Project Deliverable 5: Capstone Final Project and Presentation
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mgt_599_assignment_2.docRunning head: INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 1
INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 2
Innovation and Competitive Analysis for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
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Innovation and Competitive Analysis for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The Porter’s Five Forces of Competition
To analyse the competition in the supply chain in the American market, the use of the Porter’s Five Forces will be favored. This is where the poser of the supplier, the buyer power, and the competitive rivalry, threat of the substitute products and threats of the new entry are analysed. Walmart is a retail juggernaut that has overseen a continuous six-year upward surge and recorded staggering grosses of over $486 billion in the concluded fiscal year on January 2015. This was a $10 billion increase from the amount recorded for the 2014 fiscal year. The store giant has thousands of stores in the U.S alone, a factor that has seen the firm move up the Gartner’s annual ranking to 13th in the list of the best performing supply chain organizations. The greatest weapon that has been put to use by Walmart is its ability to engage in mammoth purchasing business hence shaping the behavior of its suppliers and subsequently pushing the costs down (Michaux, Cadiat, & Probert, 2015). The last few decades have seen Walmart rise to take the leading centre stage due to its unmatchable supply chain management that has enabled it to continuously have an improvement when it comes to investing millions of USD into the emerging technologies. This has enabled the store to capture a good portion of the e-commerce market. The rise of the Walmart store is directly attributed to three very strong elements shown buy the organization. They include, being in total control over its own fleet of trucks; strict practices when it comes to distribution; and the use of technology.
Two innovative and technology trends that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. or its competitors introduced
The Walmart Stores using the strength of the internet to help it with connecting online. The organization has gone all out by embracing the use of technology so as to develop adequate understanding of the possible shift they have been recorded in the technological industry and in retail. A greater portion of the technology being used by the organization has been split into two distinct parts. We have the Walmart Technology that has Bentonville as its base and oversees building and the technology for management for the organizational, stores. On the other side, Global eCommerce, that is situated in Silicon Valley, which is in charge of the development of the e-commerce technologies and is in charge of running the sites.
In terms of innovation, Walmart is known for the milestone acquisitions when it comes to technology. In fact, the organization has overseen a staggering 12 acquisitions over the last three years only. This has enabled the organization to develop a competitive advantage over its rivals thin the industry. For instance, acquiring the Vudu streaming video service was a milestone on innovative skills that was shown by the organization in the general practise. Through this, the organisation has been able to maintain feasibility and expected market impact by firms. Further, cementing the position of Walmart as the leading retail store in the whole world.
Assessment of the situations for the company (Capabilities and resources)
One of the most significant capabilities that the organization has shown over the last couple of years is its ability to bring in fresh blood into its mainstream. This has enabled it to incorporate fresh talent and hence leading to an improvement on the product quality for the organization. Further, the use of Torbit by the organization has enabled the acceleration of its website and ensure that the site is made faster. The use eCommerce business has overseen an increase of sales in the organization by USD billion in this financial year alone. This is a staggering 3% of all the sales being used by the organization, while the general eCommerce accounts for about 10% of the whole of the retail.
Whether the company’s organizational structure supports or impede its ability to innovate and be a successful company
The structure used by Walmart greatly supports its bid to be the leading retail store in the whole of the United States. The greatest goal that the firm has had for quite a while is to ensure that the customers are engaged in the best way possible regardless of whether they are engaging on online stores or off it. This is facilitated by the ability of the organization to incorporate the Data Café that is very fundamental ensuring that the whole process is achieved. This is an appreciation for Collaborative Analytics Facilities for Enterprise, that allows for enhance analytics, like the recent focus that has been shown on the data visualizations regarding Sam’s Club.
References
http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/none/324483-how-walmart-uses-technology-to-connect-online-retail
Michaux, S., Cadiat, A.-C., & Probert, C. (2015). Porter's five forces: Stay ahead of the competition. Place of publication not identified: 50Minutes.
