Strategic Design Lens: Walmart Essay example

Their ability to work together affects the quality of service that the customers receive. To give the very best service to their customers, and to each other, they rely on guidelines that make their culture great. It also makes them a proud member of the Wal-Mart family.

In January 2012, newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson introduced a plan to rebrand the department store chain into a 21st century retail powerhouse. Launching of the new J. C. Penney brand identity was set to occur over four years and would include a new logo, a new in-store experience featuring new and transformed brands, and most importantly, it would change the way that the company priced merchandise. Unfortunately, J. C. Penney suffered a 25% sales decline in the first year and Johnson was fired after only 17 months.

The retail industry is an extremely competitive environment that poses many challenges for Costco Wholesale Corporation and its competitors. Since many of the stores offer the same products, it may sometimes be very hard for customers to differentiate between retail stores. Even though the economy is recovering from a recession, the retail business is still a mature industry and is improving very steadily.

Former CEO Lee Scott laid out a plan Wal-Mart has been following during his Twenty-first Century Leadership speech back in 2005. During this speech he outlined how Wal-Mart has coped with its

Costco Wholesale Corporation is in an industry where there are several of dynamic competition from huge chains such as Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club and Target, and yet it could maintain a competitive and profitable stance. Effective strategic planning is essential part in operating any business in relation toward adapting to organizational and operational adaptation to changing markets. Through inquiries, the influence in the recent economic trends, provide strategies that have use or could use in the adaptation to changes in the market related to issues of economic trends, such as recession and economic downturn. Costco Company’s research paper will further discuss the tactics that has

Walmart’s annual report is a comprehensive look at the company's activities throughout the preceding year. Walmart’s annual reports are intended to give shareholders and others, who are financially affiliated, information about the company's activities and financial performance. Also within such a comprehensive report would be plans to attack certain strategic agendas in reference to the company’s long term outlook. Identifying the long-term strategic planning initiative of Walmart will be the focus of this paper. The reader should be able to

Walmart was founded in 1962 and by 1990’s grew into the biggest retailer in the United States. Many business organizations such as Walmart invest heavily in information systems to achieve the following strategic business objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; improved decision-making, competitive advantage; and survival. Successful attainment of these objectives aids company in implementing corporate strategies and achieving its goals.

Walmart.com has an alliance with the master of retail process: Wal-Mart. Having the best process and infrastructure when it applies to supply chain is definitely a competitive advantage. Walmart.com can take advantage of back end operations and inventory management processes through its alliance with Wal-Mart.

Question 1: What are the isolating mechanisms preserving Wal-Mart’s competitive advantage in the US market? (use readings case 7)

1. Target is one of the worldwide known leaders in the retail industry successfully operating in the US for over a century (since 1902). It has gained a huge recognition in its homeland country but, as a lot of prospering businesses , Target has decided to expand its operations further, and enter the Canadian market. This happened in 2011, when Target bought over 200 stores from Hudson’s Bay Company in order to pursue its formidable strategy - “have more than 200 outlets in Canada within 10 years” (Schermerhorn, J.& Wright, B., 2014, Management, p.189) . Target has performed a number of actions when entering the market , some of which were very thought-through, and others, as it turned out later, not so much.

Challenges are considered the biggest issues for the Wal-Mart company. Even though there advantages, disadvantages

Ans:Wal-Mart,Inc runs a chain of large, discount department stores.it is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. Walmart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Walmart is one of the best known industries all over the world. Its concentration of a single business strategy is the basis of its success over the decades by this strategy without having to rely upon diversification to sustain its growth and competitive advantage. The leading marketing strategies of Wal-Mart are low prices, service and smile. However by adapting this strategy, it has risked itself by putting all of a company’s egg in one industry basket. While its global strategy worked elsewhere, the results were bad in Germany and Korea that Wal-Mart withdrew from those countries.

Wal-Mart was founded by businessman Sam Walton in 1962 as a small retail store in Arkansas, USA. From there it has grown to become the largest retail giant in the world. Ranked by Forbes 2000 list for 2011 as the 18th largest public corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating public entity in the world as of 31st January 2011, with gross revenue of 422 billion US Dollars (Walmart Annual Report, 2011). It is also noted for being the largest private employer in the world having just over 2 million employees serving in 8500 stores, in 15 different countries, under 55 different names, worldwide. (Daniel, 2010)

Walmart is well known all over the over the United States. Almost every town traveled through will have a Walmart. This store is known for their low prices and their ability have the essential items that are needed on a daily basis. According to their website, Walmart employs 2.2 million people around the world, with 1.4 million coming from the U.S. alone. These employees are operating in over 11,500 store in 28 different countries. In these stores more than 260 million people will visit a store in their area in a week (walmart.com, n.d.). With this many customers coming into the store customer service is essential. With customer service, feedback and response is a huge part to help associates understand what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Then along those lines we will discuss how Walmart manages their supply chain and their supplier quality. Finally we will talk about Walmart’s employee empowerment, training and teamwork.

Human Resources bear another competitive advantage of Wal-Mart. The retailer is eager to employ only people that agree totally with the philosophy of Wal-Mart and put all their effort to achieve the most possible success for their company. Furthermore, it is common to recruit graduates directly after education. The advantage of the company is the ability to influence the working behavior of the employees. In order to motivate the employees, they were involved into actively suggesting improvements in day to day operations, resulting in cost savings of 85 million US-$ in 1993. Additionally, it is possible for the employees to participate in shareholding and to obtain dividends of Wal-Marts profits. Looking at the top of the company, it is not important, which position every single management member takes in the