WALMART

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Introduction

The largest retail operation is of Wal-Mart, with over $400 billion in annual sales, 4,100 stores in the United States, and 3,500 stores overseas. In 2009, Wal-Mart was the highest-volume grocer in the United States, with approximately $100 billion in sales and a 21 percent share of the grocery market. Wal-Mart also operates several international markets, but these are the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and China. This product range includes both national and private-brand manufacturers. Only time will tell if they are up to the challenge. (Bateman, 2009)

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning of Wal-Mart includes four main types of management activity:

1. Resource allocation: allocation of available funds, skilled personnel, and technological and scientific expertise available within the organization

2. Adapting the environment: It says that actions improve the company relationship with the surrounding external environment i.e. relationship with the public, government, various state agencies

3. Internal coordination of all departments and divisions, this phase includes the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the company to achieve the effective integration of operations within the organization.



Growth Strategy

Its pricing strategy had been Low Prices Every Day, which meant offering customers branded products at a discounted price. But the large size attained by WMT, the stagnation of the economy in the early nineties, coupled with the maturity of the distribution market in the U.S., prompting the company had to find international markets for further growth. (Bateman, 2009)

Competitive Advantages

A company can only get better results than its competitors can if it can establish a difference that can maintain. Their focus is to deliver greater value to their customers, or a value equal to a lower cost, or both. In addition, WMT has achieved it. (Bateman, 2009)

WMT has worked to develop a unique activity that differentiates from other competitors. The main advantage of the company has been the ability to keep prices of their products below those offered by competitors. This has been possible; on the one hand, economies of scale in the purchase of products derived from its large market share, and second, to focus on managing the supply chain. The company has already pioneered the strategic use of information technology, which allowed real-time information sharing with suppliers and achieve maximum efficiency resulting in savings of inventory costs that entails. Wal-Mart also has its own fleet of trucks, while most competitors outsource these functions.

External factors

Wal-Mart has grown rapidly to become the ...