Wal-Mart Corporation is a leading global retail chain founded in 1962, known for its cost leadership strategy and extensive market presence across multiple countries. The company aims to provide low-priced goods and has a mission to help consumers live better lives while facing criticism over employee wages and product quality. To achieve better alignment with its mission and vision, recommendations include enhancing expansion strategies and improving employee and product quality.

1. Running head: Strategic Analysis
1
Strategic Analysis 8
Wal-Mart Corporation: Strategic Analysis
Name: Michael Carlson
Instructor: Robert Waters
Course: Bus480
Institution: Argosy University Online
Date: Jan 6, 2016
Wal-Mart Corporation: Strategic Analysis
Overview
Wal-Mart Corporation is a leading chain of retail stores in the
world. It serves various global markets in the world operating in
the United States, Canada, Mexico and other countries in the
world. It has its headquarters in Arkansas in the United States
from where its global operations are managed. Sam Walton
founded Wal-Mart Corporation in the year 1962. It became
incorporated as a trading company in the year 1969 and began
trading in the New York Stock Market in the year 1972. Wal-
Mart has witnessed immense growth due to sound management.
It had more than 3,000 stores and 750,000 employees. It had
annual revenue of more than $ 100 billion as at the year 2012.
Wal-Mart uses different names in the countries it operates. In
Mexico it is called Walmex. It is goes by the name ASDA in

2. the Great Britain and Seiyu in the Eastern Asian country of
Japan. Wal-Mart also operates in Canada, Brazil, Argentina and
Puerto Rico as a wholly owned company. Wal-Mart consumers
can also shop Wal-Mart through their easy to access the website
(Wal-Mart, 2014).
Mission, Vision and Values
Wal-Mart’s mission statement is “saving people money so they
can live better lives”. Wal-Mart’s mission statement influences
decision-making and service delivery at all Wal-Mart’s stores.
Wal-Mart’s mission statement aligns to its slogan “Save money
live better”. The firm executes its mission statement by offering
goods to consumers at low prices. The company, however, fails
in fulfilling the second component of its mission statement that
is enabling people to live better lives. According to Ungar
(2013), one of the major criticisms of the mission statement is
the low wages it offers to its employees that make it impossible
for its employees to make ends meet. People also criticise Wal-
Mart due to the low quality imported products it sells to its
customers. There have been numerous claims of Wal-Mart
selling hazardous products to consumers in some of the stores.
Wal-Mart’s vision is “To be the best retailer in the heart and
minds of consumers and employees”. It aspires to become a
global leader in the retail sector. Wal-Mart has already
succeeded in fulfilling the part of the vision statement that
targets global leadership in the retailing industry. Its vision
statement points to the hearts and minds of people. Wal-Mart
provides an opportunity for its employees and consumers to
benefit financially in a bid to win their hearts. Wal-Mart
appeals to the hearts of its Employees by giving them an
opportunity to earn wages and those of their customers by
enabling them save money by selling them goods at low prices.
(Wal-Mart, 2014)
According to Meeks & Chen (2011), Wal-Mart’s core values are
best service to the customers, respect for employees, and an
endless effort for acting with integrity. Wal-Mart has been able
to create a unique positive work culture by incorporating these

3. values in its operations. In all its stores worldwide, these values
are upheld, and this has greatly influenced its success. Wal-
Mart’s values have led to the development and execution of its
two unique principles that are an open door policy to all its
employees and the sundown rule, which encourages Wal-Mart to
respond to customer and supplier questions on the same day
they are raised.
Wal-Mart’s mission vision and value statements clearly portray
the culture of the firm. They portray Wal-Mart as the firm that
is consumer and employee focused. Wal-Mart’s, mission,
vision, and values give Wal-Mart’s main goal that is to become
a leader in the global retail world by enabling its employees and
consumers have better lives through cost savings(Wal-Mart,
2014).
Wal-Mart’s Primary Strategic Goals
Wal-Mart’s main strategic goals can be derived from its generic
strategy that is cost leadership. According to Hicks, Keil and
Spector (2012), one of Wal-Mart’s main strategic goals is
keeping operating costs low. It achieves this by minimizing its
spending on wages and other areas of the business such as
transportation. Wal-Mart’s other strategic goal is achieving
economies of scale. To realize economies of scale, Wal-Mart
operates in large scale. It has many stores in different countries,
and it is, therefore, able to minimize some operational costs.
The other strategic goal for Wal-Mart is keeping prices low.
Low prices lead to high sales volumes and encourage large-
scale operations. Wal-Mart uses its low prices as bait for new
customers and a strategy to increase competitiveness.
Alignment of Strategic Goals to Organisational Mission and
Vision
Wal-Mart’s strategic goals align to its mission and vision
statements. The company follows its mission and vision
statements by keeping its costs and prices low. Wal-Mart uses
the cost leadership generic strategy and uses it as the basis for
the aligning its strategic goals to its mission and vision. Wal-

4. Mart also strives for continuous global expansion to support its
global strategy. The continuous global expansion enables Wal-
Mart to achieve economies of scale which further supports its
cost leadership generic strategy. Through continuous expansion,
Wal-Mart has become a world leader in the retail industry.
Through continuous expansion, Wal-Mart has managed to keep
its prices low and enjoy economies of scale (Hicks, Keil and
Spector 2012).
Recommend Changes for Wal-Mart to achieve better its Mission
and Vision
The significant changes that Wal-Mart has to make on its
strategic to be able to achieve its mission and vision better
relate to its expansion strategies. According to Meek, Wal-Mart
uses product, service and retail strategies in its expansion. It
has to come up with ways of making these strategies more
effective to increase the pace at which it is expanding.
Continued expansion will enable Wal-Mart achieve better
economies of scale. The continuous expansion will also enable
wall-mart to address the pressure of tough global completion it
faces.
Wal-Mart’s Environmental Analysis: Porter’s Five Forces
Model
Porter classified factors that determine and influence the nature
of competitors in an industry into five. They are the threat of a
new entrant into the market, bargaining power of the supplier,
bargaining power of the customers, the threat of substitute
products, and rivalry among existing competitors. Wal-Mart
relies on the analysis of these five factors to ensure that it stays
as a leader in customer satisfaction in the world (Meeks &
Chen, 2011).
i. Threat as a New Entrant in Market
There always is a threat of a new entrant in any market setting.
The retail industry is no exception and Wal-Mart faces the
imminent risk on its investment due to the entry of new rivals in
the market. Wal-Mart is well-versed with this risk and makes
great investments in advertisements and expansion that enable it

5. to fight this risk of new entrants. Wal-Mart’s size gives it an
unmatched advantage for it can hire and train employees and
open stores in different parts of the world. These enable it to
lower operational costs which and, therefore, reduce the risks
brought about by new entrants to the market.
ii. Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Wal-Mart has a large market share, and it, therefore, dominates
the bargaining power of suppliers. Wal-Mart has the tendency to
do business with small suppliers and entrepreneurs. It is easier
for Wal-Mart to influence and dominate these smaller suppliers
for they have limited power and options. Wal-Mart avoids doing
business with large suppliers such as Proctor and Gamble for
these have a lot of bargaining power, and they are difficult to
dominate
iii. Bargaining Power of Buyer
Customers look for low priced products with good quality. They
easily switch from one product to another if they are not
satisfied with a product or service. Wal-Mart’s customers have
high bargaining power for there are numerous firms offering
alternative products at low prices. Wal-Mart is aware of the fact
that their customers have high bargaining power and instead of
focusing on domination, they focus on customer satisfaction.
Wal-Mart, however, offers quality goods at low prices and
through an excellent customer service and, therefore, have high
customer preference.
iv. Threat of Substitute Product
There are not as many substitute companies that are the size of
Wal-Mart. There are only a few competitors that beat Wal-Mart
by offering their goods and services at prices lower than Wal-
Mart. Customers can choose other stores if they do not get the
goods they want at Wal-Mart.
v. Rivalry among Existing Competitors
Wal-Mart has numerous competitors who offer similar products.
Target and K-mart wholesalers are some of these competitors.
They offer similar products like Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart has a
stronger distribution channel, and, therefore, they make more

6. profits. These competitors only have a significant effect on
Wal-Mart’s domestic operations and have minimal effects on its
global strategy for they are not as well established as Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart needs to focus closely on these porters five models of
decision making for they can significantly influence their
decision-making. The threats presented by new entrants are a
major area where Wal-Mart needs to focus. New entrants
present the greatest threat to Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart’s Focused Differentiation Strategy
Wal-Mart’ uses the cost leadership strategy as its focused
strategy to differentiate itself from other firms in the market
place. Firms that use this differentiation strategy strive at
maintaining low prices for their commodities compared to their
rivals. Wal-Mart is known globally for its low prices. Low
prices are the main selling point for Wal-Mart as a company.
Wal-Mart keeps its prices low through various cost reduction
operations. A good example of these cost reduction operations
is the use of information technology to maximise its efficiency
and minimisation of employee wages.
Strategies for Competitive Advantage
To gain a competitive advantage in the market place, Wal-Mart
uses various strategies. One of these strategies is the service
strategy. Wal-Mart has training programmes to train their
employees on how to serve customers and meet their needs. All
Wal-Mart’s employees are trained on how to deliver quality
service to the client. The other strategy used by Wal-Mart is the
communication and marketing strategy. To reclaim its lost
customers, Wal-Mart introduced a marketing strategy called the
“Save money live better’ campaign that focuses on low prices
and high-quality products to gain customer trust. Wal-Mart uses
social media to advertise their products and deal with
complaints from customers (Sorescu, Frambach, Singh,
Rangaswamy, & Bridges, 2011).
Strategies for Competing in International Markets

7. Wal-Mart uses several strategies to compete in international
markets. Market penetration is one of them. Market penetration
involves targeted selling of more commodities to its current
consumers through discounts, special packages, and promotions.
The other strategy was-mart uses to compete in international
markets is market development. Market development involves
intensive growth and entering new markets to sell to customers
other than those a company currently has. Wal-Mart opens new
stores in overseas destinations to tap these new customers. The
other strategy Wal-Mart uses in international market
development is product development. This strategy involves
offering new products to customers. Wal-Mart does not,
however, invest much in new product development
In conclusion, Wal-Mart is a leader in the global retail industry.
It has an excellent opportunity for expansion both domestically
and internationally. The current cost leadership strategy that
Wal-Mart uses can be used to push Wal-Mart to greater heights.
Wal-Mart needs to conduct more research on international
markets to boost its expansion efforts.
.
References
Hicks, M., & Keil. S., & Spector, L. (2012). Mom-and pops or
Big Box Stores: Some evidence
of Wal-mart impact on retail trade. Economic Development
Quarterly, 26(4):311-320.
Meeks, M., & Chen, R. J. (2011). Can Wal-Mart integrate
values with value? Journal of
Sustainable Development, 4(5), 62.
Sorescu, A., Frambach, R., Singh, J., Rangaswamy, A., &
Bridges, C. (2011). Innovations in
retail business models. Journal of Retailing, 87:3-16.
Ungar, R.(2013).Wal-mart pays workers poorly and sinks while
Costco Pays workers well and sails- proof that you get what you
pay for. Forbes. Retrieved from
www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/04/17/walmart-pays-

8. workers-poorly-and- sinks-while-costco-pays-workers-well-and-
sails-proof-that-you-get-what-you-pay-for/
Wal-Mart (2014). Wal-mart annual reports. Retrieved from
http://stock.walmart.com/annual-
reports
Zentes, J., Morshett, D., & Schramm-Klein, H.(2007). Strategic
Retail Management. Springer