Walmart

Radio Frequency Identification is a tag like object applied to or incorporated on a product, animal or person to make it easy to track or identify them in any given situation. It uses radio waves to transmit signals to the receiver in two ways. One is the active way in which the transmitter is fitted with a battery and transmits to the receiver intermittently. The second is the passive way which provokes a response from the receiver when it comes within its range. Both of these methods are used extensively today by organizations to keep track of anything and everything they need to keep an eye upon.

There are multiple reasons why Radio Frequency Identification is such a good investment for companies. A few of these arguments are listed below: Preserving revenue: this is the critical component involved in making Radio Frequency Identification such a hit in the industry. It can help in preserving revenue by minimizing your inventory. It is a bit like a new form of computerized based inventory management which came in existence a few years ago, but this is much smarter and much more efficient.

It will help keep your shelves stocked by minimizing items in the inventory keeping view the lead time for acquiring specific items. Building consumer loyalty: a consumer is only loyal to a store when he can always find what he needs from the store. This is the nub of the Radio Frequency Identification tag. It will make sure that shelves keep stocked and the consumer never has to leave the store without having an item they wanted if the store keeps it, that is. Assure quality in products: one of the key areas where traditional computerized systems are struck dumb is with expiration dates.

There is not enough sophistication in current computerized inventory management systems to keep track of expiration dates. This is why till today companies themselves go to extreme lengths to make their distributors collect expired products from each store manually. This is a huge loss for companies have no other choice as they would lose their customer trust if they make expired products available for selling in store. This is where Radio Frequency Identification comes into play. It has got complete product information embedded into the tag and it constantly keeps updating itself with the receiver.

Hence any expired products will be notified to the inventory manager immediately and he can take prompt action. For any company, existence in the market is top priority. But for existence every company needs constant revenue. Now it is the company’s objective how to get that revenue. The most important factor is to reduce the amount of revenue needed for existence so the rest of the revenue can be reinvested or given off as dividends to stakeholders and gain more reputation in the market. Radio Frequency Identification is helping companies do just that.

Wal-Mart is one of the prime examples who is using this technology at its fullest and encouraging its partners to do the same to gain competitiveness and market share as a result. A recent study showed that Wal-Mart used Radio Frequency Identification to significantly reduce inventory downtime form stock turnover (Hardgrave, 2005). It is expected that retail chains will have the most advantage by using Radio Frequency Identification in their daily inventory management procedures. This is due to the industry’s increasing demand for speed, efficiency and quick response from the supply chain (Chen, 2004).

The current technology is helping the industry in a lot of positive ways. Certainly I think that today in the highly complex world of microchips and Radio Frequency Identification being used so widely, companies can finally have a stab at managing a big chunk of its inventory and production. From the start of this essay, I have been explaining how easy Radio Frequency Identification has made things for managing inventory and production. It is all operated by a computer and needs very little guidance.

This means that it will require minimal man power to operate and is certainly not going to make any mistakes, since it is a computer. So in the world of today where companies are looking everywhere on how to cut down costs without damaging their goodwill in the market and talking about ‘smart solutions’ and all the rest, I think this may well be a very interesting option for them to carry out.

References

• Poirier, C. C. , (2003) Using models to improve the supply chain. CRC Press
• Hardgrave, B. C. , Waller, M. , & Miller, R. (2005). Does  reduce out of stocks? A preliminary analysis. Fayetteville, AR. University of Arkansas, RFID Research Center, Information Technology Research Institute.
• Chen, Y. -H. (2004). Getting ready for RFID. OR/MS Today, 31(3), 30-35. Koh, C. E. ,
• Kim H. J. & Kim E. Y. , (2005) The Impact of RFID in Retail Industry: Issues and Critical Success Factors retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://www. reuw. washington. edu/JSCR/2005Articles/JSCRV13_1A5ImpactRFID. pdf
• SkyeTek (2009, June 5) Inventory Management. Retrieved June 5, 2009 from http://www.skyetek.com/Applications/InventoryManagement/tabid/276/Default. aspx

Wal-Mart originated with humble beginnings, a single store in Bentonville, Arkansas and forty-four years later has become the largest retailer in the world, with estimated annual sales of nearly $300 billion. While many customers polled in surveys agree that it is a great place to shop, in recent years it has become apparent that it may not be the best place to work; due in part to several violations of labor laws and inequitable practices impacting its employees.

In recent years, there have been a number of class-action lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart for forcing employees to work through rest breaks and after their normal working hours without due compensation. A shared philosophy among store managers was that employees worked until the job was complete; if unsuccessful in completing their daily duties during their eight-hour shift, they would have to work off the clock to finish a job. Common practices included after hours lock-ins, where employees were locked in the store after closing, off the clock, and were not able to quit until all work had been completed. There are documented cases where employees sustained injury at work and still were not permitted to leave during the lock-in time frame.

Corporate headquarters also strongly encouraged store managers to reduce labor costs using questionable means. Yet another practice involved the use of the “one-minute clock-out.” Managers would clock employees out one minute after their lunch break began; meaning employees wouldn’t get paid for four plus hours of work. Employees were explicitly told that “overtime pay could not show up on the store reports” (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009, p. 410).

In a deposition by a senior payroll executive at Wal-Mart, it was revealed that the corporate headquarters allows store managers a total target monthly payroll expense and each store must stay below that limit. Managers would literally delete overtime hours from employees’ timecards, so they wouldn’t be properly compensated; in violation of federal law. According to (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009) it was revealed that a specific corporate objective of Wal-Mart was to keep labor costs at eight percent of sales; the industry average is nine to 10 percent.

A number of state class-action lawsuits have been settled for more than 150,000 employees resulting in over $150 million dollars in payouts. During the last decade or so, widespread reports of sex discrimination with regard to pay disparities, promotion policies, and general employee relations practices were uncovered. In June 2004, a San Francisco sex discrimination lawsuit achieved class-action status, covering 1.6 million current and former Wal-Mart employees – “the largest class-action sex discrimination lawsuit ever to be filed in the United States” (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009, p. 412).

Wal-Mart officials have made stereotypical assumptions that women aren’t interested in management positions within the company. There are plenty of companies who have women in leadership roles within their respective industries. I believe that these actions are clearly discriminatory in nature towards women. For this reason, in my opinion Wal-Mart can be considered a type of “good old boys club.” However, their approach to diversity is expressed legitimately on the company website. “We are committed to nurturing an inclusive culture to retain our talent and help them reach their potential. Once we hire the right people, with varied perspectives and ideas, it’s essential to develop them and their careers so they can deliver on our mission to help people save money and live better”. (Wal-Mart, 2014).

A precedent has been set in recent years in the ruling of the Supreme Court with regard to the rising number of class-action lawsuits. Due to the financial impact upon companies, along with the long term competitive disadvantage these suits can contribute, they don’t typically accomplish as much as targeting the individuals responsible for their losses instead. Focusing on those most at fault could realign the incentives of these suits, especially considering that many high-level employees make millions in salaries and bonuses every year. In my opinion, it makes sense to hold only a few, rather than the company as a whole, financially accountable for their actions to discourage bad behavior by their peers in the future.

On June 20, 2011 the Supreme Court handed down its most anticipated employment law ruling of the year. It said a huge lawsuit on behalf of 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees cannot proceed as a single class-action case. (The HR Specialist, 2011, p. 1)

According to the site Work Place Fairness (2014), a 2004 internal audit revealed that Wal-Mart executives have been aware of state and child labor law violations since 2001. Time cards recording a one-week period exposed over 1,300 specific violations where employees under the age of eighteen worked past midnight, during school hours, and more than eight hours a day. Additional practices included not allowing under-age workers to take meal or rest breaks; in addition allowing them operation of dangerous machinery, which could result in serious injury or even death, violations of state laws. Through settlements and class action lawsuit damages awarded, Wal-Mart has paid tens of millions of dollars for its numerous labor law violations against under-age employees.

Nancy Delogu, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney says: “In essence, it’s no longer enough for a group of plaintiffs to say, ‘We were discriminated against based on our gender,’ or age, or race, or other protected classification.” Now, in order for the claims to proceed as a class, they must allege that each was discriminated against in the same way-meaning that the discrimination to each resulted from the same policy, decision, or set of facts.” (The HR Specialist, 2011, p.2)

Furthermore, in September 2005 a labor advocacy group, The International Labor Rights Fund, filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for neglecting to enforce the company code of conduct with Wal-Mart suppliers. (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009, p. 419). Specifically, the lawsuit alleged that Wal-Mart failed to verify whether suppliers were in compliance with fair labor practices, to include forced labor without due compensation, a clear violation of federal statutes. “Everyday Low Prices,” but at what cost? In the advent of these recent rulings, it likely is a relief for the corporate powers and stockholders. However, large retailers face a host of ethical issues one way or another. The Wal-Mart Corporation has established business ethics policies and practices, but these codes are only as reliable as the manager who exercises ethical and moral judgment in executing the various elements within their personal code of conduct, as well as their corporate code of conduct. A great extent of future legal battles may be diminished, yet the issues remain still requiring meaningful resolution.

If the strategic plan is properly prepared and understood, then the company will continue to grow and thrive. Wall-Mart is a multimillion dollar empire that provides goods and services to communities all over the world. They are able to do this is because they are constantly looking for new ways to keep their business growing while keeping their customers satisfied and coming back for more. In this paper, Team C has developed a strategic planning initiative that will help Wall-Mart appeal In the local community.

The strategic plan will help readers understand how financial planning plays a large part in the success and failure of a business by looking at costs and sales in the community, and finally ascribing the risks that are associated with the strategic planning initiative and financial effects they may have on the company. Strategic Planning Initiative Financial planning is about finding out how the business is going to financially in the future. This means that reports from accounting and other departments have to be correct or else the forecasting will not be accurate.

When a business is working on their financial planning they need to prepare a cash budget. Financial planning helps a business to know how the profits will look in the future which In turn will help them plan on other things. This is where the strategic planning comes Into play. The company can plan how much merchandise to receive for parts of ten year. I nee can also Tugged Tort Dulling expansions, malfeasance, Ana toner necessary things. By knowing how much they can spend on certain projects with the amount they have received from the financial forecasting they can budget properly.

They can take the time to plan smart and know what they can do for the company and what they cannot do. Wall-Mart is planning on getting their supplies and merchandise from responsible sources. They want to make sure that the products that they sell to their nonusers are safe to eat and that with our busy lives they want the products to stand the wear and tear. With the help of the safer and stronger merchandise, Wall- Mart is planning on increasing sales and make sure that they are making the importance of their values known.

With this said from the annual report, Wall-Mart is also working with Michelle Obama to make their food products healthier and their produce cheaper. (womb. Anytime. Com) Mrs.. Obama is helping to reduce obesity in children and trying to make foods healthier. Wall-Mart has been meeting with the first dad and are going to take their brand, Great Value, and make it to where it has less fats, sugars, and unhealthy salts. They are going to come out with healthier soups, salad dressings, rice and snacks.

Wall-Mart is also trying to get Kraft to follow their examples and produces healthier products. Initiative Affects on Costs The new initiative will not have a major effect on cost for Wall-Mart. Wall-Mart will continue to use its current manufacturers to be able to provide their consumers with the most economical prices. Some things that have caused a change in cost for Wall- Mart would be the improvement of labor productivity and also organizational changes that have been made.

There may be several changes that may occur in the upcoming year, but with their past experience Wall-Mart is fully prepared to embrace the changes in the most efficient way possible. They will continue to provide better health benefits to their employees and will be more strategic in their advertising. Also, with the Wall-Mart website they are cutting cost by not having so many items to ship and stock in their stores. It also provides their consumers to have easy access to he products which will expand their clientele.

Initiative Affects on Sales Wall-Mart’s two initiatives that our team focused on are not only driven by expectations of rising sales, but are thoughtful of improving society in small ways. The initiatives focus on improving the health of consumers, helping them to make smarter choices when doing the food shopping. Very aware of the effects of the economy, Wall-Mart is also finding ways to make these healthy choices affordable and realistic. Quality and values are what they are aiming to reveal, being responsible ND thoughtful so that buying Wall-Mart products is an easy and smart solution for better everyday living.

With such a strong platform, these initiatives should easily lure American’s into one of their 3,804 stores, targeting the common need to live smart and healthy lives on a budget, in order to accommodate the current state of ten economy. “We are expanding our assortment, re-allocating selling space Ana enhancing productivity initiatives to reduce costs” (Wall-Mart, 2011). By working with suppliers Wall-Mart is aiming to expand assortment in all categories and make the assortment more relevant. We continue to implement productivity initiatives throughout the stores, supply chain and logistics to improve returns. As we see top- line sales increase through our focus on IDLE (everyday low prices) and from operational and merchandising improvements, we can further enhance our ability to drive expense leverage” (Wall-Mart, 2011). With cost reduction and commitment to the focus at the core of the Wall-Mart organization, everyday low prices, sales will continue to rise, and the trust and loyalty consumers already show will grow even trotter.

Risks Associated with Initiative and Financial Effects As with any business it is important to assess the risks and the financial affects of a business initiative. For Wall-Mart, three initiatives have been identified. The first is purchasing supplies from a responsible supplier. The second is to produce healthier food products in conjunction with the support of Michelle Obama. The third is to promote cheaper produce which will encourage families to eat healthier. The identified associated risks are the possibility of limited resources from so-called expansible suppliers causing Wall-Mart to limit goods that they sell.

In addition, there is the possibility of higher cost associated with responsible supplier which will then be trickled down to consumers. Lastly, there is definite risk of botulism or reduced sales associated with purchasing lower quality produce in order to meet their initiative of cheaper produce. With any risk there are also potential financial affects which are the effect of the associated risks. For Wall-Mart they may find that they have to pay more for goods that are form responsible manufacturers and appliers which in turn which trickle down to the consumers causing them to pay more for goods.

In turn, causes Wall-Mart to lose customers due to higher pricing. On the other hand if Wall-Mart is able to budget for the absorption of the additional costs and see no price rise to their consumers then they may actually see a financial benefit. Wall-Mart envisions cheaper produce as a potential benefit to its customers and it can be but the key to this success will be purchasing cheaper produce that is still quality produce and offering it at an everyday low price to consumers.

On the other hand if Wall-Mart offers cheap produce that is not quality produce they may see a reduction in revenue and a loss of customers in this area. Conclusion Wall-mart has over 3,804 stores worldwide, and is the largest leader in retail sales. Wall-mart is able to do this by expanding their business into other countries and providing great quality items to their customers at low prices. The best way for Wall-mart to grow even bigger than they already are is to create a strategic initiative plan that is firm and reliable.

Company Information Sam Walton opened their first Walter store since July 2, 1962. “People think we got big by putting big stores In small towns. Really, we got big by replacing Inventory with information. ” They opened their first store In Rogers, Arkansas. By 1967 they owned 24 stores and bringing In $12. 7 million In sales. By 1970 Walter went national. They also became a publicly trading company. In sass’s the first Cam’s Club opened and the first Walter Superstructure opened as well. It combines a supermarket and general merchandise all in one place.

In sass’s, Walter was named America’s Top Retailer. They also opened their first Cam’s Club in Mexico City in 1991. Sam Walton passed away in 1992 at age 74. By that time, Walter employed 371,000 associates In 1,928 stores and clubs. In 1993, they hit their first $1 million mark in sales. Between 1994 and 1998, Walter opened stores in China, United Kingdom, and bought Wolcott 122 stores in Canada. (www. Walter. Com) By 2014, Walter employs 2. 2 associates at more than 1 1 ,OHO stores worldwide. At this time it serves over 200 million customers.

Walter’s earnings per share Increased 10. 6 % to $5. 02. They had an Dalton of $22 billion In net sales, and they are now a $466 billion company. They SOOT Strengths Wide range of products International operations Cost leadership strategy Weaknesses Labor related lawsuits High employee turnover Negative publicity Opportunities Trends towards healthy eating Retail market growth Online shopping growth Threats Resistance from communities Rising prices Gap Analysis Walter has had to face several labor related lawsuits every year. They cost the company millions of dollars.

The company is criticized for poor work conditions, low ages, unpaid overtime work and female discrimination. It also suffers from high employee turnover. It Increases the company’s cost because they have to do a lot of training of new employees. I think the reason for the high turnover is because they have low skilled and poorly paid Jobs. These two gaps are best filled by training needs. I think management needs a better training assessment for their employees. Walter does have a lot of stores order to keep employees, I think they need a better training program.

The Wall-Mart stores model were not visual appealing to South Korean costumers, since Korean are use to see neat and sophisticated department stores, Product mix: The American consuming patterns of electronics, clothing, and process foods did not match the South Koreans preferences. Promotion strategies: Walter kept its American approach of promoting through friendly and warm layouts, while the South Korean are more likely to be sold for aggressive and exuberant strategies of promotion. Pricing: Since South Koreans do not distinguish the deference between discounts ND regular prices.

Generally Wall-Mart marketed Items like electronics, when South Koreans prefer to spend their money on food and drinks, But the main task that must be taken is for companies to local needs and desires in mind when entering into any foreign country area In the world. In my opinion there is a lot of options that could be helpful for the case of Walter in south Korea. 1- Changing the Walter location: I think it is one of the good solution because there from the most populations to a place has more opportunity to get improved. Expert: That could be another solution to having an expert by helping to now more about the consumer and the culture in south Korea. 3-Changing kind of product: That will be one of the best solutions for Walter in South Korea by having more domestic products and especially more fresh food or sea food and to having the BIG 502: Applied Business Research and Communication Skills Steven Samara Martina Instructor: Peggy Bilberry Consumers demands ,that will have the Korean accepting Walter product more and will support it with the time.

Steven Samara Martina Southern State University BUY-502 What are some limitations of the SOOT matrix and analysis? We cannot say that the SOOT strategy is the final strategy to achieve the desired goals. However, the SOOT strategy is considered as a starting point to develop other strategies that could support the SOOT strategy in order to progress and development on an ongoing basis of the desired goals. Although SOOT strategy is one of the most successful strategies, it must have some gaps that require us to constantly re-examine our SOOT strategy.

Because of the previous observation, it is very important to search for other strategies in order to get the best results. If you decide to use a SOOT matrix for your Yahoo case-study, can you defend why? I absolutely will use a SOOT matrix strategy because it is considered to be direct and clear for all of its objectives that are strengths, weaknesses and threats. In addition, through these objectives, we can examine and develop additional strategies to support and convert as much as possible weaknesses points to strengths once.

Wal-Mart, as what was already identified on the previous page, provides a significant number of job opportunities to the labor market of United States. Therefore, in this instance, Wal-Mart provides some improvements on social welfare as unemployment rate depletes alongside with poverty. But Wal-Mart, for the past decades learned how to abuse their power over the labor market and starts mismanaging its labor force. There have been reports that Wal-Mart performs gender bias over women on the working area of Wal-Mart. Majority of the executives and managers of Wal-Mart’s stores are men.

Whenever there is an opportunity for an associate to be promoted, Wal-Mart’s management gives premiums on male candidates over females. Numerous legal suits has been filed on court regarding the said gender bias inside the management of Wal-Mart, but almost all of the said cases ended up achieving nothing on the part of the female employees of Wal-Mart. These are few of the many reasons, which will be discussed later on, why many concerned non-government organizations calls for boycotting the stores of Wal-Mart to amplify the voices of those employees that being maltreated by the management of the “Giant Retailer” (Post 1).

Another issue concerning the social impact of Wal-Mart would be the failure of its management to provide all the necessary employee benefits which they promised to provide into their employees. Only 50 percent of Wal-Mart employees have been able to receive their employment benefit like health benefits while the remaining half continuously waiting for their share for the past years. Unlike other big retailers like Costco and Target, Wal-Mart seems to be less enthusiastic in valuing their employees.

Aside from the failure of Wal-Mart to provide their promised employment benefits to their employees, its management has been paying its workers less than the mandated minimum wage rate of the federal government. Many workers are clamoring for an increase on their wages but Wal-Mart remains deaf about the said request of its workers. Labor unions already launched various mass demonstrations to condemn the said action of Wal-Mart to its employees, but at the end of the day, the situation of workers remains unchanged inside the floors of Wal-Mart (Foltz 1).

Employees are left with less power, less voice, and limited freedom in improving their welfare. Recently, Wal-Mart was fined amounting to around 135, 000 USD civil money penalties for disobeying the “youth employment provisions” of the Fair Labor Standards Act [FLSA] (“Wal-Mart Fined for Child Labor Violations” 1). Wal-Mart was found guilty of allowing teenage workers to operate hazardous equipment and have a total of 85 minors aged 16 and 17 working on the stores of Wal-Mart and performing prohibited activities as stated in Fair Labor Standards Act.

Specifically, Wal-Mart’s stores in Connecticut, Arkansas, and New Hampshire were found by the U. S. Department of Labor engaging in “unconscionable” practice of using children to operate dangerous machineries on the said identified stores. In this regard, it is therefore clear that Wal-Mart does not give any concern on the condition of its workers either in a form of providing reasonable compensation and employment benefits to providing safe and harmless working roles and environment.

The last but not the least implication of Wal-Mart to society’s welfare would be the increasing number of labor outsourcing cases of the Giant Retailer for the past years which significantly affects those workers that only relies on the job opportunities that Wal-Mart would provide to the U. S. labor pool (Elliott 1). Wal-Mart outsources laborers from other countries primarily in order for them to utilize cheap cost of labor from other countries.

Most Asian countries provide cheap laborers compared to United States and other Western countries. If this continues to happen, in the near future, job offerings of Wal-Mart will start to decline until reaching a point wherein there will no enough job opportunities left for American workers. Not only this, the federal government found out that Wal-Mart already employs illegal immigrants that are willing to be paid lower than the normal salaries of its employees.

These undocumented workers obtains job positions in Wal-Mart that are supposedly for legal American workers and for immigrants with legal papers resulting to fewer job offerings of Wal-Mart to American labor market. At the end of the day, these labor outsourcing and undocumented workers of Wal-Mart would serve as an avenue towards the suffering of U. S. labor market as more and more job opportunities are shifted to ‘illegal’ and foreign workers of Wal-Mart.

In this regard, despite of the benefits that Wal-Mart provides in the U. S. labor market, as years past, the Giant Retailer seems slowly but surely defying the social benefits that it promised to the federal government that it will provide more job opportunities to the American labor pool. Wal-Mart prides itself for taking initiatives for the improvement of the welfare of the society when in reality it is the other way around based from the above mentioned and identified illegal activities of Wal-Mart pertaining to its workers.

In order to produce sufficient information that is required by various stakeholders with different natures of interests, financial reports are designed to be compact with complicated information. Therefore, we need to use some tools to interpret those reports so that we can capture the meanings within the financial data accurately. The tool to interpret financial reports is called financial ratios. Each ratio within the financial ratio analysis is designed to extract meanings from numbers that are displayed within the financial report.

The ratios are grouped into several groups, in order to clarify what performances each of them represents within the analysis. There are generally 4 groups of financial ratios, which are:

Liquidity ratios, Profitability ratios, Activity ratios and Coverage ratios. The information from Balance Sheet and Income Statement can be inputted into these ratios to produce performance levels. The Liquidity ratios represent business’s short term ability to deal with its maturing obligations. It basically reveals how the company is performing in a short team context.

Good liquidity ratios mean that the company is solvent and healthy within the range of maximum 3 months. Profitability ratios described how well the company performs, in terms of making profit from the assets that are entrusted to them. Activity ratios on the other hand, displayed operational effectiveness of the organization in dealing with their assets and resources. Coverage ratios described the ability to sustain the business in the longer term. Good coverage ratios indicated that the company is protected from long term credit and investors.

In this paper however, will use only several of them to focus on certain aspects of a company’s performance 1 Wal-Mart The company that we are using as an object of evaluation is the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Wal-Mart). It is the largest operator of retail stores worldwide. The company serves its customers by establishing several formats of retail shopping locations. These formats are divided into three principal segments, which are: the Wal-Mart Stores, Sam’s Club and International segment. Wal-Mart’s largest service segment is the Wal-Mart Stores, operating three different retail formats all over the United States. Read also Walmart

The Sam’s Club is a segment consisting of warehouse clubs and the international segment operates retail centers in 8 countries including Puerto Rico. As of January 31, 2005, Wal-Mart operates more than 1,300 Discount Stores, 1,700 Supercenters, 550 Sam’s Club and 85 neighborhood markets in the United States. Wal-Mart also owns minority interest of foreign retailers like the Seiyu Ltd in Japan. In this paper we are analyzing the financial performance of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as a single reporting entity.