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Wal-Mart Strategic Analysis

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Wal-Mart Strategic Analysis
| Individual Case Study | | | | By: Lachezar Atanasov,Student ID 1018021, International Business School at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania | 4/11/2010 | |

Contents Section 1: Introduction 3 Company structure 3 Mission 4 Leadership 4 Challenges 5 Section 2: External analysis 5 Dominant economic characteristics 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Driving Forces 10 Key success factors 10 Competitive position analysis and competitor analysis 11 Industry attractiveness 11 Section 3: Internal analysis 12 Strategy identification 12 Performance appraisal 13 Resources and capabilities assessment 14 Value chain analysis 15 Competitive strength assessment 16 Section 4: Summary analysis 17 SWOT analysis 17 Critical issues 17 Section 5: Moving forward 18 Recommendation and Implementation 18 Action plan 18 Stakeholder impact 19

Section 1: Introduction Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores founded by Sam Walton. Before founding Wal-Mart, Sam Walton accumulated experience in variety store retailing as JCPenny management trainee and a franchisee of Ben Franklin stores. Anticipating discount market growth, Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. Being successful, by 1967 he opened 24 more stores in Arkansas reaching total sales of $12.6 million. In 1968 Wal-Mart moved out of Arkansas, opening stores in Missouri and Oklahoma. Wal-Mart went public in 1970, giving it access to the financial resources needed to begin a decades-long expansion campaign that led to opening of 3800 stores by 2005. Wal-Mart growth soared in recent years, with the company adding nearly one new store every day since 2006. The company’s rapid expansion brought its total retail store presence to 6,782 units worldwide by February 2007. As Wal-Mart continued to grow, so did its sales, to a record $345 billion in the fiscal year ended January

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