Wal-Mart Case

Posted: September 5th, 2013

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Wal-Mart Case

            In 2005, Wal-mart employed sustainability as a corporate plan. At his time, it was a success. It then received a negative perception from the public due to mishandling its workers and suppliers. Most of the customers stopped shopping at Wal-mart. The stockholders lost trust in Wal-mart, and this made Wal-mart’s shares drop. Wal-mart viewed increasing labor costs as expensive (Mui, 2012). Increasing labor costs would also make the employees have control over their company, which was not wise according to them. Therefore, they opted to cut on costs and implemented great ways to achieve this. It once again gained control over their suppliers, and the negative perception about it changed. Wal-mart has also cut the use of energy, reduced wastes and currently, it has been able to sell healthy foods. With time, it has been able to reduce the negative perception among the Americans. Therefore, this makes Wal-mart a good example of business sustainability.

In order to advance sustainability comprehensively and achieve a consistent better, “triple bottom line” Wal-mart should:

• Reformulate a great number of the parked food by 2015. They can reduce the sodium, sugar and cut on the industrial fats. They can do this with the suppliers help to improve on the food quality. This enhances their sustainability (Walmart Stores Online, 2012).
• Make their healthy foods less expensive. The customers should at least save $1 billion from the fruits and vegetables they purchase every year.
• Employ a great, simple packaging method for their products. This will enable ease in identification of products by the customers. They will be able to identify healthy foods such as the unsweetened can fruits with ease. This will also ensure that packaging and the ability to carry the food is increased. This works well to increase their customer base and therefore their sustainability (Clark, 2012).
• Build stores to provide fresh and less expensive foodstuff for societies that do not have access to such products.
• Enhance their charity on the nutrition programs. These programs will continue to enhance the consumers’ knowledge on food and health.

Some of the concepts of the HIH text Chapter 8 International Strategy or Chapter 9 Cooperative Strategy that Wal-mart can employ are:

• Expand their market outside the company’s domestic market. This shall include the international market and venture into indigenous and gourmet foods. This shall increase their customer base considerably (Gunther, 2012).
• Be motivated to practice international expansion. This will enable them achieve economies of scale in the manufacturing and marketing of their products. This shall in turn improve their profitability. Turnover and sales shall increase considerably after this.
• Develop a major strategy among the European firms in order to gain competitive advantage. The business entities in countries are free from each other and view the market as different in every country.
• Ensure to realize global competence and local awareness in the marketing of their products. It is always challenging to achieve this because instantaneous necessities for a potent central control are needed to achieve great efficiency. The central control shall ensure delivery, managerial and human resource activities are run from a central location, preferably the headquarters (Clark, 2012).
• Identify international, strategic prospects, results and discover resources and potential. This will help them expand their market.

Work Cited

Clark, Andrew. Wal-Mart, the US retailer taking over the world by stealth. The Guardian. 12 Jan 2010. Web. 24 Jun 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/12/walmart-companies-to-shape-the-decade>

Gunther, Marc. Walmart’s CSR Report Shows the Power, and Limits, of Efficiency. GreenBiz. 25 Apr 2011. Web. 24 Jun 2012. <http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/04/25/walmarts-csr-report-shows-power-limits-efficiency>

Mui, Ylan Q. Green Valley In Wal-Mart’s Back Yard. The Washington Post. 7 Sep 2007. Web. 24 Jun 2012. < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602689.html>

Walmart Stores Online. Sustainability. 8 Sep 2010. Web. 24 Jun 2012. <http://www.walmartstores.com/AboutUs/>