Walmart’s Global Strategy
Walmart’s international division has an important job. With 80% of the retail industry’s growth coming from outside of the United States, Walmart’s $137 billion in international sales in 2014—29% of sales overall—is a key driver of overall revenue growth. To drive this performance, David Cheesewright, CEO of Walmart’s international division, is focusing on current operations in growth markets and e-commerce. Shopping trends indicate that what customers buy is changing fast, and that they are quickly switching to online shopping platforms. After decades of work trying to develop a foundation in the Chinese market, Walmart is consolidating its portfolio of stores in that country, closing nonperforming retail stores and investing in successful ones. To enter the Chinese e-grocery market, Walmart holds a 51% stake in Yihaodian, which has posted triple-digit growth—twice the market rate. The company’s operations in Brazil and Mexico are experiencing slowing growth, in part a result of economic cycles and their brand’s life cycle, but they still offer the opportunity to develop strong, mature businesses. International expansion comes with country-specific challenges. After experiencing too many regulatory difficulties in India, Walmart canceled plans to open retail stores there. Instead, Walmart India is focusing on business-to-business sales.
Although Walmart has successfully dominated the U.S. market, it has found that expanding its reach across the globe does not always fit with its strengths. In addition, navigating the variety of economic and regulatory requirements across different countries adds significant complexity to the company’s operations. Finally, gaining access to and managing workforces with different values, cultures, and languages present tremendous challenges.
QUESTIONS
What criteria should a company use to determine which countries it should expand into?
How can a company assess how cultural and economic differences might impede its ability to succeed in different countries?
What things can companies do to manage a global workforce more effectively?
SOURCE: S. Banjo, “Wal-Mart’s Strategy to Jump Start Growth in China,” Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2014.
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In: Operations Management
I am making a project on iphone12. Could you provide me workbreakdown structure of iphone 12?
In: Operations Management
5- There are four common approaches to OD and organizational change. Lewin’s model and Kotter’s model are common planned change processes that usually rely on the mechanisms of formal organization. Illustrate one of these models
(The answer should not be less than 300 words)
In: Operations Management
For each of the following independent situations, assume that any amounts would be material.
(I) Indicate the TYPE of appropriate audit report; A. unqualified, B. qualified or adverse, C. qualified or disclaimer, D. Disclaimer, E. Qualified only, or F. Other. INDICATE the situation involved, i.e "Accounting situation", and DISCUSS the situation.
(II) State whether an explanatory paragraph [i.e. PCAOB audit] would be included, and if so, what would be included in the explanatory paragraph.
(III) For an UNQUALIFIED auditor's report, if the wording would be changed, indicate how it would be changed [Relates to Shared Report].
(iv) The auditor agrees to any accounting change, if the change is proper GAAP.
1. The company uses an appraiser's estimate of current Replacement Cost to report the value of previously acquired land owned by the company. It is felt this is more recent information
2. The controller requested that the auditor not send accounts receivable confirmations to its largest customers. The auditors used alternative procedures to ascertain the existence of the receivables
3. The company uses Lower of Cost or Market rather than Historic Cost to value inventory. It is felt that this is more recent information.
In: Operations Management
Forrester and Cohen is a small accounting firm, managed by Joseph Cohen since the retirement in December of his partner Brad Forrester. Cohen and his 4 CPAs together bill 800 hours per month. When Cohen or another accountant bills more than 160 hours per month, he or she gets an additional "overtime" pay of $61.00 for each of the extra hours: This is above and beyond the $5,100 salary each draws during the month. (Cohen draws the same base pay as his employees.) Cohen strongly discourages any CPA from working (billing) more than 230 hours in any given month. The demand for billable hours for the firm over the next 6 months is estimated below:
Month: Estimate of Billable Hours
Jan. 682
Feb. 539
Mar. 1133
Apr. 1331
May 726
June 638
Cohen has an agreement with Forrester, his former partner, to help out during the busy tax season, up to 230 hours in any given month if needed, for an hourly fee of $120. Cohen will not even consider laying off one of his colleagues in the case of a slow economy. He could, however, hire another CPA at the same salary, as business dictates.
a) Develop an aggregate plan for the 6-month period (enter your responses as whole numbers). Use regular time, then overtime, then Forrester, and then hire additional CPAs if needed.
Note: For the CPA column, only include Cohen, his 4 CPAs, and any new CPAs he may hire in your total. Do NOT include Forrester.
|
Month |
Est. of Billable hours |
CPAs |
Reg. time billable hours |
Reg. time cost |
Overtime hours |
Overtime cost |
Forrester hours |
Forrester cost |
|
Jan |
682 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
Feb |
539 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
Mar |
1133 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
Apr |
1331 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
May |
726 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
Jun |
638 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
b) Compute the cost of Cohen's plan of using overtime and Forrester.
Total cost= ?
In: Operations Management
In: Operations Management
Requirement: Below are one option of management problem brought to you by Executives of mid-size companies in Atlantic Canada. Design an approach to address this scenario include details on: Literature review methodology (if necessary), ethical considerations (if any), Problem statement (if necessary), Experimental Design (if necessary), Sampling Strategy(if necessary), Suggestions for analytical techniques (if necessary), Measurement method (if necessary), and any other information you deem is important to resolve the scenario using an evidence based management framework.
Leo the founder and president of Leisure Suit Lounge Wear is unsure of how successfully break into the generation Z market and has asked for your help. Leo runs a lounge wear company with the following customer demographics.
|
Customer age |
Percentage of total customers |
Average Spend per Customer |
|
<25 years |
5% |
$155 |
|
26-45 years |
20% |
$50 |
|
46 – 70 years |
25% |
$35 |
|
>71 years |
50% |
$45 |
He is concerned with aging nature of the customer base of his product and has noted that whilst generation Z (< 25 years old) is a small proportion of his customer base they have a large average spend per customer. He therefore believes that if Leisure Suit Lounge Wear can successfully advertise to younger customers, he could increase profitability and protect the company from a shrinking market share. However, he is unsure of how to advertise to generation Z. His niece has suggested partnering with TikTok influences whereas his sales manager has suggested either a traditional TV advertising campaign or a targeted campaign using internet advertising. In particular he would like to know if social media is a better prospect for advertising to generation Z than traditional advertising and if investing in partnering with influences is an effective method of increasing sales among a younger demographic.
He has asked for you help in applying evidence-based management to improving his sales in the targeted demographic.
In: Operations Management
A copper export trading firm has regular shipments from mozambique to kuwait. Goods are loaded at terminal onto bulk carriers at the port of beira, mozambique. Answer the following questions 1) terms of sale; 2) mode of transport; 3) insurance obligations 4) export/ import country obligations; 5) seller's risk/costs.
In: Operations Management
What are the pros and cons for local company (Canadian) having a workforce located in another country? What are the political implications? What other challenges can you think of in managing a global workforce?
In: Operations Management
It is several months later. XYZ's drug ViraGard has been
approved not only for Singapore and Vietnam, but also for most of
the Pacific Rim. We are now in production, but we need a solid a
distribution plan.
Management wants us to consider two different strategies: one for
more developed economies like Singapore or South Korea; and another
for developing economies like Vietnam or the Philippines.
Select one developed economy and one developing economy in the
Pacific Rim, choose an appropriate distribution channel for each
economy, determine a preferred mode of transportation for each
economy, and identify your sales channel for your selected
countries.
In justifying your choices to the Director of Marketing, answer
these questions: Why did you choose these distribution
strategies for your selected countries and their respective
economies? What are the benefits of your sales
channels?
In: Operations Management
The advertising alternatives for a company include television, radio, and newspaper advertisements. The costs and estimates for audience coverage are given in following table:
|
television |
newspaper |
radio |
|
|
Cost per advertisement |
$ 2000 |
$ 600 |
$ 300 |
|
Audience per advertisement |
100,000 |
40,000 |
18,000 |
The local newspaper limits the number of weekly advertisements from a single company to ten. Moreover, in order to balance the advertising among the three types of media, no more than half of the total number of advertisements should occur on the radio, and at least 10% should occur on television. The weekly advertising budget is $18,200. Formulate the model for maximizing the total audience number?
In: Operations Management
Case study
Mahmoud is a manager in a car manufacturing company, he is faced by a business problem; as he has poor staff commitment and this, in turn, has a negative effect on the company’s profit. Mahmood will need to deliver a report and a presentation demonstrating his approach to solving this problem to the Company Executive Manager. Mahmoud has decided to do some research to solve this problem.
Subject: Methods of Scientific Research
In: Operations Management
Consuela Lopez is a dietitian for the basketball team at BBB
College, and she is attempting to determine a nutritious lunch menu
for the team. She has set the following nutritional guidelines for
each lunch serving:
1. Between 1,500 and 2,000 calories
2. At least 5 mg of iron
3. At least 20 but no more than 60 g of fat
4. At least 30 g of protein
5. At least 40 g of carbohydrates
6. No more than 30 mg of cholesterol
She selects the menu from seven basic food items, as follows,
with the nutritional contribution per pound and the cost as
give:
|
Calories |
Iron |
Protein |
Carbohydrates (g/lb) |
Fat |
Cholesterol |
$/lb |
|
|
Chicken |
520 |
4.4 |
17 |
0 |
30 |
180 |
0.80 |
|
Fish |
500 |
3.3 |
85 |
0 |
5 |
90 |
3.70 |
|
Ground beef |
860 |
0.3 |
82 |
0 |
75 |
350 |
2.30 |
|
Dried beans |
600 |
3.4 |
10 |
30 |
3 |
0 |
0.90 |
|
Lettuce |
50 |
0.5 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.75 |
|
Potatoes |
460 |
2.2 |
10 |
70 |
0 |
0 |
0.40 |
|
Milk (2%) |
240 |
0.2 |
16 |
22 |
10 |
20 |
0.83 |
The dietitian wants to select a menu to meet the nutritional
guidelines while minimizing the total cost per serving.
a. Formulate a linear programming model for this
problem
b. Solve the model using Excel solver
Please show step by step in excel
In: Operations Management
Consider launching a dairy snack food in the German market. Using the internet, research how and what kind of packaging is used by competing brands in the marketplace. In what ways would you adapt your product to suit your selected international market?
In: Operations Management
• When a retailer decides to offer gift wrapping, product assembly, and registries, they are considering the elements of their:
merchandising strategy.
customer service strategy.
promotional strategy.
pricing strategy.
• A retailer seeks to communicate information about its stores through its ______ strategy.
merchandising
location/distribution
promotional
store atmospherics
• Retailers can project their personalities through their ______.
pricing strategy
customer service strategy
atmospherics
merchandising strategy
•The basic objective of all customer services focuses on:
attracting and retaining target customers, thus increasing sales and profits.
charging higher prices on products, therefore increasing profits.
making the shopping experience more enjoyable.
encouraging customers to shop in brick-and-mortar stores rather than online.
In: Operations Management