for kim woods only CAREER CONNECTION: Final Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan

Lourde Owens

BUS/475

Jul. 21, 2016

Dr. Tem E. Bugarin

Introduction

Profit making organizations always aim at pleasing their shareholders and other stakeholders involved. Wal-Mart is still one of the best performing companies globally. The company has created a close relationship with its shareholders. Wal-Mart has been able to command a big number of customers due to its friendly prices. Most of wall-mat’s outlets are located in convenient places making it easier for customers to acquire Wal-Mart products. This paper outlines a strategic plan for Wal-Mart Company. Profitability is sought out by numerous entities, and can only be achieved where there is cooperation among different functional units in the entity.

Shareholder value or financial perspective.

Wal-Mart has maintained a trend of high revenue which is associated with its changes in strategies and its concentration on customer satisfaction (Ferguson, 2016). In 2016 the company made an impressive progress by beating its revenue expectations.Wal-Mart is one of the companies in the United States that has maintained its high level of profitability.The financial records of Wal-Mart clearly indicate the strides that the company has made as far as making profits is concerned. Wal-Mart won the hearts of many consumers after reviewing its strategies on environmental friendly products, especially its ‘going green campaign.

Customer value perspective

Wal-Mart has been more focused on winning customers’ trust by conducting effective marketing and providing products that are consumer friendly in all its outlets. Wal-Mart has spent the last one decade analyzing customer loyalty initiatives. Considering the high cost of winning new customers, the company has invested more on keeping its customers by establishing a good and close relationship. The best way of maintaining and creating more customers is by making sure the goods and services offered are satisfactory. Wal-Mart has improved the services offered at their stores in all their branches. The customer is a valuable asset in the organization.

Process of internal operations perspective

Evolution and modernization of operations at Wal-Mart is still taking place. The company has realized new strategies in operations as the result of the coming in of new operations managers who have been replacing the retiring ones. Productivity has improved by a big margin. Profitability and productivity go hand in hand. The recent overwhelming increase in profits is evidence that the company has improved on its productivity. Wal-Mart has improved on its efficiency and effectiveness. The production team has made sure that the products produced are in line with the customers’ needs. Wal-Mart has also made sure that their suppliers supply them with goods that are environmental friendly. Changes that have taken place at Wal-Marthave impacted the company positively. A change to more environmental friendly products and bringing in of new leadership has improved efficiency and effectiveness in the company.

Learning and growth (employee) perspective.

Wal-Mart has performed poorly in looking after the needs of its employees. The best way for an organization to ensure that employees are satisfied is by creating a favorable working environment for them and paying them well. Wal-Mart has been accused of paying its employees low wages (McKown, 2014). Managers have also been accused of mistreating the employees. As a result employee turnover at Wal-Mart is extremely high. Most of them resign or drop out due to the unfriendly working environment.

Wal-Mart makes a lot of profits and not looking after the needs of the employees are optional and negligence. Wal-Mart is a company that values its customers and it ensures that services provided are of great quality. The company gets its organization leaders internally. Employees after being vetted can be promoted to higher ranks. Wal-Mart has emerged as one of the top companies in the supply chain. The company has used technology to reach most of its targeted consumers. Employee programs need to be set up to facilitate training and development for example through seminars and workshops.

Potential alternatives to the issues identified in SWOT analysis.

Inventories.

Wal-Mart success has led to the growth in its inventory. However, the company does very little in safeguarding its inventories (Ferguson, 2016). Without clear guidelines and proper measures in place of dealing with and handling the inventories the company is likely to lose its valuables. Not all employees are faithful and honest, considering the large inventories that Wal-Mart has senior employees might take advantage of the fact that the company does not manage its inventories well and loot. For the company to safeguard its inventories it needs to constitute a panel, or rather a group of employees whose primary responsibilityis to keeprecords and account for the inventories. An employee is a valuable stakeholder and he should be involved the management of inventory.

Limited choices to customers

Consumers at Wal-Mart are not given a wide variety of choices. The company should work on introducing other products in its stores. More customers will flock in and as a result more profits will be made. Considering the profound failure to introduce more products in their stores,Wal-Mart might lose its customers to other companies that have a variety of goods that consumers are interested in. a customer is an important stakeholder in any business and his needs and preferences must be considered, failure to which a company is likely to lose most of its customers.

Part time employees do not receive benefits

Employees must be motivated for them to work efficiently and effectively. If Wal-Mart will continue with the trend of not looking after the needs of its employees then itis likely to lose most of its employees in later days (McKown, 2014). The best way to avoid losing employees isby looking after their financial needs like giving them benefits. For a business to succeed an employee must be involved. Companies that do not look into the needs of their employees find themselves in conflict with the government or labor unions.

Complex communication channels

Wal-Mart should simplify its communication channels. Information is power and by making sure that information gets to the intended people Wal-Mart will be improving its efficiency. Supply chain procedures are bound to be affected the most in the event that communication effectiveness is not looked into at Wal-Mart. Communication should be effective between all the stakeholders so as to promote effectiveness.

Metric and target

Shareholder value or financial perspective

The strategic objective for shareholder value or financial perspective is to increase markets share and profits. Wal-Mart has a strategic plan that will see an increase in its revenue by 7% every year for the next three years.

Customer value

Strategic objective for customer value is to build customer satisfaction. Wal-Mart has a plan in place that will make sure all products in the stores meet the needs of its customers. Wal-Mart has a strategy that will ensure that a new customer will be made in each store every day.

Process or internal operations perspective

Strategic objective for process or internal operations is to make sure that business at Wal-Mart is smooth and effective. Wal-Mart has plans of increasing its output at 12% per year.

Learning and growth

The strategic objective of learning and growth is to make sure that employee’s needs are looked into. Wal-Mart has a plan of motivating its employees and making their working environment more conducive and friendly.

Strategic objectives

Strategies help a company to be ahead of its competitors. At Wal-Mart strategic objects are meant to ensure that the company sustains its position as one of the most profitable companies. The strategic objectives laid down will help the company to deal with the challenges that might affect it negatively (McKeown, 2014). The best way to put all the strategies in place is by following the procedures that have been listed above. The audience to be communicated to about the strategic plans is the managers. Managers are at the right position to implement the strategies. The communication channel used is verbal.

Conclusion

Just as any other entity, Wal-Mart remains the best in its industry due to the fact that the strategies which have been embraced are beneficial to its operations. All organizations need to emulate Wal-Mart and the way operational effectiveness is realized. There is a need to fully consider shareholders in decision making, as well as the impact decisions made might have on the overall production processes.

References

Mckeown, M. (2014). The innovation book: how to manage ideas and execution for outstanding results. Harlow, England New York: Pearson.