Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness Essay - 2

Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness - Essay Example Here it has to be mentioned that the organization chosen happens to be Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a publicly traded company since 1971 and the largest retailer in the country of U.S. Effect of Globalization and Technology Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Fulton in the year 1950 and in the year 1971 the company was listed as a publicly traded company. By 1990 the company had exhibited phenomenal success in the domestic market as it became the largest retailer in the nation. Wal-Mart went global for the first time in the year 1994 when the company decided to enter Canada and since then there has been no turning back. Today Wal-Mart has total of nine thousand and seven hundred units. Out of this more than five thousand units are international units. Globalization presented Wal-Mart the challenge of entering into new countries like China and Brazil having diverse cross cultural differences. But it also presented the opportunity to generate a lot more revenue and reach economies of scale. From the performance of the company it can be easily seen that the company has nullified the risks and utilized the opportunities to the fullest extent. The statistics speak for themselves. Today Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Globalization has helped the company to enter emerging markets like China, Brazil, etc. and take control of the untapped market. In short globalization has been one of the key reasons for the phenomenal success of the company (Wenderoth, 2009). Position Retailer Name 1 Wal-Mart 2 Carrefour 3 Tesco 4 Metro 5 Kroger Source: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and STORES Media Another major change in the modus operand of the company has been the embracement of technology. It is quite needless to say that with the rise in the usage of energy round the globe, the world is likely to go through the phase of power shortage. Therefore, a lot of companies are looking to use renewable energy resources. This is also potential branding activity. Wal-Mart has been a pio neer in the usage of the modern day technology to take advantage of the use of renewable energy resources. Wal-Mart uses HVACS to reflect sunlight that reduces heat to cool the buildings. Another major change has been use of the internet. Due to rise of the use of internet, it has also become a potential marketing and sales channel. Wal-Mart has been able to develop strong digital presence both in terms of the website and social media platform. The company also provides opportunity for the customers to buy products online. Industrial organization and Resource Based model for Wal-Mart Industrial organization Model The industrial organization adds to the competitive model real life frictions such as the limited information, transaction cost and barrier to entry. Wal-Mart has been able to achieve economies of scale through the everyday low price model which has in turn acted as the potential barriers to entry. Also the globalization has helped the company a lot in becoming a market lea der. The Wal-Mart stores are also geared towards the low income customer groups (Henry, 2008). Resource Based model The resource based model of the company can be analyzed through the resource capability analysis using the VRINE model. The company has decided to focus on some capabilities such as international acquisitions, store design, supply chain and the introduction of analytics to create value for the customers. The