Wal Mart Case Study
Corporate Strategy Course
Prof.Erik Larsen
Case Study
[pic]Wal Mart Stores, Inc. [pic]
• Introduction • SWOT Analysis • Value Chain • Porter’s 5 forces • Conclusion
Agnese Santocchi
INTRODUCTION
WalMart was founded when, in 1962, Sam Walton invested 95% of the capital –co exming from his Walton 5&10 in Bentonville, Arkansas- to open the first WalMart store.
What he wanted to do was to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors. This made it possible for the Company to grow across the state of Arkansas and expand afterwards to Missouri and Oklahoma –by 1972 they were already operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma.
By 1979, with 276 stores and 21,000 associates, WalMart reached $1.2 billion in sales having also introduced pharmacy, auto-service center and jewerlry division. Meanwhile the number of stores kept growing exponentially, the first Sam’s Club store -a membership-based discount warehouse club- appeared: they sold high volume and low cost merchandise sticking to the “cash&carry” philosophy. Sam’s Club also opted for the cannibalization of its own sales, leaving no room for competitors.
It was in 1988 that David Glass was named CEO of the Company as Sam Walton stepped down, remaining as a Chairman of the Corporate Board of Directors. In the same year the first so called WalMart Superscenter, opened in Washington (Missouri): the supercenter featured everything that was already in a standard WalMart discount store but offered, in addition to that, a tire and oil change shop, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous other shops such as banks, cellular telephone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, as well as some fast food outlets.
In 1991 they decided to expand to go international and that is when they opened the first store in Mexico City
Prof.Erik Larsen
Case Study
[pic]Wal Mart Stores, Inc. [pic]
• Introduction • SWOT Analysis • Value Chain • Porter’s 5 forces • Conclusion
Agnese Santocchi
INTRODUCTION
WalMart was founded when, in 1962, Sam Walton invested 95% of the capital –co exming from his Walton 5&10 in Bentonville, Arkansas- to open the first WalMart store.
What he wanted to do was to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors. This made it possible for the Company to grow across the state of Arkansas and expand afterwards to Missouri and Oklahoma –by 1972 they were already operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma.
By 1979, with 276 stores and 21,000 associates, WalMart reached $1.2 billion in sales having also introduced pharmacy, auto-service center and jewerlry division. Meanwhile the number of stores kept growing exponentially, the first Sam’s Club store -a membership-based discount warehouse club- appeared: they sold high volume and low cost merchandise sticking to the “cash&carry” philosophy. Sam’s Club also opted for the cannibalization of its own sales, leaving no room for competitors.
It was in 1988 that David Glass was named CEO of the Company as Sam Walton stepped down, remaining as a Chairman of the Corporate Board of Directors. In the same year the first so called WalMart Superscenter, opened in Washington (Missouri): the supercenter featured everything that was already in a standard WalMart discount store but offered, in addition to that, a tire and oil change shop, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous other shops such as banks, cellular telephone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, as well as some fast food outlets.
In 1991 they decided to expand to go international and that is when they opened the first store in Mexico City