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1. Company Profile

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., branded as Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail
corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse
stores. Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 in Rogers Arkansas. "If
we work together," he said, "we'll lower the cost of living for
everyone...we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save
and have a better life."

The company is the worlds second largest public corporation, according to the
Fortune Global 500 list in 2013, the biggest private employer in the world with
over two million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart
remains a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton
family, who own over 50 percent of Wal-Mart. It is also one of the worlds most
valuable companies.

Wal-Mart helps people around the world save money and live better anytime
and anywhere in retail stores, online and through their mobile devices. Each
week, more than 245 million customers and members visit 11,000 stores under
69 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 10 countries. With fiscal
year 2013 sales of approximately $466 billion, Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million
associates worldwide.



Vision Statement
Saving people money to help them live better.
Mission Statement
Offers the best quality merchandise at the lowest prices in all their stores,
from school supplies, to household items and top quality groceries.






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2. History


1960 : Retail Revolution
Sam Waltons Strategy was built on an unshakable foundation.
The Lowest Prices Anytime, Anywhere

1962 : On July 2, 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in
Rogers, Arkansas.

1967 : The Walton family owned 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in
sales.

1970 : Wal-Mart became a publicly traded company. The first stock was
sold at $16.50 per share.

1972 : Wal-Mart was listed in the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).With
51 stores, Wal-Mart recorded sales of $78 million.

1983 : The first Sams Club opened in Midwest City, Okla. Wal-Mart
replaced cash registers with computerized point-of-sale systems,
enabling fast and accurate checkout.

1987 : The company installed the largest private satellite communication
system in the U.S, linking the companys operations through voice,
data and video communication.

1990 : By 1990, Wal-Mart was the nations number-one retailer. As the
Wal-Mart Supercenter redefined convenience and one-stop
shopping, Every Day Low Prices went international.

1991 : Wal-Mart became an international company when Sam's Club
near Mexico City was opened.

1997 : The company celebrated its first $100 billion sales year.

2000 : H. Lee Scott, Jr. succeeded David Glass as CEO.
Walmart.com was founded, allowing U.S. customers to shop online.
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Wal-Mart employed more than 1.1 million associates in 3,989
stores and clubs worldwide.

2009 : Mike Duke became CEO. Wal-Mart entered Chile with the
acquisition of a majority stake in D&S S.A. For the first time, Wal-
Mart exceeded $400 billion in annual sales.

2014 : Doug McMillon succeeded Mike Duke as CEO









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3. Success Factors of Wal-Mart

3.1. Cost Management


Since cost is the most important tool that drives business to success, the
strategy for managing cost is important for business to succeed especially
for giant retailer like Wal-Mart. Since the retailers already have to
compete for lowering the prices the business performance highly depends
on its cost reduction methods. Wal-Mart always emphasized the need to
reduce its purchasing costs and offer the best price to its customers.

3.1.1. Supply Chain Management:
Supply Chain Management is moving the right items to the right
customer at the right time by the most efficient means.
According to analysts, Wal-Mart was able to achieve a leadership
status in the retail industry because of its efficient supply chain
management practices. As Wal-Mart used sophisticated barcode
technology and hand-held computer systems, managing the goods
became easier and more economical. Almost all product data can be
tracked to and from the manufacturer, warehouse and the store shelf.

3.1.2. Operation and Distribution:
Wal-Mart has its fast and responsive transportation system. The
distribution centers were serviced by more than 3500 company owned
trucks. These trucks ship goods from the distribution centers to the
stores within two days and replenish the store shelves twice a week.
Wal-Mart opens the stores outside of large cities and within 200 miles
of existing stores. By bunching stores together in small areas,
distribution costs are below average.

Wal-Mart also made use of a logistics technique known as cross-
docking. In this system, the finished goods were directly picked up
from the manufacturing plant of a supplier, sorted out and then directly
supplied to the customers. The system reduced the handling and
storage of finished goods, virtually eliminating the role of the
distribution centers and stores.

3.1.3. Bargain Power:
Wal-Mart buys its products at rock-bottom prices, exchanges high
purchase volumes for low cost while passing the savings onto its
customers. The bargaining power of suppliers is weak. Many suppliers
even give in to Wal-Marts pressure because they depend on the
discount retailer for the majority of their sales. For most producers,
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Wal-Mart is their largest account. Obviously, they would do what Wal-
Mart wanted them to do if they hoped to maintain their sales.

3.1.4. Technology Investment:
Technology investment is also a great approach that Wal-Mart used to
minimize cost. According to Wal-Marts history, the first technology
investment was for computer system which was Sams idea. The
computers capabilities have great effect on business management
such as provide on-time information for all levels of managers. With
technology, the company had fasten the data processing time,
improved customer services, reduced cost for gathering data from all
divisions.

Wal-Mart also set up its own satellite communication system in 1983 to
create just-in-time ordering with many of its key suppliers. Essentially,
what this means is that when the stock of certain products hit a
reordering point, an automated response is sent out instantaneously
via satellite to the supplier of that product, purchasing more units,
automatically shipping the units to its stores, and paying for the new
units electronically all in the blink of an eye. This form of payment and
restocking vastly decreases the amount of time it would normally take,
thus saving time and money.

Wal-Mart has recently used the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
technology that allows the company to greatly improve its inventory
information. Items could be easily located in the store, and restocking
would become more efficient and timely. Eventually, the strong
scanning capabilities of RFID technology is used at checkout lines,
allowing customers to simply push their cart through the line and
receive a receipt as they leave the store.


3.2. Growth Management

Strategy for business expansion is one of the most important strategies for
driving Wal-Mart to be the biggest company in the world. Since 1962, Wal-
Mart has geographically expanded in North America, Europe, and Asia.
With positive vision of Sam Walton how the business can grow, Wal-Mart
had dramatically expanded from a single store to thousands of store,
clubs, and supercenters around the world. From the managerial
standpoint, these plans can succeed based on two basic components
which are location and acquisition.

3.2.1. Location:
The best location for each store vary by geography and involve with
many outsource factors such as distant and cost. One characteristic of
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a best location for Wal-Mart store is positioning close to the distribution
center. By choosing the nearest location to the distribution center will
reduce the shipping time and gas expense for the truck. Moreover, the
best location also must be around the community not in a rural area.
By placing the store around town will be convenience for customers to
shop by saving their time of driving.

3.2.2. Acquisition:
Acquisition is a term referred to company that will corporate with Wal -
Mart in order to serve people. In order to corporate with Wal-Mart, a
good acquisition must built-in by quality people with experience and
high commitment especially they must get along with Wal-Mart culture.
One of the great benefits of operating with a well-known acquisition is
that company will gain returns on the investment in a shorter period.
Because the acquisitions are already well-known in the regional, by
only apply Wal-Marts operational model to those stores and operate
the stores by almost the same people, at the same place, and with the
same merchandise, those stores will increase its sales and eventually
businesses will rise to the top rank. For example, Woolco is the
number four discounter in Canada. After three years of joining
operation with Wal-Mart, now it has doubled the sales and become the
number one retailer in Canada.



3.3. People Management

The strategy for managing people is one of the important strategies that
lead Wal-Mart to be the biggest company in the world with the highest
amount of employee.

3.3.1. Motivation:
Wal-Mart takes all of its effort to make employees feel like they are part
of the company because they are sources of new idea for Wal-Mart to
develop. One of the facts proved about this motivation is the used of
term association instead of employee because it make them feel
more engagement with the company. In the Wal-Mart market, each of
associates put on staff card without name, even CEO also put on the
same staff card which shows some characters -- Our People Makes
Difference. It can create a family-oriented business instead of boss-
oriented one.

Beside the way of treating people, Wal-Mart also offers competitive
pay and benefits, including health care plans, education assistance,
retirement plans, and training and development opportunities.
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We offer eligible hourly store associates quarterly cash bonus
opportunities, a health care plan that starts at $17 per pay period, a
401k plan with a company match, a 10% discount on merchandise,
and, most of all, a chance to move up through the ranks.

3.3.2. Internal Promotion:
Another basic activity beside motivation employees is internal
promotion that brings Wal-Mart to succeed in managing its human
resource. Because Wal-Mart aimed at peoples involvement for all
levels of association, it had developed many learning program to
prepare them to be a leader. For example Larry English who started at
one of Wal-Mart stores in Harrison as a stock boy, then became an
assistant manager at Wal-Mart #1 in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1970, he
had become a manager in Newport, Arkansas. After financial
management training, Larry became a field manager operating many
stores.

3.3.3. External Recruitment:
From Wal-Marts history, company had hired many small business
owners when it first started. Those business owners were very
important to the company because they possessed the entrepreneurial
characteristics such as penny saving and risky. Moreover, Wal-Mart
also hires external people who have experience in business
management or expertise in a specific division to back up the
business.



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4. Conclusion

By implementing the above strategies successfully, Wal-Mart has become
biggest retailer in the US and to the biggest company in the world from a single
store. The cost management strategies of Wal-Mart aided in the reduction of
company cost allowing it to provide the customers with products at lower price.
Moreover, the growth management strategy had dragged Wal-Mart into the right
direction of expansion and development. Lastly, human resource strategies are
utilized in the Wal-Mart successfully, and it achieved to increase productivity and
working efficiency and create a great workplace environment which full of self-
improvement, competition, and respects. It also provides an opportunity for
people to build-up experience from the low-rank position to the high-rank
position. Therefore, strong management in these three strategies had
transformed Wal-Mart into the biggest company in the world with the highest
number of employees worldwide and able to achieve the vision Saving people
money to help them live better.






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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
1. Company Profile<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart>

2. History<http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/history/history-
timeline>

3. Cost Management<http://winaungko.blogspot.com/>

4. Technology
<http://emergingtechnologiesis.blogspot.com/2007/10/wal-mart-
satellite-communication-system.html>

5. Technology
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/
barcode.html>

6. People<http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/human-
resource-management-strategies-for-walmart-management-
essay.php>

7. Motivation<http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/working-at-
walmart/opportunity-benefits>