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Walmart's Global Strategies

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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, the core business strategies Walmart chose to build its business on in America would prove a great success in other countries as well. According to the website of the Walmart Corporation, Walmart saw life originally purchased by Sam Walton as the 1950’s Walton’s 5 & 10 in Bentonville, AR. He built his company on the foundation of the “Lowest Prices Anytime, Anywhere”. By the 1960’s

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