Walmarts Essay Example for Free

Walmarts EssayPart I describe Walmart expansion As the volumedst retail orbit in the world, Walmart is one of the earliest companies that realize that time lag too long to get into foreign countries would give competitors a lead that would be difficult to close. However, orbiculateisation is al styluss a double-edged sword. Despite that Walmart is the worlds largest comp all with a turnover of $312. 4 b badion, Walmarts results from globoseization had been mixed. In 1991, the establishment of Sams Club near Mexico City represents lampoon of Walmarts globalization. In 1998, In 1998, Wal-Mart acquired a controlling interest in Mexicos largest retailer, Cifra, which operated stores throughout the country, ranging from the largest mountain chain of model restaurants to a soft lines (apparel, home furnishings, fabric) department store. In 2000, Wal-Mart permuted Cifras name to Wal-Mart de Mexico. Acquisition is a common appearance in that Walmart goes into opposite countr ies markets. In March 2004, Wal-Mart Brazil announced the acquisition of Bompreco, a retail chain with 118 units In late 2005, Wal-Mart acquired the retail subprograms of Sonae Brasil S.A. (Sonae). In 1994, Wal-Mart purchased all 122 Canadian Woolco discount stores. Walmart entered conspiracy Korea in July 1998 by acquiring a majority indorse in Makro. In the United terra firma (UK), Wal-Mart had acquired ASDA, a profit fitting chain in 1999 In the spring of 2000, Walmart moved quickly to finalize its $10. 8 billion deal to acquire the 232-store supermarket chain, which was Walmarts largest acquisition ever. Acquisition helps Walmart conquer well-nigh foreign countries quickly. or so successful examples are Walmarts practices in Mexico, Brazil and United Kingdom.At the end of 2005, Wai-Mart operated a get of 807 stores in Mexico, including 107 Super centers and 71-SAMS CLUBS. The company employed more than 112,000 associates across the country. as of December 2005, Wal-Mart Brazil operated 22 Wal-Mart Super- centers, 15 Sams Clubs, and 2 Todo Dias and 116 Balaio discount stores. Employing about 28,000 associates, Wal-Mart was the sixth-largest retailer in Brazil. In December 2005, Wal-Mart had 273_ASDA Super Centers, 21 ASDA Wal-Mart Supercenters, 10 GEORGE stores, and 5 ASDA Living stores and 4 ASDA Small Town stores in the UK.The company employed more than 150,000 people in the UK. Acquisition is not a master key to door of any country, some failures remind Walmart to reconsider its global strategy. In Canada, Walmarts initial operation did not get collide with to the right start. Indeed, for the first three years (1995-97) Wal-Mart Canada showed major losses. Fortunately, things got improved subsequently. But the luck did not exit to Korean market In May 2006, Wal-Mart announced that it would sell all 16 of its South Korean stores to Shinsegae and exit from Korean market.It is not fair to entirely account Walmarts losses in Canadian and Korean ma rkets for failure of acquisition strategy. Expansion globally is always a systematic and complicated process, in which a lot of factors need to considered, such(prenominal) as politics, diet habits, consuming psychology etc.. Looking the tale of Walmarts expansion through, Walmart was used to, or had to, apply joint venture beneath tight restrictions in foreign countries. And it is indeed hard to evaluate whether joint venture is an ideal approach or not. Wal-Mart had entered Indonesia, realizeed by the worlds fourth most populous country.The retailer faced numerous challenges in a country where retailers operated under tight restrictions?. Walmart teamed up with Lippo Group. However, the development of Walmart Indonesia was not smooth as expected. chinaware is another country where Walmart had to pardner with other to practice its expansion strategy. Walmart and other foreign retailers had to offer a 35 percent stake in each store to a Chinese joint venture partner and were re stricted to a territory of approximately 40 cities each. After China joined WTO, Walmart giveed greater management authority.Meanwhile, Walmart became actively complicated in government relations and started talking directly with Chinese government officials at both topical anesthetic and national levels and through trade groups in both the United States and China. In December 2005, Walmart had 46 Supercenters, 3 Sams Clubs, and 2 Neighborhood Markets in China, together employing more than 27,000 associates. However, at the end of 2006, Walmart was laying the groundwork to fit the biggest foreign chain in China with the $1 billion purchase of a major retailer-a Taiwanese-owned supermarket chain called Trust-Mart- which-would more than double its presence in China.And in Wuhan, a Chinese city with a commonwealth of approximately 10 millions, there is only one Walmart supercenter. Compared with McDonalds, it is safe to say that Walmart has a long way to go to complete its global expansion. Part II Top management druthers in Walmart The orientation of top management refers to the degree of domination of the MNE headquarters over subsidiary management and HR practices as compared to the degree of localization of subsidiary practices. In my opinion, Walmarts senior management orientation is Geocentrism.The most pregnant characteristic of Walmart is its perpetuation Walmart hires best employers all over the world, and is willing to train them to take key positions everyplace in the world, which typically matches the requirement of Geocentrism. In addition, a word localization is usually connected with globalization. As a multinational Enterprise, Walmarts global strategy determines that Walmart has to localize itself from Decision Making to Evaluation, from Rewards to Punishment. On the other side, Wal-Marts approach to competing in overseas markets had evolved over time.But three main ingredients never change Brand names (Wal-Mart and Sams Club), Every Day L ow Price (EDLP) strategy, and ethical standards. In order to confine its core value, Walmart need to figure out the balance between localization and standardization. The only flaw, I think, is Walmart culture flow. There is no doubt that Walmarts subsidiaries have smooth channel to communicate with headquarter. However, based on my research, there is not so many practices to strengthen communication among subsidiaries. In any case, we dissolvenot deny that Walmart is Geocentrism. time value Culture As the largest retail company, Walmart must focus on client and quality. Actually, thats exactly what they do. The customer is No. 1 in the Walmart culture, and they are putting tremendous effort into understanding customers and serving them in freshly ways. Its Global Customer Insights group is developing world-class analytics to identify customer trends and support trade and marketing decision-making within the business. At the same time, the importance of getting even closer to o ur customers is always emphasize throughout their ranks.Business Model Behaviors To satisfy customers one-stop shopping experience, Walmart regards a broader assortment as the approach to attract customers. In 2012, Walmart added back more than 10,000 products across hundreds of merchandise categories. Walmart selects suppliers with high standards, assuring that it is the first to be offered sassy innovative products. Meanwhile, Walmart continue to fine-tune its offerings. All kinds of national brands, private brands and opening price point products sens be seen in Walmart, to adapt different tastes.As we all acknowledged, Every Day Low Price(EDLP) is one of the most important ingredients of Walmart. EDLP is the result of Walmarts everyday low cost (EDLC) philosophy. Walmart lowers costs by reduce expenses, increasing productivity and leveraging technology to improve efficiency throughout our supply chain and our operations. And as the largest retail company, occupying an impor tant role in many countries retail markets, Walmart are able to negotiate with suppliers to obtain lower prices.For example, in Mexico, Since Walmart had more purchasing power than the next 17 largest Latin American retailers combined, it was able to negotiate price discounts from its suppliers and generate economies of scale. Walmart attempts to develop a variety of channels core supercenters, smaller formats such as Neighborhood Market and Walmart Express, and eCommerce. The rise of Internet has Walmart pay attention to online business. Site to Store and pull Up Today, which provide shopping alternative to Walmart customers, promote its online business grow.KPC Compliance Integrity Walmart is implementing a stronger global compliance organization. The job of every Walmart associate must begin with integrity. Ethics and compliance are non-negotiable. Walmart aligns its global compliance, ethics, investigations, and legal functions under one organization. In addition, full compli ance with all laws and regulations is premise that they operate in any markets. Walmart has improved its compliance programs significantly and taken appropriate action for any instance of non-compliance.Were pleased with the progress weve made through training, new processes and procedures and recruiting exceptionally strong talent to fill new roles. Acceptance of Diversity When people mention Walmart today, it is not a certain national company any more. Globalization has stamped deep brands on Walmart. With its expansion, both employees and customers have different skin colors, languages, tastes and consume concepts. In this situation, bankers acceptance of diversity plays more critical role in Walmarts development.Part III a. Chinas Twelve newspaper columns First pillar Institutions. The quality of institutions has a strong bearing on competitiveness and growth. Chinas institution ranked in the middle of all surveyed countries (50th ). Second pillar Infrastructure. Well-develope d infrastructure reduces the payoff of distance between regions, integrating the national market and connecting it at low cost to markets in other countries and regions. China ranked on 48th with a score of 4,46. Third pillar Macroeconomic environment.The stability of the macroeconomic environment is important for business and, therefore, is important for the overall competitiveness of a country. Chinas macroeconomic situation remains very favorable, 11th of 144 countries. Fourth pillar Health and particular education. A healthy workforce is vital to a countrys competitiveness and productivity. Workers who are? ill cannot function to their potential and will be less productive. China receives relatively high marks in health and basic education (35th) and enrollment figures for higher education are also on the rise, fifth part pillar Higher education and training .Quality higher education and training is particularly of import for economies that want to move up the value chain be yond simple proceeds processes and products. China places on 62th with a score of 4. 32 Sixth pillar Goods market efficiency. Countries with efficient goods markets are well positioned to invoke the right mix of products and services given their particular supply-and-demand conditions, as well as to ensure that these goods can? be most effectively traded in the providence.Chinese market efficiency places 59th(down 14). In this ? illar, insufficient home(prenominal) and foreign competition is? of particular concern, as the various barriers to entry appear to be more popular and more important than? in previous years. Seventh pillar Labor market efficiency. The efficiency and flexibleness of the labor market are critical for ensuring that workers are allocated to their most effective use in the economy and provided with incentives to give their best effort in their jobs. China has the greatest number of labor in the world. However, ascribable to deficiency of efficiency and flex ibility, China only ranks on 41th.Eighth pillar Financial market development. The novel economic crisis has highlighted the central role of a sound and well-functioning financial sector? for economic activities. Ninth pillar Technological readiness. The technological readiness pillar measures the agility with which an economy adopts existing technologies to enhance the productivity of its industries, with particularised emphasis on its capacity to fully leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) in daily activities and production processes for increased efficiency and enabling innovation for competitiveness.For China, technological readiness takes a place of 88th(down 11), which has negative process on Chinese competitives. Tenth pillar Market size . The size of the market affects productivity since large markets allow firms to exploit economies of scale. In the era of globalization, international markets can to a certain extent sub for domestic markets, especiall y for small countries. China has the largest population in the world. With the increase of consume level, China is the bet on market in the world.Eleventh pillar Business sophistication. Business sophistication concerns two elements that are intricately linked the quality of a countrys overall business networks and the quality of individual firms operations and strategies. With a score of 4. 25 (45th), there is huge space for Chinas firms to improve their operation and strategies. Twelfth pillar Innovation. The final pillar of competitiveness focuses on technological innovation. Compared with last pillar, China shows reveal performance on innovation placing 33th with a score of 3. 85.