2. How Did The Company Start?
History
Time Frame
Geography
Significance
Expert Insight
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3. WALMART HISTORY
Sam Walton started is career in retail as a clerk for J.C.
Penney. Then, after serving in the military until 1945, he
purchased his own Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas.
He added several other of these store and became savvy
about what makes for profitable retail sales over a twenty
year period. He then opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers,
Arkansas in 1962. Since then, the Wal-Mart brand has
steadily grown to a position as the “world’s largest retailer,”
projected to do over $300 billion in sales during 2008.
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4. WAL-MART TIME FRAME
The company has been growing steadily since it opened in
1962. Five years later, there were 24 stores I Arkansas, one
in Sikeston, Missouri, and another in Claremore, Oklahoma.
In 1967, the company did $12.6 million in sales revenue.
The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Store Inc. on
October 31, 1969. Its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas
opened in 1970. Sales revenues reached more than $1
billion by 1979, when the company had 276 stores in a total
of ten states and employed 21,000 associates.
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5. WAL-MART GEOGRAPHY
In 1991, Wal-Mart opened its first store outside of The
United States, in Mexico City. In 2000, Fortune Magazine
named Wal-Mart the number five “Global Most Admired
All-Star” and in 2003 and 2004 Fortune upped the ranking
to number one. In 2007, Wal-Mart created 2.5% of the new
jobs in Mexico. In 2008, Wal-Mart operated 4,100 facilities
within the United States and 3,100 facilities abroad. Wal-
Mart store, Wal-Mart Super Center, Discount Stores,
Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Clubs are in eight Latin
American nations, as well as in China, Japan, Canada and
the United Kingdom.
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6. WAL-MART SIGNIFICANCE
The Wal-Mart mission is to save “people money so that they
can live better.” This pertains to everything that the
company does, from its commitment to clean, renewable
energy with zero waste to its reputation as a place where
prices on name-brand opens are low thanks to the volume
with which they can be purchased. It takes corporate
citizenship seriously. One of its outreaches is a partnership
with Food for America. The Cone/Roper report named Wal-
Mart the number one corporate U.S. citizen.
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7. WAL-MART EXPERT INSIGHT
Wal-Mart has laid out an impressive set of goals going forward.
The company has purchased enough wind energy to transition
15% of its Texas stores to this clean fuel source. By 2012, the
company plans to run 30% of its facilities on totally renewable
energy. It has a long-term goal of 100% dependency on clean
fuel technology. Even though it is sometimes accused of
disparities in its treatment of minority employees, the company
deals with more than 3,000 minority and woman-owned
businesses and suppliers. The leadership of Wal-Mart, as of
February 1, 2009, includes Mike Duke as CEO, who succeeds
Lee Scott in this position. Lee Scott remains involved on the
Wal-Mart Board of Directors.
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8. WAL-MART CULTURE
Wal-Mart Mission Statement: People, Saving Money,
Living a Better Live.
Sam Walton built his business on values and morals.
Those rules and customs have helped Wal-Mart become
one of the world’s most admired companies.
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9. WAL-MART
BASIC BELIEFS & VALUES
RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
Wal-Mart associates are hardworking, ordinary people who
have teamed up to accomplish extraordinary things.
SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMERS
Customers are the reason Wal-Mart is in business, Quality
merchandise is offered at the lowest prices, with the best
customer service possible.
STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE
Constantly reaching further to bring new ideas and goals to
life; always asking: Is this the best I can do?
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10. WAL-MART
RULES, LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK
10-FOOT RULE
whenever an associate comes within 10 feet of a customer, they look them in
the eye, greet them, and ask if they can be helped.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Sam Walton’s leadership philosophy, It’s more important to develop leaders
who are servants, who listen to their partners-their associates-in a way that
creates wonderful morale to help the whole team accomplish an overall goal.
TEAMWORK
The ability to work together affects the quality of service the customers
receive.
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12. COMMUNITY &
GIVING
The Walmart Foundation strives to provide opportunities
that improve the lives of individuals in the communities
through financial contributions, in-kind donations, and
volunteerism:
Education
Workforce Development/Economic Opportunity
Environmental Sustainability
Health and Wellness
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13. COMMUNITY & GIVING
Wal-Mart employed 2.2 million associates and employees
worldwide and continue to serve more than 176 million
customers and consumers a year.
Wal-Mart most basic value has always been, and will always
be customer service”.
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14. WAL-MART
TOP OF THE FORTUNE 500
Dominance in the Retail Market
Expansion in the U.S. and International Markets
Creation of Positive Brand and Company Recognition
Brand Out into New Sectors of Retail
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15. WAL-MART COMPANY’S SUCCESS
Since Sam Walton’s death in 1992, Wal-Mart has gone from
being the largest retailer in the world to holding the top on
the Fortune 500 list as the largest company in the world.
Don Soderquist, who was senior vice chairman during that
time, played a crucial role in that success. Sam Walton said,
“I tried for almost twenty years to hire Don Soderquist…But
when we really needed him later on, he finally joined up and
made a great chief operating officer.” Responsible for
overseeing many of Wal-Mart’s key support
divisions, including real estate, human resources,
information system, logistics, legal, corporate affairs, and
loss prevention. 15
16. WAL-MART INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY SUCCESS
The use of information technology has been an essential part of
Wal-Mart’s growth. A decade ago Wal-Mart trailed K-Mart,
which could negotiate lower wholesale prices due to its size. Part
of Wal-Mart’s strategy for catching up was a point-of-sale
system, a computerized system that identifies each item sold,
finds its price in a computerized database, creates an accurate
sales receipt for the customer, and stores this item-by-item sales
information for use in analyzing sales and reordering inventory.
Aside from handling information efficiently, effective use of this
information helps Wal-Mart avoid overstocking by learning what
merchandise is selling slowly. Wal-Mart’s inventory and
distribution system is a world leader.
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17. WAL-MART
INFORMATION TECHNOGY SUCCESS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
To link directly from its stores to its central computer
system and from that system to its supplier’s
computers
Allows automatic reordering and better coordination.
Knowing exactly what is selling well and coordinating
closely with supplier permits Wal-Mart to tie up less
money in inventory than many of their competitors.
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18. WAL-MART
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BAR CODE SCANNER
To record the sale of each item and make that information
available immediately for both reordering and sales
analysis.
Accurate inventory.
Competitive necessity for large grocery stores and
retailers.
Develop a universal product code (UPC) system, a
standard method for identifying products with number and
coding those numbers. 18
19. WAL-MART CONTRIBUTION
TO THE TECHNOLOGY WORLD
Invest in the latest to connect their global retail operations
with one of the largest data warehouse in the world.
Developing new technologies to transform the way
customers shop.
Continue to save people money so they can live better.
Offer job opportunity for everyone, wit exciting projects,
investments in new technologies, training, development
and incredible.
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20. WAL-MART STRATEGIC PLAN
Retain oversight of all day-to-day operations at
Walmart.com
Focus on further integration of online and in-store
capabilities hat provide multi-channel options for
customers.
Expand the site’s overall merchandise assortment and
product information.
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23. WAL-MART SOCIALOGICAL IMPACT
GLOBALIZATION
Business model and organizational structure.
LABOR
In terms of its own stores and working conditions in its
global supply chain.
COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
The genesis and effectiveness of community mobilization
against Wal-Mart.
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24. WAL-MART SOCIALOGICAL IMPACT
BUYER-DRIVEN COMMODITY CHAINS
How Wal-Mart’s growth is linked to the emergence of
buyer-driven commodity chains in the global economy.
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