Wal-Mart Strategic Analysis

Identify Wal-Mart’s corporate mission.

According to the Wal-Mart’s 2008 annual report from 22 Oct 2008, their mission statement is "We save people money so they can live better".

Identify what you believe the organization’s strategic mission is.

I believe in a strategic sense that Wal-Mart has chosen to make their stores the "one stop shop" for everything the common American household needs. To do this, they have developed strategically over the years by growing from their initial platform of "Wal-mart" (offering common retail merchandise at the lowest price available in a given area) to the stores they have today, which are all-inclusive supercenters that sell groceries, electronics, apparel, home improvement, pharmacy, automotive, and the list goes on. In doing so, they have strategically improved their economies of scale, which further improves their ability to be a low cost leader. Additionally, with a seemingly insurmountable foothold in the US market, they have expanded their strategy around the world to improve sales and buying power from suppliers. According to the text, while all of this financially based strategic maneuvering has been happening, they have also worked to improve the environment through waste reduction efforts, their image through revised pay and benefits to their associates, and their overall public perception through disaster relief efforts and revitalization of empty stores in underdeveloped areas of the country.

Have they changed their mission to meet changing needs?

While their mission hasn’t changed much over the years, they way they meet that mission has changed in my opinion. First, I remember the "buy America" push in its stores when I was younger. While I was too young to really understand what it meant, I see now how that strategy has changed in an effort to keep prices low; there are no more "buy America" signs in the stores, and their haven’t been in quite some time because, in order to be the low cost leader, they have to get their merchandise as cheaply as possible in order to "save people money so they can live better".

Additionally, their primary focus in the early years was to get stores everywhere they could to get their name out there and establish their market share. As I mentioned before, they have since expanded globally as a retail chain in an effort to expand influence and reduce the cost of goods sold. In doing so, they have attempted to improve the quality of the goods they sale to compete against Target, Kohl’s, and the like, which in effect furthers their mission of saving people money while also providing them value.