Project Management and Strategic Analysis of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

This report offers a comprehensive strategic analysis of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., focusing on its potential market entry and operations within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It begins with an introduction to Wal-Mart, its global presence, products, services, and business objectives. The report then delves into applicable managerial functions, including planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling, essential for a successful market penetration strategy. It identifies probable stakeholders such as employees, the Saudi Arabian government, consumers, and shareholders, highlighting their respective interests and importance. Different types of planning, including strategic, tactical, and operational plans, are examined to show how Wal-Mart can achieve its long-term goals. The report also applies the SMART components in goal setting, ensuring goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Furthermore, the strategic management process of Wal-Mart is explored, covering environmental scanning, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Finally, the functions of organizational culture within Wal-Mart in KSA are discussed. Overall, the report provides a valuable insight into the strategic and project management considerations for Wal-Mart's expansion into the KSA market.

Project Management
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Table of Contents
1.INTRODUCTION ABOUT WAL-MART STORES IN........................................................3
2. APPLICABLE MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS...................................................................5
3. PROBABLE STAKEHOLDERS....................................................................................6
4. DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANNING............................................................................7
5. SMART COMPONENTS IN GOAL SETTING OF WAL-MART STORES INC.....................8
6. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF WAL-MART STORES INC. KSA..................9
7. THE FUNCTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN WAL-MART STORES INC. KSA
................................................................................................................................. 10
8. ETHICS AND LAWS WITHIN YOUR DISNEY LAND...................................................12
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................ 13

1. INTRODUCTION ABOUT WAL-MART STORES IN
Wal-Mart is an American multinational discounted supermarket chain that was founded by Sam
Walton in 1962.The store currently has 11,695 stores distributed in 28 countries around the
world. The company doubles up as the world’s richest company and largest employer with 2.3
million employees and its revenue approximated at $480. It is also the largest retail chain in the
world. It is a family owned business controlled by the family of Walton. Some of the main
divisions of the global giant include Wal-mart US, Wal-mart Supercenter and Wal-Mart discount
Stores. The company has branches in countries such as Argentina, Latin America, Brazil, Chile
Central America, Canada, United Kingdom, Africa and Asia (Chiu, 2017). The success of the
company has been partly because of effective use of strategies aimed at reaching the company’s
mission and vision. The company’s generic and intensive strategies are founded on the mission
statement and vision statement of the company. The main factors for the company’s success have
therefore been the incorporation of its vision statement, mission statement, competitive
advantage generic strategy, and strategy for intensive growth. However, the international journey
of the company has not come without challenges, for example in 2006 the company was forced
to close its doors in Germany after making loses estimated at €3 billion (Gilling and Ulmer,
2016.)
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
The retail chain offers a wide range of products and services in all its stores across the world
Products
The Company offers various categories of retail goods including computers and laptops, digital
cameras, jewelry, books, printers, mp3 players, sporting goods, grocery items, movies and baby
products, toys and video games, health and beauty products , electronics and office equipment ,

clothing and shoes, auto and tires, food and household products , home furniture and
appliances(Chiu, 2017).
Services
The company also offers different types of services including photo lab services in their stores
and online, financial services including bill payments check cashing, credit cards, debit cards,
money transfer, check printing as well as store credit cards. It also offers wireless phone services
such as Wal-Mart Family Talk Wireless service in partnership with T-Mobile service provider
and pharmacy services (Chiu, 2017).
Business statement
Making people live better by saving them money
Business vision
To be the best retailer in the minds and hearts of employees and consumers
Business Objectives
Developing and executing an international e-commerce strategy
Having accessible stores available to address consumer needs
Accelerating growth of a global online channel
2. APPLICABLE MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS
An effective penetration strategy will require the application of managerial functions
Planning
Planning is the basic management function and involves identification of a goal and
determination of the most appropriate strategy for reaching that goal. It will be important to
decide in advance what goals will be met by penetrating into KSA to facilitate the adoption of

the most effective strategy. Planning will involve the creation of a comprehensive action plan to
meet an established organization goal (Daft, Kendrick & vershinina, 2010).
Organizing
Organizing function of management comes second after planning. Organization involves
bringing together resources including, human resources, financial resources and physical
resources and creating a relationship among them to achieve set goals. After creation of the
action plan, resources will need to be organized and distributed as per the plan (Coleman &
Glover, 2010).
Staffing
It will be necessary to different roles involved in the plan so that each role is assigned an
appropriate number of employees. Staffing involves hiring the right people for the right jobs to
achieve organizational objectives. Staffing will involve recruitment, training and development of
employees to actualize the objectives of the penetration plan (Griffin, 2011).
Controlling
Controlling is a managerial function that is concerned with comparing the outcome of a certain
undertaking with the initial goals and objectives of the undertaking. Controlling is intended to
facilitate identification any deviation from an initial plan to enable early corrective measures. It
is the role of managers to identify the sources of deviation, provide a corrective course of action
in order to ensure that initial objectives are established. After Planning, organizing and staffing
functions have been successfully carried out, the management of Wal-mart KSA will
continuously compare the progress made against the goals and objectives contained in their
strategic plan to enable identification of deviations and correct them early so that the long term
success of the organization will not be affected.

3. PROBABLE STAKEHOLDERS
A stakeholder is an individual, group or organization with particular interests in an organization.
Employees
The success of the Walmart will largely depend on its employees (Hatten, 2015). For this reason,
the company will need to protect the interests of its employees in Saudi Arabia. Employees will
also be forced to work diligently so because in case of failure of the new KSA store, they might
end up losing their jobs hence becoming the most affected
Government of Saudi Arabia
The Government will require Walmart to periodically submit tax returns, financial statements
and comply with various regulations governing the operation of businesses in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia
Consumers
Consumers are also an important stakeholder. The consumers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. KSA will
have certain expectations including being offered quality goods and having their needs satisfied
by the company. Walmart will, therefore, need to conduct adequate market research to keep up
with needs of its consumers in KSA (Peeroo, Samy and Jones, 2015)
Shareholders
Shareholders are the owners of a business. They invest their money in a particular venture to
acquire profits. The financial stability of the company will depend on their financial investment.
Successful market penetration will also mean more returns for them (Williams,2011).
4. DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANNING
Strategic plans

Strategic plans are about why certain things need to happen. Strategic planning is usually the
responsibility of top-level managers. Strategic plans are designed by top-level managers with the
whole organization in mind. They are designed and executed to create an image of long-term
organizational goals. Although this is the role of senior managers, middle-level managers also
get involved in the strategic plan after they have been designed by offering their feedback
(Jacobs and Chase, 2013 ) These plans are forward-looking on where an organization desires to
be in the future and are used as a framework for planning at lower levels. The strategic planning
will be used to ensure long-term goals of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. KSA are achieved. The plan will
cover five years.
Tactic Plans
Tactical planning involves identification of tactics that an organization intends to use to realize
the objectives outlined in the strategic plan. They support strategic plans by transforming them
into several focused short-term plans relevant to specific organizational areas. After top
managers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. KSA have come up with the strategic plans; middle-level
managers will brainstorm and come up with tactical plans for the successful realization of the
components of the strategic plans (Swoboda, Elsner and Morschett, 2014). Tactical plans will
focus on the responsibility of lower management levels within the company to execute their part
of the plan. Tactical plans will cover one year or less.
Operational Plans
An operational plan a plan specifying specific actions that should be taken by low level or
frontline managers to facilitate the realization of the plans and objectives set by the top
management (Wild,Wild and Han, 2014) The focus of operation plans is processes and
procedures that occur within the lower organization levels. Operational plans encompass daily

routine tasks that are related to the strategic plan of an organization. Lower level managers will
be responsible for operational plans such as the creation of a short term promotional
advertisement, making orders and stocking inventory, weekly employee scheduling, the creation
of a short-term budget, creating short-term employees performance goals, etc. Both single-use
plans and ongoing plans will be used. The time frame for operational plans will be about one
year (Newton,2011).
5. SMART COMPONENTS IN GOAL SETTING OF WAL-MART STORES INC
Smart goal setting is the process of creating trajectories that can be verified towards particular
objectives with a clear focus on the attainability of set goals.
Specific
This involves the identification of the specifics of what is intended to be achieved. The goal
setting process will involve a specific description of what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. KSA wants to
achieve to increase the chances of the organization achieving that. An example of a specific goal
would include targeting to achieve 50% sales increase in two years. Does it involve questions
what exactly?, when?, How? With whom? Where? And how?
Measurable
Measurability refers to the process of goals into small measurable components. It is concerned
with the identification of the exact outcome that can be used to say that a goal has been arrived
at. The store will, therefore, be required to set goals that can be measured to determine if they
have been achieved or not
Attainability

This is concerned with an investigation of the attainability and acceptability of a goal. After
goals have been set their benefits will be weighed against the required effort, time and costs as
well as other priorities for the company (Newton,2011).
Relevant
The relevance of a goal is determined by its ability to address a situation at hand or its ability to
contribute positively to the realization of objectives of a given undertaking. The relevance of
goals to be set will be determined by their ability to help the organization achieve its short-term
and long-term goals. It will involve asking questions such as why it is important to reach a
particular goal and what will be achieved
Time-bound
Every goal needs to have the desired completion date so that there is a focus on meeting the
deadline. Deadlines will be set for various goals to facilitate prioritization of long-term goals.
6. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF WAL-MART STORES INC. KSA
Strategic management is a process of formulating and implementing goals and initiatives by the
top management of a company (Montana & Charnov, 2008). It is a continuous process
through which an organization decides and implements its strategies. Strategic management
process refers to the process of defining the strategy of an organization and managerial decision
making on strategies to be adopted by an organization. The following process will be used by
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Environmental Scanning
Environmental scanning is the process of gathering, evaluating and providing information to be
used for strategic purposes. Environmental scanning will be used to analyze the external and

internal environment to identify factors likely to affect the organization (Yoder, Visich and
Rustambekov, 2016)
Strategy formulation
This is the process of deciding on the course of action that is best suited to achieve the goals and
objectives of an organization. After the environment has been scanned, functional, business and
corporate strategies will be formulated by the managers
Strategy implementation
Implementation of a strategy means making a strategy to work as it was intended. After
strategies have been formulated, they will then be implemented through the distribution of
resources, designing the structure of the organization and creating a process for decision making
and managing the workforce of the organization(Yoder, Visich and Rustambekov, 2016)
Strategy evaluation and control
This is the last stage in the strategic decision-making process, and it will be carried out to ensure
that the adopted strategy and its implementation achieve objectives set by the organization.
Strategy implementation includes activities such as measuring performance, taking corrective
actions where necessary, and appraising the strategies against the factors that necessitated their
formulation (Natto,2014.)
7. THE FUNCTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN WAL-MART
STORES INC. KSA
Organization culture refers to the shared believes, behavior and values that are synonymous with
the employees of a given organization and which contributes to a unique organization’s
environment (Adekola and Sergi,2016). Each organization has its own organizational culture that

affects both personal and work lives of its employees. Establishment of organizational culture in
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will have various functions.
Identity
An organization culture will give Wal-Mart Stores Inc.KSA an identity. It will facilitate
perception of the company by both its employees and customers based on how it does its
business. This way of doing business is determined by the organizational culture, and it
facilitates the creation of a popular and respected brand in the market. The Culture of the new
stores will, therefore, have a big impact on its brand image.
Maximizing employee’s potential
An established organization culture makes it possible for employees to be self-driven. For
example having a clear reporting system, the employees will habitually submit their reports on a
daily basis irrespective of their busy schedules. The ability of the culture to develop a self-driven
habit among the employees will make them more successful at the workplace (Magretta, 2012).
Uniting employees from different backgrounds
Since Wal-Mart Stores Inc.KSA is an American organization it is expected that it will have
employees both from America and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Collaboration and management of
a diverse team can sometimes be a challenging underrating because of the differences in beliefs
and value systems (Morschett et al., 2015).An organization culture will give the employees from
diverse backgrounds a sense of identity and belonging and create unity between diverse teams at
the workplace

8. ETHICS AND LAWS WITHIN YOUR DISNEY LAND
Ethics is a branch of knowledge that governs people’s behavior. It refers to the fundamental
principles and concepts of decent conduct by humans. Among the values emphasized by ethics
are equality concern for the health and safety, obedience to the law and protection of the
environment
Employment law
Equality is concerned with giving equal chances of employment to men and women as well as
the people living with disabilities. Employment law sets out regulations for companies to abide
with during their recruitment and selection processes by safeguarding against discrimination
based on gender or physical disabilities (Ebert et al.,2014).The employment law also covers
employment issues such as termination of employee’s contract of employment, workplace health
and safety, obligations of the employer and the employees as well as the employer-employee
relationship.
Environmental Law
Environmental conservation is an important aspect of corporate ethics. It is focused on ensuring
that the actions of individuals, as well as organizations, do not affect the environment. Ethical
laws on environmental conservation have a role in ensuring that people act in ways that are
ethically responsible towards the environment.
Health and safety law
Promotion of Employees health and safety at the workplace is of vital importance; It is the
responsibility of employers to ensure that their employees work in environments that promote
both their safety and well being. Health and safety laws play a role in promoting compliance. It