...brothers decided break away and opened their own store in Rogers, Arkansas which was the start of the first Wal-Mart Discount City store. Their approach was to open stores in populations with 5000 to 25000 people. By the late 1960’s the Walton brothers has 18 discount stores and 15 Ben Franklin franchises which became incorporated in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Tell me the history of Wal-Mart). During the 1970’s the Walton’s incorporated many changes to how they do business which laid the foundation to cut cost to gain more control. They implemented a warehouse distribution strategy of constructing their own warehouses so they can buy merchandise in great volume, and positioned its stores 200 square miles from each distribution point. By 1977, Forbes had Wal-Mart ranked #1 in return of equity, return on capital, sales growth, and earnings growth over all other discount and variety stores (Tell me the history of Wal-Mart). Wal-Mart’s continued expanding and in 1978, its stores included a pharmacy, auto service center, a shoe department, and a jewelry division. By 1979 Wal-Mart was in 11 states and sales had skyrocket from $44 million in 1970 to $1.25 Billion by 1979 which became the fastest company to reach to $1 Billion. In 1987 Sam expounded on an idea that he got from a French entrepreneur and referred to it as “Hypermart USA”, which later became known as Wal-Mart Supercenter”. Sam introduced a...
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...Executive Summary When you think of the discount retail industry there is no bigger name than Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has built them into the industry leader in a very competitive market, and they continue to set the bar for every company. But as of late Wal-Mart’s sales growth rate has been slipping, which is causing a major problem for them. For the past few years Wal-Mart has grown accustom to double digit sales growth rates, but recently they have been unable to match their previous success. Now Wal-Mart is faced with the challenge of regaining the success that they once had. In order to recapture these high growth rates it is important to understand what lead Wal-Mart to these high growth rates in the first place. When analyzing Wal-Mart externally you find that its 5 forces tend to have a positive effect on the company. The company has high barriers of entry, a moderate threat of rivalry with Target and Kmart due to its expansion of super centers, and it’s...... Business strategy Business Strategy Analysis of Wal-Mart Sam Walton, a leader with an innovative vision, started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing that it is today. Through his savvy, and sometimes unusual, business practices, he and his associates led the company forward for thirty years. Today, four years after his death, the company is still growing steadily. Wal-Mart executives continue to rely on many of the traditional goals and philosophies that Sam's legacy left behind...
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...1. Introduction. Summarize the current situation facing the firm and other relevant issues. Wal-Mart is an organization which is subject to increasing levels of change and volatility in their business. While it is fact of business life, it also reflects that it drives a relentless increase in the proportion of an organization’s activity that is dedicated to change in meeting the new challenges. Wal-Mart has become one of America's most successful retail giants generating about ROI was 18.6% and 19.2% for fiscal 2012 and 2011, respectively. (Wal-Mart Annual Report, 2012). It is well know as the leader in thinking outside the box, anticipating market opportunities and executing effective strategies to capitalize on them. It has over 10,800 stores worldwide. Businesses have to face the challenge of too many competitors, partly originated by the globalisation, all competing for same objective of making highest profit. So, increasingly companies are not merely asking themselves the management question of ‘Are we doing the right?’ but are having to regularly ask ‘Are we still doing it right?’ They have been seeking a more holistic means of doing this than traditional means of delivering products and services to the customers. In a volatile world, decision makers need options on the future and the ability to change direction as strategic opportunities. Although, business as usual (BAU) performance change is providing a short term success but they are typically faced with a less...
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...Mittal (Roll no: EPGP‐04A‐0 026) Kannan S (Roll no: EPG GP‐04A‐044) Mahesh R Rajesham (Roll no: EPGP‐04 A‐115) Mansi Sha arma (Roll no o : EPGP‐04 A‐ ‐051) Dr. Priyan nka Mallick (R Roll no : EPGP‐04 A‐068) Sandeep G Gawde (Roll n no : EPGP‐04 A‐030) SCM Project – Retail Supply Chain at Wal‐Mart Table of Contents 1. 2. I. II. 3. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3 About Wal‐Mart .................................................................................................................................... 4 Operating Divisions ........................................................................................................................... 4 Competition and Regional Alignments ............................................................................................. 8 Components of Supply Chain Management (SCM) ............................................................................ 11 A. Main Elements ................................................................................................................................ 11 4. Wal‐Mart’s Method of Managing the Supply Chain ........................................................................... 13 A. Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 13 B. Technology Contribution to overall efficiency ...
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...Chapter 2 IT Infrastructure and Support Systems IT at Work IT at Work 2.1 Western Petro Controls Costs with its Trade Management System For Further Exploration: Which processes are being automated and why? PetroMan is a comprehensive trading system that triggers buying and selling activities and integrates contract management, risk management, accounting, and pipeline scheduler. Using the PetroMan, the company can place bids and automatically capture a contract for refined products; and schedule and confirm deliveries in pipelines. PetroMan also handles the resale of fuels, including electronic invoicing and a credit module that checks and tracks a customer’s credit risk. This tracking is done by hedging large purchasing contracts by selling futures on the New York Mercantile (Commodities) Exchange. By hedging, the company protects itself against the risk of a large drop in oil prices. The software is plugged directly into the primary commodity exchanges--automating the process. Why is controlling risk important? By hedging, the company protects itself against the risk of a large drop in oil prices. The software is plugged directly into the primary commodity exchanges--automating the process. Does PetroMan provide Western Petro with a competitive advantage? Explain. Competitive advantage is defined as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving Competitive Advantage strengthens and positions...
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...The Grassroots Battle: Wal-Mart Supercenter Rosemead Stephen J.J. McGuire, Christine Chueh, Tia Mao & Isela Mercado California State University, Los Angeles September 11, 2008 Wal-Mart, founded in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, was the largest retail chain in the world. Its growth was derived from a wide range of competitive advantages, such as Wal-Mart’s sophisticated use of information technology to keep track of and reorder items, the use of “Just-in-Time” shipments of merchandise from distribution centers that eliminated the need for costly in-store inventory storage2, and the sheer economies of scale it achieved compared to its rivals. Wal-Mart also exploited “economies of density” to make the most of its centralized distribution hubs.3 These advantages, combined with its “Every Day Low Price” strategy, enabled Wal-Mart to serve its target market, of which the residents of Rosemead, California were typical. In 2003, Wal-Mart’s attempt to establish a Supercenter 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles in the city of Inglewood, California was stopped by a community grassroots effort to keep the retailer out. Wal-Mart then diverted its expansion plan to the nearby city of Rosemead, where a new Supercenter would benefit from two Wal-Mart distribution centers within a cluster of ten neighboring Wal-Mart stores. In September 2004, the Rosemead City Council voted in favor of Wal-Mart’s plans to open its first Supercenter in Los Angeles country, alienating many residents who felt their...
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...bartering and negotiating online. 8. Define m-commerce and explain its role as a market mechanism. 9. Discuss competition in the digital economy. 10. Describe the impact of e-marketplaces on organizations and industries. CHAPTER Content How Blue Nile Inc. Is Changing the Jewelry Industry 2.1 E-Marketplaces 2.2 Types of E-Marketplaces: From Storefronts to Portals 2.3 Transactions, Intermediation, and Processes in E-Commerce 2.4 Electronic Catalogs and Other Market Mechanisms 2.5 Auctions as EC Market Mechanisms 2.6 Bartering and Negotiating Online 2.7 E-Commerce in the Wireless Environment: M-Commerce and L-Commerce 2.8 Competition in the Digital Economy and Its Impact on Industries 2.9 Impacts of EC on Business Processes and Organizations Managerial Issues Real-World Case: Wal-Mart Leads RFID Adoption Appendix 2A: Build-to-Order Production ISBN: 0-558-13856-X 42 Electronic Commerce 2008: A Managerial Perspective, by Efraim Turban, David King, Judy McKay, Peter Marshall, Jae Lee, and Dennis Viehland. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. M02_TURB3315_05_SE_C02.QXD 9/4/07 7:54 PM Page 43 EC Application HOW BLUE NILE INC. IS CHANGING THE JEWELRY INDUSTRY Blue Nile Inc. (bluenile.com), a pure-play...
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...For the exclusive use of S. WANG 9-704-027 REV: JULY 20, 2004 GUNNAR TRUMBULL LOUISA GAY Wal-Mart in Europe “Never resist change… We have to be able to place a store or club side-by-side with the competition and beat them every time.” —!David Glass, Director and Chairman of the Board, Wal-Mart1 “In Germany, we know how retail is spelled.” —!Holger Wenzel, Director, German Retail Federation Introduction “What are the 10 worst things we can do to fail?”2 This was how Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, summarized Wal-Mart’s approach to working in Germany. Wal-Mart had entered the German retail market in 1997, with the acquisition of the failing German retail chain Wertkauf, and had quickly encountered problems. Wal-Mart’s EveryDay Low Price (EDLP) guarantee, inventory control, and efficient distribution strategy, so strong in the United States, had each been a source of headaches. Wal-Mart went through protracted struggles with labor unions, with suppliers, and with local zoning boards. It also weathered a major pricing scandal, had been fined for failing to return used bottles to producers, and, in a case that was on appeal at Germany’s constitutional court, faced a 330,000 euro fine for failing to release financial data for Wal-Mart Germany. This was not the first time that Wal-Mart International had run into problems with overseas expansion. It had quickly pulled out of Indonesia after a disappointing ‘test project’ in the early 1990s. Yet in most cases, time had worked...
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........4 VISION STATEMENT................................................................................................................................5 MISSION and OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................................5 COMPANY SUMMARY................................................................................................................................6 OWNERSHIP....................................................................................................................................................6 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE..........................................................................................................7 HISTORY OF WAL-MART..........................................................................................................................8 INDUSTRY ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................9 MARKETING ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................................10 MARKET SEGMENT....................................................................................................................................11 MARKET SHARE.....................................................................................................................................13 DOMESTIC COMPETITORS 14 INTERNATIONAL...
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...AutoNation: Now Offering Navigational Service Plans and Agreements Cornelius L Davis (D01407581) Keller Graduate School of Business University Marketing Management MM522 Professor Lynn Szostek 09/11/2011 AutoNation: Now Offering Navigational Service Plans and Agreements Executive Summary AutoNation hired our firm, Cornel’s Strategic Marketing Incorporation to develop a marketing plan to sell global positioning systems (GPS) and offer an additional service program to service GPS systems. Cornel’s Strategic Marketing Incorporation has been in business since 1956 and has provided marketing plans to all types of businesses with great success. The following market plan sets the foundation to a successful project deployment. AutoNation is the top automotive retail industry with a strong brand name. Applying a new service for GPS systems will enhance the operation and provide an extra service to its customers. The additional service is in-line with AutoNations mission objectives. The GPS system is a hot commodity that gives customers an additional feature and benefit. Establishing a partnership with the top GPS manufacturers (TomTom, Garmin, and Magellan) increases the success rate of the marketing plan. Then the additional servicing programs of extended warranty, replacement program, upgrade program, installation, and set-up gives an added incentive with competitive pricing. Strategic development of the plan identified strengths and weaknesses. The strengths are magnified...
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...Little more than three years ago, you had probably never heard of Harmonix. In 2005, the video game design studio released Guitar Hero, which subsequently became the fastest video game in history to top $1 billion in North American sales. The game concept focuses around a plastic guitar-shaped controller. Players press colored buttons along the guitar neck to match a series of dots that scroll down the TV in time with music from a famous rock tune, such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Players score points based on their accuracy. In November 2007, Harmonix released Rock Band, adding drums, vocals, and bass guitar options to the game. Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million units with a $169 price tag (most video games retail at $50 to $60). In 2006, Harmonix’s founders sold the company to Viacom for $175 million, maintaining their operational autonomy while providing them greater budgets for product development and licensing music for their games. Harmonix’s success, however, did not come overnight. The company was originally founded by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995, focused around some demo software they had created in grad school and a company vision of providing a way for people without much musical training or talent to experience the joy of playing and creating music. The founders believed that if people had the opportunity to create their own music, they would jump at the chance. Their software, which they eventually dubbed The...
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...Little more than three years ago, you had probably never heard of Harmonix. In 2005, the video game design studio released Guitar Hero, which subsequently became the fastest video game in history to top $1 billion in North American sales. The game concept focuses around a plastic guitar-shaped controller. Players press colored buttons along the guitar neck to match a series of dots that scroll down the TV in time with music from a famous rock tune, such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Players score points based on their accuracy. In November 2007, Harmonix released Rock Band, adding drums, vocals, and bass guitar options to the game. Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million units with a $169 price tag (most video games retail at $50 to $60). In 2006, Harmonix’s founders sold the company to Viacom for $175 million, maintaining their operational autonomy while providing them greater budgets for product development and licensing music for their games. Harmonix’s success, however, did not come overnight. The company was originally founded by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995, focused around some demo software they had created in grad school and a company vision of providing a way for people without much musical training or talent to experience the joy of playing and creating music. The founders believed that if people had the opportunity to create their own music, they would jump at the chance. Their software, which they eventually dubbed The...
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...SEARS Marketing Plan Executive Summary Sears Holding Corporation is the fourth largest retailer in the United States and Canada. Its subsidiaries include Sears, Roebuck and Co. as well as K-Mart. The closing of the merger between Sears and K-Mart took place on March 24, 2005. Sears has more than 4,000 retail stores across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Sears offers products and services through over 2,700 branded and affiliated stores. Sears operates 894 broad-line stores and 1,354 specialty stores. Sears’ broad-line stores are mall-based locations. The specialty stores include Sears Hometown Stores that are mostly independently owned, Sears Home Appliance Showrooms, Sears Hardware Stores, Sears Auto Centers, and The Great Indoor Stores (Community, n.d.). Sears is the leading retailer in home appliance, tools, lawn and garden, electronics, and automotive repair and maintenance. They are also the largest home service provider and answers over 11 million service calls a year (About, n.d.). Sears’ values are built upon customer service and the company is committed to quality service and products. Sears aims to build lifetime relationships and trust with its customers. The Company prides itself on having a diverse customer base and values the customer’s individualities. As stated on the corporate website “Everything we do starts and ends with the customer.” (Diversity, paragraph 3). Sears also holds expectations from their employees. The Company values...
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...current strategy Balance Scorecard 16-17 Porter’s Generic strategies 17 rEcommendations vi Objectives and strategic actions 19-21 Evaluation 22- 23 Conclusion 24-26 Bibliography Executive Summary Sears, once the leader of the retail industry, is now facing financial troubles and is relegated to the 10th position in the market (Store org, 2011). Even after the merger with K-Mart, the retail conditions have not seemed to improved, but in fact, Sears Holding’s financial reports continued to reflect loss. Investor confidence in Sears Holding and its SBUs has been consistently declining over the past few years, due to Sears’ poor performance. Consequently the company has been looking for ways to improve their performance through expansion into financial services and specialty stores. The outcome of these ventures has been unsuccessful, especially in the sales of soft...
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...26/05/2005 14:05 Page 563 section 4 case studies cases 4.1 Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure 4.2 Handl Tyrol: Market Selection and Coverage Decisions of a Medium-sized Austrian Enterprise 4.3 Blair Water Purifiers to India 4.4 A Tale of Two Tipples 4.5 Kellogg’s Indian Experience 4.6 Strategic Alliances in the Global Airline Industry: from Bilateral Agreements to Integrated Networks 4.7 GN Netcom in China 4.8 IKEA: Entering Russia 4.9 The ‘David Beckham’ Brand 563 571 574 583 586 590 594 599 604 case 4.1 Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure I don’t think that Wal-Mart did their homework as well as they should have. Germany is Europe’s most pricesensitive market. Wal-Mart underestimated the competition, the culture, the legislative environment. — Steve Gotham, retail analyst, Verdict Retail Consulting, October 20021 We screwed up in Germany. Our biggest mistake was putting our name up before we had the service and low prices. People were disappointed. — John Menzer, head of Wal-Mart International December 20012 ‘Don’t look now:’ low prices all year round! With thanks to Walmart 563 IntMk-CStud-4.qxd 26/05/2005 14:06 Page 564 section 6 case studies section 4 German blues For the world’s largest retailing company, Wal-Mart, Inc., the German market was proving difficult to crack. By 2003, even after five years of having entered Germany, Wal-Mart was making losses. Though Wal-Mart did not reveal these figures, analysts estimated losses of around...
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