Darkness Too Visible Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity; why is this considered a good idea? GURDON, MEGHAN COX. The Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) Volume: 257 Issue 129 (2011) Amy Freeman, a 46-year-old mother of three, stood recently in the young-adult section of her local Barnes & Noble, in Bethesda, Md., feeling thwarted and disheartened. She had popped into the bookstore to pick up a welcome-home gift for her 13-year-old, who had been away. Hundreds of lurid and dramatic covers stood on the racks before her, and there was, she felt, "nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff." She left the store empty-handed. How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18. Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it. If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader -- or one who seeks out depravity -- will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds. Now, whether you care if adolescents spend their time immersed in ugliness probably depends on your philosophical outlook. Reading about homicide doesn't turn a man into a murderer; reading about cheating on exams won't make a kid break the honor code. But the calculus that many parents make is less crude than that: It has to do with a child's happiness, moral development and tenderness of heart. Entertainment does not merely gratify taste, after all, but creates it. If you think it matters what is inside a young person's mind, surely it is of consequence what he reads. This is an old dialectic -- purity vs. despoliation, virtue vs. smut -- but for families with teenagers, it is also everlastingly new. Adolescence is brief; it comes to each of us only once, so whether the debate has raged for eons doesn't, on a personal level, really signify. As it happens, 40 years ago, no one had to contend with young-adult literature because there was no such thing. There was simply literature, some of it accessible to young readers and some not. As elsewhere in American life, the 1960s changed everything. In 1967, S.E. Hinton published "The Outsiders," a raw and striking novel that dealt directly with class tensions, family dysfu.

1. Darkness Too Visible
Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse,
violence and depravity; why is this considered a good idea?
GURDON, MEGHAN COX. The Wall Street Journal (Eastern
Edition) Volume: 257 Issue 129 (2011)
Amy Freeman, a 46-year-old mother of three, stood recently in
the young-adult section of her local Barnes & Noble, in
Bethesda, Md., feeling thwarted and disheartened.
She had popped into the bookstore to pick up a welcome-home
gift for her 13-year-old, who had been away. Hundreds of lurid
and dramatic covers stood on the racks before her, and there
was, she felt, "nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving
my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-
mutilation, this dark, dark stuff." She left the store empty-
handed.
How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when
you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and
pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the
run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children
from the ages of 12 to 18.
Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that
were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now
spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would
get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in
young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not
even remark upon it.
If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of
fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously
distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course
exceptions, but a careless young reader -- or one who seeks out
depravity -- will find himself surrounded by images not of joy
or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most
horrendous kinds.
Now, whether you care if adolescents spend their time immersed

2. in ugliness probably depends on your philosophical outlook.
Reading about homicide doesn't turn a man into a murderer;
reading about cheating on exams won't make a kid break the
honor code. But the calculus that many parents make is less
crude than that: It has to do with a child's happiness, moral
development and tenderness of heart. Entertainment does not
merely gratify taste, after all, but creates it.
If you think it matters what is inside a young person's mind,
surely it is of consequence what he reads. This is an old
dialectic -- purity vs. despoliation, virtue vs. smut -- but for
families with teenagers, it is also everlastingly new.
Adolescence is brief; it comes to each of us only once, so
whether the debate has raged for eons doesn't, on a personal
level, really signify.
As it happens, 40 years ago, no one had to contend with young-
adult literature because there was no such thing. There was
simply literature, some of it accessible to young readers and
some not. As elsewhere in American life, the 1960s changed
everything. In 1967, S.E. Hinton published "The Outsiders," a
raw and striking novel that dealt directly with class tensions,
family dysfunction and violent, disaffected youth. It launched
an industry.
Mirroring the tumultuous times, dark topics began surging on to
children's bookshelves. A purported diary published
anonymously in 1971, "Go Ask Alice," recounts a girl's spiral
into drug addiction, rape, prostitution and a fatal overdose. A
generation watched Linda Blair playing the lead in the 1975
made-for-TV movie "Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic"
and went straight for Robin S. Wagner's original book. The
writer Robert Cormier is generally credited with having
introduced utter hopelessness to teen narratives. His 1977
novel, "I Am the Cheese," relates the delirium of a traumatized
youth who witnessed his parents' murder, and it does not (to say
the least) have a happy ending.
Grim though these novels are, they seem positively tame in
comparison with what's on shelves now. In Andrew Smith's

3. 2010 novel, "The Marbury Lens," for example, young Jack is
drugged, abducted and nearly raped by a male captor. After
escaping, he encounters a curious pair of glasses that transport
him into an alternate world of almost unimaginable gore and
cruelty. Moments after arriving he finds himself facing a wall of
horrors, "covered with impaled heads and other dripping, black-
rot body parts: hands, hearts, feet, ears, penises. Where the f --
was this?" No happy ending to this one, either.
In Jackie Morse Kessler's gruesome but inventive 2011 take on
a girl's struggle with self-injury, "Rage," teenage Missy's secret
cutting turns nightmarish after she is the victim of a sadistic
sexual prank. "She had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the
badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had
gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she
still couldn't breathe." Missy survives, but only after a stint as
one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The argument in favor of such novels is that they validate the
teen experience, giving voice to tortured adolescents who would
otherwise be voiceless. If a teen has been abused, the logic
follows, reading about another teen in the same straits will be
comforting. If a girl cuts her flesh with a razor to relieve
surging feelings of self-loathing, she will find succor in reading
about another girl who cuts, mops up the blood with towels and
eventually learns to manage her emotional turbulence without a
knife.
Yet it is also possible -- indeed, likely -- that books focusing on
pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm,
may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young
people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme
measures. Self-destructive adolescent behaviors are observably
infectious and have periods of vogue. That is not to discount the
real suffering that some young people endure; it is an argument
for taking care.
The novel "Scars," a dreadfully clunky 2010 exercise by Cheryl
Rainfield that School Library Journal inexplicably called "one
heck of a good book," ran into difficulties earlier this year at

4. the Boone County Library in Kentucky, but not because of its
contents. A patron complained that the book's depiction of
cutting -- the cover shows a horribly scarred forearm -- might
trigger a sufferer's relapse. That the protagonist's father has
been raping her since she was a toddler and is trying to engineer
her suicide was not the issue for the team of librarians re-
evaluating the book.
"Books like 'Scars,' or with questionable material, those provide
teachable moments for the family," says Amanda Hopper, the
library's youth-services coordinator, adding: "We like to have
the adult perspective, but we do try to target the teens because
that's who's reading it." The book stayed on the shelves.
Perhaps the quickest way to grasp how much more lurid teen
books have become is to compare two authors: the original Judy
Blume and a younger writer recently hailed by Publishers
Weekly as "this generation's Judy Blume."
The real Judy Blume won millions of readers (and the
disapprobation of many adults) with then-daring novels such as
1970's "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret," which deals
with female puberty, 1971's "Then Again, Maybe I Won't,"
which addresses puberty from a boy's perspective, and 1975's
"Forever," in which teenagers lose their virginity in scenes of
earnest practicality. Objectionable the material may be for some
parents, but it's not grotesque.
By contrast, the latest novel by "this generation's Judy Blume,"
otherwise known as Lauren Myracle, takes place in a small
Southern town in the aftermath of an assault on a gay teenager.
The boy has been savagely beaten and left tied up with a gas
pump nozzle shoved down his throat, and he may not live. The
protagonist of "Shine," a 16-year-old girl and once a close
friend of the victim, is herself yet to recover from a sexual
assault in eighth grade; assorted locals, meanwhile, reveal
themselves to be in the grip of homophobia, booze and crystal
meth. Determined in the face of police indifference to
investigate the attack on her friend, the girl relives her own
assault (thus taking readers through it, too) and acquaints us

5. with the concept of "bag fags," heterosexuals who engage in gay
sex for drugs. The author makes free with language that can't be
reprinted in a newspaper.
In the book business, none of this is controversial, and, to be
fair, Ms. Myracle's work is not unusually profane. Foul
language is widely regarded among librarians, reviewers and
booksellers as perfectly OK, provided that it emerges
organically from the characters and the setting rather than being
tacked on for sensation. In Ms. Myracle's case, with her
depiction of redneck bigots with meth-addled sensibilities, the
language is probably apt.
But whether it's language that parents want their children
reading is another question. Alas, literary culture is not
sympathetic to adults who object either to the words or
storylines in young-adult books. In a letter excerpted by the
industry magazine, the Horn Book, several years ago, an editor
bemoaned the need, in order to get the book into schools, to
strip expletives from Chris Lynch's 2005 novel, "Inexcusable,"
which revolves around a thuggish jock and the rape he commits.
"I don't, as a rule, like to do this on young adult books," the
editor grumbled, "I don't want to compromise on how kids
really talk. I don't want to acknowledge those f -- ing
gatekeepers."
By f -- ing gatekeepers (the letter-writing editor spelled it out),
she meant those who think it's appropriate to guide what young
people read. In the book trade, this is known as "banning." In
the parenting trade, however, we call this "judgment" or "taste."
It is a dereliction of duty not to make distinctions in every other
aspect of a young person's life between more and less desirable
options. Yet let a gatekeeper object to a book and the industry
pulls up its petticoats and shrieks "censorship!"
It is of course understood to be an act of literary heroism to
stand against any constraints, no matter the age of one's readers;
Ms. Myracle's editor told Publishers Weekly that the author
"has been on the front lines in the fight for freedom of
expression."

6. Every year the American Library Association delights in
releasing a list of the most frequently challenged books. A
number of young-adult books made the Top 10 in 2010,
including Suzanne Collins's hyper-violent, best-selling "Hunger
Games" trilogy and Sherman Alexie's prize-winning novel, "The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." "It almost makes
me happy to hear books still have that kind of power," Mr.
Alexie was quoted saying; "There's nothing in my book that
even compares to what kids can find on the Internet."
Oh, well, that's all right then. Except that it isn't. It is no
comment on Mr. Alexie's work to say that one depravity does
not justify another. If young people are encountering ghastly
things on the Internet, that's a failure of the adults around them,
not an excuse for more envelope-pushing.
Veteran children's bookseller Jewell Stoddard traces part of the
problem to aesthetic coarseness in some younger publishers,
editors and writers who, she says, "are used to videogames and
TV and really violent movies and they love that stuff. So they
think that every 12-year-old is going to love that stuff and not
be affected by it. And I don't think that's possible."
In an effort to keep the most grueling material out of the hands
of younger readers, Ms. Stoddard and her colleagues at Politics
& Prose, an independent Washington, D.C., bookstore, created a
special "PG-15" nook for older teens. With some unease, she
admits that creating a separate section may inadvertently lure
the attention of younger children keen to seem older than they
are.
At the same time, she notes that many teenagers do not read
young-adult books at all. Near the end of the school year, when
she and a colleague entertained students from a nearby private
school, only three of the visiting 18 juniors said that they read
YA books.
So it may be that the book industry's ever-more-appalling
offerings for adolescent readers spring from a desperate desire
to keep books relevant for the young. Still, everyone does not
share the same objectives. The book business exists to sell

7. books; parents exist to rear children, and oughtn't be daunted by
cries of censorship. No family is obliged to acquiesce when
publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free-expression
principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their
children's lives.
---
Mrs. Gurdon writes regularly about children's books for the
Journal.
(See related letters: "Letters to the Editor: Dark Literature for
Young Adults Can Be Good or Bad" -- WSJ June 11, 2011)
Credit: By Meghan Cox Gurdon
Running Head: STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT 1
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT 5
Strategy Development
Name
University
Case: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Strategy
Strategy refers to a course of action that needs to be followed
for the interest of achieving various goals and objectives (Erica,

8. 2011). Organizations usually have various goals that should be
met. For this to be achieved, they need a strategy. The
definition of strategy fits Wal-Mart and its situation because the
company always has a course action in place. Wal-Mart believes
that through the implementation of relevant strategies, it can
achieve its goals and objectives in the most effective and
efficient manner.
Main strategies
Wal-Mart believes that its success revolves around customers
and employees; its main strategies are concentrated on the
welfare of the customers and employees. One of the strategies is
focused on ensuring the customers are satisfied by the quality of
products and services that they receive. Another main strategy
is related to employees and most specifically, job satisfaction.
The company makes sure that employees are comfortable and
satisfied so that they can do their best. Comfortable employees
are self-motivated and more productive.
Industry and competitors
Wal-Mart operates in the retail industry. It is a business
organization whose major purpose is to sell products to final
consumers; it creates the link between manufacturers of
different products and the final consumers. Amazon and Netflix
are among the top competitors of Wal-Mart because they
operate in the same industry and target the same market.
The competitors make use of a range of strategies to beat
Wal-Mart in the market. The strategy that Amazon uses is the
wide range of products. This strategy basically refers to
availing as many products as possible in different categories to
make sure that customers do not lack anything that they need.
This leads to customer satisfaction in some way because the
customers always find what they look for. The strategy that
Netflix uses is speed. The company ensures that customers get
goods delivered to them as soon as they make orders. This
strategy is intended to enable the business in reducing the time
that customers would otherwise have to wait before the products

9. they ordered are delivered to them.
The selected strategies are effective because they are
enabling the competitors to achieve their goals and objectives.
A strategy is successful if it is able to meet the purpose for
which it was established (Freeman, 2010). The success of the
strategies is piling more pressure on Wal-Mart.
Industry analysis and current organization standing
The retail industry is among the most competitive industries
given the number of businesses involved. Despite this, Wal-
Mart is holding on to the lead as a result of its strategies,
resources, and capabilities. The company has a team of
competent managers that have ensured success despite the stiff
competition.
Performance goals
When a business is established, its major purpose is to grow
from one level to another. To achieve this, performance goals
are usually set and they determine whether or not the business is
growing on not depending on their level of achievement.
In the next one year, Wal-Mart has three specific goals that
should be achieved. The first goal is an improvement in
customer service. The company understands that customers are
important assets that should be focused on. Improvement of
service provision to them is necessary. Better customer service
makes the customers feel important to business and they will
remain loyal because they like the services provided to them.
The second goal is employee satisfaction. In the next one year,
the company intends to improve the overall conditions under
which employees work. This is intended to boost job
satisfaction as well as performance. Better working conditions
improve the level of employee satisfaction. The last
performance goal in the next one year by Wal-Mart is to ensure
that there is a remarkable improvement in terms of sales. To
achieve this, the business intends to boost its marketing so that
it creates awareness and demand for the different products that
it offers. Through this, sales will be more frequent and there
will be more revenues realized (Adekola & Sergi, 2012).

10. One of the goals of Wal-Mart in the next 5 years is the
achievement of corporate social responsibility. The business
intends to expand its services to the surrounding communities
by enabling them to meet their objectives. This will also be
achieved through the application of environmentally friendly
strategies. The second goal is to build a positive organizational
culture. This is intended to boost the overall performance of the
business. The last goal for Wal-Mart in the next five years is
about brand recognition. The business intends to boost the
recognition of its brand across the world especially in the most
remote areas in which it is not yet present.
References
Adekola, A. & Sergi, B. (2012). Global Business Management:
A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing.
Erica, O. (2011). Strategic Planning. Indianapolis: Wiley
Publishing.
Freeman, E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder
Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Running head: WALMART’S RESPONSE TO CHANGE
1
WALMART’S RESPONSE TO CHANGE
2
Walmart’s Response to Change
Name
University
The strength or weakness of Walmart’s industry, based on the
evolution industry
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., commonly known as Walmart is an

11. American retail corporation operating a chain of discount
department stores, grocery stores and hypermarkets. The
company operates in the retail industry. Since its founding by
Sam Walton in 1962, the company has grown to become an
international brand, currently owning 11,593 stores and clubs
spread across more than 28 countries (Hwang, & Park, 2015).
The stores are operated under 63 banners. According to the
Fortune Global 500 list of 2016, Walmart is the largest company
in the world by revenue, which means its growth has been
steady and exponential. Additionally, its growth in the retail
industry has expanded to a position of 2.2 million workers,
which puts the retail giant as the largest private employer
globally. By market value, Walmart has grown to become one of
the most valuable firms in the world by market value, and
topping the list of grocery stores in the United States (Hwang,
& Park, 2015).
For the past half-decade, the brick and mortar retail
establishments has experienced significant challenges. The
retail industry is not declining, it is maturing with the
advancement of technology. The economic experts, marketers
and the shoppers believe that the operations of brick and mortar
retail stores are going the way of dinosaurs. However, the retail
industry has manifested continued resilience and therefore it
deserves more credit than it is getting currently (Pantano, et al.
2014). Data-driven shopping experiences, personalized mobile
experiences and emerging mobile shopping technologies like
iBeacon are giving brick- and mortar retail shops a second look.
The future of the retail industry will largely depend on how the
physical stores can coexist with and adjust to their digital
counterparts (Pantano, et al. 2014).
Now, benefits of the digital world and the lines between the
physical shopping experiences are converging to create new
retail experience based on excitement, convenience and ease.
There exists four trends in the retail industry which is likely to

12. make the future of the industry brighter for Walmart and other
companies operating along this line. Firstly, it is important to
consider all-inclusive mobile shopping experiences (Pantano, et
al. 2014). The emergence of personalized shopping trips and
mobile apps are changing retail. The digital personal concierges
are used in welcoming shoppers into stores; with some stores
using the iBeacon technology to as a form of digital messaging
to guide purchases to their favourite goods and services,
alerting them of the new deals and discounts (Pantano, et al.
2014). Mobile shopping apps are increasingly improving the
area of customer service.
Through tablet devices or mobile, sales representative are able
to respond to questions immediately, construct customized
shopping experience and pull up buying histories of customers
that is profitable for the store and convenient for the customers.
The second component of the retail industry making it mature is
digital advertisements sent to the passers-by. Soon, retailers
will start targeting people with digital messages as they walk by
their retail stores (Pantano, et al. 2014). For instance, if a man
passes by men’s grooming store stocked with products
appealing to him, an in-app or email alert can use his past
purchasing habits to notify him of some other products currently
being sold. For customers, personalized advertisements of these
forms are likely to make the shopping experience more
convenient.
Smart shelving and 3-D holograms are making the retail
industry more mature than what we have seen in the past
(Pantano, et al. 2014). Advanced holograms assist the customers
in better visualization of the upcoming products, Retail stores
strategically position the eye-catching 3-D renderings in glass
windows and at checkout counters to engage the customers at
higher levels. For instance, the technology-based intelligent
shelving by Intel positions prominent digital displays close to
new products to increase awareness amongst the customers. The

13. displays are updated easily to move products efficiently before
their sell-by dates. This innovation can help retail stores
improve sales and revenue on several products.
Lastly, the improved self-checkout experiences are improving
the maturity of the retail industry. When the self-checkout
kiosks were introduced by grocery stores, they got it right there.
The tactic can continually be used on larger scales in several
other retail verticals. For instance the EasyPay self-mobile
checkout by Apple is an important innovation that is helping
revolutionize the customers’ experiences as they grow in their
comfort using contactless payments (Sorace, Pantano, Priporas,
& Iazzolino, 2015, November). From these perspectives, the
future of the retail industry is not bleak. The brick- and-mortar
retail stores are continuing to combine the benefits of the digital
and physical world to become mature and hence gain positive
response from the loyal customers.
Using Porter’s National Diamond to evaluate the main
advantages and disadvantages of vertical integration versus
outsourcing for the company.
According to Michael Porter, a nation is able to create new
advanced factor endowments in the form of knowledge base,
culture, government support, strong technology and skilled
labor. The diamond used in illustrating the determinants of
national advantage by Porter represents the national play filed
that nations establish for their nations (Fainshmidt, Smith, &
Judge, 2016). The ingredients leading to national comparative
advantage are; the pressure on firms to invest and innovate; the
goals of individuals in business organizations; the availability
of skills and resources; and the information that organizations
use to decide which opportunities are to be pursued with those
skills and resources (Fainshmidt, Smith, & Judge, 2016).
The points of the diamond: factor conditions, demand
conditions, related and supporting industries and the firm

14. strategy, structure and rivalry. Using the diamond, vertical
integration should be largely used by Walmart where outside
industries are outsourced to provide services which can be
easily obtained if vertical integration is used (Fainshmidt,
Smith, & Judge, 2016).
Firstly, vertical integration is cost effective. Because of the
eliminated market transaction cost, implementing vertical
integration at Walmart will control costs using their own supply
and distribution strategies and channels. More importantly, by
setting the goods and services directly to the consumers without
third party involvement, Walmart is able to minimize the
distribution costs and hence increase their profits. Secondly,
vertical integration is important for Walmart since it is a
weapon against competition and the competitors. Components
business can be applied as a competitive weapon (Markusen, &
Xie, 2014). Using vertical integration, and according to Porters
force of threat of new entrants, high barriers can be set by
Walmart for those newly entering the market.
Thirdly, for Walmart, vertical integration is important because
of secured supply. With vertical control, Walmart is able to take
more control over the supply and distribution. When the
company outsources from other firms, several uncertainties
come up especially when the outsourcing company is also a
competitor. Once Walmart’s supply chain is controlled by itself,
it is able to ensure their own sufficient supply. The other
strength of vertical integration is its ability to allow for positive
differentiation. Positive differentiation can give Walmart access
to more process and retail channels, more production inputs and
distribution resources (Markusen, & Xie, 2014).
According to Porter, vertical integration based on the diamond
provides more competitive advantages. However, vertical
integration has weaknesses such as: capacity-balancing
challenges when Walmart needs to create excess upstream

15. capacity to ensure the downstream operations get sufficient
supply; decreased feasibility; can create barriers to market
entry; and requires extensive capital used in investment
(Markusen, & Xie, 2014). On the other hand, outsourcing
according to the pyramid, has some setbacks. Loss of
managerial control of the outsourced roles is top of the list.
Secondly, Walmart is likely to suffer hidden costs in the
implementation of outsourced roles (Markusen, & Xie, 2014).
The third challenge is that outsourcing can be a threat to
confidentiality and security especially on customer information.
Lastly, the outsourced roles can lack in quality.
The company’s strategic position as of 2013 using the Boston’s
Consulting Group’s growth-share matrix
The BCG Growth-Share Matrix is based on the observation that
Walmart’s business units can be classified into four categories
based on the combinations of market share and market growth
relative to the largest competitor (Palia, De Ryck, & Mak,
2014). The matrix framework is based on the assumption that an
increase in relative market share can result in an increase of the
generated cash. The assumption is true most of the time because
of the experience curve; when the relative market share
increases, it implies that Walmart is moving forward on the
experience curve relative to its competition, hence a cost
advantage is developed (Palia, De Ryck, & Mak, 2014).
Secondly, since the retail market is growing, investment is
required in the assets to increase capacity and hence lead to
consumption of cash. The strategic position of Walmart as of
2013 on the growth –share matrix provides an indication of its
cash consumption and cash generation. Since the retail store has
been investing in the market to become the market share leader
since its formation in the 1960s in a rapidly growing retail
market, its business unit’s move along the experience curve and
hence develop a cost advantage (Palia, De Ryck, & Mak, 2014).
The four categories of the matrix are: dogs, question marks,

16. stars and cash cows. Dogs have low growth rate and low market
share, and hence neither consume nor generate large cash
amounts.
As of 2013, Walmart business units were in this category.
Secondly, question marks grow rapidly and hence large amounts
of cash are consumed but since they have low market shares,
much cash is not generated. The net cash consumption is
therefore larger. Stars on the other hand generate large cash
amounts owing to their strong relative market shares, but large
amounts of cash are also consumed since the growth rate is
high; and therefore the cash in each direction nets out
approximately. As of 2013, the strategic position of Walmart
was that of cash cows (Palia, De Ryck, & Mak, 2014). Since
Walmart has been a leader in the mature retail market, it
exhibits a return on assessment that is larger than the market
growth rate.
Implementing strategies and Changes decision making, main
changes in planning structure and measures of success.
Decision making remains a key pillar of Walmart’s success, not
today, but even tomorrow. Therefore, effective changes should
be implemented aimed at improving results and efficiency of
operations both in the United States and other stores offshore.
Making effective decisions require the input of a lot of
information on the issue at hand. The management of the
organization should involve employees more regularly and
deeply in decision making process. Business analytics and
technology should also be integrated in the decision making
process.
The planning structure should be leaner and effective; and this
means incorporating best planning strategies such the teamwork
and development. The planning structure is very important for
the success of Walmart and hence it should be transparent,
invest in knowledge and skills. The planning structure should be
more focused on the philosophy of Walmart and the goals or

17. objectives of the organization. The other change is
incorporating the industry and environmental analysis of
Walmart into the planning structure and conducting a SWOT
analysis regularly. Measures of success include: financial
viability of Walmart, which can be determined by its
profitability; customer satisfaction which is indicated by
performance on customer satisfaction surveys; employee
satisfaction and the firm’s contribution to the society.
References
Fainshmidt, S., Smith, A., & Judge, W. Q. (2016). National
Competitiveness and Porter's Diamond Model: The Role of
MNE Penetration and Governance Quality. Global Strategy
Journal, 6(2), 81-104.
Hwang, M., & Park, S. (2015). The Impact of Walmart
Supercenter Conversion on Consumer Shopping Behavior.
Management Science, 62(3), 817-828.
Markusen, J. R., & Xie, Y. (2014). Outsourcing versus vertical
integration: Ethier–Markusen meets the property‐rights
approach. International Journal of Economic Theory, 10(1), 75-
90.
Palia, A. P., De Ryck, J., & Mak, W. K. (2014). Interactive
Online Strategic Market Planning With the Web-Based Boston
Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix Graphics Package.
Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential
Learning, 29.
Pantano, E. (2014). Innovation drivers in retail industry.
International Journal of Information Management, 34(3), 344-
350.
Sorace, S., Pantano, E., Priporas, C. V., & Iazzolino, G. (2015,
November). The Future Role of Digital Technologies in
Emerging Technology-Based Retail Environments. In 2015 8th
International Conference on u-and e-Service, Science and
Technology (UNESST) (pp. 72-76). IEEE.

18. Running head: PROJECT DELIVERABLE
1
PROJECT DELIVERABLE
5
Project Deliverable
Name
University
Wal-Mart
Importance of innovation for the long term survival
Changes made by Wal-Mart will benefit the organization in
many ways. The three key innovations; generating zero waste,
selling products that will sustain resources of the environment
and using 100% renewable energy will help the organization to
remain at the top. The world is going green because of the
effects of global warming (Don, 2005). Each and every nation
has been advised by the United Nations to ensure that it tries to
use renewable energy and save the environment. The innovation
of Wal-Mart is timely, and it is likely to work to the advantage
of the organization.
Overall strategy to foster innovation
The overall strategy is to ensure that all products that are sold
by Wal-Mart are 100% natural. The approach will go a long way
in winning the trust of the customers and attracting more
customers. The emergence of diseases like cancer and
hypertension has boosted the demand for organic products and
therefore the strategy is likely to work.
Expected industry evolution over a period of five (5) and ten
(10) years

19. In the next five to ten years, Wal-Mart will still be one of the
most successful organizations globally. Currently, Wal-Mart is
the fourth private organization globally that has employed the
biggest number of employees. However, that is likely to change
in the next five to ten years. The innovation is likely to put the
organization in a more favorable position on the map of the
world.
Top advantage(s) over its competitors
i) A big number of customers
Wal-Mart is one of the organizations that have a big number of
clients who visit their stores on a regular basis. Statistics
indicate that Wal-Mart attends to at least 100,000,000
customers in a week. An organization that has a big number of
clients is likely to reach a big number of people in selling its
strategies thus having an advantage over the competitors. On
the other hand, Wal-Mart has a lot of outlets, and that means
that most of the customers can acquire products of Wal-Mart in
any place as long as there are Wal-Mart stores.
ii) Unique products
Wal-Mart offers products that are environmental friendly. In the
twenty-first century, people are trying to avoid products that are
rich in chemicals due to their effects on people's health. Wal-
Mart has ensured that products that leave its doors are not only
environment-friendly but also healthy for human consumption
(Berg, 2012). Other organizations have tried to go green like
Wal-Mart, but that has been impossible. The innovation of
ensuring that all products are free from chemicals is likely to
work to the advantage of Wal-Mart. Looking at the statistics;
most people are more interested in buying products that are
environmental friendly. Therefore, a big number of individuals
are likely to choose to shop at Wal-Mart than any other place
out there.

20. Strategies to use to exploit innovative breakthroughs
iii) Selling natural products
Advantages
i) Many customers will decide to buy from the organization than
from any other organization.
ii) The organization will receive favors from the agencies that
advocate for the selling of natural products.
Disadvantages
a) Getting reliable suppliers can be challenging and that will
affect that business.
b) Most of the natural products change in price now and then
and convincing the customers can be difficult (Berg, 2012).
iv) Extensive marketing
Advantages
i) Many people will get to know about the innovation of the
company.
ii) The number of customers is likely to increase thus increasing
the revenue.
Disadvantages
i) Extensive marketing is expensive.
ii) By marketing, the competitors get to know about the
strategies of the organization.

21. Strategies to exploit advantages over competitors and how to
minimize key weaknesses.
Selling natural products
The most suitable strategy that Wal-Mart can apply is ensuring
that all products sold are natural (Leshmik, 2011). Wal-Mart has
been in a scandal before whereby most of the customers
complained that the organization was not selling a hundred
percent natural products. If the organization made the same
mistake today, it would lose a lot of clients and trust from the
stakeholders. The company can ensure that it has produced
quality products by making sure that the suppliers observe the
standard of goods that the firm wants. If the company made sure
that all the products sold are natural and chemicals free,
customers would flock in its shops and a case of any
weaknesses; the customers will not have the time to observe it.
On top of that, the company will be ahead of its competitors
since it will have won the hearts of many customers.
References
Leshmik. (2011). Wal-Mart- Innovation Case Study. Retrieved
from
http://www.slideshare.net/lekshmik/walmart-innovations-case-
study
Don, S. (2005). The Wal-Mart Way. Nashville, Tennessee:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Berg, N. (2012). Wal-Mart: Key Insights and Practical Lessons
from the World’s Largest
Retailer. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers.
Running head:INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

22. 1
INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
2
Innovation and Competitive Analysis for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Name
University
Innovation and Competitive Analysis for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The Porter’s Five Forces of Competition
To analyse the competition in the supply chain in the American
market, the use of the Porter’s Five Forces will be favored.
This is where the poser of the supplier, the buyer power, and the
competitive rivalry, threat of the substitute products and threats
of the new entry are analysed. Walmart is a retail juggernaut
that has overseen a continuous six-year upward surge and
recorded staggering grosses of over $486 billion in the
concluded fiscal year on January 2015. This was a $10 billion
increase from the amount recorded for the 2014 fiscal year. The
store giant has thousands of stores in the U.S alone, a factor
that has seen the firm move up the Gartner’s annual ranking to
13th in the list of the best performing supply chain
organizations. The greatest weapon that has been put to use by
Walmart is its ability to engage in mammoth purchasing
business hence shaping the behavior of its suppliers and
subsequently pushing the costs down (Michaux, Cadiat, &
Probert, 2015). The last few decades have seen Walmart rise to
take the leading centre stage due to its unmatchable supply
chain management that has enabled it to continuously have an
improvement when it comes to investing millions of USD into
the emerging technologies. This has enabled the store to capture
a good portion of the e-commerce market. The rise of the
Walmart store is directly attributed to three very strong
elements shown buy the organization. They include, being in

23. total control over its own fleet of trucks; strict practices when it
comes to distribution; and the use of technology.
Two innovative and technology trends that Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc. or its competitors introduced
The Walmart Stores using the strength of the internet to
help it with connecting online. The organization has gone all
out by embracing the use of technology so as to develop
adequate understanding of the possible shift they have been
recorded in the technological industry and in retail. A greater
portion of the technology being used by the organization has
been split into two distinct parts. We have the Walmart
Technology that has Bentonville as its base and oversees
building and the technology for management for the
organizational, stores. On the other side, Global eCommerce,
that is situated in Silicon Valley, which is in charge of the
development of the e-commerce technologies and is in charge of
running the sites.
In terms of innovation, Walmart is known for the
milestone acquisitions when it comes to technology. In fact, the
organization has overseen a staggering 12 acquisitions over the
last three years only. This has enabled the organization to
develop a competitive advantage over its rivals thin the
industry. For instance, acquiring the Vudu streaming video
service was a milestone on innovative skills that was shown by
the organization in the general practise. Through this, the
organisation has been able to maintain feasibility and expected
market impact by firms. Further, cementing the position of
Walmart as the leading retail store in the whole world.
Assessment of the situations for the company (Capabilities and
resources)
One of the most significant capabilities that the

24. organization has shown over the last couple of years is its
ability to bring in fresh blood into its mainstream. This has
enabled it to incorporate fresh talent and hence leading to an
improvement on the product quality for the organization.
Further, the use of Torbit by the organization has enabled the
acceleration of its website and ensure that the site is made
faster. The use eCommerce business has overseen an increase
of sales in the organization by USD billion in this financial year
alone. This is a staggering 3% of all the sales being used by the
organization, while the general eCommerce accounts for about
10% of the whole of the retail.
Whether the company’s organizational structure supports or
impede its ability to innovate and be a successful company
The structure used by Walmart greatly supports its bid
to be the leading retail store in the whole of the United States.
The greatest goal that the firm has had for quite a while is to
ensure that the customers are engaged in the best way possible
regardless of whether they are engaging on online stores or off
it. This is facilitated by the ability of the organization to
incorporate the Data Café that is very fundamental ensuring that
the whole process is achieved. This is an appreciation for
Collaborative Analytics Facilities for Enterprise, that allows for
enhance analytics, like the recent focus that has been shown on
the data visualizations regarding Sam’s Club.
References
http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/none/324483-how-walmart-
uses-technology-to-connect-online-retail
http://www.usanfranonline.com/resources/supply-chain-
management/walmart-keys-to-successful-supply-chain-
management/#
Michaux, S., Cadiat, A.-C., & Probert, C. (2015). Porter's five
forces: Stay ahead of the competition. Place of publication not

25. identified: 50Minutes.