Chap. 1 Walmart's History

Chap 1 Walmart's History

"We save people money so they can live better"

Sam Walton opened his first store in 1950. His vision was to keep prices as low as possible. Even if his margins weren't as fat as competitors, he figured he could make up for that . 

In the early 1960s, Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. The company continued to grow, going public in 1970 and adding more stores every year. In 1990, Wal-Mart surpassed key rival Kmart in size. Two years later, it surpassed Sears.

Walton continued to drive an old pickup truck and share budget-hotel rooms with colleagues on business trips, even after Wal-Mart made him very rich. He demanded that his employees also keep expenses to a bare minimum -- a mentality that is still at the heart of Wal-Mart culture more than a decade after Walton's death. The company has continued to grow rapidly after his death in 1992 and now operates four retail divisions -- Wal-Mart Supercenters, Wal-Mart discount stores, Neighborhood Market stores and Sam's Club warehouses.

Michael Terry Duke currently is the   Ceo of Walmart. He became the Ceo in 2009.

Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people. Wal-Mart had sales of 421.849 billion in its most recent fiscal year, which ended January 31, 2011. By comparison, the second-largest retailer in the country, Home Depot, posted sales of  $67.997 billion , and sears 22.937 billion .

• Wal-Mart employ's 2.1 million people. In contrast, Home Depot has 321,000  employee's.

Walmart mission statement

Walmart  mission statement

 "We save people money so they can live better."

A mission statement is considered a statement of the firm's business based on a careful anaylsis of benefits sought by present and potential customers and an analysis of existing and anticipated environmental conditions.

“If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.”

These are rules that Walmart made up to help establish their mission

1) Open Door Policy - Managers doors are open to employees for help at all levels .

2) Sundown Rule - Answering employee, customer, and supplier questions on the same day the questions are received

3) Grass Roots Process - Capturing suggestions and ideas from the sales floor and front lines

4) 3 Basic Beliefs & Values - Respect for the Individual, Service to our Customers, Striving for Excellence

5) 10-Foot Rule - Making eye contact, greeting, and offering help to customers who come within 10 feet

6) Servant Leadership - Leaders are in service to their team

7) Wal-Mart Cheer - An actual structured chant that was created by founder Sam Walton to lift morale every morning

Chap. 2 Strategic Planning for Competitive

Chapter 2 Strategic Planning for Competitive


Walmarts Strategic planning is the managerial process of creating and maintaining a fit between the organizations objectives and resources and the evolving market opportunities.

Save Money. Live Better.

The first of the three initiatives is called Save Money, Live Better. This initiative has a number of components that Wal-Mart is following.

• Price Leadership – The Company is well known for its “Every Day Low Pricing”, but Wal-Mart is aiming to give the consumer greater value for each product category. By achieving price leadership Wal-Mart hopes to ward off attempts by other retailers such as Target from gaining market share.
• Consumables – This component is an area where Wal-Mart are looking to reduce outlay. Changes will be made in promotional cadence, seasonal advertising and in store signage.
• Private Label – One area where Wal-Mart can increase revenue is to expand their private label categories. The current economic climate has consumers looking to save money and the value of Wal-Mart’s private label products should be good for the consumer as well as the company.
• Integrated Brand Communication – Although Wal-Mart is looking to reduce the overall number of suppliers and products, the company will be looking to remaining vendors to increase co-branded advertising campaigns.
• Leverage Selling General and Administrative Expenses (SG&A) – The Company can ask suppliers to introduce efficiencies in the transportation of items. This can be the supplier to the distribution center, distribution center to the store and also within the store.

Win. Play. Show.

This initiative sees Wall-Mart optimizing the products in each of its stores. Reducing the number of products, and perhaps reducing the number of overall suppliers, Wal-Mart can encourage suppliers to reduce prices. It also produces an opening for private label products and subsequently increased revenue. With regards to product optimization, the plan is to put each of the product categories into one of three buckets; win, play or show.

• Win – This is the top priority categories for Wal-Mart. With these products the company aims to gain market share, be first to market on all new products, lead with price and value, as well as stocking an assortment of items.
• Play – These are strategic categories. Wal-Mart will be aiming to grow these categories, but using a balance growth and profit in the context of overall market performance. Vendors who find themselves with products in this area should be looking to aggressively market to Wal-Mart so that their items are not removed from store shelves.
• Show – This category is where Wal-Mart can reduce the number of products they stock, but not exit the category all together. For example, Wal-Mart has decided to go from four plastic food storage bag brands in its stores to only two. Pactiv Corp.'s Hefty and Clorox's Glad brand products have been removed from store shelves, leaving SC Johnson's Ziploc and Wal-Mart's own Great Value private label the only products to be displayed.

Chap. 3 Ethics and Social Responsibility

Chap  3 Ethics and Social Responsibility

Walmart has a Global  Ethic Office it was formed for stakeholders (associates,customers,suppliers and other companies that they do business with) to make sure that the companies moral principles or values generally govern the conduct of Walmart's standard.They provide a confidential  reporting system for violations of their staetment of ethics.

To see Statement of Ethics Click link below:
Walmart's Statement of Ethics

Guiding Principles

• Always act with integrity.
• Lead with integrity, and expect others to work with integrity.
• Follow the law at all times.
• Be honest and fair.
• Respect and encourage diversity, and never discriminate against anyone.
• Work, actions, and relationships outside of your position with the company should be free of any conflicts of interest.
• Ask your manager or the Global Ethics office for help if you have any questions about our Statement of Ethics, or if you face an ethical problem.
• Inform the Global Ethics office about any suspected violations of our Statement of Ethics.
• Reveal and report all information truthfully, without manipulation or misrepresentation.
• Cooperate with and maintain the private nature of any investigation of a possible ethics violation.
• When involved in an ethics investigation, you should reveal and report all information truthfully. You should present all the facts you are aware of without personal opinion, bias, or judgment.

Chap. 4 Marketing environment

Chap 4 Marketing environment

The Marketing environment refers to the factors for  environmental managment when a company implements straergies , that attempt to shape the external environment ,within which it operates, through ethics ,pricing,competition,and expansion...


Strategic
Walmart marketing environment uses the five force Analysis that was first created by Harvard Professor Micheal Porter...

1. Intensity of rivalry amongst existing competitors
2. Threat of entry by new competitors
3. Pressure from substitute products
4. Bargaining power of buyers (customers)
5. Bargaining power of suppliers 

 Walmart uses rival methods against their competitors, like the fixed cost method this casues companies to sell more products, to cover cost this increases market competition. Product differentiation, a method the company uses by, making the product more attractive for a particular target market,.having new competitors in the market rivalry usually increases and profitability falls .Having new competition, can be a good or bad thing for Walmart right now they are competing ,with Target and Kmart stores, there are  new competitors.Walmart builds it marketing environment mostly  through their discount prices and their quality goods and services.

Chap. 5 Develpoing A Global Vision

Chap 5 Develpoing A Global Vision

Walmart's President and CEO Mike Duke has laid out four.r strategies .He said Walmart is poised to deliver on Sam Walton's vision of giving "the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better life." The strategies are:

1. Become a truly global company
2. Understand the business challenges that retailers will face and solve
them
3. Play an even bigger leadership role on social issues that matter to our
customers
4. Keep our culture strong everywhere.


"Our results demonstrate the underlying strength of our business and our strategies of growth, leverage and returns," said Duke. "But as proud as we are of our recent performance, future success is never guaranteed. I want all of you to be able to say that at this moment Walmart committed to being a truly global company and began building the Next Generation Walmart."

In order to be a more global company, Duke discussed the need to serve customers as a local store, share best practices and leverage Walmart's global supply chain. He also stressed the importance of talent: "Just over the next five years, we'll create 500,000 jobs around the world. We need to recruit the best talent and identify the best talent in our ranks. Then we need to develop leaders and help them become global citizens."
With the company's plans for future growth,He said. Duke sees Walmart's culture as a competitive advantage and one that needs to stay strong globally. "Our culture is who we are. It isn't just words written on a wall at the Home Office or stapled to the bulletin board in the back room of a store. It makes us special. It sets us apart from the competition. And it appeals to people everywhere. So wherever we go and whatever changes we may make, we must keep our culture strong," said Duke. "I truly believe the retailer that respects individuals, that puts customers first, that strives for excellence, that is trusted will win the future."

Walmart announced that its Board of Directors approved a new repurchase program that authorizes the company to repurchase $15 billion of its shares. This program replaces the previous $15 billion program, which was announced , and had approximately $4.7 billion of remaining authorization. Under the program, repurchased shares are constructively retired and returned to unissued status.