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Walmart's New Strategy

WAL-MART'S NEW STRATEGY
AN ANALYSIS AND PLAN OF ACTION
INTRODUCTION
Wal-Mart has long been known for things both good and bad. For example, on one hand, they provide convenience for the shopper by offering a one-stop shopping experience at an affordable price. On the other hand, a Wal-Mart entering a smaller community can mean death and demise for small-town businesses whose services will now be served by a lower-priced Wal-Mart.
In late October of 2005, the CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, announced a new strategy. This strategy called for broad systemic changes in hopes of encouraging and achieving sustainability. This paper contains the following three parts: Part I. Analysis of Wal-Mart's strategy, Part II. Planning Process for IT at Wal-Mart, and Part III. Conclusion.

PART I: ANALYSIS OF WAL-MART'S STRATEGY
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Strong name recognition and customer base
 Largest retailer in the world
 High ability to have an impact socially and economically
 Pioneering abilities and experience
 Largest employer in the world
 Among the highest for net sales in the world
 Has maintained an aggressive growth strategy adding new stores at a high rate
 Global presence Weaknesses
 The source of public criticism over low wages, poor health care, killing the small town, discrimination, and violating child labor laws
 Price deflation because of purchasing a high quantity of items and having to sell at reduced cost (overstocking)
 Too many stores too close together
 High employee turnover rate
 Do not attract higher income customers
 History of making promises it can't keep in regards to earnings
 So many suppliers they are hard to track
Opportunities
 Because of company size and world infiltration, efforts supported can be accomplished
 No strong presence in many parts of Europe
 Room to...