The Internal/External Factors of Management – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
In today’s world management must consider a wide variety of factors in order to establish an effective management plan. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world’s largest company and number one retailer, with this success a company this large needs to not only to look internally for solutions to their management objectives, they must also look outside of their business for additional resources. With the increase of technology and the easy access to virtually any information, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. must be prepared to react to the multitude of demands made by consumers and suppliers. The rapid change of the retail industry from brick and mortar stores to Internet purchases Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been able to stay attractive to the buying public. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has accomplished this through a highly sophisticated inventory tracking system that enables the stores, including the Internet, to have in stock exactly what the consumers are looking for. According to Hoover’s Online Wal-Mart Stores, Inc has expanded to about 4,700 stores including about 1,500 discount stores, 1,650 combination discount and grocery stores (Wal-Mart Supercenters in the US and ASDA in the UK) and 532 membership-only warehouse stores (Sam’s Club) (2003). With the introduction of a foreign market their management plan must encompass the rules and regulations of doing business in a foreign country. With the invention of their tracking and identification system, called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has exerted control over their entire inventory and enables the workers to identify and locate merchandise more readily for the customers. E-Commerce has increased the ease of purchasing for consumers; Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has a web site that allows for the ease and convenience of purchasing almost every item in the store over the Internet. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been very innovative in meeting the needs of their clientele, with the Supercenters, it is basically one stop shopping for all of your household and grocery needs, without the hassles of stopping at two stores when you run your errands.
As a highly respected private employer, Wal-Mart is committed to uphold diversity.
Wal-Mart is fully committed to respect their employees...
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...er innovation that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has adopted is its frame delay data network. This allows for Wal-Mart stores to catalog and examine every transaction that is made so that they will be able to keep their finger on the pulse of the customers’ buying patterns. With this they can tract how much of a certain item customers buy and then relay that information on to the supplier. For example, if customers are buying four of the same item, then Wal-Mart can advise the supplier of this information and then the supplier can package the item in groups of four. Through innovation Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has redefined the basic dimension of the retail Industry.
Works Cited
About Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart International.” 8 November 2003. http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstore/Mainabout.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@ Aisner, James E. “Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution.” Harvard Business School
Working Knowledge on the Web. Winter 1999. http://www.e-proximity.com/cream/HBS%20retail.htm
Biesada, A. (2003) Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Hoover’s Online. Retrieved November 8, 2003 from: http://www.hoovers.com/free/co/factsheet.xhtml Dash30. Wal-Mart Takes on The Web. 8 Oct. 2003 .
Upon entering the Wal-Mart store, anywhere in America, one can use predictability because all Wal-mart stores have the same look and offer a “one stop shopping” experience. Shoppers expect the same shopping experience found in one Wal-mart to be available at the same price and quality as the next Wal-mart. All Wal-marts run their business the same way. Calculability simply means quantity over quality. Wal-mart doesn’t say they offer the best brands-they offer everyday low prices and return/refund options when the purchased object doesn’t work, falls apart, or doesn’t meet expectations. Efficiency is what Wal-mart prides itself upon. Convienent parking and wheelchairs for handicapped individuals, 20 items or less checkout, large display signs noting where items are located, and departments are just a few examples of how Wal-mart taps into efficiency. Lastly, Wal-mart uses control in all aspects of a customer’s shopping. The “McDonaldization” of control at Wal-mart has become the norm, and a customer may not even be aware of the control. Walking in, one grabs a shopping cart. One pushes from one area to another, up and down the aisles. One selects purchases and then goes through the checkout line, similar to cattle being feed. The Wal-mart worker is controlled by his blue vest and the constant “swiping” of each SKU
O?Connor, Flannery. ?A Good Man is Hard to Find.? Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2002.
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
“Social construct | Definition of social construct in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries. en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/social_construct. Accessed 9 Dec.
Understanding the changes in the market and the growth of e-commerce prompted the organization to invest heavily in its supply chain management forecasting and management system. The development of a network of distribution centers and Direct Fulfillment Centers to position the company to capitalize on the growing e-commerce market indicate a strong understanding of the need to adapt to changing market forces. The company spent over $300 million on new distribution center facilities in 2014 alone, and continues to expand to maintain efficiency in product movement (Cassidy,
In 1945, Sam Walton opened his first variety store and in 1962, he opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. Now, Wal-Mart is expected to exceed “$200 billion a year in sales by 2002 (with current figures of) more than 100 million shoppers a week…(and as of 1999) it became the first (private-sector) company in the world to have more than one million employees.” Why? One reason is that Wal-Mart has continued “to lead the way in adopting cutting-edge technology to track how people shop, and to buy and deliver goods more efficiently and cheaply than any other rival.” Many examples exist throughout Wal-Mart’s history including its use of networks, satellite communication, UPC/barcode adoption and more. Much of the technology that was utilized helped Sam Walton more efficiently track what he originally noted on yellow legal pads. From the very beginning, he wanted to know what the customers purchased, what inventory was selling and what stock was not selling. Wal-Mart now “tracks on an almost instantaneous basis the ordering, shipment, and delivery of literally every item it sells, and that it requires its suppliers to hook into the system, enabling it to track most goods every step of the way from the time they’re made and packaged in the factories to when they’re carried out store doors by shoppers.” “Wal-Mart operates the world’s most powerful corporate computing system, with a capacity (as of late 1999) of more than 100 terabytes of data (A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes, or roughly the equivalent of 250 million pages of text.).
Albertson’s is planning many new strategies to try, and grab some of the market share that Wal-Mart has taken from them. The main way they plan to do this is though innovative technology. The reason for this is do to the fact that Albertson’s has vigorously tried to offer many perks to its customers, such as substantially better customer service, as well as convenience. Yet even though this may be true. Wal-Mart’s low prices have seemed to be far superior in generating revenue that has translated into enormous amounts of profits. So this is why now Albertson’s figures that if they cannot beat them on price then they will do it through information technology.
Walmart is a retail giant that just about everyone in America has purchased something from them. It is a one stop shop for anything that a person could ever need. Walmart stores can be found anywhere in fact most people are less than an hour drive away from a Walmart store. Walmart’s success has put many companies out of business. The chains success is primarily from low prices and using an information technology system to meet customer demands giving them a competitive advantage. Walmart’s first major use of information technology came in 1975 when the company leased an IBM computer system to track inventory in warehouses and distribution centers. Computers have come a very long way since this time and are used almost everywhere. But in 1975 this was cutting edge technology and gave Walmart the competitive advantage over other retailers. Another thing that Walmart used to be revolutionary in their supply chain was the use of scanning barcodes in 1983. Before barcodes objects had to be read by a skilled cashier. With barcodes all that was needed was a quick scan and the computer would do all the work. This greatly sped up checkout time and made tracking inventory and data collection much faster and easier for both customers and the employees. Since this time it has become an industry standard for products.
It didn't perform an accurate SWOT analysis, but to be fair, who could have seen the rise of Wal-Mart to the position of the world's number-one retailer? Still, as Wal-Mart built new stores in town after town, supported by cutthroat pricing and solid logistics, Kmart's complacency would cost them. Part of the problem was that as Wal-Mart was pouring money into information technology (IT), Kmart's IT budget continued to shrink – not just once, but several years in a row. While Wal-Mart's logistics and supply chain management got sharper, Kmart's stagnated. And while Wal-Mart was able to squeeze more value out of its stores and its systems, Kmart lost ground.
Ethical egoism states that an act is good if and only if it serves self-interest. It is a normative theory holding that people ought to do what is in their self- interest
Psychological egoism is a belief that all humans are selfish even though they appear they are not being selfish. PE is an observation of what in fact happens. It is stating that people even through out of kindness are out of selfishness because they feel pride in themselves for doing the act or because it will increase their statues of being a good person.
From the manufacturers’ warehouse to the shelves, the business must orchestrate a symphony of the right products to the right places at the right times. Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week in retail outlets, online and on mobile devices. The company is able to offer a vast range of products at the lowest costs in the shortest possible time (Chandran, 2001). The main reason for this incredible growth of Walmart is because its distribution centers are highly automated.
The benefits or competitive advantage Wal-Mart derived over the years from its supply chain management practices is also covered. The reason Wal-Mart is ahead of their competition is because they invest in technology in the 1980s. This investment paid off in the long run. Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communication systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country. They have set up own satellite communication in 1983. Employees at the stores have the ‘Magic Wand’ at hand. These barcode scanners allow you to check the prices of items at that particular store by scanned the barcode on the product. This is especially helpful when there is clearance that isn 't always marked and sometimes clearance items are cheaper than they
One of the greatest opportunities for Amazon is an Online Payment System. The online system allows the company to reduce transaction fees and increase ease of use for their customers. Internet sales are increasing at a fast pace. This is a product of increased fuel prices, which make driving to a store less likely, and foreign purchases. This development allows foreign purchases to buy clothing as it becomes more popular abroad. Amazon’s biggest competitors can include retail stores that online stores such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart among others, these can be considered the most dangerous for them since they have strong market share and can be a direct competitor since they attack the same market. Amazon wish to compete in prices, offering
First and foremost, I believe it’s one of the most effective ways to achieve rational happiness. Although it’s not one of the easiest ways to our happiness, it does take some time to reach for and it’s all worthwhile. I am a strong believer that our happiness comes first before others. If we didn’t go for our self-interests, I feel that we would be sad and almost resentful at ourselves and could changes the way we treat others. If my life’s ambition was to become a singer but someone told me that I wouldn’t make it, should I listen to them and break my ideals because of someone else’s opinion? Is there a chance that I’ll fail and have my dreams crushed, what do I do? Should I give up? An example like that would make someone feel doubtful and afraid and eventually will resent that person for holding themselves back from what they wanted to do. Instead, we should just keep striving and going for our goals, regardless of what anyone says. I feel that ethical egoism give you a mental reminder to believe in yourself and overcome any obstacles that come before you. According to Tara Smith from the book Viable Values, She acknowledges that human beings need to flourish because life depends on actions that help sustain a person’s motivation to engage in life-furthering actions such as growth and strength, which is essential to