Introductionhttp://www.ieltstestonline.com/ielts/course/view.php?

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Wal-Mart is a large retail department and grocery store chain. They currently have locations all over the world and rank number one on the Fortune 500 list with revenues over three hundred and fifty billion dollars. Wal-Mart occupies a unique position in our world by virtue of its size, reach and responsibility for the livelihoods of millions of workers and the needs of billions of consumers. The largest employer in the US, 2 million associates in more than 8,400 stores around the world and Wal-Marts serve more than 200 million customers and members each week. Wal-Mart has grown in the US market because it connects itself symbolically to the dominant ideologies of American life. As a matter of approach, Wal-Mart chains are assumed to focus on sales and margins in the short run. Indeed its Everyday Low Pricing format has catapulted it into the leading grocery chain in the U.S and International that was very successful.
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Background

Zannatul Nayeem Anita

Wal-Mart is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and warehouse stores that operates in various formats around the world. It was found in 1962 by Sam Walton Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. From the beginning Sam Waltons guiding philosophy for his stores was to offer consumers a wide selection of goods at a discounted price. The strategy of the company was locating stores in small towns where residents had few options for retail shopping. Wal-Marts success in small towns led to criticism that the stores took business away from small, hometown merchants. When Walton died in 1992, the adjustment to a post-Sam environment proved difficult. Even though Wal-Mart executives had emphasized for years that their company depended on a set of principles and habits more than it did on any one person, Walton's death wound up marking a fateful shift in how the company was perceived. Between 1997 and 2001, the company's stock value increased by over 500 percent, rising by 70 percent in 1997 alone. This undoubtedly helped to mollify employees who'd been unhappy with the slump earlier in the decade.

Wal-Mart Stores Slogan

A slogan is a short, memorable catch phrase, tagline or motto used to to identify a product or company in advertisements. The advertising slogan, or business slogan most associated with Wal-Mart Stores, is: "Wal-Mart. Always low price. Always." Wal-Mart Stores Mission Statement/ Vision Statement Mission Statements and Vision Statements are written for customers and employees of corporations. A Mission Statement can be defined as a sentence or short paragraph written by a company or business which reflects its core purpose, identity, values and principle business aims. The definition for a Vision Statement is a sentence or short paragraph providing a broad, apparitional image of future.

Wal-Mart Stores Mission Statement: "Wal-Marts mission is to help people save money so they can live better."

Strategy of Wal-Mart
1. Corporate Strategy Before analyzing Wal-Marts corporate strategy, it is important to decide what business it is in. For example, if Wal-Mart is in the business of selling consumer goods such as TVs, sheets, clothes, etc then it is pursuing a concentric strategy by entering the food business. However, this changes depending on how you analyze what business Wal-Mart is in. Wal-Mart is in the business of selling everything customers need in their everyday lives. This includes the consumer goods listed above as well as food-service items. Even still, Wal-Mart pursues multiple strategies. Concerning concentration, Wal-Mart continually finds more consumer goods to sell at its stores which can take money from competitors. Additionally, when Wal-Mart entered into the

food market, it quickly consolidated and held to good, saleable products. Wal-Mart never forays too far into a market and only sells what will make it a profit. Recently, Wal-Mart has pursued a conglomerate strategy by starting to sell used cars at some of its stores in Buffalo, New York. Selling cars is an entirely different industry than selling consumer goods. Additionally, it requires a whole newest of expertise that does not come easily. As far as future plans are concerned, Wal-Mart should abandon this strategy and stick to what they do best. Lastly, an argument can be made that Wal-Mart is also pursuing a vertical integration strategy. Wal-Mart has developed its own name brand to sell products called Sams Choice. This puts Wal-Mart into the business of making things like soda, cereal, and dog food. While they still dont grow their own crops or raise their own livestock, it is still a form of vertical integration. Also, Wal-Mart works heavily with its suppliers. This symbiotic relationship can be see as vertical integration due to the level at which Wal-Mart analyzes its suppliers and improves their manufacturing processes, etc 2. Business Strategy
Wal-Mart definitely has the business strategy of Low Cost Leadership. They do not thing to really differentiate themselves from competitors and provide no-frills self-service stores that always provide the lowest prices. Wal-Mart has built enough clout with suppliers that they can dictate the prices and go in and change suppliers manufacturing processes in order to wring out more and more savings for the consumer. Everything that Wal-Mart does from calling suppliers collect to having execs double up in hotel rooms is to save the customer money. While they do try to provide good customer service on to puff low prices, Wal-Marts strength is low-prices. No one has such a supplier and distribution network like Wal-Mart that allows such low prices.

Wal-Marts Business Model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization delivers captures and creates value. Although Johnson et al.(2008) considers only four key elements of the business model, the analysis of Wal-Marts Business Model will follow Osterwalder and Pigneurs Nine Building Blocks.

1. Key activities The key activities which are needed to run Wal-Marts business model are:
1) 2) 3)

Purchasing goods Their delivery Total cost control

Other activities would be to create products that will cover needs of a specific customer segment and to control the brand, which has been developing lately. Wal-Marts technological edge is in its inventory control, logistics, and distribution. The ability to move products place to place quickly and efficiently keeps the costs down as well as the time system in combination with logistics force permits Wal-Mart to have accurate time information of the products in the stores shelves that allows restocking automatically. In addition the logistics involves the suppliers and workforce of 85000 employees, 147 far reaching distribution centers, transportation offices, more than 100.000 tractors and trailers and 8.000 drivers (Wal-Mart logistics facts sheet).

2. Key resources The key resources of Wal-Mart classified in 3 categories. First, the physical resources which are owned by it like stores and logistics. Second its human resources, experienced managers and stores managers, and finally the company culture. Wal-Mart culture is based on restless effort at constant self-improvement, discipline and loyalty. 3. Key partnership Key partnership is a strong buyer-supplier relationship in which suppliers were considered as close partners of Wal-Mart. They also are part of the value chain of each other and it provides suppliers the chance of accessing to a large market. However it made suppliers, who wish to take advantages of its broad market, to keep their prices and costs low and therefore, suppliers give the control of their own business and negotiation advantage to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also creates economies of scale that optimizes its cost structure. 4. Revenue stream

Wal-Mart Revenue Streams that generated from its customer segments are basically come from retail sale, such as music downloading with fixed menu pricing. Wal-Mart also drive revenue from selling its own brand, produces by others to cover a segment not cover by other suppliers. Moreover, it takes advantage of selling goods before paying to its suppliers. 5. Cost structure The Cost structure is cost-driven model since it is focused on minimizing costs wherever it is possible and it is characterized by economies of scale. The expansion of Wal-Mart allowed it to benefit from economies of scale and reducing its cost besides its technology let it to grow and caused to lower its costs; hence, economies of scale at both the chain levels and stores strengthen Wal-Marts advantage, rather than being its root cause. Wal-Marts financial discipline is well known as well as their tendency to pass operating costs to suppliers.

6. Value proposition Wal-Marts value proposition is based on offering Everyday Low Price (EDLP). This is the core of Wal-Marts Business Model, and the rest of the key features of Wal-Marts Business Model are aligned to keep the everyday low price. This proposition implies that the customers do not need to wait for sales to have the best deal possible. Besides, not only the sells convenience is associated by providing the wide range of products and services to choose from, but also with one-stop is possible to make all the shopping needed, from groceries to pharmacy . Wal-Mart customers save time and money. 7. Distribution channel To deliver its value proposition Wal-Mart communicates with and reaches its customer segments with its distribution channels which are owned and direct, and brings higher margin. Wal-Mart also is corresponding with its customers mainly through mass media and other ways which have a low cost, such as internet. 8. Customer relationships & Customer segment Wal-Mart establishes a customer relationship is based on self-service and automated and towards co-creation of some products once it is possible. Wal-Mart tends to reach to the mass market toward mass customization. Wal-Marts customers can be divided into three groups: brand aspirations, people with low incomes who are obsessed with brand; price-sensitive effluents

wealthier shoppers who love deals; and finally value-price shoppers who like low prices and cannot afford much more.

Present Situation of Wal-Mart

The company has expanded rapidly over the past years. With its three thousand seven thousand retail chains located in the US, the retailer has saturated the market. Today, with $288 billion in annual revenues (more than Switzerland's GDP) and over $10 billion in profits, Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation, according to 2005 Fortune 500 list. It operates over 5,000 stores worldwide and employs over 1.6 million people. Wal-Mart USA alone has more than 4,300 stores employing more than 1.4 million associates including Wal-Mart Discount Stores, WalMart Supercenters, Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets and Market side. In 2004 Wal-Mart handled 8.8% of U.S retail sales and the number has since been increased. Meanwhile Wal-Mart International is consisting of more than 4,000 stores and 800,000 employees in 14 different countries.

Ethics of Wal-Mart
This Statement of Ethics is going to introduce you to the types of attitudes and conduct that create an honest, fair, and legal workplace. Each business organization Wal-Mart operates is expected to have a complete set of policies providing guidance to associates for whatever country they are working in. Wal-Mart also publishes several global policies, which are designed to give associates a set of rules that are the same for all locations. This Statement of Ethics is an example of a global policy. If any part of this Statement of Ethics goes against local policies or laws, then the local policy or law must always be followed. Its our responsibility to know all of the local laws and policies that might affect our area of business. If youre not sure about any local laws or policies, please talk to your manager, the Wal-Mart in-country Legal Department, or the Global Ethics Office. Some local laws, practices, or even local customs could be more relaxed than our Statement of Ethics. If you find yourself in this kind of situation, you should always rely on our Statement of Ethics. Since Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, it has always been a Values-based, ethically led company. The values that guide their decisions and leadership are the 3 Basic Beliefs:
1)

Respect for the individual

2) 3)

Service to our customer Striving for excellence

Conclusion
Wal-Mart has done a lot in the past in order to secure its position as a retail market leader. These include offering low prices, offering good customer service and constant innovation. However, lately the company has grappled with low customer traffic. Market saturation in the middle income market segment, poor international performance and bad public relations as a result of their employee practices. The company should adopt the following strategies in order to ensure future growth; adopt penetrative strategies international markets introduce good product packages for products favored by affluent clients and improve health insurance plans within the company. These will go a long way in sustaining the company's positions as the US's retail leader.