Question

Assignment 4: generic strategies

The four strategies to choose from are:

1)Cost Leadership

2)Differentiation

3)Cost Focus

4)Differentiation Focus

pick an industry e.g. fast food, fast casual, retail, auto, watch, etc. Identify at least 2 firms that follow each of four generic strategies.

For each firm, explain why the target market is broad/narrow and explain the source of competitive advantage as low-cost or differentiation.

Also identify best cost providers (if any with exmaple and explanation).

.

Answer 1

Walmart is a retail giant in the industry operating across the seas and creating a big furtune out of it. Its the worlds largest and the most influencing retailer.

Some terms that   followed to build its empire are as follows.

Efficient Supply Chain
​Walmart's supply chain is one of the world's most efficient supply chain, Walmart uses very less break in between from the warehouse to their store reducing the costs and enhancing the overall profit.
By having an effective supply chain Walmart has successfully developed it advantage over its competitors and in providing different materials to the different places at a very standard time.
Sometimes it would be less than official for the company to have a supply chain dependent organisation because the whole system is depending on the supply chain if a part breaks down then there is a little delay in doing the business.

Strategic partnership
​Strategic partnership is one of main reasons of Walmart's success , Walmart find the best price supplier and ask them if they can fullfil the demand then a long term partnership program is offer which reduces the prices.
Strategic partnerships also provides a solid base walmart. By having different strategic partnerships Walmart at successfully integrated itself into market and merge into the competitors as well.
Sometimes is strategic partnerships also create a problem for the organisation as the partners start to show different characteristics rather than implementing the strategies with the Walmart.

Intuitive inventory storage
​Walmart uses very intuitive way of storing the inventory, It keep its inventory in truck and then later the inventory is loaded to the semi truck without moving them to the warehouse , this broadly increases the efficiency of the transportation and time.
Dependency on the too much Technology and totally depending on the intuitive storage system sometimes leads to failure as they can be technological as well as mechanical error.

Using latest technology
​Walmart uses state of the art sorting and transporting technologies to ensure the required quality and speed it requires and to obtain high profits and and super efficient system.
Technology based environment is always in fear of getting hacked, being misused and being operated by some other person rather than the companies official employees. Depending on too much Technology Kelly Walmart failure in terms of the technological errors.

Walmart used the terms listed above to build an environment for the low cost industry. It focused on the largest group of middle class people and the idea was to provide low cost product with great quality. Walmart provided the best supply and management system which cut down the costs thus customers were getting the products in best price with higher quality.

Walmart's strategy kept evolving according to the time and needsthus Walmart's low cost strategy is very well suited for the industry.

Improving the Walmart current situation in Walmart has to apply their strategies to the different part of the world. Walmart should focus on the developing countries like India and China as well as smaller developing countries like Bangladesh. Buy directly focusing on these countries Walmart can widely increase the level of sales as well as can be easily getting resources at a better price in these a specific locations. As Bangladesh is considered as manufacturing hub for many of the international brands , walmart and easily upgrade themselves and implement these strategies to overcome the specific problem of increased budget for the specific location. As the labour charges are also very low in the developing countries, walmart in widely increase their effectiveness in terms of the retail marketing.

By keeping an eye on the overall sales as well as the human resource information system, walmart can widely increase their efficiency as well as productivity towards the specific region in which they are doing business. Measurement of the inventory as well as Rises of the customer regarding the product types and also be very beneficial for the organisation to keep a record of the performance for Walmart. This understanding of the situation would definitely increase the level of productivity of the organisation. High number of measurement techniques should be used to frequently measure and regulate the data as well as its progress for advancing Walmart in to the society . By using different metrics for Quality Management Walmart can widely increase the level of service provision to the customer.

Implementation of digital platforms is very essential for walmart to improve their overall level of effectiveness over the internet and other digital mediums. By creating specific strategy for implementation of the better marketing aspect on the Digital Network and widely increased companies reach to the customers. By increasing the reach the customer company can easily grow in different markets as well as it can easily go Global as well.

By using above strategies Walmart in easily increase the level of implementation as well as advancement in the society. Strategy for definitely help Walmart to maintain and advantage over its competitors and to provide better service and get larger revenues from the market.

P.S.- Please leave a comment if any explanation is needed.