Assignment Overview
From the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats analysis of Walmart, it has been identified that Walmart possesses a surveillance over all the products to upgrade its logistics systems which can help the company to enhance quality of the goods. This also helps the company to monitor goods both inwards as well as outwards. Good monitoring of logistics can help the company to operate successfully in the international market. Moreover, there is a great customer base present internationally that can help the company to enhance goodwill and better market reach. Walmart can take this benefit to suppress the competitors also.
By identifying the weaknesses regarding suppliers and less competency due to more variation in the deals, the company can effectively focus on specific product in order to enter the global competition (Hbr.org 2018). Moreover, the company also needs to focus on the data security which makes the operation of the firm at stake. In sustaining retail business, recently Walmart has taken initiative to expand more in the international level. It is making its store efficient at available locations to garb support from the employees as well as customers. Despite the company get the full support from the customers, there are issues of customer dissatisfaction that may affect the business of Walmart in future.
Walmart is one of the largest retail company of the world, that offers diverse types of products to the customers at very low price. The company currently operates in the international market hence it faces different environmental constraints.
Political constraints: the political environment is mainly related to the different government policies in different markets. In this regard, Walmart often faces political pressure for higher wages and lower stability of politics leading to bring changes in the legal strategies.
Economic constraints: this factor affects revenues of the company when there is an instability in the major economies of the market or in case of global economic devaluation and recession. In addition to this, increasing unemployment issues in the developed countries has affected the business a lot.
Social constraints: constantly growing healthy lifestyle trends among the population has effectively pushed the business of Walmart in choosing better quality of food items and other associated materials. In many cases therefore, the supply chain cannot provide goods (Demil et al., 2015).
Technological constraints: constantly increasing business automation is pressurising the company to enhance technological capabilities. In addition to this, increasing usage of big data is growing threats for the data security (Hbr.org 2018).
Environmental constraints: the fast-increasing demand for environment friendly product trends have put the company to face opportunity in different markets. This has enhanced the reputation of the company.
Legal constraints: tax law reform and constantly changing employment regulations put pressure on the successful operation of the company in the global markets. Moreover, food safety has become an important issue and Walmart has to continue effective monitoring and control to manage this fact.
The chief stakeholders of Walmart are investors, customer, employees and suppliers. All of these stakeholders play important roles in the successful business of the company. Among all these stakeholders, the investors are the top prioritised stakeholders. This is due to the fact that they are chiefly interested in the profits and want the company to have profits. This interest gets translated into the higher earnings or dividends per share. These investors are mainly interested in curtailing operational costs of the company which results into the higher profits. Hence by prioritize the investors, the company fulfils the primary objectives of their business.
Learning Outcomes
Figure 1. organizational structure and design of Walmart
Source: created by author
Walmart is a centralized organization which enforced stricter regulations that do not make allowances. The employees follow ten rules of Sam Walton without much problems and support smooth operation of the organization (Forbes.com 2018). All the departments of the company follow specific cultures that determines how people, respond to the challenges in their operations. The company has function based structure where directive as well as mandates coming from the higher authorities are applied through the middle managers down to the ground level employees in the stores of the organization. The function-based structure of Walmart mandates involvements of the groups of employees fulfilling specific functions. Therefore, recruitment takes place based on the expertise in Walmart (Nytimes.com 2018). There are different departments in the corporation like human resource management, department for the function of information technology, department for the function of marketing and many more. This helps the company to operate more successfully in an organic way (Forbes.com 2018).
In order to keep the employees motivated to act according to the demand of the organization, the company follows the intrinsic motivation theory. This particular theory refers to the behavior which is driven by internal rewards. This type of motivation aims to engage in the behavior arises from within the individuals as this naturally satisfy them more than anything. Intrinsic reward is reward achieved of having motivation and is driven by the enjoyment in the individuals rather than depending on the external desire for reward. Extrinsic reward is also used in the company which refers to gifts, recognition and money (Gilling & Ulmer, 2016).
From analysis of part 1 and 2, it can be recommended that the company needs to bring changes in different parts of its operations. First it needs to focus on reducing the variety of products that it now deals on. This large variety of demanding types of product has make the company less competitive. Secondly, as Walmart is an international brand, it offers international goods to its customers but it also needs to make the local products available to attract every segment of its customer base. Thirdly, Walmart needs to strengthen the data security so that despite operating globally they never lack or gets threatened with big data. Finally, the company mainly focusses on the demands of customers which effects the connection with the suppliers. Hence all the stakeholders must feel satiated with the business of Walmart and do not create issues in the smooth operation of the company.
In order to measure the progress of the recommended changes, the feedback and concurrent control methods are to be applied. In order to control the recommendations, management information system process and market control method so that it can overcome the issues related to the market and data security. Effective management information system process will help the company to enhance the data security within the company. The market control process will help the company to overcome and balance the market pricing, variety and customer demands. Through online activities, fleet tracking, production monitoring and monitoring of cultural values, the company will be able to control the recommendation.
References:
Corporate.walmart.com. (2018). Using our strengths to help others. Retrieved from https://corporate.walmart.com/2016grr/using-our-strengths-to-help-others
Demil, B., Lecocq, X., Ricart, J. E., & Zott, C. (2015). Introduction to the SEJ special issue on business models: business models within the domain of strategic entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), 1-11.
Forbes.com. (2018). Walmart’s Outdated Management Style Is Failing Customers. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2016/01/30/walmarts-outdated-management-style-is-failing-customers/#323f908f13ae
Gilling, R. I., & Ulmer, J. M. (2016). Major Challenges in Supply Chain Management. Insights to a Changing World Journal, 2016(3).
Hbr.org. (2018). Wal-Mart’s Business Environment. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/product/wal-marts-business-environment/706453-PDF-ENG
Nytimes.com. (2018). Walmart Is Accused of Punishing Workers for Sick Days. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/business/walmart-workers-sick-days.html
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