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Planning And Ethics Paper

Planning and Ethics Paper


Planning and Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart started out in 1962 as a small retail store, 30 years later it became the biggest retail corporation beating out competitors by the names of K-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart’s profit margin for 2007 was $12.7 billion, with merchandise sales reaching $377.8 billion. Consider that Target, Wal-Mart’s biggest competitor had $63.4 billion in sales for 2007 (www.indiaretailbiz.com/blog/2008/04/29/wal-mart). How is Wal-Mart able to pull away from a company like Target? The simple answer, planning. Wal-Mart had a strong business plan that included; the method of their planning, legal issues, ethics, and their corporate and social responsibilities. Starting a business is not an easy thing to do; to be successful a person must develop a strong business plan that includes policies relating to business practices, ethics, and various legal issues.
Planning
The first and most important development a company can go through is the planning stage. This is arguably the most difficult stage for a business; in the planning stage a business is deciding on many different policies. Planning includes the direction a company wants to go, how to reach their goals, and how to stay successful once they meet those goals. The planning stage incorporates any ethical, legal, and social responsibilities the company may come across in the running of the business. “Planning activities include analyzing current situations, anticipating the future, determining objectives, deciding in what types of activities the company will engage, choosing corporate and business strategies, and determining the resources needed to achieve the organization’s goals. Plans set the stage for action and for major achievements (Bateman, 2009, p. 19).” Planning is evolving to match the complex future of business. Historically, business would go through the planning stage and make no changes to their policies, however, business’ now continue to update and change...