Wall-Mart Strategic Planning
Wal-Mart Strategic Development and future
Becoming Wal-Mart- The Past:
Overview
Wal-mart was founded by sam Walton in 1962. The idea behind was to bring discount shopping stores to rural America. It grew rapidly with huge popularity. Today it has 3708 Wal-mart U. S. Units, 569 U.S. Sam’s Club and 4112 International units. It toppled GE and became No.1 in Fortune 500 Company list with annual revenue of 405 Billion USD and employs about 2 million associates. It has presence in multiple sectors across retail industry like grocery, Auto, Pharmacy, Jewelry, Clothes, electronics, books etc. Let’s consider strategies in place and changes during last 25 years of Wal-mart.
Mission: We save people Money so they can live better. Deliver Quality products at lowest possible price.
Values and Culture:
In my opinion Wal-mart’s values are keys to its sustainable success. Here are some key values and words about company culture. * Respect to individual. * Open door. Listen to customers and associates. * Give best service to customer. * 10-Foot Rule – greet and ask for help to customer within 10 foot of distance. * Sundown Rule – Combine efforts to answer to any requests or resolve any complain by end of business day. * Leaders are also servants.
Many of these values helped Wal-mart developing two important feedback loop for any organization, which drive for constant improvement, are Internal and external Feedback.
Strategy:
Let’s analyze five elements of strategy diamond to understand how placed Wal-mart itself in this industry and became global player.
Areas:
Wal-mart has decided to compete in retail segment keeping in mind to be one stop place for customers. Wal-mart made rural area as their business places. This in long run helped them to lock out competitors, helped Wal-mart to use as entry barrier. Customers can get almost everything they want from one place saves time and money both. It decided to have its own distribution
Becoming Wal-Mart- The Past:
Overview
Wal-mart was founded by sam Walton in 1962. The idea behind was to bring discount shopping stores to rural America. It grew rapidly with huge popularity. Today it has 3708 Wal-mart U. S. Units, 569 U.S. Sam’s Club and 4112 International units. It toppled GE and became No.1 in Fortune 500 Company list with annual revenue of 405 Billion USD and employs about 2 million associates. It has presence in multiple sectors across retail industry like grocery, Auto, Pharmacy, Jewelry, Clothes, electronics, books etc. Let’s consider strategies in place and changes during last 25 years of Wal-mart.
Mission: We save people Money so they can live better. Deliver Quality products at lowest possible price.
Values and Culture:
In my opinion Wal-mart’s values are keys to its sustainable success. Here are some key values and words about company culture. * Respect to individual. * Open door. Listen to customers and associates. * Give best service to customer. * 10-Foot Rule – greet and ask for help to customer within 10 foot of distance. * Sundown Rule – Combine efforts to answer to any requests or resolve any complain by end of business day. * Leaders are also servants.
Many of these values helped Wal-mart developing two important feedback loop for any organization, which drive for constant improvement, are Internal and external Feedback.
Strategy:
Let’s analyze five elements of strategy diamond to understand how placed Wal-mart itself in this industry and became global player.
Areas:
Wal-mart has decided to compete in retail segment keeping in mind to be one stop place for customers. Wal-mart made rural area as their business places. This in long run helped them to lock out competitors, helped Wal-mart to use as entry barrier. Customers can get almost everything they want from one place saves time and money both. It decided to have its own distribution
References: Mason A. Carpenterand Wm.Gerand Sanders (2007), Strategic Management A dynamic Perspective concepts and cases, 2nd edition,New Jersey:Pearson Education,P.605-614. Walmart Annual Report (2010),[Online],Available http://walmartstores.com/sites/annualreport/2010/ Walmart Sustainability, [Online],Available http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/ Walmart File (1999), [Online],Available http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/325922.stm Beth Lewallan, Walmart and the bar code, [Online],Available http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/barcode.html