An assignment on Business Strategy

Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................3
Overview of the Organization: Walmart......................................................................3
Task 1 Understand the process of Strategic Planning.......................................................4
1.1 Assessing how business missions, visions, objectives, goals and core competencies inform
strategic planning...............................................................................................4
1.2 Analyzing the factors that have to be considered when formulating strategic plan...........5
1.3 Evaluation of the effectiveness of techniques used when developing strategic business plan
......................................................................................................................6
Task 2. Be able to formulate a new strategy..................................................................7
2.1 Analyze the strategic positioning of Walmart by carrying out an organizational audit.......7
2.2 Carrying out environmental audit for Walmart.......................................................7
Environmental Audit (PESTLE)..........................................................................8
2.3 Assess the significance of stakeholder analysis when formulating new strategy..............8
2.4 Presenting a new Strategy for Walmart................................................................9
Task 3 Understand approaches to strategy evaluation....................................................10
3.1 Analyzing the appropriateness of alternative strategies relating to market entry, substantive
growth, limited growth or retrenchment for Walmart..................................................10
3.2 Justifying the selection of a strategy chosen for Walmart........................................11
Task 4 Understand how to implement chosen strategy...................................................11
4.1 Assess the roles and responsibilities of personnel who are charged with strategy
implementation in Walmart.................................................................................11
4.2 Analyzing the estimated resource requirements for implementing a new strategy for
Walmart.........................................................................................................12
4.3 Evaluating the contribution of SMART targets to the achievement of strategy
implementation in Walmart.................................................................................12
Conclusion........................................................................................................13
References........................................................................................................14

Introduction
It is said that strategic planning is essential for any organization. Perhaps it is the day to day
activities for any organization. A well-defined strategy is considered to be a secure path for
organizational success and it provides provision about how to use resource efficiently and
effectively and how to manage people within organization. It also defines how to satisfy different
stakeholders within business in recent competitive environment. In this assignment, we tried to
show how to form strategic business decision making, how to study various factors that are
considered in forming business strategy. In this assignment, the organization to be considered for
convenience is Walmart corporate UK. We here also tried to cover the mission, vision and
objectivity of an organization and different types of environmental analysis like audit, PESTEL
analysis of that particular organization.

Overview of the Organization: Walmart

Walmart is considered to be the first discounted retail store which was first founded by Sam
Walton. In United Kingdom, there are more than 387 stores of Walmart. Walmart was first
developed to be on the rural market which had store of more
than 45% of the present stores. But when there was a new
competitors like Kmart, they shifted their market territory to
the urban areas. Today Walmart operates in more than 27
countries worldwide and there banners for doing business
within these 27 countries are 69 (Walmart Corporation UK,
2016).
Walmart has a total earnings of more than 100 billion US dollars and there main motto is the
satisfaction of the customers. They have many different products, in variety of the qualities at
low price and they have knowledgeable staff and pleasant shopping experience for the
customers.

Task 1 Understand the process of Strategic Planning

1.1 Assessing how business missions, visions, objectives, goals and core
competencies inform strategic planning
In this task, we will demonstrate the visions, missions, objectives, goals and core competencies
of the Walmart Corporation UK. These descriptions are given below:
Mission of Walmart:
In order to start the description of the mission of the Walmart Corporation, we need to focus on
the main missioned motto of them. Their missioned sentence is Save Money, Live better. Their
mission statement is to provide the customers various products and services at the lowest cost
from anyone else (Roepke, Agarwal and Ferratt, 2000).
Vision of Walmart:
The vision of the Walmart is to give main priority to the customers. Their main target is to satisfy
the customers with exclusive products. Their vision statement is The main secret is in delighting
customers. In fact, Walmart vision statement includes the following factors with proper
consideration (Toftoy, and Chatterjee, 2004):
1. Providing the customers with diverse products and services at the minimum price
2. Ensuring the sales services are performed by trained staff.
3. Making the customers vehicle parked at the parking lot for long hours.
Objectives of Walmart:
The objectives refers to the long term thinking of what to do in the particular time period. The
objectives of Walmart includes the followings:
1. Making a strong and delighted customer base.
2. Providing the customers with best online service.
3. Working hard to make its market share upraised.
Goals of Walmart:
The goals is in the shorter horizon than the objectives. It means identifying what to do in the
future in shorter period of time. The goals of Walmart are the followings:
1. Increasing the sales and expanding its scope.

2. Motivating employees for better contribution.

3. Satisfaction of Customers by providing low cost.
Core Competencies:
Core competencies are the unique value creating activities that set a business apart from its
competitors. These core competencies are attached with a firms value creating activities.
Walmart Corporation UK has drawn their main core competencies from IT based management,
operational efficiencies. They have their competencies in lowering their cost for purchasing and
thus lower the retail price for the customers.

1.2 Analyzing the factors that have to be considered when formulating strategic
plan
Forming a strategic plan is not an easy task. It requires to consider various factors when there is a
time for developing. In case of Walmart, they can consider the following factors when forming
and developing strategic plan. The factors are (Monczka and others, 1993):
1. Engagement: Engagement means all things must be sum up. In case of Walmart, all the
employees and staff must be engaged together which results in more successive rate of
strategic plan as there will be more additional effort from the engaged employees.
Employees engagement help to understand the critical issues that cant be understood
without it or solely (Al-Mashari, Al-Mudimigh, and Zairi, 2003).
2. Communication: Communication means sharing information. As to develop strategic
plan, Walmart Corporations senior management must develop top to bottom
communication channel so that the low level employees can also make contribution for
the organization.
3. Proper Management Style: In order to make a proper strategic plan, it is necessary to
make the division of the plan, the implementation of each part and finally looking after
the parts of the plan. These activities can only be done through proper management style.
4. Culture and Working Environment: The culture and the working environment of the
Walmart Corporation UK is the common attributes, beliefs and behavior of the employees
which made the organization far better than anyone. The success of the organization
depends on the strong base of the entrusted employees which already exist in The
Walmart.

1.3 Evaluation of the effectiveness of techniques used when developing strategic

business plan
The techniques that Walmart has used in forming and developing the strategic plan is the
proneness of some provisions that provide suggestions that there are some boundaries and
restrictions while developing it. These are mentioned below:
Limitations
Advance marketing strategy

What to be done by Walmart

According to the present and newly developed
strategic plan, Walmart has to develop different
marketing strategy for different markets. It requires
Walmart to make research on the market to know

Cultural Diversification

about the customers choice and preferences.

As Walmart do business in different parts of the world,
they need develop and adopt corporate culture in line
with the local culture of the country in which they are

After Sale Support

operating.
One of the difficulty that Walmart may face in
implementing their strategic plan is to provide after
sale support and additional care in their operational

Satisfactory Training

country
As Walmart drive their core competencies from IT
based management, there would be consistent

necessity for the employees training.

Table 1, Name: Evaluation of the techniques for developing Strategic Plan, Source: Sarkis and
Sundarraj, 2000.

Task 2. Be able to formulate a new strategy

2.1 Analyze the strategic positioning of Walmart by carrying out an organizational
audit
In order to make or determine the strategic position of the Walmart, we can do so by doing the
organizational audit. They are defined below:
Organizational Audit:
Organizational Audit is not a strategic plan, it is the salient features that helps people within an
organization to make notice on the movement of the resources and human resources that helps to
design a long-term or perhaps the median range plan for that particular organization (Mackenzie,
1986).
According to vretveit (1994), the organizational audit of Walmart provide the following
approaches in analyzing the strategic position:

Connecting with inside people: Organizational Audit connect people from different field
to understand their strategy and management style.

Understanding the organization: Audit develop an appreciative understanding for the

Walmart on the base of its documents, perceptions and dashboards which are used to
measure the success rates.

Assembling the audit team: An audit is considered problem based study of the
organizations system and culture. It helps the Walmart to identify the cultural barriers and
also the working environment problems.

Developing the organizational analysis: It is said that an organizational analysis is the

diagnosis. Walmart creates basic expertise, product, and service to diagnose organizations
accurately.

2.2 Carrying out environmental audit for Walmart

In order to carry out the environmental audit for the Walmart, we need to consider the PESTLE
analysis which is a part of the Environmental audit. The PESTLE analysis for the Walmart is
demonstrated below (Yksel, 2012):

Environmental Audit (PESTLE)

Potential Factors: The large retail shops like Walmart are provided with the governmental
support as they offer variety of jobs and also the market development. Beside, Walmart is also
supported by the political administration in many countries as they provide variety of products at
low price.
Economic Factors: Walmart provide best job opportunity for the workers as they provide
various types of benefits and welfare projects. Beside they also maintain a large pool of human
resource in any country.
Social Factors: The social perspective of Walmart is high enough to make it successful. But they
need to be concerned to establish their outlet in the small town as those people are more
concerned about the price.
Technological Factors: It is already known that, Walmart grabs their profit margin from the core
competencies as those are based on the IT based management. Recently they have developed
satellite based networking system for online marketing to develop efficient supply management
system (Bivolaru, Andrei and Purcaroiu, 2009).

2.3 Assess the significance of stakeholder analysis when formulating new strategy
A users perspective strongly modify and influence the concept of the quality. A persons
personal perspective means for example likes, dislikes, attitudes, opinions about or towards an
object (Cornell and Shapiro, 1987).When a single person or people are affected by certain course
of action, thinking that their life will be influenced by that certain action is known as
Stakeholders. Walmart has stakeholders which can be divided into categories. These are
described below:
Employee: The main internal stakeholder group is the employees. A
strong foundation of employee commitment is necessary for survival for
Walmart.
Shareholders: Shareholders are those who invest money in the
Internal Stakeholders

organization. Walmart get continues source of financing from the

shareholders which help them to make continues investment on

operational efficiency
Management Team: Management team is the formulation of a group of
candid who work together to make essential decisions to make the
successful organization. Walmart has a trained management team.
Customers: Perhaps the most influential stakeholders for Walmart is the
customers who buy different products and pay the price for their products.
Government Bodies: Government bodies are the interest groups who
External Stakeholders

specifies the rules and regulations for the retail business like Walmart and
also collect taxes and specifies the exemption for the tax calculation.
Suppliers: The second most important external stakeholders is the
suppliers who provide the most essential raw and finished materials which

Walmart then sells to the customers.

Table 2, Name: List of Stakeholders for Walmart, Source: Mitroff, 1983.

2.4 Presenting a new Strategy for Walmart

In order to develop or create a new strategy for Walmart, six important steps to be followed as a
purposeful action for the new strategy. These six important steps includes (Huston and Sakkab,
2006):
1. Creating a strong brand name in the retail industry
2. Using database management system in order to make the customer purchase safe and
3.
4.
5.
6.

efficient.
Keep the cost at an average.
Add key success factors(KSF) and add value to the product and customer service
Deal with suppliers by making them as a part of the value chain activity.
Realizing that customer involvement is important in marketing decision making.

According Ford (1988), to attain above six strategies, Walmart need to take in action the
following five stages:

They needs to discover urban markets. In the urban market, the stores may be any type

each of which may contain 5 executive from Walmart.

Stores that are small in size can give the customers what they want in a very convenient

way and in friendly way. These could increase the purchases for Walmart.
Consumer safety should be the major agenda while selecting suppliers along with low
cost goods. This would enhance the consumer trust on Walmart

Supplier & vendor partnership would be strengthened so that mutual benefits can be

developed
Final step would be to cut price, enhance volume, reduce competitors and attract new
consumer segments.

Task 3 Understand approaches to strategy evaluation

3.1 Analyzing the appropriateness of alternative strategies relating to market entry,
substantive growth, limited growth or retrenchment for Walmart
There are various marketing strategy that Walmart can take as their marketing strategy such as
strategic alliances, merger, acquisition etc. As there are various options available for Walmart,
they can choose the franchising and acquisition strategy in order to increase their foreign
operation in various countries. Beside these, they can also adopt strategic alliances in order to
increase their knowledge in the overseas market. If Walmart wants to grow substantially, they
can also use other various options such as vertical integration, horizontal integration,
diversification or geographical expansion. From these options available, Walmart can choose the
vertical integration, as they are able to create their own logistics and also they sell their own
product.
If Walmart wants to develop in a limited way, they can use four strategies which are related to
the limited expansion. These are (Hinkel, 1994):
1.
2.
3.
4.

Market Penetration.
Market Development.
Product Development
Diversification or innovation.

As Walmart is retailer, perhaps one of the strong retailer in retail industry, they can adopt product
development and innovation strategy. They need product development strategy as they are
required to develop day to day lifestyle product and also required to make consistent innovation
to reduce the cost that incurs when making diverse product.

3.2 Justifying the selection of a strategy chosen for Walmart

The newly proposed strategy that are applicable to Walmart can be justified according to the
brand image they want to create. They want to develop their operations not only in urban areas of
many different countries, but also in rural places. This decision can help Walmart to introduce
new product through product development strategy even which are not in the list of Walmart
portfolio. Through strategic alliances, they can form partnership type relation with the other
small retailers in the rural areas which will help Walmart to enhance their operational existences.
Walmarts responsibility of selecting strategy which are appropriate can only be justified when
the customer will be willing to buy their product especially new product in rural areas and also
how they response to those newly developed product indicating whether they are making repeat
purchase as a response to positive feedback or they are not as a result of negative feedback. In
such case, Walmart need to develop individual goals for each of the geographical strategically
alliance partner which are attainable in nature and they also need to develop or enhance their
brand image for generating higher revenue for each of strategically alliance partner
(Govindarajan, 1984).

Task 4 Understand how to implement chosen strategy

4.1 Assess the roles and responsibilities of personnel who are charged with strategy
implementation in Walmart.
As Walmart wants to implement their strategy like product development and innovation or
strategic alliance, they need a team of personnel to implement this. Thus they need to first define
the board of directors who will be in charge of full responsibility for the implementation of the
strategy that Walmart wants in action. The activities of the board of directors will be started by
defining the goal of their work in terms of Walmarts vision. They have to keep faith in all the
workers and need to define responsibilities for each of the employees. They need to develop
High Performance Work System (HPWS) for each of the functional department like sales,
purchase etc. (Hrebiniak and Joyce, 1984). They need to develop a campaign for promoting and
advertising their product. The responsibility of the middle manager will be to perform as a coach
or mentors to provide training to the staff. They need to develop an effective communication
channel for the transfer of the relevant information and also the feedback from the subordinates
to superiors. The chief strategy maker known as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will have the

responsibility for the implementation of all the strategies undertaken by the board of directors
and he or she will determine which key people will be on the board of directors.

4.2 Analyzing the estimated resource requirements for implementing a new

strategy for Walmart.
The new strategy implementation requires to use or invest minimum amount of resources that are
necessary for the strategy to be successful. The estimation of those resources that are used for
implementation of the strategy can be done by making analysis of the cost. The analysis of the
cost or evaluation helps to determine the gains and losses from the activities that are carried for
the implementation for the new strategy developed by Walmart. If the cost are evaluated
properly, the resource that are used in implementation of the strategy can be maximized. Walmart
can use budgetary plan for medium range for the time period of 5 years or less. The whole
process of evaluation would help in determining the direct cost of service provision. Such direct
cost can be capital cost like building, furniture & fitting expense or overhead cost like
management and administrative expenses or building related expenditure like property tax, staff
cost, lighting, maintenance or other service related expenditure like travelling expense, stationery
cost, telephone expense etc.

4.3 Evaluating the contribution of SMART targets to the achievement of strategy

implementation in Walmart
Walmart can develop SMART=Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-specific
goal under the following objectives:
1. They need to develop integrated marketing communication to create brand image for the
next 1 year.
2. They need to expand their market for the next 1 year by creating more than 1000 stores in
rural and urban areas.
SMART targets have been framed for Walmart with the timescale for implementation which
would help in order to achieve the strategy implementation and can be given as under
(Bovend'Eerdt, Botell and Wade, 2009):

Quarter 1: Walmart need to make the implementation of the strategy that has been
developed in the recent years and they need consider the checklist option for their new
plan. Beside these, they need to make assessment of the new stores that are opened in the

rural and urban areas through the feedback that comes from the customers. The managers
especially the line managers need to keep the track of the customers feedback on a

regular basis.
Quarter 2: At this stage, Walmart need to develop their newly created product
development and innovation strategy. The newly developed strategies need to be
examined through providing little amount of product to the customers in specific areas
and need to examine the revenue that can be generated through those products. Based on
what consumer prefer, Walmart need to use the feedback to make the next strategic

movement.
Quarter 3: In this time Walmart need to gather information to implement strategies.
Walmart needs to assess the expected ending and actual results of the implemented
strategy. There can be gap in the expectations and outcomes which need to be fulfilled by

the organization by revamping the strategy.

Quarter 4: Walmart need to impart training and provide resources to their employees so
that they can perform in accordance with the organizational expectations and fulfill

objectives as desired by Walmart.

Quarter 5: In this quarter Walmart can attain the strategy consequences by creating and
modifying their strategy. Organization can develop the strategy by training the workers.

Conclusion
The whole assignment was how to use business strategy for achieving strategic objectives. It also
identified the importance of strategic planning in terms of visions, missions, and goals for the
Walmart. By undertaking the organizational audit and environmental audit, a new strategy has
been developed for Walmart which look forward to make superficial brand image and to expand
stores in both urban and rural areas.

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