National Wal-Mart strategies and programs
Introduction
Wal-Mart has acquired a work culture focused on teamwork to achieve its business goals. Culture that is reflected in its way of serving the client and the respect that exists between its employees. So much is the importance that this company has for its employees that receive the title of partners at the time of being hired.
Developing
In order to preserve this culture among its employees, programs have been developed among which are
- Benefit programs that intend to help their workers get a balanced life between their studies, family and work. For this, the company has flexible schedules and in different days. Together with this Wal-Mart has struggled to create workplaces that are safe and hygienic. This seeks to obtain the commitment of his staff at the work for which he was hired, more than preventing occupational accidents.
- In part of their supermarkets motivation programs are carried out, one of them seeks that the employee assumes the challenge of receiving larger responsibilities. The company helps them in this challenge with training. These types of programs seek personnel retention and an improvement in customer service, in addition to giving the worker the opportunity to acquire more knowledge and skill development.
- To offer good customer service and bring good company administration, constant training is necessary. For this, the company has developed centers in which its employees can learn techniques associated with leadership, human talent, sales, customer service, etc.
- An innovation that Wal-Mart has introduced to train new staff are glasses that allow observing different real scenarios and situations that can occur with customers in a virtual way.
Wal-Mart as part of its work culture, performs control tests as interviews with the aim of knowing if employee is fulfilling its obligations and also knowing how relationships between bosses and subordinates are.
Growth and expansion
Within the expansion strategies the following can be considered:
It began to open retail stores in remote places and rural areas of the United States, since the quality of its stores was the sale of discount products, it was thought that these would be successful in this type of places. The location of these stores added to the economic prices that they offered made the difference for customers when buying, these could find products with a lower cost near the place where they lived.
This is how this company had stores in places where competition did not think about entering at the same time that its chain was expanding in US territory. Making it more competitive with other stores that offered the same type of products.
- Diversification: In a later stage Wal-Mart is looking for the way to reach the different client segments they had, for this he made a division between their points of sale, each focused on satisfying the needs of their different types of customers among them:
- Hypermercados: They are places that have large dimensions, these have joined the different sections of sale of articles. Getting customers to find a wide variety of products in one place. As is supermarkets, hardware store, pharmacy in addition to places where they can consume already prepared foods.
- Neighborhood stores: focused on middle -class families and customers, these stores offer foods that are part of basic nutrition such as milk, fruits and vegetables with the characteristic of being a retail sale.
- Wal-Mart Sam´s Club: which seeks to capture those customers who consume a high amount of products and health institutions, educational or companies that acquire supplies in this place. Offering discounts and access to exclusive brand products through membership documents. These stores have large dimensions with the purpose of housing a large number of products that, unlike those offered in their other stores, are larger packaging, volume and capacity, these range from the elementary such as food until the sale of clothing.
Micro marketing
The managers of the different Wal-Mart stores knew through sales records what are the products preferred by their customers, which were placed on the sales hangers. These vary depending on the results presented in each of them.
Wal-Mart is characterized by offering lower prices, which promoted this chain to give preference to American products thus reducing import and transport costs and promoting US companies to manufacture their products in that place. Thereby obtaining the creation of own brands for the company and allowing the country’s economy to improve by making the money that had been spent on buying foreign products in another country remain in the United States.
Being able to acquire products at a lower cost than the competition allowed the chiefs of the different stores to freedom to modify the prices of their products according to the location and economic condition of the inhabitants of that place. In order to achieve the maximum sales point and have a high inventory rotation. Giving this company an advantage over its competitors that had prices set in their products.
Logistics
One of the reasons why Wal-Mart offers products at a great price is that of its logistics, this company must coordinate its supply of items among more than 80 thousand suppliers and distribute this merchandise among all its stores. This is achieved through more than 140 distribution centers that are scratched strategically throughout the United States. Reducing transport costs and reducing the delivery time of the orders made by their different stores.
Commitment to the environment
Although a retail sales company does not use water in large quantities, the company has internal policies that reduce its consumption in addition to having a wastewater system in cases where necessary.
Energy consumption is oriented to environmental care This company has a renewable energy use campaign and one of the actions taken was to change the lighting of its stores for lighting in which LED spotlights are used.In addition, it encourages waste recycling in their productive activities, as well as the use of biodegradable bags to dispatch their orders and purchases.
Conclusions
One of the strategies that Wal-Mart took.
Be the case of Wertkauf in Germany, figure in Mexico and in the Asian continent in Japan where it acquired the largest supermarket chain in that country. This foray into international markets led this company to the need to build transport and distribution systems in a global way. Showing internationally that its strong point is the logistics that it has.
In addition to dealing with one of its greatest international challenges, which is to introduce their work culture to employees in that country, given the difficulty and cost that this has generated Wal-Mart has a problem to face what is to reduce its High level of personnel rotation.
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