WAL-MART CASE STUDY

Wal-Mart Case Study

Table of Contents

1INTRODUCTION3

2INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: PESTEL FRAMEWORK4

2.1Political Factors4

2.2Economical Factors5

2.3Social/Cultural Factors6

2.4Technological Factors7

2.5Environmental Factors7

2.6Legislative Factors8

3INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: PORTER'S FIVE FORCES9

3.1Threat of New Entrants9

3.2Bargaining Power of Suppliers10

3.3Bargaining Power of Customers11

3.4Threat of Substitutes12

3.5Bargaining Power of Competitors12

4CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS13

4.1Branding and Reputation13

4.2IT Integration15

4.3Supplier Management16

5ANALYSIS OF ASSETS, COMPETENCE AND CULTURE18

5.1SWOT Analysis18

5.2Core Competence19

5.3Cultural Web22

6WAL-MART'S STRATEGIC OPTIONS: GENERIC STRATEGIES23

7MARKET OBJECTIVES AND SCHEMES IMPLEMENTATION25

8CONCLUSION28

REFERENCES30

Wal-Mart Case Study

Introduction

The food and drink retail part represents the largest industry in the UK, supplying employment for over three million people in prime output, manufacturing and retailing. In 2003 retail accounted for 9% of whole domestic product (Datamonitor, 2003). In recent years UK shopping centres have arrive under increased scrutiny over their treatment of suppliers, especially of own-label goods, yet the development of strategic supply systems has been an integral part of most shopping centre schemes for the past decade.

The report below provides an insight into the supermarket company, Wal-Mart, with emphasis on its external environment analysis and company's analysis of resources, competence and culture. Two future strategic options are proposed in considers to the assets founded strategies.

Wal-Mart is one of the largest food retailers in the world, operating around 2,318 stores and employing over 326,000 people. It provides online services through its subsidiary, Wal-Mart.com. The UK is the company's largest market, where it operates under four banners of Extra, Superstore, Metro and Express. The business deals nearly 40,000 food goods, including apparel and other non-food lines. The company's own-label goods (50 per hundred of sales) are at three grades, worth, normal and finest. As well as convenience produce, numerous shops have gas stations, becoming one of Britain's biggest unaligned gasoline retailers. Other retailing services offered include Wal-Mart Personal Finance.

Industry Analysis: Pestel Framework

Political Factors

Operating in a globalized environment with stores around the globe (Wal-Mart now operates in six countries in Europe in addition to the UK; the Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Poland. It furthermore operates in Asia: in South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan), Wal-Mart's presentation is highly leveraged by the political and legislative conditions of these nations, including the European amalgamation (EU).

For paid work legislations, the government encourages retailers to supply a blend of job possibilities from flexible, lower-paid and locally-based jobs to highly-skilled, higher-paid and centrally-located jobs (Balchin, 1994). Also to rendezvous the demand from population categories such as scholars, working parents and older citizens. Wal-Mart understands that retailing has a great impact on jobs and people factors (new store developments are often seen as destroying other jobs in the retail sector as traditional stores go out of business or are forced to cut costs to compete), being an inherently local and labour-intensive sector. Wal-Mart employs large numbers of; student, disabled and elderly workers, often paying them lower rates. In an commerce with a normally high employees revenue, these workers offer a higher grade of commitment and therefore represent attractive employees.

Economical Factors

Economic factors are of concern to Wal-Mart, because they are likely to influence demand, costs, prices and ...