...Walmart currently employees more that 2 million people worldwide in their more than 10,000 retail stores, strategically located in 27 different countries worldwide (Walmart Inc., 2013). In 2012 the company reported earning well over 400 billion dollars (Walmart Inc., 2013; "Walmart- Refocus," 2006). Here in the third week of the needs assessment being conducted on behalf of our client BJ’s a division of Walmart Inc., the focus surrounds the collection and its analysis. Following the collection of data and a meeting was held with BJ’s management and a recommendation was made based on this analysis. The recommendations made was based on the findings generated from random customer satisfaction survey, selection process for focus groups, identifying and documenting key organizational objectives through questionnaires and surveys, collecting and tabulating responses from returned email questionnaires conducted over a two week period. As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart still faces the potential of not having the relative flexibility to act swiftly in response to changing global markets, fostering a universal company culture in all its locations, addressing the high rates of turnovers, or providing the same level of customer service and productivity globally. Realizing that there are several areas that need to be address using data collected from several source, random customer survey, employee surveys and questionnaire, small focus groups, the data determined the best...
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...Company Motivational Profile – Walmart Company Motivational Profile – Walmart To achieve success, organizations must have a clearly defined plan. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, began his retail career as a management trainee at JC Penny. Walton opened a five and dime store in 1951 and his first Walmart opened in 1962. Walton’s concept of discounting prices included a large variety of low priced items, buying large quantity goods at the lowest price, and passing the savings on to his customers. Today’s retail organizations must have a plan to achieve success. Walton’s vision allowed Walmart to grow into a multi-billion dollar international retail giant. This paper discusses Walmart’s motivational profile including the background and history of Walmart, their corporate culture and management, the strengths and weaknesses of their motivational strategies, and finally, an analysis of Walmart’s motivational strengths and recommendations for future improvements. Background Information Before opening Walmart, Sam Walton traveled around the world studying everything he could about discount retailing. Walton became eager to bring the United States a different type of store. He had an idea that Americans wanted something out of the box. Walton put in most of his own personal money to open his first store in Rogers, AR. Walmart extended with more stores in later years. He always believed that if a business gave their customers what they wanted, they will continue to...
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...UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR BUSINESS SCHOOL ECB30103 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT GROUP ASSIGNMENT: WALMART PREPARED BY: GROUP MEMBER 1) NURSYAHIDAH BINTI RAZALI 62283113720 2) NURUL NABILAH BINTI RAZALI 62283313248 3) NURUL ZAITUN BINTI ABDUL MALIK 62283313168 4) UMMI KHALSUM BINTI RAHMAT 62283313053 PREPARED FOR: LECTURER’S NAME: MOHD HAIZAM BIN MOHD SAUDI 1. What is the nature of the company business? What are their product lines? Wal-Mart is the World's largest retailer. It has over 11,500 stores in 28 countries across the globe. Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. Walmart products include discount stores, cash and carry wholesale, warehouse club, super-center, supermarket and superstore and also an e-commerce business. 2. Develop a suitable vision and mission statement for the company. Vision i. To be the best retailer in the hearts and mind of consumer and employees. ii. To promote ownership of Wal-Mart ethical culture to all stakeholder globally. Mission i. Saving the people's money so they can live better. ii. If we work together we will lower the cost of living for everyone. iii. Save money. Live better. 3. Using the following template, develop EIGHT (8) core business objectives in fulfilling the stakeholder’s expectation. Please refer...
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...STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MGMT E -5000 WALMART CASE ANALYSIS BY Indhu SEPTEMBER 19th, 2012 SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart: (2008- 2010) EXTERNAL ANALYSIS: Significant findings on the PESTEL analysis were:(Refer Fig 1 ) * Socio Cultural factor: One of the most important concerns among consumers during that period was price. Since its establishment Walton focused on Everyday low prices (EDLP) and always geared towards the low- income groups of the society. This provided Walmart better opportunities and helped them gain a competitive advantage in the industry. * Demographic factor: Another opportunity facing the industry was that Consumers (working Mothers and other American workers) wanted ease of shopping (fast, efficient and one-stop shopping). Walmart provided its customers with what they want in the Walmart supercenters combined with its wholesale unit “Sam’s Club”. * Technological Factor: Heightening of Internet users (70% of the population) and more people were comfortable shopping online. This yielded both favorable (lower over head costs and convenience to the customers with wide choices of items and prices that were appealing) and unfavorable (Walmart has invested heavily on the infrastructure like the EDI links and POS systems) circumstances. * Economic Factor: Domestically the U.S market had a very slow growth. Although the economy was said to be in recession it favored the growth of the organization because it offered consumers commodities at a...
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...safety conditions and employee behavior expectations. Organizations maintain personnel policies to ensure all employees receive equal treatment and access to benefits, such as vacation time sick time and sick leave. While researching Southwest Airlines I was very impressed how dedicated this organization is to their employees and customers. Southwest Airlines states”The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.” (Southwest.com) I thought this statement clearly identifies Southwest as a company that is rich in diversity and ethics. Their HMR has created a diverse environment that is beneficial to the success of managers as well as employees. Southwest Airlines is known for their great customer service. This is because their employees love what they do, and have confidence in their management. Therefore, employees continue to be motivated and help maintain this reputation. Their employees represent multi cultural backgrounds Southwest feels this gives them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Southwest Airlines supports and has a dedicated outreach for the GLBT, Hispanic, African American and Asian communities because they are these communities. I was amazed at the great benefit package that Southwest Airlines provide their employees. Here are a few of the awesome benefits they offer: • 401(K) Plan matches employee...
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...Organizational Structure of Walmart Doshiemae Johnson MGT/230 Patricia Ford February 1, 2016 Introduction Walmart’s humble beginnings started in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 by Sam Walton. Today, Walmart has evolved into a multibillion dollar company earning 486 billion dollars (Wikipedia.com (Entreprenuer, 2016) (Entreprenuer, 2016), 2015). Walmart is currently located in over fifteen countries and have over eleven thousand six hundred twenty stores (wikepedia.com). Their slogan is “Save Money, Live Better.” Walmart’s success could not have happened without strategic planning of the company’s business processes. These factors decide which organizational structure would be appropriate for the company to use. This paper will discuss the organizational structure of Walmart and their corporate processes that include marketing, human resources, products, and geographical locations. Organizational Structure Walmart’s organizational structure is divisional. Under this type of structure, each division has its own executive, which is the vice president. The vice president is responsible for their own budgets, advertising, and hiring (Bateman, 2011). Each division is given enough resources and autonomy to function alone. Unlike other organizational structures such as functional where divisions are departmentalized based on common job functions and matrix where both employees and managers from different company departments work together to achieve goals and solve problems (Bateman...
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...well-thought-out because it does not say anything about their company, employees and what they do for customers. Their mission statement does not prove any principles to their customer, their truthfulness or if they are motivated to excel. The customer believes that their mission statement, it’s a slogan because it’s too short, making people wonder about Wal-Mart’s servant leadership values. Moreover, the Wal-Mart marketing strategy uses Newspaper advertising to promote their low prices. According to Point, Wal-Mart is increasing their efforts to buy local store and gain those customers. Their mission statement misleads people to think that they don’t enforce servant leadership practice within an organization because Walmart kills mom and pop shops. “In order for Walmart to better use their mission as a communication tool, the company should give more information about the business and address more stakeholders”. In contrast, World Vision has a strong mission statement which identifies the importance of servant leadership values to their customers and sponsors with their Christianity heritage. The Christian organization serves all people in need by partnering up different associations. World Vision identified servant leadership values to their organization by about and accepting people regardless their background. World Vision is committed to their employees by welcoming into Christianity heritage, yet not enforcing anything but the values of servant leadership. For instance, they...
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...Group Dynamics and Processes Paper Walmart Employees No Longer “Get Happy” I recently read and article written by Rocco Pendola about the systematic struggles that the huge super-retailer Walmart is facing concerning its staff and lack of “team” environment. Rocco’s article begins when he initially posted 24 concerning pictures of various issues surrounding a huge variety of Walmart stores. Rocco began to receive a huge over pour of emails, photos and comments from Walmart employees around the country. In his article, Rocco uses the issues that he has researched about Walmart, as well as some of Walmart’s current and past employee letters to illustrate some of the current problems Walmart is facing. This article complies a great deal of information that helps us determine some of the mistakes Walmart has made on a corporate level as well as in it’s stores. Based on Rocco’s article, it is undeniable that Walmart suffers from a lack of Group Dynamics, and processes. Without continued use of Group Dynamics a company cannot continue to be successful, and ultimately a company cannot survive. According to our text, “a group is a number of individuals who join together to achieve a goal.” (Johnson & Johnson, pp. 5) this means that all members in the group are ultimately responsible for the outcome of the performance of the group, and all members have some kind of stake in the group, whether they know or understand their role, they all have one. If the group has several weak...
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...Walmart: An OB case study Team - 4 project in Organizational Behavior The event • • • Black Friday Strike – 28 Nov, 2014 Impacted over 1600 stores in USA 50,000 employees protested (cashiers and sales associates) • Covered widely by media Causes • Low pay: • Average salary is about $9/hour, lower than the industry average • Coercive Management style • No psychological safety • Work conditions • Lack of flexibility Effects Dissatisfaction Low salary + Work Condition Loss of profit Increase in employee turnover Negative publicity Low motivation No motivating factors Action Plan Dissatisfaction and demotivation Not dissatisfied but not motivated Positive satisfaction and motivation Hygiene Factor Motivational Factor Work on Dissatisfaction Increase the pay of cashiers and sales associates to $15/hour Walmart Costco 17% $16 Turnover Hourly wage Cost of replacing a worker in skilled and semi-skilled job Cost of replacing employee Number of workers Total cost of replacing employees 44% $9 1.5 – 2.5 times worker’s annual salary. For our estimation, we take a conservative 60% $11,232 1.3 million ~$6.4 billion $26,208 174,000 ~$780 million Work on Dissatisfaction Improve Monday work conditions : flexible hours Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 6am-11am ...
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...and utilitarianism. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world, however, it is also known for ruthless exploitation of employee, squeezing suppliers, and crushing communities. It has been the Public Enemy No. 1 for a generation of activists and reformers. To cope with these oppositions, Wal-Mart responded vigorously and, instead, announced plans to preserving the environment, fighting hunger, empowering women and providing access to healthy, affordable food. The essay will try to argue the problems of Wal-Mart dominating the world in the retail business to create great profit by giving low wages to the employee according to Milton Friedman and utilitarianism. Also, it will discuss how the plans announced by Wal-Mart deal with the global responsibility. Moreover, how should government involve in this situation. Problem: Low-wages for the Employee 1. Milton Friedman According to Milton Friedman, an American economist and philosopher, the most important social responsibility of a corporation is to maximize profit for its owner- stockholder (Friedman, 1970). He suggested that if a corporation put the focus on being socially responsible, it would make the corporation less competitive with those competitors who did not put much focus on social responsibility. For the act of Wal-Mart to provide only low wages and little benefit to the employee, according to Friedman, it is actually reducing the operation cost of the company, hence, maximizing the profit. Moreover, Friedman...
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...faces. Wal-Mart History Sam Walton was a man who believed in leadership through service. After gaining experience in retail through his own small variety store Sam Walton open the first Wal-Mart in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (Walmart, 2012). Within five years Sam Walton and his wife owned 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales (Walmart, 2012). Two years later the Walmart stores Inc was officially incorporated. In 1970 Walmart became a publicly traded company, 1971 the first distribution center was opened, and in 1972 Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange with 51 stores and sales of $78 million (Walmart, 2012). In the 80s the first Sam’s Club opened, the first Walmart super center opened, cash registers were replaced with computerized point–of–sale systems, and the company installed the largest private satellite communication system in the United States, linking the company's operations through voice, data, and video communication (Walmart, 2012). In the 90s Walmart reaches $1 billion dollar a week in sales and expands internationally to Mexico City, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom. In 2002 Walmart topped the Fortune 500 ranking of America's largest companies and entered the Japanese market (Walmart, 2012). In 2005 Walmart contributes relief in the form of products and...
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...Needs Assessment HRM326 June 16, 2014 Needs Assessment Training is an important part for a company and/or an organization. The importance of education is not just with new workers but with managers and supervisors also. Upper management training is just as important for workplace productivity, safety, and satisfaction. Some of the skills that can be improved upper management within a company or organization can be manager communication, employee recognition, and employee motivation. The company or organization must understand that it is not just about conducting training but making sure the training is effective and it works. If the training is not effective and it does not work, then the company or organization needs to make an assessment at the different levels. After the completion of the assessment, the company or organization needs to conduct the proper training. Below are the assessments for Wal-Mart. Needs Assessment for an Organization When a company or organization is not on pace to achieve their goals, (being that of short, medium, or long term) they must take a closer look at the type of training they are conducting. The company or organization should conduct a needs assessment on the company or organization as a whole. Since Wal-Mart is not on pace to achieve their goals, we will discuss the needs assessment process that will be used. According to "Needs = Gaps In Results", Needs Assessments are used to identify strategic priorities, define...
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...motivate and mobilize its people -- and opening up more opportunities for consumer brands to also reach them along the way. Among the retail behemoth's recent and upcoming moves: revamping its internal employee social network and switching publishers as a prelude to beefing up its in-house magazine, Walmart World, with both more content and outside advertising. The latter could prove an even greater magnet for brand marketers trying to sway Walmart's in-house influencers, particularly now that the chain is allowing local managers more agency to green-light items and is encouraging employees to promote specific items in their stores. Walmart will also give store managers and employees credit for online sales that come from their territories as of Feb. 1, the start of its fiscal year. Walmart isn't owning up to any blanket campaign to better leverage employees as brand ambassadors (a spokesman declined to comment), but it appears to be moving in that direction. With social media potentially giving employees an even bigger impact on brands today, the role of human resources in marketing is even more important, said Scott Bedbury, principal in consulting firm Brandstream. "Social connectivity is often seen as an external thing but can have a very powerful dynamic internally." Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon and new Chief Merchandising Officer Duncan McNaughton have encouraged reinvigorating the "Volume Producing Item" program originated by Sam Walton in which individual employees adopt...
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...Case Analysis: Wal-Mart Alfonso Soloiro 10/28/13 BUS 365 Walmart is known worldwide as a powerhouse in consumer goods retailing. You could almost find anything you want at Walmart at the most affordable price, however Walmart has gained a negative reputation regards ethical behaviors and their working environment. Walmart first began in 1962, when its founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart Discount store in Arkansas. His plans towards Walmart and its ethical behavior seems the total opposite than what he had planned for its future and sustainability. Walton believed in customer satisfaction and hard work. Walmart claimed early on that a formal ethics program was unnecessary because the company already had Walton’s tradition of ethics. As the years went by Walmart would go from the most admired company in America to one of the most hated. One of the main ethical issues that’s been haunting them for years involves their employees and their treatment. Wal-Mart is known for its poor treatment of all employees. In fact, the average Wal-Mart hourly sales employee earns under $250 per week. Most full-time employees are working for $7.50 per hour for 28-40 hours a week. As a result of this pay scale, the majority of Wal-Mart employees are living well below the poverty line (PBS, 2010). Part of the reason that that Wal-Mart’s employees receive such low pay is that Wal-Mart is a notoriously antiunion company. The unionized retail...
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...Walmart Customer Service Retention DeVry University BUSN 319 Week 3 Case Study Walmart is a company in a service store industry. Customers believe in getting the value for their money for every purchase they make. Walmart is experiencing challenges associated with the change in buying habits of customers; focusing on more basic commodities. Walmart offered on low prices as it strongest selling point for customers. It also offered convenience as a one stop shopping store but the company is yet to come up with a new strategy in view of this challenge. The company currently has its focus on online retailing in a bid to offer its customers convenience. The company believes in good customer relations in a bid to retain the customers. Walmart considers low pricing its first choice in retaining customers (Allan & Nathan, 2015). Customer loyalty points offered through shopping cards is also a second choice that the company banks its hopes (Allan & Nathan, 2015). The changes in economic trends greatly affect the manner through which customers will buy and at the same time it affects Walmart’s pricing strategy in the long run. In addition, the company will have a hard time coming up with an approach that will counter the same because of the need for doing a break-even analysis (Alworth, 2015). Mr. Richard Alworth, the Walmart customer service manager at Alliance Ohio, holds that customer relations determine the future of a company (Alworth,...
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