...The Walmart Journey: Walmart’s trucking Division Scale and Operation: Wal-Mart was founded on Sam Walton’s principle and ideals to bring products to the consumers in a way that mean they could offer their products to the consumers for cheaper than other retailers. This led to them creating a retail giant over the next forty years. In the early 1970’s Wal-Mart became the one of the first companies to use a centralized distribution center for their stores. When they started this practice they knew they would need a trucking fleet for years to come and made the decision to own their own private fleet. Along with great success comes turmoil and hard times. Wal-Mart’s came in the early 2000’s when there was a lot of public criticism about their business practices which included being sexist, strong-arming the little guys, and not having fair working conditions for their workers who were not allowed to join or create a union. There was also a growing movement within corporations around the world towards going green and having more sustainable business practices. On this note Lee Scott offered his famous speech in 2005 to the consumers, investors, and people around the world. His speech “21st Century Leadership” he laid out a three part plan for becoming a prominent player in sustainable business. These three parts included being supplied by 100% renewable energy, creating zero waste, and selling sustainable products in their stores. Currently, Wal-Mart owns a private trucking...
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...MGMT 591: Leadership and Organizational Behavior Project Proposal Overview of Organization The organization that will be the topic of discussion in my final project is Wal-Mart, which is one of the largest retail chains in the world. Their famous slogan Save money Live Better is a basic belief of Sam Walton, who is the founder of the company. His beliefs are: Respect for individual, service to the customer, and strive for excellence. Sam Walton tried to adhere to his beliefs but when you have one of the largest retail chains and the growth of a company in this magnitude, you will also have an array of problems. I currently work in the Human Resource department and as a human resource specialist. As a Human Resource Specialist I facilitate orientations, administers, oversea facility training, monitor and track completion of training by associates, coordinate training and communicate training issues with management. With this position I hold, I have the opportunity to make suggestions with the training reports I receive and communicate to upper management the outcomes and personnel related issues within the company. My job also entails auditing personnel files, recruitment of employees, facilitating disputes, payroll, and evaluation process. Wal-Mart is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount departments stores and a chain of warehouse stores. Wal-Mart U.S. stores are the largest division accounting for $258 billion,...
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...Problem Statement: Wal-Mart is one of the world’s largest companies and largest retailer in the world, with over 5,000 stores around the world and nearly 2 million employees there is no reason for this company not to be highly successful. Although Wal-Mart as whole is a highly successful company, they still have problems like every other company. Through Wal-Mart’s history they’ve encountered many obstacles and complications on the way to the top. Most of these problems have found a solution but Wal-Mart still has major and minor problems. Whether new problems or past ones still lingering, either way with a problem you must have solution. Especially with a multi-billionaire company such as Wal-Mart you want to be as efficient and eradicated of as much problems as you possibly can. Major Problem: Wal-Mart International In the highly successful world of Wal-Mart they face a problem most companies also have trouble conquering and that is going international. Wal-Mart International is a success in its own right, as it still is the world’s largest retailer but it’s just not successful on its own standards. Wal-Mart conquered North America with successful ventures in Canada and Mexico but not so successful in some countries over seas such as Germany and Japan. Wal-Mart expanded to Germany & Japan in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and for a long time was unprofitable in both regions. Whether its Wall-marts approach on new markets or forcing their culture too quickly, something...
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... Courtney; Richardson, Maria E.; & White, Sherri Leadership & Org Behavior GM591 Professor: Robert Churilla mariae.richardson@yahoo.com DeVry/Keller University Online 02/17/2013 Introduction Wal-Mart Stores Inc., founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is one of America largest discount department stores. Wal-Mart’s primary mission is to bring consumers high quality goods at a low, discounted price. Wal-Mart operates more than 8,692 retail units across three business segments of retail worldwide that offer a wide array of general merchandise, including groceries, apparel, electronics, and small appliances. In addition, the company is the world’s largest retailer and grocery chain according to sales volume and just over half of their sales comes from grocery items. Over 54% of the company’s stores are located in the United States, with the majority of international stores located in Central and South America, and China. (Jaeah, 2012). Wal-Mart was started in Rogers, Arkansas during the early 1960’s. Sam Walton traveled all around the country researching what consumers wanted in a retail store. When Walton first opened Wal-Mart he “built it under the foundation of honesty, respect, fairness and integrity”. Walton tried to create a culture that shared the same beliefs as he did. Out of his beliefs he chose the three strongest which he felt best suited his store: respect for individuals, service to customers, and striving for excellence. Wal-Mart’s stockholders...
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...Battling Wal-Mart by Neal Peirce The Wal-Mart Watch campaign, a labor-environmental group highly critical of America's mega-mega retailer, recently launched more than 1,000 events nationwide for its "Higher Expectations Week." "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," a scathing documentary by independent filmmaker Robert Greenwald with a focus on Wal-Mart's business tactics and treatment of workers, began to play to audiences across the country. Wal-Mart is fighting its critics with waves of television ads celebrating happy workers and the company's gifts to local charities. But the action goes much further. Across state capitals, legislators are into spirited debates over whether Wal-Mart should be forced to pay adequate health benefits or leave it to the states to subsidize its low-paid workers through Medicaid and other public benefits. Scene of the biggest current fight: Maryland, where Gov. Robert Ehrlich vetoed a measure to require any company with more than 10,000 workers -only Wal-Mart qualifies -- to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health benefits. Or, alternatively, to contribute significantly to the state's health insurance program. An override vote on Ehrlich's veto is set for January. Wal-Mart has deployed at least a dozen lobbyists to Annapolis, offering goodies such as a $10,000 gift to underwrite a conference of black legislators. In one sense, all of this is predictable: With annual sales of $288 billion and 1.6 million employees, Wal-Mart is now the world's...
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...Walmart Case Study Unit I Walmart makes the right decision to drop “Always low prices. Always.” Switching to their new slogan “Save Money. Live better.”, is a way for them to bring in new customers, while still keeping the low prices that their existing customers love and expect. Sam Walton’s vision for Walmart that drove his marketing plan was that “low prices would lead to better living for customers.” (Ghazzawi, 2014 ) Consumers value a better life over just getting lower prices. A recent advertising campaign show Walmart customers-firefighters, accountants and teachers-telling people what they are doing with the money they saved shopping at Walmart. These things ranged from investing in college to affording braces for their kids. (Buss, 2014). Another campaign stated, “Walmart saves the average family about $3100.00 a year, no matter where they shop.” (Kotler, Keller, 2012) Pointing out the benefits of more savings, like the ability to travel with your family or afford college tuition resonates strongly with consumers who may feel like they are working harder and longer hour, yet still struggling to make ends meet. The opportunity to get a quality product while saving money is a big selling point. Walmart's strategy to reinforce the value of spending time with your family and enjoying life is a smart and profitable decision. A few a steps that Walmart can take to protect themselves when the economy is on the rise. Building a stronger customer loyalty helps...
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...principals; genuine customer courtesy, a culture of respect for the individual and everyday low prices. In the 1960s, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, started his business with a strong foundation which is providing everything to customers with low prices they can afford. From that time forward, Walmart kept its low price strategy and in return it became bigger and bigger. The company at this decade reached $ 12.7 million in sales and was incorporated as Wal-Mart stores, Inc. In the 1970s, the most appealing development in this decade was listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange (WMT). Also at that time, Walmart was growing nationally. In the 1980s, Walmart decided to take the lead among other businesses. The first Sam’s club opened to serve individuals and small businesses, the first supercentre opened in Washington that combines a supermarket with a general merchandise in order to provide one-stop shopping experience. We can say that the 80s in Walmart history was aiming to make things easier for its customers. That was clear when Walmart installed the biggest private satellite communication system in the U.S. This progress was intended to link Walmart operations through data, voice and video communication. In the 1990s, Walmart went international. In this decade, it expanded to reach Mexican, Canadian, Chinese and the United Kingdom markets. Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder, was honoured to receive the Medal of Freedom in 1992 before his death at the age of 74. Despite...
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...Cost Accounting Analysis Lisa McClure Axia College of University of Phoenix ACC 227 Beverly Isaman June 28, 2009 Introduction and Overview Sam Walton founded the first Wal-Mart in 1962; the idea of bringing in a discount-shopping store into rural America was almost unheard of, except for the local five and dime stores. When Walton noticed he had plenty of competition from regional discount chains, he traveled the country to study other new retailing concepts. He was convinced that it was the wave of the future (Wal-Mart, 2009). Wal-Mart was founded in 1962, with the opening of the first Wal-Mart discount store in Rogers, Ark. The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on Oct. 31, 1969. In 1983, the company opened its first Sam’s Club membership warehouse, and in 1988 opened the first supercenter. Wal-Mart became an international company in 1991 when it opened its first Sam's Club near Mexico City (Wal-Mart, 2009). Wal-Mart competes in many industries that include 5331- Retail-Variety stores, 5411-Grocery stores, 5311-Department stores, 5812-Eating Places, 5399-Miscellaneous General Merchandise store, and 5912-Drug stores and Proprietary stores. In 2002, Wal-Mart became first on the Fortune 500 list and received the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership (Wal-Mart, 2009). This is a presidential award that recognizes companies for outstanding achievement in...
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...Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, opened the first Walmart store in 1962 in a rural town using an idea he acquired while working at JCPenney. Since then the company has grown tremendously. In 2001 Walmart was considered the “world’s largest retailer” surpassing big retailers like Sears, JCPenney, Target and Kmart, its “net sales had grown to $408 billion” by 2010, and today it “operates over 11,000 retail units” throughout the world (Carroll and Buchholtz 599-600) (Walmart Stores, Inc). However, since Walmart is the largest and most known company in the world, it has become a target of criticism to many groups and individuals. Some people see Walmart as a socially responsible company, while others see it as a “billion-dollar parasite” that should be banned from communities; and these different views create perceived conflicts of interest (Carroll and Buchholtz 602). Such conflicts, coupled with society’s criticism towards the biggest retailer, include business closures, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. In fact, to be further discussed throughout this paper, Walmart’s opponents are already trying to hinder its expansion since the company is not fulfilling all their social responsibilities and the economy could suffer long-term consequences. To be objective, a brief analysis of the company’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) using the four-part CSR model, can provide a better understanding of why it is causing problems...
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...Wal-Mart Management, Leadership and Organizational Culture I. Differentiate Between Management and Leadership At Wal-Mart, management is a mixture of controls and standards with a certain degree of freedom for everyone to be able to test on new things and continue to innovate for improvement. The company has excellent controls and they make the company good. Management strategy is built on teams and the leaders go through the process of working with their team members. Leaders go with the group and after every major operation, they all sit down together to analyze the strengths and improve on the weaknesses of the endeavor. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, introduced some of the basic concepts of management which were popular with employees until the present. He offered stock options and store discounts to his employees. Walton believed that teams will always do better than individuals hence; he has always tried his best to make his employees happy since happy employees make happy customers and more sales. Another reason is that he believes that the employees would care about the company more when they are a part of it and their success is dependent on the company's success. At Wal-Mart, management encourages their employees to be open to talk and air out their concerns and problems. This is what they call the "open door policy" management style. "Leadership is an organizational role involving establishing a clear vision, communicating the vision with others...
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...Phase 4 The period from 1992 to 2000 is one of the most interesting in American History. I will discuss Rodney King and Wal-Mart on that Period of the events listed and discuss the impact that these events had on America. Born on April 2 1965, Rodney King was a significant person in a that period. Although he did not have the character of Rev. Martin Luther King events in his course of life lead a spotlight on police brutality of minorities and still lingering racial tension among the United States Borders. The was not just against Whites vs. Black but it also shed light on African American and Asian American tensions as well. King was a African American Parolee who had been trouble with Alcohol and substance use and abuse for much of his life. He was convicted of violent assault and robbery of a Korean Store before the incident that changed the course of American history. While trying to avoid arrest for DUI and parole violation Rodney King led police officers on a high speed chase for several miles before being stopped on March 3, 1991. This led to the unlawful beating of King by four uniformed officers. George Holliday's videotaped the incidents. Two days later Holliday contacted the police about his videotape of the incident. He then went to the television news with his videotape, which broadcast it in its entirety. The footage became an instant media sensation. It caused many "cop watch" organizations to arise. The officers were charged with criminal...
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...market. Globalization Globalization is a process of interaction between companies, people and governments of different nations. Investments and international trade guide this process. Information technology is also an important part of this process. Environment, culture, economic development and political systems are all effected by globalization. Many think globalization is a new process but quite the contrary. For many, many years’ people have been buying and selling goods to each other in lands far away. In the same fashion, people and corporations have invested in businesses in other countries. Wal-Mart is one of those corporations. In 1962, Sam Walton founded Walmart. He had an idea that a store can provide great service at lower prices. Everyone thought that idea would never work. In 1991, Walmart went global when they opened Sam’s Club...
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...Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart in 1962. In 1991, Wal-Mart opened its first store outside of the United States in Mexico City, Mexico. Globalization helped Wal-Mart tremendously. They first tested the idea of selling of groceries, had restaurants, banks, and video stores in Europe and Brazil. At the time that many companies were closing factories in America Wal-Mart developed a program called “Bring it Home To The USA,” in which Wal-Mart was replacing items bought from overseas to buying them in the US. Although the company was using products that were made in the U.S. Wal-Mart was rapidly growing overseas. In 1991 they had only one store in Mexico. By 1998 they had over 600 stores overseas, which accounted for about 5 percent of their growth in sales and profits. Wal-Mart was very successful in the United States but in order for them to survive and grow they had to begin building stores overseas (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). Wal-Mart also had so many stores in the United States that their only other option to continue to grow was to move into other countries. Wal-Mart has been able to grow into the number one retailer in the United States. According to Bloomberg, the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Walmart is Michael Terry Duke. Mr. Duke has been the CEO at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. since 2006 (2011). And Bloomberg also reports that Charles M. Holley Jr. is the current Chief Financial Officer of Wal-Mart and has held that position since late 2010. Mr. Holley’s education...
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...Organizational Background - Summary of company’s history, vision, mission, growth, development, and core competencies ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND – Upon completion of his military service, Sam Walton opened a five-and dime store in 1945 in Bentonville, Arkansas (Wal-Mart, 2016). Sam was successful and inspired in his first venture and was driven to focus on consumers and providing value, Sam opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. By 1967, 24 Wal-Mart stores had opened. Sam’s vision was to “save people money so they could live better”, his core value was that of respect, for customers, employees and suppliers (Ghazzawi, Palladini & Martinelli-Lee, 2014) and this continues to be the mission and values of Walmart today. Since the opening of the first store in 1962, Wal-Mart has grown to 11,500 stores, operating in all fifty states, as well as 28 countries, under 72 banners and e-commerce, and employees 2.2 million people and weekly services 260 million customers and members. The Wal-Mart, Incorporated consists of four operating divisions Wal-Mart U.S., Walmart International. Sam’s Club and Global e-Commerce (Wal-Mart, 2016). Analysis of Management Functions: Planning. Based on what you have learned through your research, how would you characterize conditions in the planning environment? What types of problems does the organization face (e.g., structured, unstructured), and to what extent should the organizations decisions be programmed or nonprogrammed...
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...Wal-Mart Quality Management Wal-Mart Corporation offers a wide variety of products and provides its merchandise through e-commerce websites. The first Wal-Mart store opened up in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. This store was opened up on Sam Walton’s foundations for the lowest price anytime, anywhere. By the 1970s, Mr. Walton had the store becoming national and widespread. At this time Wal-Mart had also started selling stocks. The first stocks were priced at $16.50 per share. Ten years after the first store had opened, Wal-Mart was now at 51 stores and sales were around 78 million dollars. By the 1980s, Wal-Mart had expanded to 276 different stores and employed 21,000 people. Technology also expanded with the store. Wal-Mart replaced cash registers with computerized point-of-sale systems. These provided faster and more accurate checkouts. By 1987, Wal-Mart had also expanded the communication systems. They installed the largest communication system in the US by connecting all corporate operations through data, voice, and video. Wal-Mart Corporation has widely expanded around the world. This provides people with a store to offer low prices anytime just like Mr. Walton had envisioned. Wal-Mart Corporation is committed to opening stores and providing them where they are needed so that more communities have the opportunity to afford lower prices. Wal-Mart is a company that has expanded and grown tremendously since it was founded and opened in 1962. This company uses good pricing...
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