Wal-Mart in 2001
Introduction
In 2001, Lee Scott, president and director of Wal-Mart Stores In, found himself surprised by himself because he was positively responding to the most challenging moments in his story. Some of the events they had to face were: unemployment, energy crisis, reduced consumption spending and catastrophic moments such as the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
Scott was only the third director of Wal-Mart in his history, he was recruited by David Glass, who was the second director of the renowned store corporation and a character with an innovative spirit, who while maintaining his position was able to grow the growing the Sales at incredible levels.
But it was Sam Walton who created the company from scratch. At first Walton acquired the franchise of the popular Ben Franklin warehouse in Newport, Arkansas, he operated this store successfully until in 1950 he lost the lease contract. The first retailers that the businessman had in Bentonville, Newport and Arkansas, were small and were located in the main streets of the towns of Southern States, his merchandise showed it in wooden boards and counter, they were characterized by offering pricing line limited, scarce utility margins, high rotation of merchandise and concentration in investment performance. By 1976 popular warehouses were progressively disappearing to give rise to Wal-Mart discount stores.
Developing
Operations Division
As his own word says, it means dividing a company into different business units that allows you. Wal-Mart in 2002 operated mass trade stores under various names and sales formats among them we can mention: Discount Departmental Wal-Mart, Sam’s Wholosale Clubs, Bodegas of Menile and Retail Sale Membership, Neighborhood Market, Small Store Formats of groceries with pharmacies and wal-mar supercings. All these business models seek to attract a broader customer base than they already have, thus providing them with a purchase experience that encourages them to choose a company above the competition, it is about possession in the consumer’s mind.
International Division of Operations
means expanding operations to other countries that seek to generate greater profits or revenues. His establishments arrived in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico and China, which received him to be recognized as the world’s largest retail store, even several magazines recognized their career, growth and success for Example, Fortune magazine pointed it out as the ‘100 best places to work’, obtained third place within the ‘most admired companies in America’ and the fifth place of the ‘most admired global companies’.
Wal-Mart International has managed to have undoubted success, because also with their international collaborators, they have established a close relationship that inspires them has continued to grow and strive more to give the client what he needs. One of the interesting slogans that this brand follows is that when "Wal-Mart reaches a country and sets, the inhabitants of that region save an interesting percentage, which allows them to raise their quality of life".
The main basis of its international operations division, is that its administration focuses on a cooperative culture that implies: knowing the needs of the inhabitants of different countries to which it reaches, attending to the client as it deserves it, helping the communities applying Social responsibility and work with passion.
To strengthen their relationship with their international coagents, Wal-Mart rewards the collaborators of each country to demonstrate that their work is aligned with the values of cooperation, which implies encouraging them to continue giving the best of themselves.
Leadership implies developing in a person skills that allow you. In the case of Wal-Mart its success was precisely attributed to the entrepreneur, enthusiastic and innate leader that its founder Sam Walton had, which allowed him to surround himself with customers and employees who helped him build the leading company that everyone knows today.
Some of the strategies Walton put into practice through his leadership were:
- Human talent administration
- or Wal-Mart Culture
Human talent administration
It means the way to manage the most important and indispensable capital that a company, its staff, has, taking advantage of its capacity, knowledge and skills, to generate a mutual benefit between the company and the person itself, generating a competition development within the company
Wal-Mart placed its employees as the main thing and used the word "partner" to refer to them, since it considered that to fulfill the goal of being a leading company, it had to create good conditions, that is, an ideal labor setting and place in the first place the interests of their "partners".
Walton mentioned that the basis of his success is his staff, the way he is treated and his way of perceiving the company.
Walton personally visited their stores and interacted with the staff making them feel a fundamental part of the company and collecting their criteria.
The company identified the strengths of each of its collaborators with the aim of increasing them and thus allowing them to ascend to higher levels.
His personnel recruitment was one of their most interesting processes, since they were looking.
Its partners participated in the stores in the corporate level
Provided training programs
He created programs like "Letter to the President", where he motivated to use the words "we" "us" and "ours" as part of a corporate language
Recognized the achievement of its employees individually, as a department and as a division.
Introduced programs about the property of the actions and the participation in the profits of the company, as a way to associate.
Carried out programs to avoid excessive staff rotation
They invested in training for their partners, seeking the personal and professional development of the collaborator.
These strategies expressed results when their 275000 employees were called "sellers of the mass market of the year" by different publishers and entails that a Wal-Mart employee is referred to as an example of all the good that an American employee should have, Training employees in order to feel as if they are administer and certain quality control techniques provided by employees in order to be constantly growing and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage over time.
Wal-Mart Culture
understood as such ideas or principles that can be imposed, through leadership. Wal-Mart’s culture had two important axes, the first one considers how to manage the staff and the second its customer service. When we talk about customer service, the premise of this renowned world company, was for its partners.
For the Wal-Mart customer to feel that he is in the best place and provide an incomparable purchase experience, the company offered a diversity of products at low and comfortable prices. In summary, the Wal-Mart culture involves treating the client with the same attention always, making him feel at home.
The Wal-Mart culture over the years, has adapted to each of the countries in which the company has a presence and in each of these places to the client, which triggers its growing commercial development at international level.
Adaptation
It means taking an idea and experiencing it in a place looking to generate positive results. In the case of Wal-Mart the concept of discount was not a new idea, but Sam Walton was convinced that discounts would transform detailed sales, to convince themselves travel to New England, cradle of price offers and realized that affirming his idea was the right thing.
Knowing that in Michigan the first Kmart had already opened, Walton did not abandon his initiative and proposed to operate a similar discount store in a small community and offer registered brand merchandise at low prices and with a friendly service,
There we can realize that his adaptation strategy worked because Walton clung to his ideal seeking to succeed and this was today the most recognized chain of stores worldwide.
Corporate policy
understanding as such those guidelines on which a company is based to develop its business activity. Wal-Mart always work under the low price policy and their framework for the generation of customer attraction, was to grant enthusiastic reimbursements, credits and vouchers. The company focused on being the chain of departmental discount stores that offered a wide variety of products of all kinds. For Wal-Mart establishing its corporate policy, it is one of the main sources of competitive advantage over competition and on the substitute products that obviously exist in market either national or international.
Opportunity purchases
It is defined as those purchases that are made when there is a discount that is reflected in the price of the product. Wal-Mart apart from establishing their corporate policy, always gave the first place to purchases of opportunity, which usually lead to assume a risk, but if they are successful, revenues can be high levels. These types of purchases provided any available source, among the product line, the articles for health and beauty were enhanced, placing them in such a way that they are what the customer first see when visiting a Wal-Mart store.
Aggressive expansion
It implies the way a company grows, looking for new markets and new ways to reach them. Wal-Mart Develop this type of strategy through new stores that are mainly in communities of 5000 to 25000 inhabitants, the size of the stores varied from 2800 to 5500 square meters. The company also expanded through stores in contiguous geographical areas.
When their discount operations saturated one place, it expanded to a nearby, seeking to win another market share and thus grow even more. Even when we talk about expansion it is also important. We can note that this expansion is a step for internationalization and that analyzes two significant factors of the business environment; Culture and customers.
Logistics
means the way in which a company is organized to carry out its main activity. In the case of Wal-Mart to maintain an ideal order of its operations, the first thing he did is lift distribution centers and then scattered stores around him, which allowed him to share the general distribution and advertising expenses. Most stores were less than six hours on the way to the company’s warehouses. The first distribution center was inaugurated in 1978 in Searcy, Arkansas.
The issue of logistics is the success of many businesses, since the more efficient the storage of products and distribution, the more profitability a company can obtain, due to the savings that this factor in the company’s value chain represents. Recall that both internal and external logistics are part of the primary activities of the value chains, when they are correctly managed to become a competitive advantage source, thus the value that it generates is not directly perceived by the client, The final product that he will have in his hands will satisfy his need and the perceived value will be the one that the company expected.
conclusion
Diversification of its product portfolio: it implies the wide variety of goods that a company can offer to the public. Wal-Mart offers a wide variety of merchandise, the facilities are designed to offer purchases at once, include items such as: clothing, auxiliary health and beauty products, home products, electronic devices, toys, fabrics, gardening items. , shoes, etc. This strategy allows the company purchase.
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