Wal-Mart Competitive Advantages Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wal-Mart Competitive Advantages - Case Study Example The researcher states that the discounted retail giant Wal-Mart has many of the competitive advantages that have made the company such a market leader for years now. The rural market strategy that the company has undertaken has clearly helped the company to attain increased market share. The other advantage of Wal-Mart has been the age of its stores. In the year 1990, merely 10% of Wal-Mart stores were more than 8 years old whereas K-Mart, the prime competitor of Wal-Mart had 85% of stores aged above 8 years. The distribution capability is another prominent competitive advantage for Wal-Mart. In their distribution system, they have cross-docking, inside out location strategy which is very much helpful to grow their business in overseas. This is one of the cost saving methods and they can easily reach their customer satisfaction level. The workforce culture of Wal-Mart is a customer-oriented strategy which is motivated by monetary contribution as well as belief in the Wal-Mart culture . This tends to move faster in response and flexibility to the changing demand. Strong corporate culture is very much needed to apply this strategy. Wal-Mart pursued to search for technological competitive improvements. Recently, Wal-Mart set up an electronic data exchange with more than 3,600 retailers with the purpose of receiving orders as well as to interact electronically. The plan has been extended with the purpose of developing, forecasting, shipping, and planning. Even though information costs are larger than competitors but the benefits of inventory cost reduction and also increased sales, compensate the cost appreciably as well as serve Wal-Mart with important competitive advantage. The distribution system of Wal-Mart is enormous and too tough to be replicated by the competitors when anybody considers the electronic connection of sales as well as inventory information across the world.

Week 2 MGMT 670 Conf Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Week 2 MGMT 670 Conf - Essay Example However, strategic plans that are too vague and do not distinguish between key organizational objectives will result in a firm that ultimately fails. This is because there is no planning and direction from top management, whose responsibility it is to make sure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to strategic planning. The key is to strike a balance between flexible and firm strategic plans. In some industries, the margin for error in this process can be extremely tight, so it is important to have the right executives with industry experience making key management decisions. The right timeframe for a strategic plan depends on the situation of the firm involved and the industry it is in, but in general a strategic plan should last for about one year. After this period of time, management can reevaluate whether the market conditions have changed, and if so, how the strategic plan should be adapted to accommodate these changes. Because a strategic plan is of extreme importance to a company’s future success, only those with the appropriate knowledge and expertise should develop a strategic plan. Traditionally this has been a top-down process, but the best strategic plans include many more people than just top management. Opinions should be sought from department heads as to where the company currently is and where each department sees the company going in the future. This is important because only by receiving the opinions of middle management can the top executives understand how a strategic plan will affect the company. Also, a strategic plan can then be implemented based on the opinions of every department, which will not only help everyone to feel included in the process, but it will get every department working from the same page. The most successful strategic plans are followed because everyone understands their part in the process and what is expected of