Walmart SWOT Wal-Mart: SWOT Tables and Synopsis

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 growing markets like China and India

Continued decline of consumer confidence in U.S.

Penetration of emergent global markets

Technological

Intuitive IT systems

Outmoded sweatshop production facilities

Use IT systems to improve employee experience

Inefficiencies vis-a-vis production

Technological strategies for improved factor sustainability

Innovation

Maintenance of its own truck fleet

Cost of fuel

Improvements in transportation energy efficiency

Continuing fuel scarcity

Sustainable transport technologies

Social

Considerable resources for community involvement

Poor record on supporting community economic vitality

Enter into partnership instead of competition with area businesses

Disrepute

Continued devastation of local businesses, main streets and neighborhoods

Environmental

Improving sustainability in mega-store locations

Use of outsourced labor in low-regulation contexts

To become a leader in improving global environmental law

Sweeping reform in global environmental restrictions

Continued exploitation of nations without strong environmental laws

Competitive Analysis

Top retail company in the world

Limited success in European markets

To penetrate numerous untapped global markets

Continually targeted by smaller competitors

Sustained in its primacy by its difficult-to-beat price points

Internal Forces

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Trends

Strategy

Lowest retail prices

Often associated with lower retail quality

To venture into higher quality brand ownership

Disruption of pricing strategy by global labor law strengthening

Continued appeal of low prices in the face of U.S. economic struggles

Structures

Top-down, highly streamlined operation

Poor advancement opportunity at lower levels

To improve internal training and retention

Constant personnel turnover at the lower levels

Ongoing diversification of stores (i.e. megastores, Sam's Club, etc.)

Processes and Systems

Highly streamlined IT/stock/inventory system

Limited success with web presence

To considerably improve appeal of web shopping

Eventual lag behind companies with better online presence

Heightened interest in balancing brick-and-mortar with online presence

Resources

Unlimited financial resources

Deficient attention dedicated to HR

Improved employee compensation with available resources

Damage by constant turnover

Investment of resources in improvement of personnel orientation

Goals

High profit margins

Overlooks myriad ethical considerations

To improve ethical orientation while still finding ways to keep prices low

Reputation issues

Continued success making inroads with those of modest financial means

Strategic Capabilities

Ability to maintain lowest prices

Low prices come at the expense of quality, reputation and ethics

To proliferate its low-pricing model in emergent international markets

The imposition of legal conditions altering Wal-Mart's current freedoms.

Maintained public interest in bargain prices

Culture

Culture of 'ruthless efficiency.'

Low morale at many levels of the company

To dramatically alter the orientation of personnel toward amoral pursuit of profit

Internal turmoil due to low morale

Profitability in spite of high turnover and low internal advancement

Intellectual Property

Highly visible set of brands and logos

Brand name often associated with poor ethical practice

To acquire reputable names such as ASDA supermarkets in the U.K.

The continued tarnishing of the Wal-Mart brand image

Obscuring Wal-Mart's association to more reputable subsidiary acquisitions

Leadership

Highly centralized corporate orientation

Largely inflexible within individual markets

To diversify practices depending upon the needs of a specific market

A failure to establish well-seated leadership in emergent international markets

The demand to create culturally perceptive leadership core in new international markets of operation.

Synopsis:

Considering the SWOT Tables constructed above, it is clear that while Wal-Mart remains a powerful corporate entity, it is not without its array of challenges. It is thus that we consider a number of the forces described above with a bit more scrutiny. Here, we consider the economic dimension first. Today, as the article by Carvin (2011) indicates, Wal-Mart is the top-earning firm on Forbes Fortune 500 list, but it has suffered some of the blowback form America's sustained economic recession. According to Carvin, "sales at Wal-Mart U.S., which is the company's largest business, slipped 0.5% to $71.1 billion. Comparable-store sales fell 1.8%." (p. 1) This suggests that on some level, the company has struggled to adapt to changes in a global market where developing countries are experiences far more consumer confidence growth. As the analysis here above denotes, Wal-Mart must begin to make greater inroads into developing markets such as China and India while achieving greater penetration in European markets as well.