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Wal-Mart Strategy
Wal-Mart has enjoyed success in the economic downturn by virtue of their strategy.
For Wal-Mart, their operational efficiency is a means to an end, rather than an end unto itself. Wal-Mart has adopted a low-cost strategy, whereby they seek to derive competitive advantage by undercutting the competition. This involves a significant amount of operational efficiency in order to maintain a lower cost structure than the competition, but Wal-Mart always maintains focus on the reasons why they want to have a lower cost.
Part of Sam Walton's initial strategy for the company was to offer goods in smaller, rural centers for the same prices at which those goods could be purchased in larger cities. This is how Wal-Mart has sought to derive competitive advantage. Their operational efficiency has allowed them to make this a sustainable competitive advantage. The low cost strategy has been successful even in the face of the economic downturn because consumers have been compelled to "trade down" to Wal-Mart during times of restricted cash flows. Existing Wal-Mart consumers remain, because there is nobody to "trade down" to - Wal-Mart is already the lowest cost provider.
The reason why Wal-Mart has been able to succeed with this strategy is because they have always focused on the strategy. Their operational excellence is driven by strategic goals, rather than operational ones. Moreover, each operational goal that Wal-Mart sets directly relates back to its core strategy of being the low-cost provider. When operational goals support strategic ones, they are in general more successful. Porter's lesson is that oftentimes managers focus on operational goals without considering whether or not they support the firm's strategy. Operational success, Porter maintains, is irrelevant if that success does not support a viable long-term strategy for competitive advantage. Wal-Mart succeeds because its operational objectives are explicitly aligned with greater strategic goals.
Wal-Mart Financial Analysis Wal-Mart Store Inc. is a multinational retailer corporation branded as Wal-Mart in 2008. Founded in 1962, Wal-Mart has now become one of the largest American corporations with chain of retail stores. Wal-Mart sells varieties of consumer goods such as consumer electronics, toys, automobiles, furniture, video games and several other consumers goods. Presently, Wal-Mart enjoys the patronages of 200 million customers per week making the company to record the
The quest for cheaper prices is pushing manufacturing jobs offshore and affecting the jobs of Americans. This is the trade off involved in globalization. Bibliography 1) Wal-Mart, 'About Us', retrieved Oct 15th 2010, from, http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/ 2) Suzanne Kapner, (2009), 'Changing of the Guard at Wal-Mart', retrievd Oct 15th 2010, from, http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/17/news/companies/kapner_scott.fortune/index.htm 3) Michael Barbaro, (Mar 2006), 'Wal-Mart shows a Similar Side to Sears', New York Times, retrieved Oct 15th 2010, from, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/business/media/31adco.html?_r=2 4) Michael
Wal-Mart's SWOT Analysis and Generic Business-Level Strategy Walmart's SWOT Analysis Wal-Mart's SWOT Analysis and Generic Business-Level Strategy Wal-Mart's SWOT Analysis and Generic Business-Level Strategy Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the world's leading corporation in the retail industry. It operates in 27 countries of the world with 69 well-recognized brands. With this huge scale of operations and vast business network, Wal-Mart serves a large number of customers with numerous product categories in its retail stores, departmental stores, and
Wal-Mart and Employee Rights Labor cost is always considered as the main issue, mostly in case of employees' unionization at Wal-Mart. This was noticed when Wal-Mart showed a remarkable earning at the rate of 44% per annum for its labor working on hourly basis. Another point which brought this issue ahead was when the sales clerk of Wal-Mart in 2001 earned wages below Federal Poverty Scale. According to an issue of
Strategy & Decision Making Vision Wal-Mart has become a global corporation. The company's primary vision focuses on a more global presence and promotion of the organization's ethical culture across global stakeholders. The company's concept of a vision statement focusing on a culture of ethics is vital in globalization. The company has embraced diversity and culture in their global operations thus leading to a competitive advantage and good reputation. By promoting a culture
Wal Mart is a global leader in retail supply chain management, logistics, operations, fulfillment and transportation services. The efficiency and profitability of the WalMart supply chain operations globally have set a new standard in their industry and often been used as the basis of comparing performance of supply chains in related industries as well (Stevenson, 2009). What has contributed to the rapid growth of WalMart however has been the acquired