Strategic Alternatives Assessment: Walmart SWOT Analysis

This report presents a comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Walmart, a globally recognized retail giant. The analysis delves into Walmart's brand recognition, global presence, supply chain, and expansion strategies, highlighting its competitive advantages. Key strengths include its extensive product range and efficient logistics. However, the report also identifies weaknesses such as employee treatment and thin profit margins. Opportunities for growth include market expansion and strategic alliances. Threats encompass competition from e-commerce and potential political and legal issues. The report further explores strategic alternatives like market penetration and product development, alongside factors influencing internal and external growth. Additionally, the report discusses the use of a decision matrix in evaluating different strategic options, addressing limitations and suggesting areas for improvement, providing a detailed overview of Walmart's business model and strategic positioning within the market.

Management 1
Benchmark-Strategic alternatives Assessment

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Contents
SWOT analysis of Walmart.............................................................................................................3
Several findings of the above SWOT analysis................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

Management 3
SWOT analysis of Walmart
Strengths:
 The major strength of Walmart company is the brand recognition as it is the most
recognized brand in the world. Walmart includes 60 million items.
 The other major strength of Walmart is the global presence as it has a global business and
follows some global operations in the business (Huang and JIA, 2015).
 The other major strength of the company is the global expansion that improves the
business profits.
 The other major strength of the company is the global supply chain and logistics system
that improve the performance of every product.
 The Walmart follows the overall process of the human resource management to improve
the strategies of the business.
Weakness:
 The main weakness of the organization is the employee treatment and working conditions
which is not proper according to the business.
 The other main weakness of the Walmart is the thin profit margins that focus on the cost
leadership strategy which is not good for the business.
 The other major weakness of the Walmart company is that it has large span of control is
weak in the process of the business.
 The other major weakness of the organization is the gender discrimination that create bad
improve of the company among customers.
 The other major weakness is the Imitation which helps the company to copy the other
business model and improves its competitive advantage (Banerjee, 2015).

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Opportunities:
 The main opportunity occurred in the Walmart business is the expansion to other markets
that expand the business process in a large manner.
 It enhances the human resource practices that increase the overall strategies followed by
the business process (Martinez, et al., 2017).
 The other main opportunity relates with the strategic alliances that helps the company to
create strategic partnerships in the organization.
 The other main opportunity of the business is the improvement in the quality standards
that manages the health concerns of consumers.
Threats:
 The major threat faced by Walmart is the fake craft beer controversy which create trouble
in the business process.
 The other major threat relates with the impeach 45 controversy that maintain the
promotion of violence.
 The other major threat is the impact of political and legal issues that hinders the company
to operate in some of the major countries.
 The other major threat relates with the small-scale online e-commerce companies that
creates competition among the business.
 The other major threat relates with the technical issues on the website that distract the
minds of consumers related to the business.

Management 5
Several findings of the above SWOT analysis
Advantages of company over competition
Walmart achieves advantages over competition that includes the offering great value to the
customers by providing major advantages to them in the purchasing process of products. Mainly
the company achieve competitive advantage over competition.
Opportunities that benefit the country
The opportunities gained by the Walmart help the country to manage the overall economic
growth (Santos and Laczniak, 2015). The major opportunities that help the country includes the
global expansion and global presence.
Risks faced by the company
The major risk faced by Walmart is the risk of occurring competition in the global market and
the risks of managing political issues of the country.
Weak areas company improve the strongest competitors
The company need to improv their areas for attaining better advantages in the business. These
areas include proper time management, interpersonal communication, customer service and
proper cooperation (Gates, 2011).
Strategic Alternatives for the betterment of company
The several strategic alternatives for the betterment of company includes the proper market
penetration, product development, market development and diversification (Rogers, et al., 2012).
These alternatives are responsible for increasing the sales and profits of Walmart.
Factors that improve internal growth and drawbacks of these factors
The major factors that improves the internal growth includes the proper management of human
resources like employees, target audiences and volunteers and the proper management of
financial strategies (Bonanno and Goetz, 2012).

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Drawbacks of these factors are that growth becomes dependent, the building of market share
becomes difficult, the company attains slow growth and hard to manage process.
Factors that improve external growth and drawbacks of these strategies
Factors that improve external growth of the company includes that it increases the market power,
help to use new technology and increase the operational efficiency.
Drawback of the factors used to improve external growth are shortage of cash, compromise with
the quality services and increasing capital requirements
Other elements used to achieve growth of the firm
The organization have several other elements that improve the growth of the firm. The main
elements include the use of market penetration strategy, product expansion strategy, market
expansion and growth through diversification and acquisition of other companies (Merriman, et
al., 2012).
Use of decision matrix in the identifying tee lading alternative
Walmart uses the decision matrix to compare the quantitative variables. The company selecting
the different design alternatives for the betterment of the company. This improve the overall
growth of the company.
What about the matrix, if anything, may be limiting in its use value to an analyst or
decision maker?
The decision matrix also works when business limiting its value to an analyst as the analyst use
the series of values that helps in the major part of the decision-making.
Issues you identified be addressed and corrected
The issues faced by the company includes employees involving low wages, inadequate health
care and poor working conditions. These issues need to be corrected by the organization for
achieving better growth in the market.

Management 7
Factors that inhibit the success of the strategic alternatives that identified
Strategic alternatives are too important and effective in the process as it creates value in the
organization. The factors that provide success to these alternatives are determining of the
different aspects of alternatives, leadership to determine these factors and analysis of the
strategies.
How the values of decision matrix can be evaluated
The values o f the decision-matrix needs to be evaluated for the proper process of the business
and this increases the overall process in the organization as the decision-matrix helps the
organization to make several decisions.

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References
Banerjee, D. (2015). Walmart Stores Inc.-A Strategic Analysis. International Journal in
Management & Social Science, 3(12), 202-225.
Bonanno, A., & Goetz, S. J. (2012). WalMart and local economic development: A
survey. Economic Development Quarterly, 26(4), 285-297.
Gates, D. (2011). COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: EXPLORING HOW WAL-MART
MAINTAINS AN EDGE OVER THE COMPETITION. USINESS RESEARCH
YEARBOOK, 632.
Huang, J., & JIA, Y. (2015). Wal-Mart development in Chinese market: problem and
countermeasures-nased on the enterprise culture and ethics. International Business and
Management, 10(2), 11-15.
Martínez, A. B., Galván, R. S., & Alam, S. (2017). Financial Analysis of Retail Business
Organization: A Case of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Nile Journal of Business and
Economics, 3(5), 67-89.
Merriman, D., Persky, J., Davis, J., & Baiman, R. (2012). The impact of an urban WalMart store
on area businesses: The Chicago case. Economic Development Quarterly, 26(4), 321-333.
Rogers, D. S., Melamed, B., & Lembke, R. S. (2012). Modeling and analysis of reverse
logistics. Journal of Business Logistics, 33(2), 107-117.
Santos, N., & Laczniak, G. (2015). Marketing to the poor: A SWOT analysis of the Market
Construction Model for engaging impoverished market segments. Social Business, 5(2).