Walmart

Description of the Organization

The organization selected for this undertaking is Walmart. Walmart happens to be one of the largest multinational retail corporations in the world. The company has grown from humble beginnings to essentially become an immensely profitable enterprise with operations in multiple locations across the world. Although the retailer has largely operated in brick and mortar locations since its establishment in 1962 by an entrepreneur known as name Sam Walton, it has partially embraced an online retail model in recent times so as to cope with the competition from online retailers such as Amazon. Indeed, as the Walmart points out on its website, it is committed to the creation of a seamless experience to let customers shop anytime and anywhere online, through mobile devices and in stores (Walmart, 2021). At present, the company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The current chairman and CEO are Greg Penner and Doug McMillon respectively.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis happens to be one of the most important tools in the assessment on an enterprises competitive position. This is more so the case given that it seeks to assess not only the organizations internal environment (i.e. strengths and weaknesses), but also its external position (threats and opportunities). It is for this reason that Wilkinson and Kannan (2013) are categorical that SWOT analysis stands at the core of strategic management (p. 186). The table below presents the strengths, weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats in the Walmart context. In so doing, it will be instrumental in highlighting not only the companys current position, but also its present situation.

Strengths

1. Market leadership position

2. Global supply chain

Opportunities

1. Emerging markets

2. Strategic alliances

Weaknesses

1. High employee turnover

2. Thin profit margin

Threats

1. Aggressive competition

2. A less loyal and more disconnected retail customer base

Table 1: Walmart SWOT

Balanced Scorecard

The relevance of a balanced scorecard cannot be overstated when it comes to strategic implementation/management. In essence, it has a total of four crucial perspectives, i.e. learning and growth, internal process, customer, and financial perspectives. The balanced scorecard below will come in handy in efforts to establish Walmarts critical success factors.

Objectives

Measures

Targets

Initiatives

Financial Perspective

Maintain market leadership position

Increase revenues (fiscal)

Share of the market

Annual sales

15% of the US market and 10% globally.

Consistent growth in revenues over the next 5 years

Increased utilization of ecommerce

Explore new markets

Customer Perspective

Increased customer satisfaction

Customer feedback

Reduce negative feedback by 50%

Improved quality of service

Internal Business Processes Perspective

Reduce customer waiting time

Average customer waiting time

Slash customer waiting time by more than 15 percent

Adapt store layout so as to increase the number of checkout counters.

Learning and Growth Perspective

Reign in the high employee turnover rate

Employee turnover rate

Less than 20%

Formulate strategies to promote employee motivation

Table 2: Walmart Balanced Scorecard

Critical Success Factors: Discussion

There are a number of critical success factors that have been selected for Walmart. In essence, the said factors would be courses of action deemed instrumental in as far as the achievement of the strategic objectives of the retailer is concerned. In selecting the identified critical success factors, a number of considerations were made. To begin with, the determination was made that the said factors were instrumental to the success of Walmart. Secondly, there was need to ensure that the factors identified were beneficial (and thus not necessarily harmful) to the company both in the short-run and in the long-term. Third, deliberate efforts were made to ensure that the factors were synonymous with the objectives identified. In the words of Kaplan and Norton (1996), critical success factors are best stated as action phrases and may include the means and/or desired results, as well as the action (p. 79).

To begin with, in as far as the financial perspective...

…years if the information contained in the companys Form 10-K is anything to go by. For instance, it observes that in addition to its commitment towards the further promotion of omni-channel customer initiatives, it has strived to continuously improve a customer-centric experience via the deployment of diverse innovative practices and methodologies (Walmart, 2020). With regard to the omni-channel customer initiatives mentioned earlier, one key accomplishment that the retailer has made over the last three years is the implementation of a same day pickup and delivery platform. All these developments are instrumental in efforts to improve quality of service.

Next, we have the objective to reduce customer waiting time and the need to adapt store layouts so as to increase the number of checkout counters. In this case, the retailer appears to have embraced a rather creative format to reduce customer waiting time. For instance, as the company points out in its most recent Form 10-K, it has recently come up with a payment and mobile checkout initiative/solution christened Scan and Go (Walmart, 2020). More specifically, according to Walmart (2020), the sai solution makes it possible for members of Sams Club to bypass the checkout line.

Lastly, we have the need to reign in the high employee turnover rate. The high rate of employee turnover at Walmart happens to be an issue of great concern. This is an assertion that the retailer concurs with in its Form 10-K. The company however observes that in recent years, it has been consistently implementing strategies meant to reduce the high employee turnover rate. Some of the measures that the company has so far implemented are inclusive of, but they are not limited to, increasing wages and providing improved tools, technology and training to associates (Walmart, 2020). It would be instructive on this front to note that the…