Competitive Strategy Analysis: Strategic Tools for Walmart Report

This report delves into the realm of competitive strategy, emphasizing the application of strategic tools in the modern business landscape. It explores the significance of tools like PESTEL analysis for understanding macro-environmental factors, SWOT analysis for evaluating organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, Five Forces analysis for assessing market competition, and Resource-Based View for achieving superior firm performance. The report uses Walmart as a case study to illustrate the practical implementation of these tools. It examines how Walmart can leverage these tools to analyze its external and internal environments, identify competitive advantages, and make informed strategic decisions. The analysis covers various aspects of Walmart's operations, including its market position, competitive landscape, and resource capabilities, providing insights into how strategic tools can be used to enhance business performance and maintain a competitive edge in the market. The report also highlights the importance of these tools in anticipating the business environment and making strategic decisions.

Running head: COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
Competitive Strategy
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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The usage of the strategic tools in the modern business world is increasing in a
significant manner. With the increasing business competition, the managers of the modern
business organizations are facing the need of managing the organization in a scientific
manner. The main objective of using such tools are to anticipate he business environment that
surrounds a given company so that it be easy for the strategic decision makers to formulate
the idea of conducting their business. The paper is focused in the elaboration of the strategic
tools such as the PESTEL Analysis, Five Forces Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Resource-
Based View.

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PESTEL Analysis:
The PESTEL analysis is notably crucial tool for the managers of the organizations in
order to achieve the information regarding the macro environmental factors of the
organizations. The tool is also considered to be one of the top most priority for the managers
in terms of analysing the external environment of the organizations. The tool helps the
decision makers of the organization in gaining the idea of the political impact, social impact,
economic impact that a particular organization faces in a particular region (Cortez et al.
2014). In addition to this, the tool plays a crucial role for the mangers in achieving the
information regarding the economy of the destination region and the various aspects of the
economy that can affect the business operations of the organizations. Apart from this, the
application of the tool enables the organization to be aware of the level of acceptance of the
customers towards the technology and along with that, it also identifies the environmental
concerns that the particular destination region portrays.
With a precise focus on the business operations of Walmart, the tool is significant for
the managers of the organization in gaining the idea of the political factors that affects the
business operations of the organization such as political support for the globalization or the
high political support in the regions in which it operates along with the political pressure on
the aspect of higher wages for the employees. On the other hand, the tool helps in identifying
the stability and growth of the economies in majority of the regions in which it operates along
with the high life style trends, cultural diversity trends and the urban migration amongst the
people of those regions. Apart from this, the identification of the influential factors such as
the increasing business automation, scope of increasing the usage of the business analytics,
increasing usage of the mobile phone device amongst the customers, the emergence of the
customer’s intention of purchasing the environmentally friendly products along with the
impact of the food safety regulations, labour and employment regulations and the continuous

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changes in the taxation policy can be achieved with the application of the tool in a significant
manner (Imandaru and Inggriantara 2013).

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SWOT Analysis:
The SWOT Analysis is one of the widely tools by the managers of the organization in
gaining the idea of the resources and the capabilities of the organizations. The tool is also
significant in identifying the positives and the negatives of the business operations that a
particular organization conducts. In a nut shell, the tool enables the managers of the
organizations in achieving the idea of the strengths, threats, opportunities and weakness of
their organizations (Gupta 2015).
Considering the business operations of Walmart, the tool enables the managers of the
organization in identifying the strengths such as the strong presence of the selected
organization across the world with more than 11500 number stores, the significantly low cost
of production as a result of the economies of scale along with the strong and well developed
supply chain of the organization (Walmart.com 2019). In addition to this, the tool is of great
significance for the managers of the organization in identifying the weakness of the
organization such as the frequent discrepancies in the business policy of the organization
along with strong criticism for the organization over alleged strong arm tactics for trying to
supress the unionization of its Australian employment base. Apart from that, the tool enables
the managers of the selected organization to gain the idea of the threats such as the
application of the low pricing from the part of the competitors along with the intense market
competition from the part of the organizations such as the IKEA, Amazon, Aldi and Tesco.
The identification of the opportunities for the organization such as the scope of gaining
competitive advantage with the application of the cost leadership strategy and the scope of
acquisitioning the small companies can be achieved with the application of the tool
(Shabanova et al. 2015).

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Five Forces Analysis:
The tool is solely applied for the evaluation of the market competition that a particular
organization faces in a particular industry. The tool elaborates regarding the competitive
rivalry and the threat of substitution that a particular organization is subjected to. Apart from
that, the tool also analyses the threat of the bargaining power of buyers and the level of
bargaining power of the suppliers associated with the business operations of the selected
organization (Hove and Masocha 2014). In addition to this, the tool acts in an efficient
manner in the evaluation of the threat of the new entries in the business industry.
Considering Walmart, the tool will be decisive for the mangers in the evaluation of
the threat of the competition that the mentioned organization is facing from the part of the
organizations such as IKEA, Amazon, Aldi, Costco and Tesco. Along with that, the tool will
be crucial in identifying the aspects of the competition such as the quality of the products and
the services that the organizations offer to the customers or the pricing of the products along
with the corporate image of the organizations. Apart from that, the tool is important in
identifying the moderate threat of the new entries owing to their concerns regarding the
requirements of the significant investment for the infrastructure and the possibility of
achieving a rapid growth (Sandberg 2013). Adding to this, the evaluation of the high
bargaining power of the customers owing to the presence of considerable number
organizations capable of providing quality products at a significantly competitive prices. On
the other hand, the tool is notably efficient in the evaluation of low bargaining power of
suppliers due to availability of the considerable number of organizations capable of supplying
quality materials at reasonable prices along with the reflection of the qualities such as the on
time supply and accurate supply of the materials.

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Resource Based View:
The resource based view analysis is one of the fundamental tools for the organizations
in achieving the idea of the superior firm performances with the utilization of the available
resources. The tool is significantly helpful for the organizations in evaluating the VRIO
attributes amongst the available resources of a particular organization that have the potential
of providing competitive advantage to a particular organization (Campbell and Park 2017).
The tool helps the managers of the organization in differentiating the tangible and
intangible resources of the organizations and along with that, it also plays a crucial role for
the managers in the identification of the heterogeneous and immobile resources of the
organizations. Apart from this, the available resources satisfies the VRIO framework are seen
to be considered to be capable of producing sustained and temporary competitive advantage.
The basis for the framework is seen to be value, rarity, imitability and Organization (Yu,
Ramanathan and Nath 2014).

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