StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Wal-Marts Competitor Environment - Assignment Example

Cite this document
Summary
The following assignment 'Wal-Mart’s Competitor Environment' presents Wal-Mart as a public corporation. It is a multinational corporation operating in the retail industry, headquartered at Bentonville in the United States…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.2% of users find it useful
Wal-Marts Competitor Environment
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Wal-Marts Competitor Environment"

? Wal-Mart: Strategic Management Activities and Strategic Competitiveness (Add (Add (Add Introduction Wal-Mart isthe public corporation chosen for this assignment. It is a multinational corporation operating in the retail industry, headquartered at Bentonville in the United States. This paper will analyze Wal-Mart’s strategic management activities and strategic competitiveness by answering the given questions. Globalization and Technology Globalization and technological developments over the last few decades played a notable role in making Walmart the largest retailer in the world. As Vijaya (2010) points out, globalization enhanced cross border transaction of money, labor, ideas, and cultures; and as a result, Wal-Mart could take advantages of cheap labor and raw material available in overseas countries. Furthermore, globalization benefited the firm to strengthen its workforce by recruiting expertise from around the world. Naturally, availability of cost effective expertise, labor, and raw materials assisted Wal-Mart to increase its productivity by reducing total production costs as well as operating costs. Thus, economical production process enabled the company to offer ‘low prices’, which was the major factor contributed to the organization’s rapid market growth. Globalization also fueled export and import activities and hence propelled circulation of money. Another major impact of globalization is that this process significantly improved international relations and increased interdependence among global nations. Hence, the company could easily enter overseas markets and utilize their resources. Similarly, technological advancements also played its role in making Wal-Mart the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. Technological improvements have notably assisted the company to cut down the number of employees and thereby reduce its total expenditure. It must be noted that today the company generates a notable portion of its sales revenues from internet. Internet has also benefited the organization to improve its operational efficiency. Finally, technological changes have added value to Wal-Mart research and development activities, which in turn assist the company to keep in pace with the changing market trends. Strategic Competitiveness While analyzing Wal-Mart using the Industrial/Organizational model of above average returns, it seems that the corporate could achieve above average returns in many ways. Firstly, the organization has a potential external environment. It is obvious that since Wal-Mart has global presence, it can effectively spread its risk factors and business losses. In addition, it operates under retail industry which is the world’s largest market. While evaluating Wal-Mart’s competitor environment, it is clear that the firm is the industry leader and hence it has an edge over its competitors. Undoubtedly, retail industry’s structural characteristics, including supremacy to discount stores and low cost marketers, would assist Wal-Mart to earn above average returns. The organization follows a low price strategy. Obviously, Wal-Mart has adequate resources such as potential workforce, skilled personnel, and technologically improved production facilities to execute its low price strategy well (Walmart, 2012). The company’s experienced strategic management team is capable of implementing its operational strategies effectively. Unlike the above model, the resource based model of above average returns uses an internal perspective to explain a firm’s strategic competitiveness. It is obvious that Wal-Mart has numerous potential sources including finance, human capital, and materials. In addition, the firm has the capability to use an integrated set of various resources to perform a particular task. This capability greatly benefits the organization to economically and efficiently utilize its various resources. The low cost strategy, good market reputation, and diversified product portfolio provide the firm a range of competitive advantages over its market rivals. As discussed earlier, advantages of operating under retail industry also contribute to the firm’s long term sustainability. These competitive abilities would greatly assist Wal-Mart to frame and implement effective strategies. Hence, the resource based model indicates that the organization could earn above average returns on the strength of its resources, capabilities, and competitive advantages. Vision and Mission Statements Wal-Mart’s vision statement is “to become the worldwide leader in retailing”. This vision statement clearly points out Wal-Mart’s ultimate business objective which the firm has already achieved. When a company sets an extremely big business objective, it would foster employees and other key personnel to effectively contribute their part to the goal accomplishment. Evidently, this type of an inspirational vision statement may stimulate Wal-Mart employees to work hard to fulfill the vision as fast as possible. Admittedly, Wal-Mart’s vision statement has played a significant role in placing the firm on the top of the world’s retail industry within a relatively shorter span of time. “We save people money so they can live better” is the mission statement of Wal-Mart (As cited in Smith, 2012). The mission statement directly reflects the corporation’s fundamental business strategy (low price strategy). As Smith (2012) comments, an individual may come to think that the company is greatly concerned about social welfare. Moreover, this statement may influence an average customer to think about the financial benefits he/she would obtain from purchasing Wal-Mart products. Therefore, the firm’s mission statement has inevitably contributed to its overall corporate success. Effects of Stakeholder Groups Evidences suggest that Wal-Mart’s different stakeholder groups significantly impact the overall success of this organization. Since the company attractively pays its employees and offers extensive incentive programs for them, Wal-Mart employees take efforts to provide customers with good shopping experiences. The firm’s employees specifically try to maintain customer relations, which is the key tool of customer retention. In addition, Wal-Mart employees participate in community volunteering programs and such initiatives assist the organization to obtain good market stature. In short, employees have greatly contributed to the firm’s success. Similarly, stockholders aid the organization to raise funds in times of unexpected contingencies. The strength of stockholder groups makes Wal-Mart one of the biggest organizations in the world in terms of capital resource capabilities. Undoubtedly, huge financial resources have assisted the organization to meet its developmental needs on time. Similarly, other stakeholders including creditors, bankers, and other financial institutions provide financial assistance to the corporation on the strength of its well market reputation. Finally, the company has huge and potential group of loyal customers worldwide; and they help the firm to generate large volume of sales without much promotional effort. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is obvious that globalization and technological advancements have aided Wal-Mart to spread its business worldwide. The industrial/organization model and resource based model indicate that the company has numerous competitive strengths to earn above average returns. Finally, Wal-Mart’s vision statement, mission statement, and different stakeholder groups have significantly influenced the company’s corporate success. References Smith, C. (2012). Can an organization have more than one strategy?. Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-organization-one-strategy-30749.html Vijaya. (2010). Wal-Mart and globalization. Financial Politics, Retrieved from http://financialpolitics.net/2010/12/08/wal-mart-and-globalisation/ Walmart. (2012). Always low prices. Retrieved from http://www.walmart.com/cp/Always-Low-Prices/538350 Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Wal-Marts Competitor Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words, n.d.)
Wal-Marts Competitor Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. https://studentshare.org/management/1454166-wal-marts-competitors-environment
(Wal-Marts Competitor Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
Wal-Marts Competitor Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/management/1454166-wal-marts-competitors-environment.
“Wal-Marts Competitor Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”. https://studentshare.org/management/1454166-wal-marts-competitors-environment.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Wal-Marts Competitor Environment

Walmart Launch Times Retail Industry Assessment

To determine how attractive the discount retailing industry in the United States when Wal-Mart started its business operations back in 1950, Porter's five forces framework will be used in analyzing external business environment.... Wal-Mart - Case Study - Student Number and Number Name of Professor Number of Words: 3,285 Q....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

Analysis of Wal-Mart Organization

Wal-Mart Stores is a multinational corporation that operates in fifteen different countries with approximately 8,500 stores.... Currently, it is the world's largest public corporation as measured by revenue.... In 2010, the company made $421 billion from its warehouse retailers.... hellip; Wal-Mart Stores is a multinational corporation that operates in fifteen different countries with approximately 8,500 stores....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Strategies Used by Wal-Mart to Drive Their Business Today

Due to the nature of its business, Wal-Mart and other retailers are constantly under pressure from NGOs and other activists to render the business more environment friendly and more socially responsible.... Strategies used by Wal-Mart to drive their business today Wal-mart is a global retailer that operates in the US and 27 other international markets with retail sales totaling $409 Bn in financial year 2010....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Business Analysis of Wal-Mart

competitor Analysis The main competitors of Wal-Mart are Target Corporation and Costco.... Wal-Mart is among the top ranked discount stores in USA and it is also leader of the country's retail industry.... he store was the first one to introduce the concept of providing low price goods and services to customers at their convenience by locating its stores nearby customers' residency....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Wal-Marts Sustainability Strategy

The researcher of this essay will make an earnest attempt to critically analyze the challenges facing Walwart international and gives its recommendation on how to overcome these challenges with keen consideration of seafood supply chains.... hellip; It is evidently clear from the discussion that Wal-Mart is a multinational retail chain that started its operation in 1962 in Rogers as a single store with a strategy of reducing their prices compared to other stores thus increasing sales and revenue....
15 Pages (3750 words) Essay

Wal-mart Final paper on Political/Legal forces

The business environment today is constantly changing and has made it difficult to apply just one strategy.... The introduction of equity theory in the workplace might increase tensions within the work environment.... ndirect Environmental Forces: Sociocultural and Economic FactorsSociocultural and economic forces are two indirect forces among Wal-Mart's global environment that directly affect the way the human resource base of the company operates as part of the larger organizational structure (Utterback, 2004)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Competitve Capability

he SWOT analysis, SPACE matrix analysis and BCG matrix provides a glimpse into the internal capabilities of Wal-Mart and the external threats and weaknesses, how to align internal capabilities to external environment and how to leverage a Wal-Mart's strategic business units (Kozami, 2002).... An analysis of the external environment using the Porter's five-factor model suggests that the stiff rivalry in the retail industry remain a key driver for strategic...
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Wal-Marts German Misadventure

The author of this case study entitled "wal-marts German Misadventure" touches upon the Wal-Mart and its global operations in the early 1990s when it opened its first international store in Mexico.... Wal-Mart announced its decision to go global in the early 1990's and The reason to look for international markets were due to the stiff competition from Target and K-mart that adopted aggressive expansion policies and grabbed the market share of Wal-Mart and the realization of the top management of Wal-Mart that greater opportunities are available overseas to tap the potential retail markets (wal-marts German Misadventure)....
15 Pages (3750 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us