Walmart

Wal-Marts Mission, Objectives and Strategies

For 19 years, Wal-Mart's mission has always been known as "Always Low

Prices. Always." On Septemer 12, 2007, Wal-Mart introduced their company's new mission statement: "We can save people money so they can live better." The change of their mission statement was based on a recent study that has shown that Wal-Mart saves the average family $2,500 a year. Their corporate mission is: "Wal-Mart continues to grow into new areas and new mediums, our success will always be attributed to our culture. Whether you walk into a Wal-Mart store in your hometown or one across the country while you're on vacation, you can always be assured you're getting low prices and that genuine customer service you've come to expect from us. You'll feel at home in any department of any store...that's our culture." ("Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Company Profile").

Sam Walton has developed 3 beliefs from the birth of Wal-Mart. Those beliefs are: Respect for the Individual, Service to Our Customers, and to Strive for Excellence. Respecting the Individual is a call for "treating their employees well and pushing them to excel in what they do." The commitment to their customers is a "goal whereby the stores respect a pricing philosophy to always sell items as low as they can while providing excellent customer service." The third belief is to strive for excellence, which is "to expand the store, innovate, and reach further in to new markets and to grow" (Vance, Sandra S. and Roy V. Scott).

Walton's Top 10 Secrets to Wal-Marts Success:

1. Commit to your business and believe in it more than anyone else

2. Share your profits with all your associates and treat them as partners

3. Motivate your partners with incentives besides money

4. Communication Is essential

5. Appreciate everything your associates do for your business

6. Celebrate success, fine some humor from failure, but most important learn from your failure and try again.

7. Listen to everyone in your company

8. Exceed your customers expectations

9. Control your expenses better than your competition

10. Ignore conventional wisdom. If everyone is doing it one way, chances are there is a better way to do (Vance, Sandra S. and Roy V. Scott.).

The most successful and lucrative strategy that Wal-Mart has developed is

Low-Cost Leadership, which has set them above and beyond their competitors. Wal-Mart is able to keep their shelves stocked with the best selling items at all times because of their continuous replenishment system. Their extended use of IT allows headquarters to record the bar code of which items are being sold and most popular.

Company History

The first Wal-Mart was opened by Sam Walton on July 2, 1962 in Arkansas, and within five years expanded to 24 stores within the state. Walton's idea of opening Wal-Mart began in the 1940s when he was franchising a Ben Franklin's variety store in Newport ("The Story of Wal-Mart"). He wanted to develop a store that had low prices for the customer, but was profitable. Typically, a retailer who bargained from a wholesaler would leave his store prices unchanged and pocket the extra money. In contrast, Walton realized he could do better by passing on the savings to his customers and earning his profits through volume ("The Story of Wal-Mart"). To represent the massive growth and drastic amount of change that Wal-Mart has developed over the years a timeline taken from "The Story of Wal-Mart" is incorporated up until 2001:

Timeline

1962 Wal-Mart opened the first store In Rogers, Ark.

1970 Wal-Mart opens first distribution center and home office in Bentonville, Ark. and traded stocks as a publicly held company

1971 Wal-Mart in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma.

1973 Wal-Mart in Tennessee.

1974 Wal-Mart stores now in Kentucky and Mississippi, Texas is ninth state of Wal-Mart.

1977 Wal-Mart entered Illinois. 11th state: Alabama.

1981 Wal-Mart opened at Georgia and South Carolina

1982 Wal-Mart opened at Florida and Nebraska.

1983 First SAM'S CLUB opened in Midwest City, OK People Greeter implemented at all store. Wal-Mart enters Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and North Carolina.

1984 David Glass named company president. Wal-Mart enters Virginia

1985 Wal-Mart has 882 stores with sales of $8.4 billion and 104,000 Associates.

Company adds stores in Wisconsin and Colorado.

1986 Wal-Mart enters Minnesota.

1988 David Glass named chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

First Super center opened in Washington, Mo.

16 Wal-Mart distribution centers in operation.

1989 Wal-Mart is now in 26 states with the addition of Michigan, West Virginia and Wyoming.

1990 Wal-Mart becomes nation's No. 1 retailer.

McLane Company of Temple, Texas acquired

Wal-Mart enters California, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Utah.

1991 Wal-Mart enters Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.

"Sam's American Choice" brand products introduced.

International market entered for first time with the opening of a unit Mexico City.

1992 Sam Walton passes away April 5.

S. Robson Walton named chairman of the board April 7.

Wal-Mart has entered 45 states with the addition