Question 1.
We assume you have already been familiar with Walmart’s sources of competitive advantage in other classes or references. Could you summarize Walmart’s competitive advantages in U.S. and its business model?
We have studied before the supply chain of Walmart and how it led the success in America. We believe Walmart’s success accounts its greatest portion for its excellent operational management, which is in other sense its competitive advantage.
First of all, the business strategy of Walmart is “Every Day Low Price (EDLP strategy)”, which attracts customers by offering the products with the lowest price. Its fuctional strategies are exceptionally well-aligned to EDLP. Thus their strategies are strategically fit.
In terms of the supply chain, Walmart shows an efficient supply chain. It has relatively little variety of products (less customized), longer production lead-times, high set-up costs, and larger batch sizes that allow the firms to supply at a low unit cost. The six major drivers (facility, inventory, transportation, information, sourcing, and pricing) and their roles are also critical in creating this characteristic. For instance, Walmart has purchased and been operating its own logistics system (transportation driver), and could take advantages in terms of inventory costs. All the supply chain factors of Walmart mesh perfectly well together to lower its supply costs and thus enable the EDLP strategy.
The Essay on Walmart Competitive Strategy
Entering into a new market and attempting to compete with a large corporation such as Walmart, one might attempt to collect data and research ways that one’s small company can compete with such a large brand like Walmart. One strategy that would be beneficial to myself if I were a small business owner attempting to compete with such a large successful brand, since one strategy cannot be cutting ...
Question 2.
Evaluate Walmart’s globalization strategy over the last two decades. Where did Walmart struggle? Where did it do well? Can location characteristics explain the differences in Walmart performance? What are the location characteristics that affect its performance?
Our team has summarized whether Walmart has struggled or succeeded in different countries (we scored them in a 5 points scale), and the characteristics of these locations on the table below. Some explanations are also followed by.
Corrupted government
Hence, we believe the locations’ distinctive social cultures (market, orgnizational, consuming behaviors), geographical features (residential), political factors (regulations, trading barriers), and other retail industry status all affected the performance of Walmart.
Question 3.
What are your team’s recommendation to a company which is researching any global operations in the retail industry?
Our recommendations to global operations in the retail industry are shown below in regarding to the four location characteristics that affected the performance of Walmart.
Characteristics
Detailed recommendations
Social Cultures
Consuming and organizational behaviors differ greatly. It is hence highly recommended to deploy a thorough research on the consumption patterns, and hire local employees. (ref. German case) Geographical
Features
Population density and accessibility must all be considered. Industries should be located in the areas within the local customers interest, and with high accessibility to distribution systems and infrastructure.
Political Factors
Local regulations and international agreements affect operation and management. It must be checked whether international treaties and local regulation are favorable to entry and operation. (ref. Mexico case)
The Term Paper on Smart Materials in Aerospace Industry
Within each subsection, we will draw a relationship between the properties of the smart material and its molecular mechanism. This is followed by presenting an outline of their recent and future applications, and the experimental procedures and results done in recent researches to show the feasibility of these applications. In the Discussion section, we will be delving into the cost-effectiveness ...
Industry Status
If the industry status is similar to that of domestic market, it could possibly retain its core competencies by acquiring similar companies. (ref. UK case) If not, the best option seems to be acquiring a local network or company with high performance records.
