...Aubrey Weekes Cross Cultural Perspectives The Walmart Corporation is a large, major, and successful retailer in the United States. Walmart’s attempt at branching out in countries such as China, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany has failed. Globally Walmart is not performing well; they have had difficulties in these countries. Their global revenues, “grew by a mere 1% in 2013, and its revenue per square feet declined by 4.2%” (Team, 2014). The China market does not add much to Walmart’s profits, but it is important to Walmart in regards to enduring perspective. Mexico is a principle global site, but there are many problems there also. In Germany, Walmart failed basically because they thought they could implement American standards in the stores. Walmart is handling these issues, and solving them would be their main concern (Team, 2014). Walmart Culture Issues Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Korea are failures for Walmart, mainly due to not adhering to the cultures of these countries, and abiding a code of ethics. A couple of obstacles are food and products were placed on shelves, not in line with the country, and stores were constructed a long distance from the cities making it difficult for people to reach them. Foreign people many of them walk to stores or take public transportation. American people will travel to buy food stocking up for a month or more. Buying in bulk is a major issue in Walmart. Foreign people either walk or take public transportation...
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...Southern New Hampshire University Abstract There has been an increasing enthrallment over global expansion across the globe. Likewise, there are many things that factor into making such an enormous decision a successful one. Some of these factors include, the strategies to which the business will use, what modes of entry they will take, and what are possible threats and opportunities that may arise. Choosing the right strategy to enter into a new market is key in determining the success of the company now and in the future. I. Introduction “Walmart Stores, Inc. was founded by American retail legend Mr. Sam Walton in Arkansas in 1962. Over nearly 50 years of development, the company has served customers and is now the world’s largest private employer and retailer, on the top of the Fortune 500 list. Walmart is among the most recognized global brands.” (Walmart China Factsheet) II. Global Expansion Lately, many large companies within the retail division who seek to increase their profits and hold a greater market share have decided to expand their companies globally. Global expansion has grown to the point where its not only attacking large companies, but has increased the efforts of those small-scale companies, those who are foreign to expanding internationally, and even those who have already ventured into international markets. There have been many up and coming retailers who have been successful with moving their business...
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...Walmart's history is one of the best examples of innovation, leadership and success. Walmart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962; it was incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It started with a single store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and has grown to what is now the world’s largest and the most emulated retailer. Some researchers refer to Walmart as the industry trendsetter. Today, this retailing pioneer has annual revenues of over $100 billion, 3,000 stores and more than 750,000 employees worldwide. Walmart operates in each store, from the products it stocks in the warehouse, to the front-end that helps speed checkout. Walmart’s philosophy: provide everyday low prices and superior customer service worked the best. Lower prices also eliminated the expense of frequent sales promotions and sales are more predictable. Walmart has invested heavily in its cross-docking inventory system. Cross docking has enabled Walmart to achieve economies of scale which reduce its costs of sales. With this system, goods are continuously delivered to stores within 48 hours and often without having to stock them. This allows Walmart to refill the shelves 4 times faster than its competitors. Walmart controls its buying power through purchasing in bulks and distributing the goods on time. Walmart guarantees everyday low prices and considers them the one stop shop. Walmart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies...
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...WALMART SUCCESS IN MEXICO, CANADA AND CHINA: GLOBAL EXPANSION, STRATEGIES, ENTRY MODES, THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES Lee Yee Mun B1000922 Help College Of Arts and Technology Bachelor of Science in Collaboration with Southern New Hampshire University, USA lemon_0611@hotmail.com Rashad Yazdanifard Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia. rashadyazdanifard@yahoo.com 1 ABSTRACT Global expansion has been gaining a lot of attention. There are many important factors to be considered in the decision-making process such as business strategies, entry modes, and threats and opportunities in the markets. Appropriate strategies will minimize the risk of failure in international markets. The right business strategies and entry modes employed will increase the firm’s chances of success and influence the future of the retailer. Key words: global expansion, business strategies, entry modes, threats, opportunities, Walmart 1. Introduction The internalization of the retail industry has been researched widely, and majority of these studies have described the motivations and scales for international expansion by retailers (Akehurst & Alexander, 1995; Williams, 1992). Many models of internalization explains the sequence of foreign expansion, showing that companies who go international will do better in foreign markets that are similar to their domestic markets. This was why Walmart chose to enter the markets of Canada and Mexico (Johanson...
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...Walmart’s International – Selected Key Markets Walmart started expanding internationally in the early 1990s, starting with opening a Sam’s Club in Mexico City in 1991. This was followed by purchasing 122 Woolco stores in Canada. In 1994, Walmart opened it’s first store in China. In 1999, Walmart entered U.K with the acquisition of ASDA. In 2000, Walmart opened internationally in a virtual sense – by launching Walmart.com In 2002, Walmart entered Japan through its investment in Seiyu. In 2007, Walmart added another aspect of its international expansion in the virtual world – a “Site to Store” service on Walmart.com which allowed make a purchase online and pick it up from a store. In 2009, Walmart entered Chile, by acquiring a majority stake in D&S S.A. In 2010, “Bharti Walmart” a joint venture between Walmart and Bharti – opened its’ first store in India. In 2011, Walmart acquired MassMart in South Africa. Present – Walmart owns over 10,857 stores. Of these, 6,194 stores are outside the United States (in 27 countries). Asian countries where Walmart exists – China, Japan, and India, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia. (Need to double-check this.) Walmart’s regional headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region is Hong Kong. Do they do anything different overseas? Like do they not do groceries overseas? Wal-Mart has built differentiated business departments to serve different market segments. They included supermarket (1,294 stores in 2001), one-stop shopping...
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...In the beginning when Walmart was small and maturing business, they were an ideal company in the eyes of employees. But as the company grew into a worldwide empire, so did the number of ethical issues they faced. With promises of low prices to keep to its customers, they have made decisions which have impacted employees. People say Walmart has poor management, have poor wages for both local and outsourced workers. Many people would call these things uneithical, but Walmart claims otherwise. They claim they are helping people by creating jobs, which meet minimum wage standards, and they care about the ethics within their company. There is an abundance of arguments that call out Walmart as being unethical, but what people easily ignore are these lesser known ones that argue for Walmart’s ethical side. The most predominate unethical issue Walmart has received criticism over for countless years is their poor treatment of employees. The retailer is known for paying its store associates minimum wage. These low wages make it tough for an employee to support a family let alone themselves. Because of the low wages that Walmart pays its employees, many of them have to use government assistance such as food stamps in order to survive. This is not only bad for the employees but it is also costing taxpayers. Walmart does not offer benefits to their part-time workers who work less than twenty-eight hours a week. This can be seen as unethical because the employees are already being paid such...
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...Walmart: Global Strategic Expansion - Executive Summary Since introducing its first international store in 1991, Walmart has transformed itself from an American retail giant into a global one, leveraging a wealth of resources to strategically expand operations. Although Walmart must contend with several formidable competitors, the retailer has successfully opened thousands of stores across the globe; most frequently, it has added international units through the acquisition of foreign retailers, which simultaneously reduces its competition and furthers its dominance. Walmart has differentiated itself by coupling its understanding of political, economic, legal, and cultural systems within target markets with its low-cost, high-quality approach to mass retail. Utilizing simultaneous strategic multiple thrusts, Walmart has developed layers of competitive advantage to establish itself as the world’s leading retailer. Focusing on strategic expansion, Walmart currently operates 9,826 stores across twenty-eight countries, allowing it to capture global scale efficiencies by creating a coordinated and integrated network of interdependent stores. Each unit within its network is regarded as a source of ideas and capabilities, and innovation is diffused across the company through initiatives such as a market-by-market training program that helps increase the company’s responsiveness to local demands and preferences. Thus, Walmart has established itself as a transnational corporation by developing...
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...Compare and contrast the strategies of Carrefour and Walmart in the Chinese market Although the whole world has been affected by global recession, China’s economy still grows in a rapid rate compared with other countries’. Furthermore, the expansion of China’s retail market has attracted world’s largest retailers, Walmart and Carrefour, to pile in. The expansion strategies of the two global retailers seem to play a crucial role in the competition in China. Thus both similarities and differences of strategies are worth considering and will be respectively analyzed in the essay. One of the most significant similarities of Walmart and Carrefour’s strategies is that both of them learn about the diversity of regions and customers. Ed Chan, the Walmart China’s CEO, pointed out that not only income level, but also customer preferences were affected by the regional diversity (McKinsey Quarterly, 2009). It suggests that from coastal area to inland regions, the economy is less developed and the income level is accordingly lower. As a result, customer preferences vary from the eastern to the western part of China (McKinsey Quarterly, 2009). Similarly, Carrefour treats coastal and inland customers respectively to adapt to region differences in China. For instance, live fish is displayed to customers in fresh area but frozen fish is sold to people in vast regions according to the diversity of their preferences (Child, 2006). Another similarity is that in addition to coastal cities...
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...Context: 1. Introduction 2 2. Background of Wal-Mart stores Inc. 3 3. Retail organization internatinalization expension 4 4. International Expansion of Wal-Mart in Maxico,china and canada 5 5. Comparison of Entry Modes 6 6. comparison of Opportunities 7 7. Final touch 8 8. Conclusion 9 9.Bibliography 10 1. Introduction: Being present and having to enter foreign markets is for many companies natural, while for other it is a new challenge that they have to face. This challenge, known as market entry, consists of three major decisions: where to enter, when to enter and how to enter different markets. Some companies are forced to internationalize in the early stages of their life due to small saturated home markets, while other companies choose to go abroad because of the great opportunities new markets might bring (Peng, 2006). Once deciding to go abroad and choosing the target market and timing, companies' need to consider the choice of entry modes. Generally, to choose international firm there are six different entry modes: exporting, turnkey projects, licensing, franchising, joint ventures, wholly owned subsidiary (Hill, 2004). Each entry mode its distinctive characteristics (see, e.g., Hill, 2004; Hill, et al, 1990; Hill and kim, 1988; Anderson and Gatignon, 1986; Madhok, 1997; Brouthers and Brouthers, 2000; Bishop 2006. Selecting a suitable entry mode is a difficult decision for firms interested in entering a foreign market (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992). Sometimes...
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...cases McDonald’s in China and Wal-Mart in Mexico show how the interplay of microeconomic and macroeconomic factors influences managers’ competitive strategies. For both of these company, expansion abroad was a strategic move that helped offset slowing in the United States. However, both cases show how companies had to understand consumer behavior in these countries and the nature of competition from both local and international sources. is prevalent that several changes in the macro environment have had an effect on the profitability of individual firms and industries. The text states that downturns in economic activity forced all the fast-food companies to develop new strategies. During this economic downturn McDonald’s was one company in particular that has developed strategies that were influenced by microeconomic changes. A great example is when McDonald’s entered the Chinese market they had to take into consideration consumer taste and acceptance in China. They had to decided whether or not to have the menu in Chinese or English and whether or not to take on the American menu or add more Chinese influenced menu items. Cost also played a part in the China market. Beef was much more expensive and so therefore could only reach a certain percentage of the people. Half of McDonald’s sales in China had been of chicken product with beef only making up 35 percent . 2. Compare and contrast McDonald’s strategies in China with those in Walmart in Mexico. Walmart competitive strategies:...
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...Carrefour vs Walmart Kelly Liu stared out from her office window at the traffic on Shanghai’s Yannan “gao jia” as she wondered what to do. Kelly was the head of business development for Walmart China and had a key meeting at the end of the week with her Board of Directors. After 8 years in China, Walmart was still well behind Carrefour in terms of number of stores, brand awareness and revenue. The Board had called a special meeting and asked Kelly to present Walmart’s new growth strategy. She pondered what plan to suggest. Overview In 2006, France-based Carrefour Group (Carrefour), the second largest retailer in the world, successfully completed eleven years of its operations in China. As of September 2006, Carrefour operated in China through its 80 hypermarkets. China was Carrefour's sixth largest market, with sales of over US$2.06 billion in 2005. Carrefour Comes to China As one of the first foreign companies to enter the Chinese retail industry, Carrefour played a major role in bringing about a retail revolution in the country. It leveraged its experience in the international markets and introduced a few of its global best practices into the Chinese market. Until the 1980s, the retail industry in China was fully controlled by the Government. The department stores run by the Government provided little in the way of conveniences. According to Wang Zhirong, General Manager of Tian Bai department store in Dalian, concepts like customer service and choice were...
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...lot of research and development, jobs, and relationships were a result of such a massive long term initiative. Fast forward to 2013, Walmart, the largest retailer in the world (If sales was GDP it would be the 19th largest country in the world) is faced with its own design initiative. Walmart wants to implement sustainability strategy into its business model. This is not implementing a new green product into the product offering, this is a project like the earlier example of NASA. Walmart is going to reengineer and re-create the way it does business.Walmart can leverage its current technologies and resources to get sustainability an issue of the past. In order for Walmart to reengineer/re-create it will have to follow 5 steps outlined below. * Step one, Identify all parties who are touched by Walmart. * Step two, understand and identify interactions amongst parties. * Step three, organize group meetings, partnerships, and training * Step four, use ERP, Web 2.0 and other technologies to build platforms that allow cross communication from all parties. * Step five, implement audits and performance reviews to stay on track. The first step Walmart must do is to identify all the parties that are touched by Walmart. This includes customers, employees, distributers, suppliers, countries, NGO’s, and competition. Everyone that Walmart touches is an important asset to leverage in this initiative. The house wife in...
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...12 Dec, 2012, 03.00PM IST, ET Lobbying disclosure doesn't reflect improper conduct in India: Bharti Walmart "This disclosure has nothing to do with political or governmental contacts with Indian Government officials," a Bharti Walmart Spokesperson said in a statement. BSE () Vol: shares traded NSE () Vol: shares traded Prices|Financials|Company Info|Reports NEW DELHI: Bharti Walmart, the Indian arm of the US retail giant Walmart, on Wednesday said the allegation that routine US lobbying disclosures reflects improper conduct on its part in India are false. "This disclosure has nothing to do with political or governmental contacts with Indian Government officials," a Bharti Walmart Spokesperson said in a statement. The disclosures to US regulators showed that company's business interests in India was discussed with American officials along with 50 or more other topics during a three month period, it added "The allegation that a routine U S lobbying disclosure reflects improper conduct on our part in India, is false, it said. Under the US law, on a quarterly basis, all companies which meet certain time and expenses thresholds, are required to disclose issues and expenditure incurred in connection with contacts with the United States Government, including staffing cost, association dues, and payments to consultants, it said. The company said all organisations which expend more than USD 11,500 annually on lobbying activities and employ at least...
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...Guidelines for Analyzing Cases Problem and Issue Identification 1. What are the central facts of the case? What assumptions are you making about these facts? 2. What is the major overriding issue in the case? What major question or issues does this case address that merits study at this point in the course? According to this case, the major issue is the conflicts between Walmart and local manufacturers. Because of the low price in Walmart, local manufacturing business cannot survive in the market. Also, production process in Walmart creates many environment problems. Meanwhile, importAlso, to produce low cost merchandise, Walmart provides extremely low wages and benefits to labors, which put workers in a hard condition. taking advantage of illegal immigrants. •Gender discrimination against women. • Most sued company in America in respect of lawsuits. 3. What sub-issues or related issues are present in the case that merit consideration now? Analysis and Evaluation 1. Who are the stakeholders in the case and what are their stakes? What challenges, threats or opportunities are posed by these stakeholders? From government perspective, US government gain good reputation. Walmart, as a US company, brings many good reputations. For Chinese government, it is a good supplier to Walmart. Walmart creates many job opportunities in China. However, Walmart harms nature environment in China. From owners perspective, The Walton Family earns a lot of money...
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...Tablet of Contents The Beginning of Walmart Logistic………………………………………………………… 3 Magic of the stripes………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Walmart’s Cross Docking……………………………………………………………………….. 5 Downfall of Barcode System…………………………………………………………………… 6 Power to the RIFD………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Walmart’s RFID Influence in China………………………………………………………….. 9 The Chinese RFID investment…………………………………………………………………. 10 Chinese market potential………………………………………………………………………… 11 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 The Beginning of Walmart Logistic Wal-Mart as we all know it, it is an American multination corporation that operation in a largest chain discount stores in the world. Sam Walton, the successful business man from Arkansas began his retail store in 1940, worked at J.C. Penney and later on started a small retail chain store called “Ben Franklin”. It wasn’t till 1962; Mr. Walton opened the first Walmart store. In the beginning, Walton had his strategy set to low income families and offered a considerably lower cost than his competitors, the low price strategy allowed Walton to steer forward with his real goal to become the supply chain logistics giant. By 1987, Walton have led the store into a growing rampage, Walmart had 1,198 nationwide, sales in the 15.9 billion and had 200,000 associates (Walmart, http://walmartstores.com/aboutus/7603.aspx, 2011), In the same year the company also became the largest private satellite net work in the country and...
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