沃尔玛,内外部环境,优劣势,战略分析(英文版)

Student ID No: ________121509_____Min Jie________Pages: 32Questions: 1UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIATAKE-HOME EXAMINATIONSemester 5, 2011BMA302 Strategic Management (SOU)Examiner: Dr Dallas HansonTime Allowed: TWO (2) daysENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSISIntroductionWal-Mart is a tycoon in retailing industry with totally 6782 stores scattered in 13 countries such as America, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, and Brazil, ect. Corporation launch the position in low price as the catchword: to save people money so they can live better. In order to improve the lives of everyday people by making everyday thing more affordable, Wal-Mart highlights cost efficient supply chain and economies of scale to achieve lowest cost and productivity.The mission of Wal-Mart is to offer affordable commodities to the general public and update information system in supply chain. In three segments, company continue to set differentiation strategy and superior service to appeal customers. Nevertheless, company would stress staff concern in healthcare and payment. In vision, Wal-Mart has a lofty aspiration in global expansion and another level of publicity.ExternalGeneral environmentDemographicAn aging population represent an upward trend as the global population size is getting bigger. In US, it is estimated that the number of those aged 65 and up will boost to 86.7 million by 2050. The wonderful life of residents in developed nation brings about longer expectancy and lower baby rates. Since crowds of foreign immigrant pour in American labour market, ethnic and gender diversity increasingly apparent in US where the proportion of whites’ workforce seems descend and female labour over the age of 16 has increased. As to income distribution, there exists gulf between rich and poor resulting from returns to education.EconomicOwning to the financial crisis in 2008, world trade was hit hard and it fell in pessimistic market environment. Furthermore, the GDP growth in lots of nations is slowing down, which poses a threat to the retailing industry. The majority of the retailers facing the common sales difficult position were at stake in retailing business.PoliticalAccording to California labour law, it is compulsory for enterprise to provide meal and rest to employee. Second, it appears to great concentration on discrimination against women in promotion, pay, training, and job assignments.Socio-culturalThe governments in many developed countries stress on health care, anti-monopoly trade, the environmental conservation, discrimination, reasonable worker pay and general anti-corporate sentiment. Any action breaking antitrust laws and handling hazardous waste to reduce the cost of treatment would be punished. Additionally, the diversification in gender and culture would restructure the international division of manpower.TechnologicalIn order to achieve cost-efficiency and tracking real time information en-route, RFID has been widely utilized in optimizing the retailing supply chain. Another burgeoning application is internet by which increasingly people around world could absorb fresh news and make purchase without boundaries. Electronic commerce would lead to a new round of explosion in retailing market.GlobalIn line with globalisation trend, trade barriers continue to come down. The development of information technology appears immense potential that expand market and offer excellent labour, capital, goods and service. Simultaneously, bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements are continuing to shape markets.Industry environmentThe retailing industry operates as a superstore offline and online, which offering wide variety goods and service to the public at a reasonable price. Thousands of merchandises in retailing range over electronics, daily necessaries, food, and healthcare and so on. It is a mature industry where many competing retailers fight for more market share such as Target, Costco and Kroger.Threat of new entrantsIn spite of low switching cost for customer to buy merchandise from new entrants in retailing industry, existing retailers have established enormous economy of scale and strong distribution channel to realise firm s’ flexibility and efficiency. For those new entrants without profound resource and capital, it is impossible to entry this area and have a place.Bargaining power of suppliersThe bargaining power of suppliers seems quite weak due to retailing supplier and manufacturers features large quantity with similar goods, low switching costs and multifarious substitute products. Above all, these suppliers have to meet retailing tycoon halfway for big demand and large share of business so that they transformed to specialized suppliers serving for the giant invisibly.Bargaining power of buyersIn the retailing industry, consumer plays an irreplaceable role since people buy daily necessaries, food and other consumables regularly and their purchases consist of the seller’s revenues. And they can easily switch to another competitor stores as long as there is little differentiation in goods and service.Threat of substitutesRetailing superstores selling thousands products have enormous substitutes in type of niche industry or franchise store. A further subdivision on goods and service presents a strong threat to current retailing industry.Intensity of rivalryAs there exists several comparable competitors plus other numerous niche competitors in this retailing industry with a moderate growth, it forms a relatively intensify competition. Obviously, retailing corporations attempting to maximise productive capacity and reduce inventories are lack of differentiation in commodities so that they rely on cutting price to attract customers. Thus, the switching costs become lower and give rise to competition.Competitor environmentFor Wal-Mart, the most competitive corporation includes Target, Costco, Kroger, Carrefour and Tesco. All of the rival attempt to expand their market share and boost sales profit. Target launches the position as upscale, fashion-forward appeal, which provides high-quality merchandise at attractive prices. Costco features a limited number of commodities sold in high volumes, low costs via discounts and a no-frills approach. Kroger is one of the nation’s largest retailers containing 11 brands. Tesco has an object of stretching to the West Coast of the USA, emphasising convenience and competes primarily in groceries. Carrefour acting as the second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart embraces an international ambition and it focuses on hypermarkets. In addition, other niche competitors such as Safeway or Best Buy also compete with Wal-Mart launching low price position plus environmental attention. Now Wal-Mart reset strategy to improve products, logistic efficiency to attract more customers. So the retailing market is intensely competitive. SummaryIn this case, set in the unenthusiastic global economy, the retailing industry is full of fierce rivalry and forms high barriers to competitors. Despite there are so many issues about labour force waiting for the solution, opportunity in technology and global market has the great potential.InternalResourcesTangibleAs the dominant in retailing, Wal-Mart represents a healthy and profitable financial position. In 2007, net income ascended to $ 11.7 billion and total assets reach $151billion. Concurrent with the increase in assets, corporation liabilities have grown to $89.6 billion and total shareholder equity rose to $61.8 billion. Wal-Mart combines low-cost procurement tactics, leading-edge information systems and rocket-science logistics. In physical resource, corporation possesses 2257 Supercentres, 1047 Discount Stores, 112 Neighbourhood Market, 579 Sam’s Club and 2760 International through Distribution Centres improving merchandise delivery. In technology, it utilizes Retail Link, Internet-based Transportation Link system, satellite-based tracking technology, Texlon bar-code and RFID-based system to accelerate goods distribution and track real time information en-route.IntangibleIn human resource, Wal-Mart’s technological supply-chain depends on the assistance of 1.8 million associates who are overworked due to understaffing issues. Company has found groups of technical experts in Global Procurement. And corporation owns capable senior officers and powerful board of directors. In reputation, most consumers are in favour of its various products and good discount. Plus, suppliers consider Wal-Mart as tycoon so that Wal-Mart in dominant position with huge requirment can benefit greatly at lower wholesale price.Capabilities& Core CompetenciesIn capability, Wal-Mart boasts large economies of scale equipped with Distribution Centres covering domestic and overseas market, extensive distribution channel including online, predominance in front of 61000 suppliers, and quick information gather in packaging and transportation fromsupply-chain technology innovation. Corporation offers customer wide range of items at affordable price with daily discount by dominant bargain power in cutting cost of wholesale purchase. Among these remarkable capabilities, the cost efficient supply chain with advanced innovate system is the core competitive advantage, which help to logistics integration and speed up distribution efficiency. In addition, powerful economies of scale and initiative in procurement are another core competency that contributes to profitability and organization flexibility.Value ChainIn primary activities, Wal-Mart’s inbound and outbound logistics present superior performance. Inbound, company has established perfect inventory control and global Distribution Centres reinforcing delivery efficiency. Outbound, supply chain has been equipped with Internet-based Transportation Link system, satellite-based tracking technology, Texlon and RFID system, whichcontribute to cost efficiency and productivity. Plus, affordable price position and idea of EDLP containing frequent discount makes superior marketing and sales.In support activities, Wal-Mart has found Global Procurement expert in category purchase dynamic to serve its three segments store including Wal-Mart Stores, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart international. As a retailing giant, 61000 suppliers with low bargaining power have to be obedient to Wal-Mart’s delivery schedules, product specification and favourable price. Technological development turns equivalent since company start to pay more attention to environmental products. In HR management, employees are overworked and unsatisfied with healthcare, salary and promotion, which have hidden defect in personnel allocation. It is worth mentioning that finance statements perform well and global expansion plan of Wal-Mart International has potential.SummaryBased on all the analysis from Wal-Mart’s departments, the competitive advantage comprises of economies of scale with price advantage, cost efficiency supply chain and information system, which boost Wal-Mart’s growth and globalization.SWOTStrengthFirst, in the field of technology, RFID, technology like satellite tracking system, Retail Link, Internet-based transportation link system, Texlon barcode, Internet business and RFID play significant roles in supply chain for they collects numerous information to accelerate distribution speed.Secondly, economy of scale established in the Wal-Mart makes the publicity of Wal-Mart be spread easily and increase the revenue.Additionally, diverse products and service provided by them attracts increasingly moremiddle-income shippers which are always in promotion with discount such as EDLP. The third advantage of Wal-Mart is the dominant control over suppliers who always have no opportunity tonegotiate with Wal-Mart due to massive sales volume of Wal-Mart, which ensure Wal-Mart to purchase the products in lower expense.WeaknessFirstly, employees treat customer worse because of their unpleasant mood which comes from overworking due to the understaffing, besides low wage, no meal, insufficient care and rest. As a result, Wal-Mart is indirectly losing customers.Secondly, the merchandise of Wal-Mart is largely identical with minor distinction despite of vast varieties, which cannot truly retain customers for they are easy to switch to their components. Therefore, Wal-Mart will be in weak position.OpportunityFirstly, increasingly more people are aware of the convenience of Internet which is applied in communication, searching information and shopping. Then, the sales amount and profit of Wal-Mart are rising with the assistance of electronic commerce and it enables more people to realize their brand at the same time, which set up potential relationship with new customers.Next, it is good news for retailing industry that the global economy is recovering from the Crisis. Strong spending power aboard seems more profitable and potential for Wal-Mart’s future global sales.Finally, the globalization brings Wal-Mart benefits in two aspects. First, such trend offer a chance for Wal-Mart to gain more overseas cooperation, talents, cheap labor, capital raising, which ensure company a more promising prospect. Second, globalization tendency spur the company to launch more expansion in foreign countries while it is difficult to expand in the domestic market because of geographic saturation. Wal-Mart dispatches executives to regions to observe consuming habit, income level of local habitants via advanced information collecting system in order to better understand wide customer basic needs as well as procure and rearrange type and portion of new merchandise. Thus, company can accelerate global invasion.ThreatenThe reputation of company suffers from negative impact from the press of anti-Wal-Mart, which hampers their international sales volume and future development. They are confronting public accusations due to some staffing problems such as sub-standard wage and health care benefits, which are rejections to their expansion plan. Additionally, the predicaments that Wal-Mart is facing like illegal immigrants by subcontractor, lawsuit, fines in environmental damage, gender discrimination and child labor law violation is the barrier to the company growth in globalization.In the aspect of threaten from rivals, the goods of general discount competitors and niche competitors are presenting differentiation and those similar-sized enterprise own the specific market position such as Target’s fashion. All of these create competition pressure in marketing industry. Because of geographic saturation, company has difficulty of expanding in domestic market. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is encountering the problems that their domestic market share is being grabbed by rivals with equivalent competence all the time.What’s more, owning to the sluggishness of same-store sales relative to Wal-Mart’s competitor, it faces the diciest conundrum in retailing today. Company’s future is hard to predict.SummaryIn the future, deeply influenced by global trend, Wal-Mart would further expand business internationally. In order to serve local people for their basic needs, firm would take analysis and restructure the type and amount of items to achieve a better performance in sales. However, there exist challenges about anti-Wal-Mart press, fierce competition, sluggishness, domestic saturation facing company, which is worthy of deep consideration to formulate bright direction for future evolution.ConclusionTo sum up, we have analysed Wal-Mart in terms of internal and external environment as well as SWOT evaluation in above paraphrase. In the following paper, relevant strategies will be illustrated and formulated to guide its future operation.Current StrategyBusiness: Cost leadership strategyAt business-level strategy, giant retailer Wal-Mart holding EDLP applies cost leadership strategy that selling no-frills, standard goods and services to the public at the lowest cost relative to their competitors. Company puts more emphasis on cost reduction in primary and support activities while maintain competitive levels of differentiation based on customer demand and psychology such as environmental merchandises.As primary activities, inbound logistic contains huge inventory, spacious warehouse and Distribution Centres around world. And outbound logistic concludes perfect supply chain equipped with various tracking system en-route such as satellite-based technology, Internet-based Link, Texlon and RFID. These elements account for a significant portion of the cost reduction and overallsupply-chain supervision.As support activities, Wal-Mart founded Global Procurement focusing the dynamics of particular category purchase to balance low cost and acceptable quality in raw material, which creates value for customers. With adequate cash flow and irreplaceable leading position, Wal-Mart drives the cost lower through economies of scale and compromise from suppliers in wholesale price for low bargaining power. Effective use of the cost leadership strategy allows enterpeise to earnabove-average returns in spite of the presence of strong force.Corporate: Related constrained diversification strategyAt corporate-level strategy, enterprise uses a related constrained diversification strategy to increased corporation competitiveness. Wal-Mart has three business segments, according to the Exhibit 2, the percentage of sales by segment is: Wal-Mart Stores account for 65.6%, Sam’s Club 12.1%, andWal-Mart International 22.4%. 65.6 per cent from Wal-Mart Store is less than 70 percent of revenue come from the dominant business. These three with limited link between businesses could create economies of scope to save cost by sharing common resource and transforming core competency.Sharing activities are worldwide assets including information systems such as RFID, satellite-based and internet-based system, purchasing organisation, category expertise, shared best practice, and cost efficient supply chain.Transferring of core competencies in Wal-Mart is two philosophies: customer orientation plus EDLP idea. Wal-Mart Store understanding the need and preference of different customer base realigns merchandises for customer satisfaction. Sam’s club set its own direction in optimising the in-club experience offering members electronic entertainment, food and clothing. International segment improve customer service through differentiation and new channels. Combining shared resource and transferring of core competency together, company succeeded in cost saving and strategic competitiveness.International: Transnational strategyIn international strategy, Wal-Mart seeks to achieve both global efficiency and local responsiveness. According to the case, its technological supply-chain sophistication is intended to provide “value for customers, associates, and shareholders”. Among these three parts, they have tight relationship in value chain where depend on each other. So there exists flexible coordination which building a shared vision and individual commitment through an integrated network as follow.Wal-Mart obtains 61000 providers with various products obeying the giant’s requirement and delivery schedules, which promotes supply efficiency. Each segments carefully determined the appropriate product offering for each location based on different lifestyle, shopping habits and basic demand. Above all, in human resource arrangement, many executives coming to region from headquarters focus on lifestyle, income level and basic needs in order to localize merchandising selection. Rearranged type and proportion of commodities please those who seek low price and successfully develop uniqueness and differentiation.All of those make up trasnational strategy that makes contribution to create shared value among customer, providers, partners and shareholders.Cooperate: joint venture and equity strategy allianceIn different region and nation, company apply diverse types of strategic alliance in order to gain a foothold in growing markets overseas. In China, company utilized joint venture to share tangible resource and capabilities to develop a competitive advantage. Wal-Mart and Chinese partner in this joint venture own equal percentages and contribute equally to its operations.It is effective in forming long-term relationships with Chinese and in transferring tacit knowledge such as advanced supply chain and information system.In Central America, Japan and Mexico, the operations majority-owned subsidiaries are no other than equity strategy alliance combining some of their tangible or intangible resource to create competitive advantage. Here, capital-rich Wal-Mart has the majority ownership stake in the alliance. Recommendation StrategyAlong with the ambition of global invasion, there are some recommendations for Wal-Mart. Integrated cost leadership and differentiation strategyAs Wal-Mart adhere to commit the cost leadership, in-time innovation in supply chain and attention to commodity differentiation occupy critical position in the process of future development. In avoid of obsoleteness and replacement in supply-chain tracking technology, enterprise should update advanced and popular technology of RFID rather than Texlon in following year. Besides, people strategy linking the value chain to final customer should be assigned adequate staff to assure high efficiency and productivity.Secondly, affordable product should be added more differentiate value to retain customer loyalty. New skills and technologies are indispensable. Broadening Wal-Mart’s appeal to clients consists of specially design, environmental idea, reorganization of categories and cooperation with new suppliers, which promote sustainable development.Transnational strategySince it is difficult to perfect transnational strategy, company should continue to think more about shared value and their stakeholder, especially their staffs who act as the link among enterprise, customers, suppliers and partners. The worker satisfied with deserved salary and rest would offer better service. Company should value long-term associates and worker’s healthcare to delivery happy and convenience to the global market.Related constrained diversification strategyWal-Mart should preserve in this strategy and better apply its shared resource and core competency in three corporation segments. Resources including information system and procurement expert play a vital role in supply chain where prompt organization efficiency and productivity. Company should stress innovation in goods and service to please clients. Despite of appealing low pricing, transferring of core competency among three segments should be further reinforced because of low switch cost by consumers. In order to retain customer loyalty, company should differentiate merchandise and optimise service with other rival.Equity AllianceFor Wal-Mart, It must continue in equity alliance and joint venture with powerful partnership to obtain the scale and established profit target since global expansion stimulates more cooperation opportunities and consolidates retailing status overseas. This kind of alliances would complement each other in market power, supply-chain advantage and expertise procurement. Through JV and equity strategic alliance, Wal-Mart perhaps benefits differentiation and uniqueness from local business.ConclusionThrough an array of strategic analysis, it is apparent that Wal-Mart excels in cost leadership, perfect supply chain and information system. Three segments with a clear assignment of responsibility share common resource and transferring of core competency and intent to achieve differentiation in goods and service. Addition to transnational strategy, shared value among stakeholders, paying more attention to worker could greatly enhance organisational performance and sales. Following the ambition of global invasion, equity alliance and JV is indispensable.。