Strategic Decisions and Stakeholder Engagement at Wal-Mart: A Report

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1:...............................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 2:...............................................................................................................................................4
QUESTION 3:...............................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCE LIST.......................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is the optimum utilization of an organization's resources to meet its
objectives. It includes the planning, organizing, monitoring and analyzing the resources that are
necessary to meet goals and objectives of organization (Ansoff et al., 2019). The top
management of Wal-Mart is taking responsibility for developing the strategic vision, mission,
objectives and implementing strategies to achieve the objectives.
QUESTION 1:
Meaning of strategy
A strategy is a method or plan that managers take to bring the desired future such as achieving
organizational goals or objectives or to solve a problem. A strategy is a blueprint of the actions to
be taken by the manager for accomplishing the preset objectives (Chang, 2016). For instance, the
Wal-Mart long term objective is to give the opportunity to customers and communities by
serving better life through saving their money. The company accomplishes these objectives by
giving the high quality of products at a discounted price. Wal-Mart is known for its USP of
offering goods at “Everyday low prices”. Another strategy used by Wal-Mart is to provide deep
variety and the assortment of goods to retain its customers by satisfying their different needs.
Meaning of strategic management
Strategic management is the actions taken by the management to meet the organizational goals
and objectives. The steps of strategic management involve setting attainable objectives,
analyzing the external environment as well as internal organization, evaluating strategies and the

roles of the management in achieving the goals and objectives (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez,
2018). The success of Wal-Mart depends on the efficient and effective implementation of
strategies. In any organization, human resource is the most important resource for the
development and implementing the strategies, the huge retail giant Wal-Mart has successfully
managers its sources to achieve the goals and objectives.
Characteristics of strategic decisions
Strategic decisions are related to the whole environment in which the company operates.
Strategic decisions are made by the top management focusing on the long term future of the
organization. The characteristics of the strategic decisions of Wal-Mart are:
1. The strategic decisions covered the long-term scope of organizational activities.
2. The nature of the strategic decisions is complex because the management prepares the
strategies for the future and the future is uncertain and involves a lot of risks.
3. The strategic decision must match with the uncertainties of the external and internal
environment in which it operates.
4. The organization is not only affected by the internal and external environment but is also
affected by the values and ethics of the business (Leiblein et al., 2018).
QUESTION 2:
Role of organizational stakeholders
A stakeholder is a person who invests in the organization and their actions affect the outcome of
business decisions. There are two types of stakeholders:
Internal stakeholders are those who invest some kind of capital in Wal-Mart. The role of
internal stakeholder is the voting rights that decide the number of shares holds by stakeholders
and the company. The decisions in which the stakeholders involved are acquisition, liquidation,
distributed profit etc.
External stakeholders are those who do not invest any fund in the company. They do not
involve in any decision-making process. The external stakeholders often involved concerns
relating to environment, government, community. For example, the Wal-Mart wants to open a

retail store near to the rural area but the government does not give the right to do so for
protecting the interest of small retailers (Alt et al., 2015).
Role of organizational structure
Business strategy is also influenced by the organizational strategy. High growth firms have a
small organizational strategy as they easily adapt according to changing situation. While small
growth firms have a large organizational structure and have long decision process to bring
changes in business decisions.
Role of processes
The strategic management process is divided into five steps:
1. Defining the strategic objective, mission, vision
2. Gather and analyze the information through screening of internal and external
environment
3. Formulate various strategies such as corporate, business and functional strategies.
4. After formulating the strategies, the manager takes action to implement the strategy.
5. After implanting, the actions are regularly evaluated to check whether they are according
to achieve the objectives (Quaye et al., 2015).
Strategy shaped by stakeholders’ expectation
The stakeholders invest funds in the business so they have some expectation from the company.
The top management also formulates the strategies by taking care of the expectations of the
stakeholders. The stakeholders will only invest in the business if they get a proper return of their
investment.
QUESTION 3:
Key concepts of strategic management
Short-term objectives and long term goals

The long term goal of Wal-Mart is to bring a better life to customer and community through
serving the quality goods by saving their money. The company wants to regularly supply the
quality goods at the lower prices.
The short term objectives to accomplish the long term goals of Wal-Mart can be to advertise the
promotional strategies of the company such as by advertising the product and services of Wal-
Mart through tagline “Save money, Live better”. Further, announcing Friday as "Black Friday" is
one of the events to attract bargaining customers.
Principles of strategic management
The principles related to the strategic management of Wal-Mart are as follows:
The strategy of Wal-Mart is comprised of five important components: vision, objectives,
strategy, implementation and correction.
The vision statement of Wal-Mart is to be the best destination for customers to save their money
no matter what they want to buy.
The objective of Wal-Mart can be to increase the sale of the company by targeting those
customers who prefer to purchase through the internet.
The strategy to achieve the objective can be to advertise its offers on the digital platform.
Implementation includes all those actions required in promoting the product or service through
advertising.
If there is any deviation in achieving the objectives, then steps should be taken to correct the
deviation.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, it can be concluded that strategic management is planning and implementing long-
term strategies to achieve the goals of the organization. The strategies are developed by keeping
them in view the interest of stakeholders, customers and society. The Wal-Mart strategy is to
satisfy its customers' needs by providing quality products at lower prices.

REFERENCE LIST
 Alt, E., Díez-de-Castro, E.P. and Lloréns-Montes, F.J. (2015). Linking employee
stakeholders to environmental performance: The role of proactive environmental
strategies and shared vision. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), pp.167-181.
 Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. and Ansoff, R. (2019).
Implanting strategic management. Springer.
 Chang, J.F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation.
Auerbach Publications.
 Leiblein, M.J., Reuer, J.J. and Zenger, T. (2018). What Makes a Decision Strategic?.
Strategy Science, 3(4), pp.558-573.
 Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds. (2018). Strategic Management in Tourism,
CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.
 Quaye, I., Osei, A., Sarbah, A., & Abrokwah, E. (2015). The Applicability of the
Learning School Model of Strategy Formulation (Strategy Formulation as an Emergent
Process). Open Journal of Business and Management, 3(02), 135.