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Walmart's Competitive Strategy Case Study

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3) Product: What are the competitive advantages of the firm?
Competitive advantage is anything that a company has, or does better, that customers value but the competition cannot match. This is usually manifested in terms of a lower cost or a differentiated product or service. With 3960 stores in the US and more than $209 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart stands top in its position and it is an incessantly profit-driven company. With profit as the goal and service as the process the company is at its core.
According to Friedman (2005), Walmart’s greatest strength is its inventory control which is achieved through its effective distribution centers which he labels as “Walmart symphony with no finale; it just plays over and over” (Friedman, …show more content…

Even its slogan says “everyday low prices”. This has helped in all the major decisions at Walmart including the use of technology, marketing, and distribution. According to Ortega (1998), Walmart’s simple mission was “offer the lowest price. Cut costs to the bone, and keep cutting so you can offer the lowest price.” Wal-Mart focuses on providing lowest possible price among competition, instead of providing promotions. This attracts more customers eventually leading to higher revenues and hence higher profits for the …show more content…

The company also had to make certain that workers were trained on the new procedures in a language, format, and vocabulary that they can understand.
In addition, Wal-Mart had to improve its hazard communications training.
Now, Walmart is extra careful regarding some critical issues which are highlighted below:
Anti-corruption
Walmart continues to enhance its processes and systems to help prevent corruption – that is, the use of improper payments or anything of value, including gifts or travel, to secure an improper business advantage from a commercial party. It expanded its anti-corruption continuous improvement program to monitor progress and identify enhancement opportunities. To date, Walmart has provided anti-corruption training to more than 1,300 external entities that interact on its behalf.

Consumer protection
As Walmart keeps expanding the business to serve customers in new and more convenient ways, it continues to implement additional consumer protection standards and controls according to the

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