Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
WMT
Wal-Mart faces significant challenges in the Chinese market. There are many barriers to trade and issues that constrain the company from using tactics that proved successful in the United States. As a result, the company needs to balance being able to follow the classic Wal-Mart business model with being able to handle the unique characteristics of the Chinese market. Faced with these strategic challenges, Wal-Mart needs to have a human resources strategy that supports being able to meet its strategic objectives in China.
Recruiting
The first issues is with recruiting. Wal-Mart aims to have a low cost workforce, implying low wages and flexibility on hours. In China, unemployment in 2005 is at 4.2% and has frequently been lower in recent years, which pushes up wages (Trading Economics, 2015). While there are millions of potential workers who are coming from the agricultural sector, where wages are often barely above subsistence, wage inflation is especially strong in the wealthier areas where Wal-Mart would want to situate its stores. This will pose a recruiting challenge for the company.
Furthermore, Wal-Mart relies on its managerial talent for a large part of its success; it is a very well-run company. The problem is that unlike American business schools, Chinese business schools do not turn out a lot of high-quality managers. Often, Chinese companies are forced to import managers from Taiwan or Hong Kong (Yang, 2015). This would not be an issue if Wal-Mart could simply send Americans over, but as the company is struggling with China-specific challenges, it needs to have Chinese managers. The better Wal-Mart is at recruiting, the lower is turnover will be and the more it will be able to build...
Whatever its strategy, Wal-Mart needs a strong managerial pipeline in order to support its growth ambitions in China, and these managers need to be able to work effectively in the Chinese business environment.
Expats
Wal-Mart may be able to import some of its own people. Where there are deviations from how Wal-Mart would normally do business -- such as with fresh fish -- the company will need to have oversight from head office. Furthermore, many of the problems that the company has experienced to this point may well have been avoided if it had more of its own people in China, instead of relying on the joint venture partner to supply the talent. There are challenges in sending expats, especially to a challenging place like China, but there is an extensive body of research on the traits of managers who are likely to succeed in overseas assignments (Caliguri, 2000).
Training
Training is definitely an area where Wal-Mart can deliver better performance in China. The company is still fairly new to the country, but it will need a talent pipeline in order to continue to grow. This means setting up a training program to build managerial skills among its workforce and identify potential managerial candidates. The training program should identify key needs -- such as improving logistics, or developing new store managers --…
References
Caliguri, P. (2000) The big five personality characteristics as predictors of expatriate's desire to terminate the assignment and supervisor-rated performance. Personnel Psychology. Vol. 53 (1) 67-88.
Sanford, J. (2005). Making cents out of the hiring process. HR Management. Retrieved March 24, 2015 from http://beaconpr.com/pdfs/12sanford.pdf
Tang, Z. (2011). Starbucks buys back control of stores. China Daily. Retrieved March 24, 2015 from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/2011-06/03/content_12634555.htm
Trading Economics. (2015). China unemployment rate. Trading Economics. Retrieved March 24, 2015 from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/unemployment-rate
Yang, D. (2015). Mid-level management talent issues in China becoming severe. Frontier Strategy Group. Retrieved March 24, 2015 from http://blog.frontierstrategygroup.com/2015/01/mid-level-management-talent-issues-china-getting-severe/
Walmart SWOT Wal-Mart: SWOT Tables and Synopsis External Forces Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Trends Legal and Regulatory Extensive legal resources Frequent violations of labor, environmental law To become a leader in improving global labor law Sweeping reform in global trade regulations Unfettered labor and environmental practices in developing sphere Global Cheap outsourced production Poor retail penetration outside base 14 countries To penetrate growing markets like China and India Creation of global wage standard Continued deregulation in developing sphere Economic Largest retail firm in the world Highly dependent on U.S. consumer habits To penetrate
Brief History and Background Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart and quickly grew the company by offering goods at the lowest prices. The stores were originally smaller than the stores of today, and focused in rural areas of the South that were otherwise underserved by retail stores. The current Wal-Mart model emerged by the 1980s as a large format store selling a wide range of consumer goods. The company would later extend its
This analysis shows that the financing need will be $ billion, and that the net income will account for $13.749 billion of that. Wal-Mart will then need to find additional financing of $3.257 billion in order to fund its operations for the coming year.Part II.The sustainable growth rate for Wal-Mart is the ROE * (1-dividend payout ratio). The ROE for Wal-Mart last year was $13643 / $80535 = 16.9%The dividend
The Price-Sensitive Affluents, Wal-Mart has learned (Wal-Mart Annual Reports) is more interested in finding an exceptionally good deal and not necessarily concerned about the shopping experience. This is particularly true as one of the strongest factors influencing the execution of their strategy, the emerging global recession during this timeframe, takes hold. Again as with the Price Value Shopper and the paradoxical purchasing patterns of the Brand Aspirational segment show,
Thus, the HR activities are currently more structured, but in the same time more decentralized to be able to respect the local characteristics of each market. Reference List Barney J.B. 1986. Organizational Culture: Can it Be a Source of Competitive Advantage?, the Academy of Management Review, vol. 11(3): pp. 656-665. Bass B.M. & Avolio B.J. 1994. Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture, International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 17(3): pp. 541-554. Beer M. &
Wal-Mart faces an industry that is generally challenging, but its strength in the industry results in the industry being favorable. Wal-Mart's success is predicated on excellence execution of key components of the discount retail value chain -- procurement, logistics and merchandising. Wal-Mart has numerous strengths, but as befits the world's largest company it has relatively few weaknesses. In its intensely competitive businesses, Wal-Mart sees many threats, but there are still