...Wal-Mart- A Case Study of MIS Strategy Walden University Wal-Mart – A Case Study of MIS Strategy Management information system is all about people using technology to work with information as they support the organization in its quest for a competitive advantage (Haag & Cummings, 2008, p. 29). Researchers and authors have discussed management information systems and technology over the decades. The concepts of competitive advantage, technology, outsourcing etc. have been theorized, yet discussion on the subject matter continues. While MIS strategy formulation has seen advancement, organizations are evolving and constantly changing their operating models. An example of such organization is Wal-Mart, the global retail giant. This research seeks to pin-point Wal-Mart’s key management information system strategy, while providing a deeper understanding of the organization’s management information systems strategy and its impacts. Further it aims to investigate knowledge management, e-commerce strategy, and the impact of database management which are aspects that can be incorporated into the MIS strategy formulation. To achieve this objective the literature survey was conducted to explore available published papers in the sphere of IS/IT strategy formulation. Considering that the applicability of information systems and technology is mission critical, the research design focused on the qualitative approach. The primary method of data collection was through semi-structured...
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...Case Study: Wal-Mart in China (2012) In 1996, China’s national economy was growing at a rapid pace. The gross domestic product reached over US$1064.4 billion, an increase of 9.7% over the previous year. To further increase and attract foreign investment, the Chinese government increased its number of experimental, special economic-zoned cities in which foreigners could operate a business. There were, however, restrictions set forward by the government, in that all foreign businesses would have to be in a joint venture or other type of cooperative agreement with at least one Chinese partner, with that Chinese partner getting a stake greater than 51%. In August 1995, Wal-Mart, the great American retain chain and Middle America success story, arrived in China, establishing a joint venture with Shenzhen International Fiduciary Investment Co, Ltc, China. In 1996, Wal-Mart opened its first supercentre and a Sam’s Club in the special economic zone of Shenzhen. In 2007, Wal-Mart acquired a 35% stake in Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese-owned chain of retail supercentres operating in the Middle Kingdom. By 2010, Wal-Mart’s presence in China grew to 189 units in 101 Chinese cities, with the creation of over 50,000 local jobs. By 2012, the company nearly doubled its presence with 370 stores in 140 cities. As the U.S. and European economies slumped in late 2011 and into 2012, the world’s number-two economy became an even more important growth market. In the first quarter of 2012, China’s...
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...Wal-Mart has become the world’s largest company because of visionary leaders and superb management. Technology has also played a big part in Wal-Mart’s success. Although they have lacked in the e-commerce area, their internal information systems has paved the way for minimizing errors. From managing inventory to managing productivity, Wal-Mart has soared to great heights. One of Wal-Mart’s goals is to be merchants first and technologists second. Wal-Mart has been a responsible and ethical company and has very few issues since their inception. Wal-Mart has always been at the forefront in hiring individuals with disabilities and handicaps. They have been an equal opportunity employer since it has been monitored and offer additional insurance to veterans and seniors. Wal-Mart provides intranet technology to all of their employees so they can view hours worked health benefits available, family and friends’ discounts available, and payroll deductions. By offering this, Wal-Mart is able to save money on administration costs. Wal-Mart stores are well known for promoting within the family (Wal-Mart employees). The company uses technology to organize management training programs for interested employees. The employees are able to look at job postings within the organization apply accordingly. Wal-Mart uses the intranet to provide information to the employees of the skills needed. By organizing the workforce as such, Wal-Mart is able to assemble a workforce by allowing the...
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...2. What are Wal-Mart’s Competitive Advantages? Wal-Mart’s strategy is based on ensuring customer satisfaction and high-volume sales by offering a diverse range of products at low price and with relatively good service. A key factor underpinning the phenomenal growth and success of Wal-Mart has been the way in which it has matched its internal resources and capabilities (what it does well) with its external environment (what the market demands and what the competitors offer) to satisfy customer needs, maximise revenues for shareholders and innovate and diversify ahead of the competition. Stalk, Evans & Shulman (1992: 57) maintain that Wal-Mart epitomises “capabilities-based competition”. Competencies are the collective learning, technologies and culture in an organisation which arise through the integration of diverse production skills, harmonisation of technologies, and open communication and commitment across organisational boundaries. Core competencies enable access to wide variety of markets, add customer value, and are difficult to imitate and thus constitute a source of competitive advantage (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990). Wal-Mart’s competitive advantages include: • Sophisticated logistics system – Wal-Mart’s internal capabilities in inventory management and distribution have played a key role in maintaining its ability to continuously deliver on its CVP of ensuring the maximum availability and accessibility of goods, being trustworthy, and ensuring ‘everyday low prices’. Supply...
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...Wal-Mart Online Wal-Mart is one of the largest companies in America. It is definitely the largest retailer, both in terms of the number of stores (8,970 worldwide in 2011) and the level of sales ($419 billion from the 2011 Annual Report). By pushing suppliers to continually reduce costs, Wal-Mart is known for pursuing low prices and the stores often attract customers solely in-terested in lower prices. With Wal-Mart’s expansion into groceries, the company has be-come the largest retail grocer in America. Even by 2002, over 100 million Americans visit a Wal-Mart store in a given week (Press Action 2002). Yet, Wal-Mart has struggled in the online world. The company has tried several approaches to selling physical and digital products online. From electronics to books, music, and movie rentals, the company has an-nounced many different online stores. Wal-Mart has struggled with most of its attempts, while Amazon continues to grow and expand in e-commerce sales. Although Amazon has a fraction of the total sales of Wal-Mart, Amazon is substantially larger in online sales. Which raises the ultimate question of what Wal-Mart is doing wrong, or what it needs to do to get a larger share of online sales. Background Many articles and business cases have been written about Wal-Mart. Most customers are probably familiar with the store and the overall concepts, but a considerable amount of work takes place to manage the large inventory, suppliers, pricing, customers, and employ-ees. Wal-Mart...
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...Wal- Mart Jose Vasquez MGT 230 MAY 20, 2014 Melanie Behunin Wal- Mart In a variety of business environments around the world, four management functions are usually found. The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Planning occurs within these functions of a business, and it helps to deliver strategic value. Organizing will build a dynamic organization and leading will mobilize people. Controlling is part of learning and changing as the organization grows. All four functions of management are the key concept to effective management. Internal and external factors influence the decision-making process that affects management. The competitive landscape is constantly changing; therefore, managers must consider people and businesses around the world. These are used from top-level management to frontline or organizational management. Globalization, technology, innovation, diversity and ethics are factors that affect these business functions. One can examine almost any organization and find this to be true. Wal-Mart is one of the leading retail organizations in the world whose management functions are affected by these factors. Opening its doors in Rogers, Arkansas, Wal-Mart started a profitable business in 1962. The founder, Sam Walton, could never have envisioned where his company would be in the present. Earning approximately $30,000 in 1962, Wal-Mart has evolved into a multi-billion dollar company earning over $15 billion in 2011...
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...convenience store. As of today, Walmart hasn't really touched the third segment, except for a handful of "express" stores in Arkansas. Bill Simon, Walmart’s chief executive, vision to put all three segments together on what he called “ecosystem”. Walmart believes that “tethering” is the key to make this system work. From tether hiring and back- office functions, to tether inventory distribution systems, and even online orders, for greater efficiency and quick response to demand. In other words, instead of having one huge store with endless goods, Walmart will offer three kinds of stores with most of those goods, at the time and place customers need them. Walmart’s current strategy includes more emphasis on smaller-format stores and more e-commerce. (Cheng, 2012). Competitive Advantage Walmart enjoys several of competitive advantages that are the source of the company’s market dominance. However, Walmart’s primary competitive advantage is low costs. Low cost culture and leadership initiated by the company’s founder, Sam Walton, and continuously reinforce by WalMart’s current management, are closely tied to the company strategy and securing its competitive advantage. Walmart focuses on developing and maintaining cost structure that allows it to offer low pricing to customers. The company inventory management is in the core of its strategy, and the way Walmart manages its inventory significantly reduces costs and...
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...and wants to create an empire that surpasses all expectations. Unfortunately, they eliminate all competitors seeking their own success. One such company is the mega-retailer, Wal-Mart. Market Structure The monopolistic structure of Wal-Mart will have a negative impact in the future. Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest civilian employer, but their aggressive overtaking of their competitors and their sales may hinder their retail business. According to the Food & Water Journal (2000), Wal-Mart is being considered a monopolistic beast. The German government has been watching Wal-Mart closely since the corporation came crashing into the German economy two years ago by buying up two of its larger supermarket chains. The German government launched an investigation and found that Wal-Mart knew supermarket chains were illegally selling below their wholesale costs, with the goal being, to bleed their opponents dry and then revel without competition from there on out. Although, Wal-Mart enjoys continued success, some governments are questioning their marketing tactics. Wal-Mart’s disregard of the benefits to the consumer seems to be marginal and temporary and the damage to the competition, though illegal, obstruction of small- and medium sized companies is very significant. The negative impact will hit other discount giants like Kmart and JC Penney, because Wal-Mart has more purchasing power and operates more efficiently. In the end, there will be fewer retail jobs for the same amount...
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...Diversification Strategies Arissra Stamps Strayer University Diversification Strategies Types of Diversification Strategies Diversification is a business strategy that allow a company to establish additional lines of commerce that maybe different from the current products or services. Depending on company’s directions, the different types of diversification that company utilize are: Horizontal, Vertical, Concentric, Heterogeneous (Conglomerate) and Corporate Diversifications (Small Enterprise Strategic Development Training, 2009). Horizontal Diversification is used when the company wants to develop new product or offer new service that could appeal to current customers. For example, a dairy who produces cheese wants to expand its products with new types of cheese. A construction company may choose Vertical Diversification; it may venture into new selling product such as paint and construction materials while the core business remains in providing construction services. Concentric Diversification is the method a company uses to enlarge the production portfolio by adding new products and aiming to utilize the potential of existing technologies and market system. The best example of this strategy would be a bakery who sales bread, pastries and cake who begins to sale dough products. Heterogeneous or Conglomerate Diversification is opposite from Concentric because it focus on new products or services that do not use existing technologies and does not have any commercial...
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...Globalization Retail giant, Wal-Mart will always have competition however they have successfully cornered the market with the use of several strategies including Globalization and expansion through the horizontal market. Entering the global market is never exclusively the result of a grand design, it’s an approach that requires opportunism and flexibility within a broad direction set by a systematic framework (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). Wal-Mart made the decision to enter the international arena after it was established that they had saturated the United States domestic market, which only accounts for 4 percent of the World’s population (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). Wal-Mart executives realized that they were missing out on 96 percent of the World’s possible customers. In addition, “other competition had already capitalized on such growth tanks to the rapid expansion of information technology, increasing cultural homogenization and lowered trade barriers” (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). In order to live up to the current competition, Wal-Mart had no choice but to pursue globalization aggressively. Wal-Mart had leverage entering international territory, exploiting its buying power with supplier giants including; Proctor & Gamble, Hallmark, Kellogg, Coca Cola, Pfizer and Revlon to secure low price goods for its new non United States stores. The global expansion began in 1991 and during the first five years, Wal-Mart established a strong presence in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina...
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...Wal-Mart Subsidiaries and Partners: Wal-Mart is one of the biggest retail chains in the world and in terms in the amount of sales the company generates, it is the one of the top five biggest companies in the world in terms of sales. Wal-Mart currently has 3,898 stores throughout the United States including 629 Discount stores and 3,029 Supercenters. The Walton family has the majority stake in the company with a 48% ownership in the corporation. Wal-Mart also has a vast grasp on the international market as well with 5,733 stores in countries across the world including Canada, Argentina China and Japan. With respect to strategic partners, Wal-Mart has branched out to numerous companies and groups to further expand their brand. On October 24, 2006, Wal-Mart agreed to have long-term marketing agreement with the band, the Eagles, to appeal to music lovers and to have a major music symbol as a voice for the company. Wal-Mart’s is comprised of three basic retailing subsidiaries: Wal-Mart stores division in the U.S, Sam’s Cub and Wal-Mart international. The Wal-Mart stores division in the United States includes the Wal-Mart discount stores, which is comprised of 629 stores nationwide, the Wal-Mart Supercenter which is comprised of 3,029 supercenters across the nation. In these stores, the Supercenter includes a full-service supermarket, a pharmacy, a pet shop and bank branches. The next subsidiary under Wal-Mart is Sam’s Club. Sam’s club is a large series of warehouse...
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...Task1 In this task I will be selecting an organization which I will be able to asses in order to obtain information. P1 In this assignment I will be explaining about business communication, with the different kinds of information used and produced by organisations. Organisations such as Tesco have their own purpose such as awareness of activities, these are known as internal activities, also stakeholders expansion is contained by the organisation. I will be picking Tesco and talking about the types of information that they create and use. Also the reasons why Tesco produce the information and where this information comes from. I will be looking at all of the features to get an entire observation on the business communication used and the reasons why. There are multiple types of information that Tesco uses they are, verbal information, on-screen, web page, multimedia and written. Verbal information is face-to-face information used to communicate with people using verbal means, Tesco uses this to communicate with customers taking in likes and dislikes of the customer to see how they can improve their service. Below is an example of a verbal communication Manager (speaking on the phone): “Good morning, Bill!” (By using the employee’s name, the manager is establishing a clear, personal link to the Receiver.) Manager: “Your division’s numbers are looking great.” (The Manager’s recognition of Bill’s role in a winning team further personalizes and emotionalizes...
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...Half a Century of Supply Chain Management at Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores Inc., supply chain is still a competitive advantage, but the role through which it derived has changed its competitive advantage. From the start of Wal-Mart in 1962, until the 21st century, Wal-Mart supply chain brought its strength only from cost leadership point of view. However, now it has shifted its focus from cost leadership towards focus strategy for smaller targets within the United States. Wal-Mart’s supply chain management strategy is ideal because it does two things: cut costs while also saving consumers money through favorable cost structures. Wal-Mart’s supply chain relies on a well-orchestrated relationship with its customers and suppliers. These relationships were built and fine-tune over many years which has contributed substantially to their competitive advantage. Wal-Mart has led the retail industry for many years with its innovative ways to minimize costs as well as generate revenue. In other words, Wal-Mart has had the competitive advantage for various reasons such as technology implementation and usage of data. Wal-Mart’s ability to use barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to assess how to manage better inventory is a critical role in the company’s success. The data is used to provide real world inventory updates to whether there is a need for supply on the shelves, also known as stock checks. Automatically, costs are reduced due to a more accurate forecasting...
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...strategic plan initiative that identifies how the organization plans to achieve its goals in the future. These goals not only include financial but also community, environmental, and charitable goals. The following data will cover Wal-Mart’s latest strategic initiative while answering several key questions concerning the initiative, which include: 1. How the initiative affects the organizations financial plan 2. How the initiative affects costs and sales 3. Risks and affects associated with the initiative Strategic Planning Initiative for Wal-Mart and Initiative Identified in Annual Report A strategic planning initiative Wal-Mart implemented to help grow the company is the “Save Money, Live Better” initiative. To ensure the initiative was a success, the company identified several components that needed to be addressed. For example, one of the “Save Money, Live Better” initiative’s objectives is to achieve price leadership for Wal-Mart. The company’s plan to achieve price leadership is to do everything in its power to offer its products at a greater value than other competitors in the market while not hindering the company’s growth objective (Murray, 2012). In response to the price leadership component of the initiative, Wal-Mart determined its private label products can both help increase the company’s revenue and aid in achieving the initiative’s objective. As a result of the economy’s current condition,...
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...Walmart By Date December 2, 2004 Wal-Mart's.com got off to a shaky start. For the first time they launched their independent Website in 1996 with no online purchase functions. The first time they launched in January 2000 as a joint venture, weak and subsequently fully acquired by Wal-Mart. In 2003 it finally became fully acquired by Wal-Mart and has grown to become one of the leading online shopping destinations. For example, it competes with industry leaders like Amazon.com and eBay.com. This company's latest initiative to revamp the site is about providing more information, broadening their product assortment and improving service to their customers. Wal-Mart overall is great at building the business primarily through organic growth but not necessarily at marketing. The last couple of years, Walmart.com has had their heads down, building infrastructure. It's time for them to look up and get some action. “Up to now, Wal-Mart.com has remained an E-commerce midget. It ranks No. 43 among online shopping venues, according to Media Metrix, trailing such upstarts as eBay Inc. and Buy.com Inc. While Amazon.com Inc. hauled in nearly 10 million visitors in May, Wal-Mart.com welcomed only 801,000. For the year, some analysts expect Wal-Mart's Web effort to generate sales of under $50 million vs. $157 billion total sales for the chain” (Byrnes, 1999). Walmart.com has achieved services that include: Baby Connection, DVD Rentals, Gift Registry...
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