Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness - Essay Example

? Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness Introduction The study has been conducted to analyze the effect of globalization and technological changes of a public corporation listed under Electronic Data-Gathering (EDGAR) database. The study also looks to apply the resource base model in order to find out how the organization can earn above average return. Also an effort has been made to assess the mission and vision statement of the company to find the degree of alignment of the business operations with the mission and vision statements of the company. The effort of the stakeholders on the overall success of the business has been analyzed. Here it has to be mentioned that the organization chosen happens to be Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a publicly traded company since 1971 and the largest retailer in the country of U.S. Effect of Globalization and Technology Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Fulton in the year 1950 and in the year 1971 the company was listed as a publicly traded company. By 1990 the company had exhibited phenomenal success in the domestic market as it became the largest retailer in the nation. Wal-Mart went global for the first time in the year 1994 when the company decided to enter Canada and since then there has been no turning back. Today Wal-Mart has total of nine thousand and seven hundred units. Out of this more than five thousand units are international units. Globalization presented Wal-Mart the challenge of entering into new countries like China and Brazil having diverse cross cultural differences. But it also presented the opportunity to generate a lot more revenue and reach economies of scale. From the performance of the company it can be easily seen that the company has nullified the risks and utilized the opportunities to the fullest extent. The statistics speak for themselves. Today Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Globalization has helped the company to enter emerging markets like China, Brazil, etc. and take control of the untapped market. In short globalization has been one of the key reasons for the phenomenal success of the company (Wenderoth, 2009). Position Retailer Name 1 Wal-Mart 2 Carrefour 3 Tesco 4 Metro 5 Kroger Source: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and STORES Media Another major change in the modus operand of the company has been the embracement of technology. It is quite needless to say that with the rise in the usage of energy round the globe, the world is likely to go through the phase of power shortage. Therefore, a lot of companies are looking to use renewable energy resources. This is also potential branding activity. Wal-Mart has been a pioneer in the usage of the modern day technology to take advantage of the use of renewable energy resources. Wal-Mart uses HVACS to reflect sunlight that reduces heat to cool the buildings. Another major change has been use of the internet. Due to rise of the use of internet, it has also become a potential marketing and sales channel. Wal-Mart has been able to develop strong digital presence both in terms of the website and social media platform. The company also provides opportunity for the customers to buy products online. Industrial organization and Resource Based model for Wal-Mart Industrial organization Model The industrial organization adds to the competitive model real life frictions such as the limited information, transaction cost and barrier to entry. Wal-Mart has been able to achieve economies of scale through the everyday low price model which has in turn acted as the potential barriers to entry. Also the globalization has helped the company a lot in becoming a market leader. The Wal-Mart stores are also geared towards the low income customer groups (Henry, 2008). Resource Based model The resource based model of the company can be analyzed through the resource capability analysis using the VRINE model. The company has decided to focus on some capabilities such as international acquisitions, store design, supply chain and the introduction of analytics to create value for the customers. The company has strived to make the capabilities unique and rare to gain competitive advantage. The application of the point data system turned out to be a revolutionary in the industry. The rare and unique capabilities have made sure that the other companies cannot imitate the capabilities of the company but not all has been successful. The company has done a wonderful job of making fullest use of the resources and turning them into capabilities. One of such examples would be the revamping of the supply chain management that have decreased the cost and also lead time of delivery leading to customer satisfaction (Porter, 1980). Vision and Mission Analysis The vision statement of the company says “We save people money so they can live better”. The mission statement of the company says “If we work together, we will lower the cost of living for everyone… we will give the world an opportunity it see that what it is to save and have a better life.”From both the vision and mission statement it can be understood that a lot of emphasis has been put on the low cost. In this way it shows that the mission and business statement of the company is well aligned with the business model of the company. Just like the mission and vision statement shows, Wal-Mart operates on EDLP theory that has helped the company to achieve cost leadership. Each of the Wal-Mart stores provides low prices on the items on each and every day. Hence the mission and vision statement reflect core principle and the overall modus operand of the company. Impact of the stakeholders on the company A large company like Wal-Mart would have diverse stakeholders. The stakeholders can be categorized as the internal and external. The internal stakeholders include share holders, employees, management and suppliers. As a listed company Wal-Mart is accountable to the shareholders. The company has started employee empowerment and profit sharing to increase involvements. Although the suppliers are often treated as the external stake holder but due to the close relation of the company and the stakeholder, the suppliers are known as the internal stakeholders. Among the external stakeholders, the customers would be the most important ones. The union and the NGOs are a part of the external stakeholder also. Wal-Mart has been sometimes criticized for having policies against the labors. Conclusion To conclude it can be said that the globalization and technology has major positive impact on Wal-Mart becoming the largest retailer in the world. The business model of Wal-Mart is unique as it operates on EDLP basis. The company has done a great job of transforming the resources into unique capabilities that cannot be imitated easily. The vision and mission statements of the company focus on the cost saving aspect. This is in perfect alignment with the everyday low price model of the company which has helped Wal-Mart the company to attain cost leadership. Also the company has been able to maintain good relationship with most of the stakeholders. There have been certain problems with the unions and NGOs but the company is trying hard to make sure that has healthy public relations with all the stakeholders as all of them tend to have strong impact on the businesses. References Porter, M.E. (1980). Competitive Strategy, USA: Free Press. Henry, A. (2008). Understanding Strategic Management. UK: Oxford University Press. Wenderoth, M. (2009). Particularities in the Marketing Mix for Service Operations. DE: GRIN Verlag: Read More