Corporate Research : Wal Mart

The article is about the serious issue in multinational retailing corporations, such as Wal-mart. Wal-mart is an American multinational retailing corporations which operate as a chain of hypermarket, discount department stores and grocery stores. Retailing is a process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn profit. According to The Fortune Global 500 fiscal year of 2016, Walmart is ranked as the highest most lucrative company in the world with a revenue of $482.1 billion.

Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world, but it also has extremely tough competitors. Currently Walmart is the largest retailer in most countries of the world for numerous reasons. For one, they supply a wide variety of items to be purchased that include entertainment, groceries, health and wellness, hardware, furnishing, apparel and many more. Walmart also has over 11,100 stores in over 27 countries according to Market Realist. These two reasons alone give Walmart a huge advantage over its’ competitors. Walmart has both strengths and weaknesses when it comes to its’ competitors not only across the nation, but across the world as well. Some of the main domestic competitors of Wal-mart consist of Target, Costco, Amazon, and the dollar store trinity. Along with that, Walmart has international competition such as Carrefour in France, Metro in Germany, Tesco in the United Kingdom, Loblaw Companies in Canada, and Ahold in the Netherlands. Although Walmart has competitors with all of these companies worldwide, it still remains the “#1 retailer in Canada and Mexico and has operations in Asia (where it owns a 95% stake in Japanese retailer SEIYU ), Africa, Europe, and Latin America”, according to Hoovers. Strangely enough, Walmart is growing more overseas than it is in the United States. Even with all these companies it has to compete with, Wal-mart’s total sales are still almost 5 times its’ competitors. As it generates a net sale of over $483 billion in one year,

The most significant opportunity for Wal-Mart is to acquire, merge with, or form strategic alliances with other global retailers, focusing on specific markets such as Europe or the Greater China Region. Global expansion has been limited in size and success. There are tremendous opportunities for future business in expanding consumer markets, such as China and India. Previous attempts by Wal-Mart were independent of existing retailers, so joint efforts may provide greater opportunity for success. In addition, new locations and store types offer Wal-Mart opportunities to exploit market development. For example, opportunities exist for Wal-Mart to continue with its current strategy of large, Supercenters, while developing more “local” and mall-based sites.

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.

As the world’s biggest retailer, the Wal-Mart’s history is a story about innovation, leadership and success. Sam Walton established the Wal-Mart in 1962 (Michael, 2009). On October 31, 1969, it was incorporated and listed on the New York Exchange in 1972 (Michael, 2009). Wal-Mart grew from a single store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 to the world’s largest retailer, which operates over 11,000 retail units under 71 banners in 27 countries (Wal-Mart’s official website, 2014). In addition, the Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million associates around the world, which equals to the population of 50 smallest countries combined (Andy, 2012). With its advanced cross-docking inventory system, good relationship with factories, Wal-Mart has achieve economics of scale and got a big market share.

Foreign exchange risk consists of three main types of exposures. First, transaction exposure is when a firm has a contractual obligation under which it supposed to receive or pay a certain amount in a currency that is different than its home currency. Transaction exposure has an effect of the firm’s income statement because the accounts payables or receivables can be affected by currency exchange rates. Second foreign exchange exposure is the translation which impacts the balance sheet of the firm. It occurs when consolidating financial statements of foreign units into a company’s home currency. The third type of foreign exchange exposure is the economic which influences a firm’s cash flows when exchange rates change. This type of exposure can impact assets, liabilities, or any type of anticipated foreign currency cash exchange.

Wal-Mart is the number one retailer in the world in both sales and earnings, dwarfing many of its retail competitors. It offers a full assortment of products ranging from clothing to electronics. It currently has 6000 locations predominately within the United States with over $312.4 Billion in net sales during 2006. In addition to its strong domestic presence, Wal-Mart has expanded aggressively to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico with over 1000 locations within those countries. This expansion can potentially create greater economies of scale for Wal-Mart services and merchandise. The synergies created by expansion will also drive profitability in the future by providing goods and services at even lower costs to consumers. In order to enter foreign markets successful, Wal-Mart engages in both joint ventures and acquisitions. By utilizing this method, Wal-Mart intends to leverage foreign retailer's market knowledge with its own core competencies of merchandising and supply chain management (Stilgoe, 2003).

Wal-Mart is arguably the most dynamic corporation in the last 50 years in the United States, if not the world. Arising from its beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas, it has grown to over 4,400 discount stores, super centers and corner markets worldwide. Wal-Mart continues to expand despite public criticism of its labor practices as well as complaints about their treatment of competitors. The many strengths of Wal-Mart, like their low cost production and marketing practices, will aid Wal-Mart as it continues to grow in the retail

In today’s global economy, many multinational corporations (MNCs) are investing or operating their company internationally to maximize their profits. Operating in other countries comes with various risks faced by MNCs. One of the risks is the financial risk involved with the foreign currency exchange markets. Many of the MNCs deals with more than one national currency and hence the changes in the foreign currency exchange rate can have an adverse effect on the Corporation’s profits. This paper will examine the various foreign exchange currency risks and accounting issue faced by MNCs and what they can do to manage these risks. It will also examine the impact of the Eurozone in reducing these risks.

Wal-Mart began as a small discount retailer in Rogers, Ark., Wal-Mart has thousands of stores in the U.S. and has expanded internationally. Through innovation, they are letting customers shop anytime and anywhere online, with mobile devices and in their stores. Wal-Mart went to public in 1970, and it became the first company to reach 1 billion within 9 years. Up to 2004 Wal-Mart has 4,906 store world-wild, and 9 billion in profit. Despite some of controversial issues about its operation approaches, Wal-Mart’s dramatic rapidly growth is phenomenal in business community, and its successful business model has been eulogized world-wide (n.d., Walmart, 2016). Wal-Mart creates opportunities and brings value to customers and communities around the world. Wal-Mart operates over 11,500 retail units under 72 different name in 28 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. They employ 2.2 million associates around the world and 1.4 million in the U.S. (Our business, 2016). Wal-Mart is world 's largest retailer and the world 's largest, fastest-growing and most dynamic ecommerce organization. Based in California 's Silicon Valley with operations in Bangalore, India and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wal-Mart’s Global e-Commerce leads all online and mobile innovation for their corporation. Wal-Mart became an international company in 1991, and they operate in 27 countries outside the United States. With more than 6,200 stores internationally, they leverage their global resources to meet

When an input (machinery, components, capital, labor, etc.) is denominated in a foreign currency, the risk exists that an unfavorable exchange rate movement will increase the cost of doing business. When the products are priced and sold in a foreign currency, an adverse exchange rate movement will make the product appear more expensive to consumers, decreasing demand or forcing the company to reduce its own profit margin to maintain lower price levels. For companies with integrated international business systems, an exchange rate shock can literally force them out of business, with their operations experiencing pressures from both cost and profit centers.

Wal-Mart is a company which operates in the service sector, more specifically in the “Discount, Variety Stores/Retail” industry. The company’s superior performance is demonstrated through the fact that it was America’s largest company (in terms of revenue) in 2002, and the reputation of the company is reflected in the opinion of “Fortune” who have identified Wal-Mart as one of the world’s most admired companies. In 2004 Wal-Mart had been hiring 1.4 million employees – making it the largest corporation in the world. Wal-Mart’s share prices have also been stable at time of stock market volatility. There are

Wal-Mart store was established in 1962 in American, as a multinational corporation, it operates 8500 stores over 10 countries in the global market with the 50 different names for the different stores in different countries. Company no longer can pay attention only to their domestic market. Many industries are global industries, and their leading firms achieve lower costs and higher brand awareness (Kotler, 1994). In 1996, Wal-Mart entered the retail market in China, due to the retail market in China has significant competitive advantages. As the worldwide supermarket, Wal-Mart created the net sales almost $374.5 billion in 2009 for

The global player Wal-Mart operates in 14 different markets all around the world, serving 176 million customers every week. Today, the second biggest company of the world, concerning turnover which amounts to 312,427 million US-$, categorizes its operational facilities into five divisions. Among those divisions are the Wal-Mart discount stores, offering convenience and low-priced goods. Wal-Mart supercenters are the biggest stores, being open 24/7 hours and employing a workforce of 350 people, selling all kinds of groceries and general merchandise at the lowest possible price. Wal-Mart neighborhood markets are specified in

This section displays the exploration discoveries to the research on the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on a business financial position and ability to invest.