Strengths And Weaknesses Of Walmart

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: Effective supply chain management is one of the most important operational strategies that allow company to enjoy sustainable competitive advantage. More than the manufacturing expenses the distribution costs are high. If a retail firm has a proper supply chain management it can cut down the cost and have a competitive advantage of providing goods at lower cost. The cross docking concept that was introduced by the Wal-Mart was one of effective concept.

Is Wal-mart the ideal store to shop it? Austrian economic and business professional Karen De Coster and banker Brad Edmonds believe that Wal-mart improves the lives of people in rural areas because it gives them access to a lifestyle that they would not have if Wal-mart did not exist.

Wal Mart company strategy is to provide lower prices for their customers. In a small

Walmart employees, customers, and suppliers have seen their fair share of Walmart’s bad side. While Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, claims to make their employees feel like they “are working for them” and that they care Walmart has done such a horrific job with the way they treat their employees that one day, the workers decided to walk out and go on strike. They walked out on the grounds that they “were emblazoned with the workers’ grievances: poverty wages, miserly benefits, dignity denied” (Eidelson 1). They felt like they weren’t only taking a stand against Walmart, but also taking a stand for the younger generations to come. Walmart’s employees are getting treated unfairly and are underpaid. The CEO’s, Michael Duke, annual salary gives him more money in an hour than an employee who works full-time would make in an entire year. In Bangladesh, over 100 workers “died in a factory without outdoor fire escapes, NGOs blame Walmart for pushing deadly shortcuts” (Eidelson 1). Not only are the employees being poorly paid by Walmart, but they are paying their life to Walmart just to make enough money to barely get by. Walmart even made a pregnant employee work around chemicals that eventually made her ill. After a trip to the doctor, Walmart allowed her to be put on a lighter duty, so they made her a door greeter; however, they

Wal-Marts only good point is that it is a convenience. Wal-Mart is everywhere and is always open. Wal-Mart abuses their employees without their knowledge at all. Because of their prices being low, wage is even lower to make an over decent profit. Wal-Mart is a growing competitor to those who have enough trouble just surviving. It is easier for everyone just to back-off and let them do what they want, but they have taken advantage of that and the people do not like that.

Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. Wal-Mart controls over 11,500 stores in 28 countries around the world. It was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Walmart’s CEO is Doug McMillon and the Chairperson of Board of Directors is Greg Penner. Walmart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. He

Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek)

Wal-Mart is a company that has taken its core competencies, which are the capabilities the firm emphasizes and performs especially well while pursuing its vision (Ireland, Hoskisson, Hitt, 2008), and turned them into competitive advantages. Core competencies must satisfy four characteristics in order to be a competitive advantage. These advantages, according to our text, include: *valuable, *rare, *difficult to imitate,*nonsubstitutable.

Many reports have been written documenting the economic and eventual social and environmental degradation which occurs when Wal-Mart “comes to town”.

The five generic competitive strategies are low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation strategy, and best-cost provider strategy. According to the textbook, “a company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing successfully” (Gamble, 93).

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

Competition among retailers is aggressive, as the demand side of the industry is driven by consumers who expect to get the best value for their money. “Competitive advantage is anything a company has, or does better, that customers value but the competition cannot match” (Romero, 2005). Walmart has a sustainable competitive advantage over other retailers, largely due to their centralized focus of cost leadership and differentiation strategies.

Walmart the supercenter giant was founded in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962(Walmart). Founded by Sam Walton with his visionary leadership and along with his associates they focused on helping consumers and communities to save money and live better (Walmart). The successful retail giant has been known to dominate markets and operate on global efficiencies. Walmart operates in 27 countries with more than 11,000 stores serving more than 2 million consumers worldwide (Walmart). The economic satisfaction encouraged Walmart to develop new strategies and methods that they are now using to help with management. The retail giant has been very successful with Inventory Management and there Forecasting methods. Some key tactics they incorporate within success of inventory management are strategic vendor partnerships, fewer links in the supply chain, cross docking and technology. In result to having such inventory system Walmart is able to forecast and plan for any unforeseen circumstances.

With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.

1. What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case ? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it ?