Indigo de la Sota:
Case: You have provided a detailed account of Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s activities. You have done a good job identifying critical pieces decisions that the company has made throughout its existence. I liked the information you have presented in strategic management process.
Recommendation: It would have been better to link the pieces of decisions in terms of strategic trends. While you have attempted to evaluate Alan Lacy as a strategic leader, you could have tried to link the strategic leadership concepts in your evaluation.
Overall good job: 92%
Jaime O’Donnell
Jaime: you have tried to provide a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the broad environmental factors on the retail industry. I especially liked your analysis of the influence of the demographic factor. In political/legal factor, you could have explained how the new laws created by the homeland security are influencing this industry. For instance, employers are required to collect several employee records. Possibility of terrorism is not a political factor; instead it’s a social factor. You have mentioned low debt levels as part of economic factor, are you talking about the national debt? Or debt level of a company? You have done a good job in presenting economic characteristics of the retail industry in terms of its size and growth.
Overall: 90%
Bret Riley:
Bret, you have provided a comprehensive application of 5-forces model analysis of the retail industry. While you have touched all relevant forces, the application often did not follow the model. What do you mean by balanced competition? In describing industry growth you mentioned Wal-mart’s and Sears’ earnings (Industry growth is not a function of earnings). You have mentioned that “industry leaders are constantly attempting to refine their inventory management and distribution processes in attempts to reduce their fixed costs.” Typically, inventory is not a function of fixed cost. You have done good job with buyers and suppliers power. You have also done a good job with the barriers to entry; however, it’s not one of the five forces. Rather barrier to entry is one of the two components of the threat of new entrants.
Overall 88%
Sean Falk:
You have provided some good information regarding the strength of Wal-mart. In describing what is not impressive about Wal-Mart, I would have liked for you to provide information in terms of the company’s performance. In terms of success, you mentioned three reasons –Sam Walton, Brand image, and backward expansion. I didn’t find the most important reason discussed here, which is a sustainable low cost competitive advantage. I would have liked to see this competitive advantageas the central theme of your analysis of Wal-Mart’s success.
90%
Angela Lang:
Angela, you have provided a comprehensive analysis of Wal-mart’s stratgegy. In doing so, you have provided a list of relevant pieces of decisions to implement the Wal-Mart’s business level strategy. You could have highlighted the two most important component of competitive strategy: Efficient centralized information processing and supply channel.
You have correctly mentioned that the company is making money by offering low price increasing the volume sales. You could have explained the two important component of business level strategy: the target market and the competitive advantage. Overall, good job.
93%
Alberto Larrayoz Perez:
You have provided a good review of Wal-marts practices and culture. I especially liked your report on the practices used to reach objectives. In terms of strategy implementation, I would have liked to see some information on the company’s functional strategy such as human resource strategy, operations strategy, marketing strategy, etc. It was very hard for me to hear your presentation, be a little louder.
93%