Sichuan
Introduction
In terms of size, Sichuan is the fifth largest province to the southwest of China, and it has two distinct geographical parts. One part lies within the eastern part of the province and is largely characterized by a fertile area known as the Sichuan basin. The western part of the province is characterized by a highly mountainous geography. The eastern part is surrounded by a series of lower mountain ranges from the east, south, and north. The province has a competitive economy that matches that of fully declared countries in terms of GDP and per capita income. By 2008, the province had transacted more than US$ 22 billion in terms of foreign trade, translating into a yearly surge of 53.3%. While these figures are largely influenced by the China’s policy on foreign trade, the geography of the province has also had a substantive part to play in making its economy a success.
Over the years, Sichuan has had more stability in almost all of its affairs as opposed to the other parts of China. From a province that was once inaccessible due to a lack of transport connectivity to the rest of the country, Sichuan has emerged as one of the crucial players in the development of the economy of China. Major efforts have been focused on developing the infrastructure of the province, a process that has achieved great success. Currently, the province boasts of long lengths of highways and expressways extending to more than 110000 and 1500 kilometers respectively. However, the province still has some challenges in regard to the transportation of products and people mainly due to the highly mountainous terrain.
The province has a host of successful industries ranging from nuclear, bioengineering, stomatology, electronic infor...
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...search is the stability of the geographical boarders and administration of the province. This is an important factor for foreign investors like Wal-Mart, as it affects the stability of the operations of a business. Venturing into Sichuan would therefore, be a wise decision by Wal-Mart in respect of the evidence presented in this research. Having been a centre of investments from the international community and from local investors in other parts of China, Sichuan is the ideal location for any intended expansion of operations by Wal-Mart. As such, I would recommend that the company establishes a factory or a retail store in Sichuan as both stand to succeed in a very friendly geographical location that is Sichuan. The geography of the province comes with many added and associated benefits that would enable the conduct of business by Wal-Mart in the region.
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
Moving to Asia, Wal-Mart break with the Indian giant Bharti Group made them in charge of the wholesale business where foreign retailers may invest freely and left them with around 30 small operating stores in the country. Moreover, Wal-Mart is also targeting China with 400 stores, in an opportunity to increase their growth in sale. Trefis Team (2015)
Our decision is to invest in Wal-Mart. The choice for Wal-Mart is on the basis that their functional-level strategy is really robust, nevertheless of the fact that they do not treat their employees well. The fact remains that they are financially stronger, have a better business-level strategy, and have a corporate-level strategy than Costco. Costco v. Wal-Mart: What must we learn about them? Let start with Costco. Costco is Wholesale, Retail Corporation which operates an international chain of membership distribution centers that provides quality, brand name merchandise at noticeably more affordable rates than a conventional wholesale or retail sources. Costco 's warehouses display the largest and great product categories such as groceries, candy, appliances, television and media, automotive supplies, tires, toys, hardware, sporting goods, jewelry, watches, cameras, books, house wares, apparel, health and beauty aids, tobacco, furniture, office supplies and office
With Wal-Mart being so outrageously huge in this short of time, I believe that it has not yet settled into their customers why Wal-Mart is so cheap. Wal-Mart will replace higher wage jobs with lower wage jobs and require taxpayer assistance to keep Wal-Mart employees out of poverty. Numerous studies reveal that, contrary to the company's PR, Wal-Mart does not create new jobs when it comes to town. Wal-Mart simply replaces higher paying retail jobs with lower paying ones and, due to its adverse impact upon local businesses, may actually cause a net decrease in job numbers. The factories in China supply their employees with a whopping three dollar...
In the first part, we are going to take a closer look at China’s economy by analyzing its external trade relations within the region...
In 1978, China was positioned 32nd on the planet in export volume, yet it had multiplied its reality exchange and got thirteenth biggest exporter in 1989. Between 1978 and 1990, the normal yearly rate of exchange extension was over 15 percent,[11] and a high rate of development proceeded for the one decade from now. In 1978 its exported on the in the world of the overall industry was insignificant, in 1998 regardless it had short of what 2%, however by 2010, it had a world piece of the overall industry of 10.4% as stated by the World Trade Organization (WTO), with stock fare offers of more than $1.5 trillion, the most astounding in the world.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
By learning from its defeat in Germany, Walmart has been able to make progress in its strategy to expand into the Chinese market, which also has a substantially foreign political and cultural environment. Along with its financial capability, advanced supply chain management capability, and information technology capability, Walmart adapted its business strategy to align itself with the local taste. For example, Walmart sources about 95% products locally and hires Chinese citizens to manage its stores. Due to the heavy pollution and poor safety management, Chinese customers are concerned about the quality of products made in China. Walmart developed private label brands priced 10%-40% cheaper than national brands which positively impacts Chinese customers by providing them with high quality products and low prices. (2015, Wal-Mart And China: A Story Of Missing Customer Trust) Currently, Walmart is the third largest retail chain in China, and plans to open 115 brick-and-mortar stores between 2015 and 2017. (2016, Wal-Mart talks Up China Commitment) Walmart also plans to push up its e-commerce business to leverage its huge global product network. But even then, to ensure its future growth in China, Walmart needs to continually monitor its multicultural
From the 1970s, there has been a wave of liberalization in China, which was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. This is one of the key reasons to the rise of China to be one of the economic giants in the world. In the last 25 years of the century, the Chinese economy has had massive economic growth, which has been 9.5 percent on a yearly basis. This has been of great significance of the country since it quadrupled the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country thus leading to saving of 400 million of their citizens from the threats of poverty. In the late 1970s, China was ranked twentieth in terms of trade volumes in the whole world as well as being predicted to be the world’s top nation concerning trading activities (Kaplan, 53). This further predicted the country to record the highest GDP growth in the whole world.
The first Wal-Mart store opened in July of 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas by Sam Walton who believed that the future of retailing was in discounting and to avoid competing with established giants like Sears and Woolworth, Wal-Mart’s stated out of the large cities in the beginning and this strategy help avoid competition, while in rural areas Wal-Mart began growing their customer base by offering ways to save money and shorter travel distance, Sam Walton felt the best way to make customers happy was to provide the low prices every day (Farhoomand, 2006). The company needed to continually find ways to control the operating costs so the savings would then be passed on to Wal-Mart customers in the form of lower prices than the competitors. Walton was opposed to having any kind of employee unions for its company and saw them as a disruption and an inconvenience (Farhoomand, 2006). The continued search for lower prices made him aware of business related travel cost, Wal-Mart executives stayed in low cost hotels when they traveled and the cost related to the services provided by suppliers, Wal-Mart helped suppliers improve operations and efficiency to produce lower cost. Walton wanted the suppliers to correct any nonessential or insufficiencies existing in their business structures as a way of gaining lower prices and higher value products for its Wal-Mart stores. To further push savings Wal-Mart forced cost down by eliminating the middleman and buying directly from the manufacturers. This cost saving also applied to executive salaries Walton felt providing employees with stock options, training opportunities, and allow employees to grow and develop would be a better way to engage and involve them in his vision (Farhoomand, 2006).
The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success.
China's Special Economic Zones." China's Special Economic Zones. Dept. of Global Studies & Geography , Hofstra University, New York, USA, 1998. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
An area in which East Asia is investing much of its GDP is in physical
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a renowned retail goods superstore that sits atop the Fortune list at number one. It would be very difficult to find an individual who is unaware of Walmart’s position as the largest brick-and-mortar retail chain in the world. The company has thrived over the past few years and continues to grow by effectively managing its store operations and distribution strategies. One of the major contributors to the business consistently meeting market expectations is directly attributable to their management approach. Walmart has revolutionized the way retail companies manage their supply chains in more ways than one.
The development of every nation hinges on the effectiveness of their transportation systems. Movement of goods, services and people to and from locations is made possible by transportation systems. The importance of effective transportation systems cannot be over-emphasized. Many countries face transportation problems and my country Ghana is no exception. A trip of about 30 minutes usually takes about an hour or more due to traffic jams. This is seriously impacting productivity and has become a topical issue in the country. The situation is the same in Uganda where I currently work. To this end, Transportation Engineers are needed to design roads/ highways that will stand the test of time, plan effective traffic management systems to reduce