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Management Internal/External Factors

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Management Internal/External Factors
The Internal/External Factors of Management – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

In today's world management must consider a wide variety of factors in order to establish an effective management plan. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest company and number one retailer, with this success a company this large needs to not only to look internally for solutions to their management objectives, they must also look outside of their business for additional resources. With the increase of technology and the easy access to virtually any information, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. must be prepared to react to the multitude of demands made by consumers and suppliers. The rapid change of the retail industry from brick and mortar stores to Internet purchases Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been able to stay attractive to the buying public. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has accomplished this through a highly sophisticated inventory tracking system that enables the stores, including the Internet, to have in stock exactly what the consumers are looking for. According to Hoover's Online Wal-Mart Stores, Inc has expanded to about 4,700 stores including about 1,500 discount stores, 1,650 combination discount and grocery stores (Wal-Mart Supercenters in the US and ASDA in the UK) and 532 membership-only warehouse stores (Sam's Club) (2003). With the introduction of a foreign market their management plan must encompass the rules and regulations of doing business in a foreign country. With the invention of their tracking and identification system, called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has exerted control over their entire inventory and enables the workers to identify and locate merchandise more readily for the customers. E-Commerce has increased the ease of purchasing for consumers; Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has a web site that allows for the ease and convenience of purchasing almost every item in the store over the Internet. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been very innovative in



Cited: About Wal-Mart. "Wal-Mart International." 8 November 2003. http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstore/Mainabout.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@ Aisner, James E. "Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge on the Web. Winter 1999. http://www.e-proximity.com/cream/HBS%20retail.htm Biesada, A. (2003) Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Hoover 's Online. Retrieved November 8, 2003 from: http://www.hoovers.com/free/co/factsheet.xhtml Dash30. Wal-Mart Takes on The Web. 8 Oct. 2003 .

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