WAL-MART

Scholarly Activity 1 - Unit II - Wal-Mart



Scholarly Activity 1 - Unit II - Wal-Mart

Company Overview and International Operations

Wal-Mart is a corporation functioning in the retail industry. Wal-Mart is one of the Fortune 500 companies and boasts an international presence constituting discount stores for the everyday consumers as well as retail warehouses for businesses. The company began operations in 1962 and has moved on to expand at a near-exponential rate (Chan, 2011). With over two million employees, Wal-Mart is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Besides the United States, Wal-Mart has 5,850 locations operational in Zambia, United Kingdom, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Namibia, Mozambique, Mexico, Malawi, Lesotho, Japan, India, Honduras, Guatemala, Ghana, El Salvador, Costa Rica, China, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Botswana and Argentina. It merits highlighting that this international spread of stores is driven with the employment of 2.2 million associates around the world (Roberts & Berg, 2012).

Effect of Different Countries' Market and Legal System Types on the Company's Operations

Wal-mart operations in 27 countries around the world and this exposes the company to an expansive variety of market types and legal systems. It is perhaps because of the same reason that a large number of scandals pertaining to corporate practices and unethical transgressions have come forth and continue to draw attention on a variety of platforms (Chari & Madhav Raghavan, 2012). These allegations are mostly driven by the rationale that Wal-mart's expansive size and aggressive marketing practices make it easy for the company to cross the line and make it somewhat untouchable. However, Wal-mart continues to struggle in an attempt to abide by the local market and legal systems of each region in which it operates. In fact, in order to do so adequately, Wal-mart expands by moving into each region only after recruiting a workforce constituting individuals from that region. This allows the company to ensure that local (economic and legal) requirements are adequately integrated into the newly expanding arm of the company.

Possible Sources of Political Risk for the Countries of Operation and the Company's Products and Operations - From a Political Consultant's View

Trends in international political systems are continuously changing. However, the increase in momentum in the war against terror has allowed for the formation of global alliances in which countries with stable and unstable political scenarios are easily identifiable. In addition, it is also apparent that developed countries have more stable (and somewhat predictable) political systems; whereas underdeveloped countries present a challenge in this regard (Deru, Kozubal & Norton, 2010). From the perspective of a political assistant for Wal-Mart, it would be advisable for Wal-Mart to ensure that investment is minimized in politically unstable countries. Furthermore, countries with unstable political systems are more likely to experience financial instabilities; thereby placing unwanted pressure on sales. Such countries are generally adversely affected by internal and external conflicts. In countries with internal conflicts, business conduction can suffer extensively when instabilities cause markets to close down. Furthermore, while developing countries may encourage foreign investment in ...