The Fortune 500 was established in 1955. Fortune 500 is a list of the 500 largest companies in the United States as compiled by FORTUNE Magazine. This list is compiled by using recent figures for revenue and includes both public and private companies with publicly available revenue data. (investopia. com) The Fortune 500 companies are ranked by the amount of revenue that they are bringing in on a yearly basis. While many feel that many of those businesses are operated by men, the Fortune 500 currently released and let it be known that there are 21 women CEO’s in the Fortune 500 category.
(Management. Fortune) WAL-MARTS HISTORY
According the Fortune 500, 2013 list Wal-Mart holds the number ranking. In 2012, Wal-Mart was ranking number 2. Wal-Mart is a well-known company that was established in 1962 by Sam Walton the Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart’s mission was to offer great customer service along with low prices. In the 1980’s Wal-Mart created many mile stones. In the 1980’s Wal-Mart open their first Sam Club, the first Wal-Mart Super center was opened, they reached $1 billion in annual sales faster than any other company.
Wal-Mart opened 276 stores and had 21,000 employees; they replaced the original cash registers with computerized point-of-sale systems.
In the 1990’s Wal-Mart continued to evolved. Wal-Mart became the Nations number 1 retailer; Super Wal-Mart went international. Wal-Mart conducted a joint venture with Cifa and opened a retail company they went global and opened a Sam’s Club in Mexico City. Later on in the year Wal-Mart employed 371,000 associates in 1,928 stores and clubs. They opened their first store in China, expanded to Canada purchasing 122 Woolco stores.
Wal-Mart also introduces the Neighborhood Market in Arkansas and opens 3 stores. In the year 200 and later Wal-Mart entered a New Millennium.
Wal-Mart offered the ultimate shopping experience online, in stores and on mobile phones. In 2000, they employed over 1. 1 million employees in 3,989 stores and clubs worldwide. Wal-Mart top the Fortune 500 for the first time, they entered the Japanese market through investment in Seiyu. They introduces the $4 generic drug-prescription program, launched the site-to-store where customer have the opportunity to order online and pick up their items at the Wal-Mart closest to them. Wal-Mart continued to expand by opening a store in Chile with acquisition of majority stake in D&D S. A. The Bharti Wal-Mart, a joint venture open store n India. In the year 2012 Wal-Mart employs over 2. 2 million employees in over 10,000 in 27 countries.
In the fiscal and full year of 2012, Wal-Mart meets its expectations. The early opening and expansion of the layaway program and the early toy strategy for the holidays also prove beneficial. During the 2012 year, Wal-Mart brought in more revenue than they did in 2011. (Moody. com) Wal-Marts international segments saw an increase by 15. 0% for the 3 months ended April 30, 2012 when they are compared to the 3 months ended April 30, 2011. Wal-Mart stated that the increase in their sales was due to the 14. % year over year growth of their retail square feet and the strong sales in most countries. Wal-Marts fiscal 2012 acquisitions accounted for $1. 9 billion the net sales increase. (Wal-MartStoresInc. )
Currently during Wal-Marts first quarter for 2013, they have reported a 4. 6 percent increase for a EPS of $1. 14 compared to last years of $1. 09. Wal-Mart U. S. comp sales declined 1. 4 percent in the 13-week period from Jan. 26 to Apr. 26, 2013. Comp sales performance was impacted by a delay in income tax refund checks, challenging weather conditions, less grocery inflation than expected and the payroll tax increase. news. walmart. com) Wal-Marts international stores increased their net sales by 2. 9% ($33. 0 billion). The comp sales for the Sam’s Clubs were up 0. 2 % without fuel. Wal-Mart claimed that “Currency exchange rate fluctuations had a negative impact on net sales of $1. 0 billion”. (news. walmart. com) Economic, Social and Political Issues affecting Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest retail giant; they have over 10,000 stores and clubs worldwide. Wal-Mart has expanded beyond the United States, they have gone global.
Wal-Mart continues to offer food and goods at a low price and continue to thrive by using the mission statement that the retail giant was built upon which is great customer service and low prices. Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for.
According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek) SWOT It doesn’t matter if you running a small business like the corner store down the street or even just a fruit stand all business has strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Wal-Mart the largest retail giant also has to look at what they could improve in and what they need to watch out for. Strength- Wal-Mart is a large retail company that has expanded not only within the United States but globally. The retail giant is the only business where you could find everything you is looking for under one roof. Wal-Mart has a focused strategy is in place for human resource management and development. People are key to Wal-Mart’s business and it invests time and money in training people, and retaining a developing them. Weakness- Being such a large retailer Wal-Mart does not have the same flexibility as its competitors.
Wal-Mart is the World’s largest grocery retailer and control of its empire, despite its IT advantages, could leave it weak in some areas due to the huge span of control. Even though Wal-Mart has gone global their presence is only in a few countries. Opportunities- To take over, merge with, or form strategic alliances with other global retailers, focusing on specific markets such as Europe or the Greater China Region. Wal-Mart stores are currently only trade in a relatively small number of countries. Therefore there are tremendous opportunities for future business in expanding consumer markets, such as China and India.
New locations and store types offer Wal-Mart opportunities to exploit market development. They diversified from large super centers, to local and mall-based sites. Opportunities exist for Wal-Mart to continue with its current strategy of large, super centers. Threats- Wal-Mart has a lot of threats. Many of their threats are from the many law suits that they are encountering because employees feel they are not being treated fairly. The cost of producing many consumer products tends to have fallen because of lower manufacturing costs. Manufacturing cost has fallen due to outsourcing to low-cost regions of the World.
This has led to price competition, resulting in price deflation in some ranges. Being that Wal-Mart is a global retailer they are facing problems in the countries they are operating in. Being that Wal-Mart is the largest retailer they will continuously have competition globally and locally. (SWOT Analysis Wal-Mart) Being the largest retail company in the nation Wal-Mart has a big reputation to live up to. When Sam Walton started Wal-Mart he thrived on the fact that there would be good customer service and low prices. While the prices may be low the customer service is just one of the retail giant problems.
Wal-Mart faces many issues with its employees as far as benefits and wages. Because of the recession they laid off employees and end up not having enough employees to make sure the shelves stay stock. There are many consumers that still shop at Wal-Mart because they could find what they are looking for in the price range they could afford. Wal-Mart need to take the time and listen to the complaints of its employees and the complaints of its customers and find a way to improve their business ethics and gain back the control they once had. While the retail giant is diminishing its competitors are thriving.
They need to take a look at what worked back then when they were thriving and take a look that the economy now and what the people want. Wal-Mart is currently at the top of the Fortune 500 list because the revenue that was made was considered higher than the other companies. That is a victory for the retail giant. If Wal-Mart continues to pay attention to the issues that they are facing and continue to implement the mission statement that Sam Walton started his company on the retail giant will thrive and continue to rank number one on the Fortune 500 list.
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