to the organizations brand imagine while also adapting to the needs and wants of the consumers. However, Target is not achieving success in one part of their plan. Target is continuing to get consumer complaints on the quality of their clothing lines. Some comments are such as after one wash it looks like it they wear it for a month and others say their cloths rip within a couple uses. I personally experiences this issue with their shoe lines. The bottoms would tear within only a couple months, rather than if I got Nikes they last years. The argument could be made that you get what you paid for and that the low cost make this expectable, but Target should put more attention to identifying quality issues and figuring a way to adapt it to their lines without raising cost too high that it goes against the brand
Currently, Wal-Mart does not have a formal mission statement, but its main mission can be tied to its (3) basic beliefs which are Respect for the Individual, Service to Customer, and Strive for Excellence (www.walmartfacts.com). Thus, based on its core values and beliefs, Wal-Mart’s mission is focused on providing exceptional services and "everyday low prices" to its customers.
The benefits or competitive advantage Wal-Mart derived over the years from its supply chain management practices is also covered. The reason Wal-Mart is ahead of their competition is because they invest in technology in the 1980s. This investment paid off in the long run. Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communication systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country. They have set up own satellite communication in 1983. Employees at the stores have the ‘Magic Wand’ at hand. These barcode scanners allow you to check the prices of items at that particular store by scanned the barcode on the product. This is especially helpful when there is clearance that isn 't always marked and sometimes clearance items are cheaper than they
Wal-mart has a reputation for caring for its customers, of course their employees, and for the prospective public. So Wal-Mart can be an industrial leader for the world of shoppers with an eye for lower affordable prices, company decision makers would continue it's systematic strategies that it's founder and president established years ago. Sam Walton believed in three guiding principles in his strategy planning they were to provide the customer with good value and service, to have a good relationship with its associates, and to be involved with the community.