Preview

Walmart

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2506 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Walmart
Based on your review and analysis of the annual report, prepare a ten to twelve (10-12) page report in which you:

In order to understand why Walmart has been so successful in implementing their strategies, you have to first understand the man behind the vision. Sam Walton came from humble beginnings. Sam grew up on a farm and because his father learned that there was not enough profit in being a farmer he decided to pursue a career in the mortgage. He grew up during the Great Depression and was responsible for financially contributing ranging from selling bottled milk and newspapers to magazine subscriptions. Sam Walton graduated from the University of Missouri with an economics degree in 1940. His first job was as a management trainee at Penny’s. Here he learned the basics of business management. His stay at Penny’s was short lived as he was called to active duty for World War II.

Once the war ended, he purchased a franchise and opened a Ben Franklin retail variety store in Newport, Arkansas. Soon after he opened his own store called Walton’s 5 and 10 and operated it as Ben Franklin affiliated store. Shortly thereafter, Walton became the largest Ben Franklin franchise owner, with nine stores. He became concerned about the competitive threat that discount stores were having on variety stores and so he decided to study the changes in retail stores and there trends. He wanted to develop a discount store of his own. He had a strong desire to offer significantly discounted prices in order to expand sales volume in order to increase overall profits. On July 2, 1962, Sam Walton started his own discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. It was hugely successful and Walton wanted to expand into smaller markets and get the talent he needed to grow the company.
Analyze the company’s mission and vision statements against the performance of the organization. Then, evaluate how well the company lives out its mission and vision statement. Provide support from

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Ecom 2 1 week 2 Project

    • 828 Words
    • 2 Pages

    5. Write a 2-3 page report on your findings, plus any necessary appendixes (i.e. organizational charts, graphs etc.)…

    • 828 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Sam obtained his work ethic from his father Thomas Gibson Walton who was a hard worker and had all sorts of jobs. He was a banker, farmer, farm-loan appraiser and an agent for insurance and real estate. He put in long hours, was honest and was known for his integrity. Sam also saw what a great negotiator he was. He also learned about hard work from his mother who had a milk business. Sam experienced earning money at the early age of seven by selling magazine subscription. He started a paper route kept it up through college. Through his early jobs, Sam learned how much hard work it took to earn a dollar. From his parents he also learned not to spend money.…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walgreens

    • 3686 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Read the auditor’s report included in the annual report of the company and explain its purpose. Identify the name of the auditing firm.…

    • 3686 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wal-Mart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton, a 1940 University of Missouri economics major. The first store was opened in Rogers, Arkansas offering a variety of merchandise for consumers. Mr. Walton’s strategy of opening locations in small towns and offering consumers a wide variety of products at low costs was compelling and successful. The company became incorporated on October 31, 1969 and went public in 1970. By 1991, the company had become international and a multibillion dollar business. (Walmart Corporate, 2010).…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Walmart vs Target

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The founder of Wal-Mart Sam Walton major competition during the time was K-Mart and Target. Before opening Wal-Mart, Sam traveled the country studying everything he could about discount retailing. He became convinced American consumers wanted a new type of store. With his vision in mind Sam and his wife front loaded 95% of the initial cost to start the chain while many of the chains were expanded nationally. They opened their first store in Rogers, Arkansas. The chain was able to expand by 15 stores in the 1960’s. The company hit the stock market in 1972 and went viral with a current inventory of 1,402 stores and 123 Sam’s Club locations. Wal-Mart stores provide a wide variety of discount merchandise, groceries and prescription medication. Sam stated in his autobiography which attributed to his success “if you think about it from the point of view of the customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; and a pleasant shopping experience. You love it when a store exceeds your expectations, and you hate it when a store inconveniences you, gives you a hard time, or pretends you 're invisible."…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although to some of us it may seem Wal-Mart is only a few years old, it is actually over forty years old. It was founded in 1962 by Oklahoma native, Sam Walton. He was known to be a very cheap man; he was always on a hunt for low prices, it was a natural lifestyle for him. He still visited his regular barber and spent no more than $5 for his haircuts, although he was ranked as America 's richest man during the 1980 's. He always found a way to save money, therefore saving his customers money and still make a profit through volume. His charisma and leadership skills helped him to keep his staff or "associates", as he called them, happy. Also, the fact that he lived his life modestly showed that he was on a crusade for the lowly consumer, as he was always looking for better deals from suppliers.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walmart Impact On Society

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages

    He was told by many people along the way that this type of business wouldn’t be successful, because of his commitment to customer service over profits. Walton soon proved them all wrong, and surprised even himself with the rapid growth of his business. In 1970, only eight years after opening his first Walmart store, Walton sold his very first stock at the price of $16.50 per share. This was just the beginning of a decade of growth and domination for the Walmart franchise, and by 1979 Walton had opened a distribution center, been included in the New York Stock Exchange, and established the Walmart Foundation; however, this was just the beginning for Sam and the Walmart corporation. In the year 1983, the first Sam’s Club was opened. Sam’s Club, a retailer that specializes in wholesale, was created by Walton to provide other small business owners with an opportunity to purchase inexpensive merchandise to carry in their store fronts, and to make that same value available to families across the nation. Other milestones reached in the ‘80s included the company…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sam Walton Entrepreneur

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After being released from military service at the end of World War II, Walton moved to Newport, Arkansas and bought a Ben Franklin variety store. By 1950, he “owned the leading Ben Franklin store in a six-state region (Sam Walton).” His initial success with the Ben Franklin variety store was due to his policy of hard work and pricing products much lower than other retailers. His landlord eventually refused to renew the lease on Walton’s variety store because of the success – the landlord wanted his son to inherit the business (Sam Walton). Walton remained undefeated, however. His wife wanted to raise their children in a smaller…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sam Walton

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There were several characteristics of Sam Walton that enabled him to be successful in his life and business dealings. Sam Walton could do anything he put his mind to. This can be witnessed in his ability to transform a small town store into a 25 billion-dollar industry at the time of his death. Walton did not want to be poor, and this helped to push him when the going got tough because he knew what the possible outcome would be. For example, when Walton first started producing more Wal-marts, he was in great debt. In fact the only way he could get out was to make more stores and continue to set lower prices than the competition. Walton grew up into a poor environment as a child, so he knew what it was like to be at the short end of the stick. Perhaps his difficult childhood gave him something to strive towards later on in his life. Walton learned several things from others as well. For instance, he learned to economize from his job at J.C. Penney. And while he was developing his first general store, Walton saw what the competition was doing wrong, and did the complete opposite, such as selling more quantity in order to make a bigger profit in the long run. It can probably be stated that Sam Walton would not have been as successful if his devoted wife had not been there along his side. Always there for him, Mrs. Walton was able to keep the entire family together during the hard and difficult times. While Sam was out doing the dirty work trying to make something of his business, Mrs. Walton was playing the role of mother and father back at home. Sam Walton had to create and develop his business in a very difficult environment. Competition was all around, and most people saw Walton's store as a dead-end flop when it first began. Before the founding of Wal-mart, all of the businesses were the same, trying to set prices in hopes of large gains from not so large quantities. Walton saw what was going on and took advantage of what he saw. Thinking in terms of volume,…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sam Walton Essay

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The student has had the pleasure of working for Walmart, Sam Walton, was an amazing man with only his dream. Sam Walton was born in Kingfisher on March 29, 1918 (Shottenkirk, 2007). Walton was raised on the family farm until 1923, and he attended Hickman High School in Columbia and played basketball and football (Shottenkirk, 2007). Walton attended the University of Missouri there he learned his good business sense, majoring in economics (Shottenkirk, 2007). In 1987, Walton was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (Shottenkirk, 2007). The first Wal-Mart Supercenter followed in 1988 in Washington, MO.; Walton lived long enough to see his company become the nation’s No., one retailer in…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sam Walton Leadership

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sam Walton is also an intelligent leader as he changed the way how retailing was done at that era. Originally the discount stores are always located at urban areas and only sell little types of items. Sam Walton then decide to change its way by having large superstores opened in rural towns and have wide variety of products with lower prices. His way has proven a success as he was able to open 18 WalMarts stores in just 7 years from the benefits he gets from his way of retailing. This has successfully changes the way of retailing as many other owners start to learn his way to retail. In addition, Sam Walton also came out with another idea, Sam’s Wholesale Clubs, a discount store that sells products to small business owners in bulk. This idea is another great idea by Sam Walton as it brought more benefits and even made him become a billionaire with a net worth of 2.8 billions. With Sam Walton’s intelligence, he had successfully changes the ways how retailing was done back then and has gain a great amount of benefits from his ideas.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sam Walton

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1942 Sam joined the military and then married Helen Robson in 1943. When Sam’s military career came to an end, he and Helen moved to Newport, Arkansas. Sam gained some retail experience from his first job in a JC Penny management-training program. He had always had an eye for retail so later Sam bought a Ben Franklin variety store franchise. He did extremely well with his franchise. Sam’s strategy for buying in bulk and discounting proved to be a hit with customers (Ortega, 1998). Over time Sam opened up more Ben Franklin stores with the assistance of his father and brother. However, because he didn’t have the flexibility to run the business as he wanted to, he decided to set up his own Wal-Mart store; this would be the first one. With his Wal-Mart, he began to use the strategy of discounting like he had with the Ben Franklin stores. This strategy proved to be very successful and he new that discounting would be the future of retail. With this strategy, Sam started expanding in the area, and ultimately all over the United States. Eventually, Wal-Mart became the largest corporation in the United States with revenue of U.S. $ 404 billion in 2009 (fortune 500, 2008). Sam Walton died in 1992 after receiving…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Walmart

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sam Walton opened the first store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. • Within 5 years there were 25 Wal-­‐mart stores earning a totalrevenue of $12.6 million in sales. •…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    WALL MART SCM

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The company was founded by Sam Walton born in 1918. This phenomenal growth of Wal-Mart is attributed to its continued focus on customer needs and reducing cost through efficient supply chain management practices.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Who Is Sam Walton?

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In his army career he soon reached on the rank of captain and when war was over he returned to his private life. In 1945 after leaving military, Walton starts his management of first variety store when he was only 26 years old. He borrowed $20000 from his father-in-law, well-known banker, putting up his $5000 which he saved at the time of working in U.S army to purchase his first Ben Franklin Five-Dime store in Newport, Arkansan. Butler Brother Chain was franchising the store at that time. When Walton franchising Ben Franklin’s store he begin to irritate under the tight conditions of Butler Brother’s. At that time he got momentous and simple ideas, like any retailer, he always look for opportunities of deals with suppliers. And began to search for less-expensive suppliers, and he also found them. Walton believes that if there was an inspiration in business, it always lead to next step. After founding less expensive suppliers he discounted merchandise and understand that he could do better by passing his saving that he achieved, to customers and earned his profit through volume rather than margin. But this idea took power after many…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays