Introduction
Walmart is one of the most widespread wholesale and retail trade networks in the USA. This organization was founded almost 60 years ago and not only managed to survive but also expanded on an international scale. More precisely, currently, Walmart operates in 24 countries, including the nations of South and North America, South Africa, and East Asia. Apart from owning grocery stores and supermarkets, Walmart also provides auto care centers and health, photo, and even financial services. The present essay analyzes the history, mission statement, and culture of Walmart. The paper also suggests several strategies that could potentially improve the current performance of Walmart Inc.
Main body
The first Walmart store was opened on July 2, 1962, by the American businessmen Samuel Moore Walton in the city of Rogers, Arkansas. The founder of Walmart, Samuel Walton, believed that the key to the store’s success lies in “offering lower prices and great service” (Walmart.com, para. 4). Even though the competitors thought that Walton’s idea was deemed to fail, reality, it proved the opposite. In five following years, the number of shops increased to 24 (Walmart.com).
By 1980, the total number of Walmart stores was 276, with 21,000 employees (Walmart.com). At the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, this organization went global and opened its first unit in Mexico. The beginning of the 21st century is marked by the launch of Walmart’s online store (Walmart.com). At these times, online shopping was not as widespread as it is now. For this reason, the decision of Walmart’s administration to give customers the possibility to shop online is innovative and ahead of its time.
As it has already been noted, the key to Walton’s guideline was to offer products of high quality for reasonable rates. The rapid growth of Walmart signifies that this strategy works, and “a larger product assortment with a low price” indeed attracts clients all over the world (Pandey et al., 2021, p. 113). Apart from the cost leadership strategy of setting comparatively low prices for the products and services, Walmart also employed the market penetration strategy (Mazouni, 2018).
This strategy is characterized by the introduction of goods and services to the existing market with the goal of increasing a company’s share in this market. Besides, the growth strategy of this company could be characterized as a “predatory pricing strategy,” the key idea of which lies in “charging a low price for products and services” (Pandey et al., 2021, p. 119). Additionally, diversification of the products also contributes to Walmart’s growth because this strategy enables the company to broaden the target audience and ensures that every customer will find something for himself.
The growth strategies applied by Walmart entire correspond to its mission statement. The driving idea of Walmart has remained the same since the time of its establishment and sounds as follows: “saving people money so they can live better” (Walmart.com, para. 8). The study conducted by Chiu et al. (2021) proves that, on average, the prices at Walmart are lower in comparison to other third-party sellers. This way, it is apparent that the mission statement corresponds to the applied growth strategies.
The culture of Walmart is closely related to its mission statement and serves to achieve the purpose of selling good products at low prices. Walmart’s culture is based on four values: “service to the customer, respect for the individual, strive for excellence and act with integrity” (Walmart.com, para. 5). Therefore, the culture of this organization could be regarded as client-centered, inclusive, focused on results, and open to innovations. In addition to that, accountability, honesty, and courage are also immensely precious features of Walmart.
The culture and, consequently, the values of Walmart match the ideals professed in the mission statement. Even though the company does not say directly that they value low cost and frugality, it argues that it cares about the customers and strives to provide them with the best services and goods possible. Besides, the fact that they cherish fairness and honesty means that the company avoids artificial and unreasonable price escalation for the sake of profits. Instead, the culture exhibited by Walmart proves that it knows who its clients are and what they need. Thus, Walmart anticipates the target audience’s demand at low prices and does its best to meet this requirement.
Conclusion
To conclude, it should be noted that even though Walmart is a prosperous international company, it still has room for improvement. The primary recommendation is to focus on the cultural difference between the target audience of various countries. Undeniably, citizens of every nation in the world feel like purchasing decent goods and services at low prices. However, the problem is that the tastes and habits of these people vary. For example, goods that are popular among Americans might not be demanded by Chinese or Nigerians. Therefore, the company should think of how to adapt the supplied products and services and advertising strategies to every country’s needs, requirements, and tastes.
References
Mazouni, M. (2018). The effect of global investment decisions and financial risk on multinational corporations: Walmart Corporation Case study. Social Science Research Network. Web.
Pandey, R., Dillip, D., Jayant, J., Vashishth, K., Nikhil, N., Qi, T. J., & Qhi, L. Y. (2021). Factors influencing organization success: A case study of Walmart. International journal of Tourism and hospitality in Asia Pacific, 4(2), 112-123.
Chiu, Y. L., Hsu, Y. T., Mao, X., & Wang, J. N. (2021). An Empirical Study of Holiday Season Discounts: A Comparison Between Third-Party Marketplace Sellers and Fulfilled by Walmart Sellers. SAGE Open, 11(2), 1-11.
Walmart. (n.d.). Working at Walmart. Web.
Walmart. (n.d.). Our history. Web.