...Abstract Walmart is one of the world’s largest and most well-known retailers in the world today. It has achieved great success in areas like Mexico and Canada; however it has also seen failures in other areas like Germany and Hong Kong. This paper will discuss a brief history of Walmart’s global expansions and the strategies it chose to enter these markets. It will answer the following specific questions: When did Walmart enter the global expansion? What international markets did Walmart enter? What cultural challenges has Walmart faced? How did Walmart overcome these challenges? Where future expansions and opportunities are possible? To answer these questions, this paper will have four basic sections: A brief history of Walmart’s global expansion, what was their strategy with each expansion, cultural differences they faced, and where is Walmart going in the future. This paper will attempt to examine the strategies of its global expansion and how it used the challenges to continue success in future expansions. Walmart is the most well-known and largest retailer in the world today; with sales worth more than $200 billion, $35 billion of that from Walmart’s International Division. The company grew incredibly fast both in the United States and abroad. By tweaking entry modes, and studying the cultural differences and local threats, the core business strategies Walmart chose to build its business on in America would prove a great success in other countries...
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...Eclectic Paradigm and African Expansion 2 Conclusion 3 References: 4 Introduction Walmart had humble beginnings. The first store was opened in Rogers Arkansas in 1962 by Sam Walton. Sam Walton wanted to have a store that provided as many items as possible but doing so in a low price way. By 1967 the Walton family owned 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales. During 1970, Walmart went public. In 1972 the company was listed on the New York Stock exchange. By 1980 the company had 276 stores in 11 states under the Wal-Mart banner. Through a joint venture with Cifra, a Mexican retail company, Walmart went global, opening a Sam’s Club in Mexico City in 199. This marked the first foray into global expansion (Walmart Corporate Site, 2014). However, not all expansion into foreign countries went well. When Walmart decided to enter the German market in 1997, they did so by buying two retail store chains, Werkauf and Interspar. This was a difficult expansion process as neither one of these companies operated like Walmart. Walmart had issues with their distribution network and the German people were not used to shopping at a big box store like Walmart (Robson, Beninger, 2013). This did not deter Walmart into the global expansion, they continued to expand into other countries and found success in Japan, and Chile (Walmart Corporate Site, 2014). During late 2010 Walmart started negotiations with one of the leading retailers in South Africa, Massmart. While...
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...1 How does expanding internationally benefit Walmart? After its beginning in 1962 Walmart ever since had constant growth rates and successfully gained market share in the merchandise and food retailing markets. “By 1990, however, Walmart realized that its opportunities for growth in the United States were becoming more limited”. To keep steady growth rates and profits the company decided to expand globally. The core competency of Walmart is the price. Selling merchandise and food for low prices made them earn market shares and continue the growth rates. Going global gives companies the opportunity of using location economies to secure the quality, use economy of scale to lower the productions costs per unit and benefit from learning effects. A global supply chain and global markets will lower the production costs since more volume is ordered following a higher demand trough international markets. Especially for Walmart expanding internationally supports and secures their core competency: Selling everyday life goods at a low price. 2 What are the risks that Walmart faces when entering other retail markets? How can these risks be mitigated? The strategy for success worked very well in the United States. That does not mean that it works very well in other countries. There are different preferences and consumer patterns in different countries. Adding to that Walmart may face strong competition from already established retailers that have a better understanding in local needs...
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...The article that is going to be reviewed is titled: Walmart Slashed Tax Bill By Giving Top Execs Big Bonuses. This article was retrieved from the Business Insights: Global from Ottawa University online library. The article summary will provide an insight into why the top executives who made big bonuses. At the end of the article summary, I will give my own personal opinion on the big bonuses issue. Working at Walmart has paid off for some big time executors. On June 6, 2014, at the Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus, Walmart had its annual shareholders meeting. At this meeting, it was released that the company was to pay out $500 million in bonuses to their hourly employees. Although that seemed great, the article also stated that half of the amount of that bonus was going to only eight executives. As part of the compensation plan, the hourly and executive pay does come with bonuses. By paying out this bonus, Walmart has also been part of the Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), a tax reform coalition. ATF has allowed Walmart to save $104 million in federal tax. By paying the executives this bonus, Walmart has followed the corporate pay at section 162 (m) of the Tax Code. It states: In the case of any publicly held corporation, no deduction shall be allowed under this chapter for applicable employee remuneration with respect to any covered employee to the extent that the amount of such remuneration for the taxable year with respect to such...
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... Student Marketing Plan for Walmart Supercenter A Marketing Plan Presented by: Mission Statement "We save people money so they can live better." Is the mission statement for Walmart supercenter stores internationally, as is their slogan of “Save Money. Live Better” generally supporting one another. Goals Financial: 1. Financially be stable in the first five years to continue growing. 2. Provide the city of Kerman with jobs. 3. Rise to the same level of success as all other Walmarts in the Central Valley. Nonfinancial: 1. Provide the community with savings and jobs. 2. When meeting financial goals give back to the community. 3. Provide necessary materials for schooling. 4. Within 5 years provide the Kerman athletics with state of the art athletic facilities. 5. Give the community of Kerman and others around recreational areas for growing kids. Competitive Advantage Walmart has a competitive advantage over all other stores in the world hands down. It has the lowest prices guaranteed, providing the community of 20,000 with a Walmart will be a great move for the town. Walmart Supercenter’s advantage is that there are no others around in a 40 mile radius. Kerman is indeed the “Gateway to the Westside” to go to other town or communities you must pass through Kerman, there is no other option. The closest Walmart Supercenter is 40+ miles away in the well known city of Clovis, Ca. Walmart Supercenter can provide far cheaper...
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...Walmart’s Global Strategies Jennifer D. Wright National American University: Management Across Cultures 1 March 2015 Abstract Walmart is one of the world’s largest and most well-known retailers in the world today. It has achieved great success in areas like Mexico and Canada; however it has also seen failures in other areas like Germany and Hong Kong. This paper will discuss a brief history of Walmart’s global expansions and the strategies it chose to enter these markets. It will answer the following specific questions: When did Walmart enter the global expansion? What international markets did Walmart enter? What cultural challenges has Walmart faced? How did Walmart overcome these challenges? Where future expansions and opportunities are possible? To answer these questions, this paper will have four basic sections: A brief history of Walmart’s global expansion, what was their strategy with each expansion, cultural differences they faced, and where is Walmart going in the future. This paper will attempt to examine the strategies of its global expansion and how it used the challenges to continue success in future expansions. Walmart is the most well-known and largest retailer in the world today; with sales worth more than $200 billion, $35 billion of that from Walmart’s International Division. The company grew incredibly fast both in the United States and abroad. By tweaking entry modes, and studying the cultural differences and local threats...
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...Case study analysis: "Walmart's Strategies in China" Introduction: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), branded as Walmart, is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's third largest public corporation, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012, the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart remains a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family, who own a 48 percent stake in Walmart. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51 percent of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under the Walmart name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America...
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...Walmart’s Global Expansion 1 How does expanding internationally benefit Walmart? After its beginning in 1962 Walmart ever since had constant growth rates and successfully gained market share in the merchandise and food retailing markets. “By 1990, however, Walmart realized that its opportunities for growth in the United States were becoming more limited”. To keep steady growth rates and profits the company decided to expand globally. The core competency of Walmart is the price. Selling merchandise and food for low prices made them earn market shares and continue the growth rates. Going global gives companies the opportunity of using location economies to secure the quality, use economy of scale to lower the productions costs per unit and benefit from learning effects. A global supply chain and global markets will lower the production costs since more volume is ordered following a higher demand trough international markets. Especially for Walmart expanding internationally supports and secures their core competency: Selling everyday life goods at a low price. 2 What are the risks that Walmart faces when entering other retail markets? How can these risks be mitigated? The strategy for success worked very well in the United States. That does not mean that it works very well in other countries. There are different preferences and consumer patterns in different countries. Adding to that Walmart may face strong competition from already established retailers that have a...
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...* Executive summary. Walmart is a United States based multinational retail store. Walmart Thrive by dominating the retail market and providing broad quantity of product at a low cost. Walmart’s has repeatedly proved its successful company strategy in many occasions. This Global retail giant have burgeoned almost in all countries where it expanded with very few exceptions. To reinforce its global expansion process Walmart acquired 51% of Massmart, South Africa second biggest retailer. Although the merger of this two large firms unfolds Walmart’s way into one of the world’s biggest potential market it won’t be simple. Poor legal system and weak securities, cultural and infrastructure barriers, financials, rivals criticism, resistance from local group and government will hinder the merger process. Walmart needs to be prepared to face these challenges and develop a strategy. In order to deal with the challenges Walmart should: 1. Learn from previous mistakes in North Korea and Germany. 2. Make use of high GDP growth in Africa and rising middle class. 3. Use Massmart successful network. 4. Create a positive Brand and company name. 5. Do what it is best at “dominate retail market” * Section 2: External environment: Walmart and Massmart are a big part of global discount retail industry. Walmart is one of the world’s biggest retail industry operating in 14 different nations...
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...Business Week 2 Strategy Paper - Walmart Besa Kosova, Priscilla Alejandro, Lennie Bostic University of Phoenix August 09, 2013 Dr. Ron Skeddle WALMART Wal-Mart U.S., is the leading unit of the retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which sells wide-ranging merchandise and groceries. The company has reputation for value, convenience, and a large selection at a low price. As one of the highly valued global companies today it ranks third publicly while remaining the biggest retailer and major private employer nationwide. Nevertheless with growth and expansion, the company faces new challenges in an attempt to remain competitive and a community favorite. This paper will analyze the company’s internal and external factors such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT ANALYSIS 2013 |Internal Factors: STRENGTHS |Internal Factors: WEAKNESSES | | | | |Operations Scale |Negative Publicity | |IT competence |High Employee Turnover | |Product Variety ...
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...Walmart’s Global Expansion 1.How does expanding internationally benefit walmart? Wal-Mart needed international expansion critically to remain a successful company. The main reason Wal-Mart needed to go global was because they could no longer achieve the growth needed in the US. This market was saturated. The United States represents only four percent of the world’s population, which meant Wal-Mart was missing out on ninety-six percent of the world’s potential customers. (Govindarajan, par. 7) Also, Wal-Mart needed to continue to make their US employees satisfied. With Wal-Mart’s aggressive stock purchasing programs, this meant that employee satisfaction was directly correlated to their stock prices. Walmart also realized that there were many emerging markets with lower levels of disposable income, which offered a large potential for discount retailers. (Govindarajan, par. 7) Therefore, Wal-Mart’s only option to achieve the growth needed was to enter the global environment. After its beginning in 1962 Walmart ever since had constant growth rates and successfully gained market share in the merchandise and food retailing markets. “By 1990, however, Walmart realized that its opportunities for growth in the United States were becoming more limited”. To keep steady growth rates and profits the company decided to expand globally. The core competency of Walmart is the price. Selling merchandise and food for low prices made them earn market shares and continue the growth...
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...Is Walmart Ethical? Walmart Stores Inc. is an American-based public multinational corporation which runs a large number of discount retail stores. In recent years, Walmart has become the world’s largest public corporation. It owns over 8400 stores and employs more than 2.1 million people (Answers.com par. 1). But, with the extreme popularity, and continuous media attention, this world-leading company has faced numerous criticisms regarding its unethical business practices. On the contrary, Walmart is a business, and like any other business, its main focus is to maximize profits, and outperform competitors. Although Walmart has been negatively judged, it has not been recognized for the various positive contributions it has to offer. While Walmart may not conduct business in a solely ethical manner, most companies are guilty of this as well. Walmart’s business practices may not be the most angelic, but it still serves its owners, customers and employees in a moral and sufficient way, and therefore should not be criticized. Low wages is one of the criticisms that Walmart faces, although employees are aware of their pay before they agree to work. Also, Walmart has been accused of unjust business practices, but in reality they are just an expanding corporation that thrives on their price-leading strategy. A lack of Corporate Social Responsibility is an additional misconception the public has regarding Walmart, as the corporation has multiple initiatives concerning the environment...
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...TO: Salvador Rameriz FROM: xxx DATE: December 8, 2013 SUBJECT: Charitable Giving of Target and Walmart The aim of this project was to compare and contrast the charitable practices between Target Corporation and Walmart. This report presents the charitable giving of these two corporations. For the past few years, both Target and Walmart had become major contributors that give back to the community. Introduction The Target Corporation was founded by George Dayton in 1902 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second largest discount retailer in the United States and its first Target store was opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota (Target Corporation, 2013). The company has been praised for giving back to the community with an average of 5 percent of pretax earnings consistently each year, in fat and in lean times. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., branded as Walmart, is one of the largest retailers in the world. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969 and headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. After the death of its founder in 1992, Walmart and Walmart Foundation dramatically increased charitable giving (Walmart, 2013). Target Corporation Charitable Giving and Community Services Target Corporation is consistently ranked as one of the most philanthropic companies in the U.S. As the company grows, so does their...
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...statement for Walmart is a simple statement to focus on consumer needs. “We save people money so they can live better. If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it is like to save and have a better life”(Walton S.) Walmart’s company culture includes a list of values and beliefs it establishes through its management and employee relations. The company’s marketing efforts are to establish awareness that they are the price leaders in their market. In recent times, the company has focus on becoming involved more in local communities by charity and service. With the general instability of the global economy, corporations like to play it safe; Walmart is an example of a multinational which is making a bold move. Acquiring South African grocery chain Massmart offered Walmart a safe foothold to prepare for the next step, which is continental expansion. South Africa is arguably the most westernized country in Africa. Western companies in general perceive it as easier to do business there than in other African nations. II. SWOT ANALYSIS The SWOT analysis of Walmart shows that the company can have higher long-term success potential through aggressive global expansion, especially in retail markets in developing countries. Strengths: Walmart’s strengths are all related to the size of its business. These strengths enable the company to withstand threats despite its weaknesses. Walmart’s strengths for further global growth...
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...Walmart Manages Ethics and Compliance Challenges Sanelesia Hawkins West Georgia Technical College Abstract Despite its financial success and international proliferation, Walmart and its business practices have generated controversy and divided public opinion. Supporters praise Walmart’s sales of needed household items and groceries at relatively low prices, while critics condemn the corporation’s generally low wages paid to employees and its tendency, as a big-box retailer, to put small, community-based stores out of business. As a result, Walmart is often the subject of intense social and political debates pertaining to capitalistic practices and ethical treatment of workers. Another major criticism of the company pertains to its long history of allegedly “invading” smaller towns and communities, establishing stores, and thereby driving small, family-owned and -operated stores out of business because they were unable to compete financially. Walmart Manages Ethics and Compliance Challenges Walmart has been criticized by many groups and individuals, including labor unions and other groups. It has been accused of selling merchandise at such low costs that competitors have tried to sue it for predatory pricing (intentionally selling a product at low cost in order to drive competitors out of the market). Over the last decade or so Walmart has become involved in numerous lawsuits for a variety of reasons. The majority of the suits are class action lawsuits in which employees...
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