WALMART: VISION, MISSION, OBJECTIVE1
Walmart: Vision, Mission, Objective
Following the Guidelines of the American Psychological Association
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Introduction
This essay in 2,000 words will discuss my chosen company of Walmart. I will discuss the company’s vision, mission and objectives. I will also discuss the controversy surrounding Walmart in particular to two documentaries that have been created on concerning Walmart’s controversy in terms of labor issues and overseas trade. I will also discuss my perceptions of the working environment at Walmart in terms of frontline customer service workers and how that affects the current customer service of the department store in comparison to when the company first branched out. I will also discuss the current leadership of Walmart and make note of its great diversity and success in this regard, however make a recommendation towards how labor issues within the organization can be alleviated. I will also discuss the global responsibility that Walmart has that is part of its vision, mission and objectives; particularly in alleviating the controversy that surrounds the company. I will also discuss the investors of Walmart. How do they get their money? Finally, I will also discuss the suppliers of Walmart. First I will begin with a general description of the Walmart Company.
Description of Walmart
Walmart is a department store. It was founded July 2, 1962, 54 years ago (Walmart.com, 2016). The founder of the store is Sam Walton. The reach of Walmart of terms of the market it services is worldwide. It is also known as a retail store. The store sells clothes, shoes, undergarments, men’s clothes, women’s clothes, bathing suits, outerwear, ladies’ accessories, men’s accessories, perfumes, jewellery, bath products, has a pharmacy and an optical store, sells vitamins, sells oils, sells cards and stationery, sells grocery items (that they also offer to select for you and you can pick up the bagged groceries at the store), they also sell baby items, toys, back-to-school supplies and much more. They also sell electronics at unbeatable prices. Walmart is designed to be an all-purpose store where their clients and their customers can find everything they need. One of the key promotional qualities of Walmart is that they offer lower prices than other stores do. An example of this is that a pair of gold earrings that you can purchase at Walmart is half the price than what they are sold for at People’s Jewellers. As well, the grocery department is significantly less in cost than other grocery stores and the clothing section is a place where you can find black pants for $8 which is an almost unbeatable price when you compare this other department stores such as Sack’s Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Walmart is a story that is for the money-saving mindset. Its revenue has gone down as an entity for 2016. Currently they have revenue of $482.13 billion dollars for this current year. They have 11,573 locations as of September 30, 2016. The divisions of Walmart include Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam’s Club and Global eCommerce. Walmart is so far-wide spread in popularity that the company is a household name to the majority of people. The company also has many subsidiaries from Mexico to Canada to Central America. The company exists in 28 countries. Next, I will discuss the company’s vision, mission and objectives.
Walmart’s Vision, Mission and Objectives
Walmart’s vision is: “transforming to better serves customers” (Walmart.com, 2016). The Walmart story is as follows:
Innovative thinking. Leadership through service. And above all, an unwavering commitment to saving people money. It’s what makes us the business we are today, and shapes the company we will be tomorrow. As the largest retailer in the world, our 2.3 million associates meet the needs of more than 260 million customers every week. And we do it wherever they shop – in our stores, online, or through their mobile devices. Sound like a lot of work? We’re just getting started (Walmart.com, 2016).
The company started with one store. Walmart is big on their ethics and integrity standpoint, particularly because of some problems they have had related to these issues in the past. This will be discussed later in this essay. Here is some information from the company website that discusses Walmart’s stance towards ethics and integrity:
Global Ethics is responsible for promoting Walmart’s culture of integrity. This includes developing and upholding our policies for ethical behavior for all of our stakeholders everywhere we operate.
But perhaps most importantly, it includes raising awareness of ethics policies and
providing channels for stakeholders to bring ethics concerns to our attention.
Global Ethics:
- Serves as a guide and resource for ethical decision making
- Provides a confidential and anonymous reporting system
- Leads a continuing ethics education and communication system
Ethics education
We promote integrity as an everyday behavior by building a globally consistentethics education experience for associates and integrating ethics content into existing functional-area training. We've implemented a consistent education program in the U.S. and are continuing to expand e-learning and instructor-led training around the world.
Integrity in Action Award
TheIntegrity in Action Award program recognizes associates who demonstrate integrity through consistent actions and words and inspire other associates to always do the right thing. By sharing associate stories, the program fosters and sustains our culture of integrity that has and will continue to drive our success.
The Integrity in Action Award program is based on voluntary nominations received from our associates. Global votes determine an award recipient from each country for the most inspiring associate (Walmart.com, 2016).
Although Walmart has won Integrity in Action Award, I will now discuss some of the controversy that has surrounded this company in the recent past. It does appear that Walmart has made current and recent efforts in order to correct this controversy; however I would be remiss not to mention that particular controversy surrounding Walmart when discussing this company. Once I have done that, I will also discuss the employee atmosphere and how employees are treated with this company.
Controversy Surrounding Walmart
There is controversy which surrounds Walmart. Many labor unions in the United States have voiced displeasure towards how Walmart employees are treated. This situation was also discussed in a documentary done by Director/Producer Michael Moore called Capitalism: A Love Story (2009). In this documentary by Michael Moore, he discusses how Walmart workers within the United States are paid ridiculously low rates, work ridiculously long hours and are basically treated as slaves by the organization. Moore’s (2009) documentary is a continuation of controversy that another documentary filmmaker Greenwald (2005) created when he criticized Walmart for having such low prices because they paid for their goods in foreign countries with workers working slave-like conditions and poor health conditions in order to provide the North American market with goods at a low price. The name of Greenwald’s (2005) documentary is Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.
Much of what was revealed by the investigations of these documentaries created an outcry by labor unions in the United States against Walmart and their employee and overseas trading practices. To my knowledge, some has changed however also some of these problems still do persist with Walmart. Next, I will discuss the working environment at Walmart.
Working Environment at Walmart
When Walmart first opened it was a wonderful place for a customer to visit. Workers seemed happy and there would be a greeter at the door to welcome each and every customer. Over the years, many of these employees have seemed disgruntled. There does not seem to be the same attention to customer service as existed when the store began branching out and when you consider the controversy surrounding Walmart it is understandable to the cause of the low morale amongst the staff. Next, I will discuss the current leadership of Walmart and assess the current leadership of Walmart in terms of whether or not they are doing their job successfully and/or what more needs to be done.
Current Leadership of Walmart
When you look at the faces of the leadership of Walmart, the first thing that can impress anyone who has a sense of social responsibility is the diversity of the leadership for the company (Walmart.com, 2016). Amongst gender distribution, cultural distribution and racial distribution, there is a good mix from all of these groups in the leadership of Walmart. This would mean that a variety and a diversity of ideas towards their commitment towards innovation would be implemented for this successful organization.
A recommendation I would have to Walmart in terms of their leadership standpoints would be to have representation from their frontline in-store workers consulting with the leadership of the organization. I do strongly feel that with this change to the organization’s structure, it will better improve labor issues that exist at Walmart and create a higher level of customer service from the employees to the customers who are keeping the organization rich.
Next, I will discuss the global responsibility initiatives of Walmart from their company website and the efforts that they make to alleviate the controversy that surrounds Walmart.
Global Responsibility of Walmart
On the company website in terms of Walmart’s stance on global responsibility, the company states the following:
The work we do to help people live better extends far beyond the physical walls of our stores, making a real difference on the real issues that matter to us all. From local issues like domestic manufacturing and job creation to global issues like preserving the environment, fighting hunger, empowering women, and providing access to healthy, affordable food, our efforts impact communities around the world and affect the lives of people we will never meet (Walmart.com, 2016).
The focus of the global responsibility mission of Walmart focuses on these areas noted below:
- Opportunity
- Sustainability, and
- Community
The company also produces a Global Responsibility Report and a Giving Report each and every year. Next, I will discuss the investors of Walmart. How do they get their money?
Investors of Walmart
How does Walmart get their money?
The primary way that Walmart receives their money is through the customers such as you and me who would shop at the store. This is the main source of revenue for Walmart. This is one of the key reasons why the company keeps their prices low in order to beat the competition for the price-savvy consumer who is looking for good deals on goods and services. The second way that Walmart makes their money is through business and strategy. Through business and strategy, Walmart is better able to leverage themselves in their chosen market of the retail consumer industry in order to be at the top of their game. The third way that Walmart makes their money is through stock information. By offering the trading of stocks and bonds publicly on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Walmart is also able to gain income from these efforts as well. Walmart also makes their financial information publicly known in order to encourage the public and/or investors to invest with them. Walmart also has what they call ESG Investors in the company as well.
Next, I will discuss the suppliers to Walmart.
Suppliers to Walmart
On the company website of Walmart, there is an open call for people to become suppliers to Walmart. They note that they have a wide diversity of suppliers, which when you are ever in the store this is something that you can believe. Here is what the company website says regarding suppliers:
Our network of committed suppliers helps us satisfy the needs of hundreds of millions of customers each week with responsibly produced products and services. To join the thousands of businesses around the world that proudly call themselves Walmart suppliers you can apply here. Don’t forget to check out the minimum requirements your company must meet below (Walmart.com, 2016).
Now I will conclude.
Conclusion
This essay in 2,000 words discussed my chosen company of Walmart. I discussed the company’s vision, mission and objectives. I also discussed the controversy surrounding Walmart in particular to two documentaries that have been created on concerning Walmart’s controversy in terms of labor issues and overseas trade. I also discussed my perceptions of the working environment at Walmart in terms of frontline customer service workers and how that affects the current customer service of the department store in comparison to when the company first branched out. I also discussed the current leadership of Walmart and make note of its great diversity and success in this regard, however make a recommendation towards how labor issues within the organization can be alleviated. I also discussed the global responsibility that Walmart has that is part of its vision, mission and objectives; particularly in alleviating the controversy that surrounds the company. I also discussed the investors of Walmart. How do they get their money? Finally, I also discussed the suppliers of Walmart.
References
Greenwald, R. (2005). Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. [Documentary]. Retrieved from:
Moore, M. (2009). Capitalism: A Love Story. [Documentary]. Retrieved from:
Walmart.com. (2016). Walmart. Rogers, Arkansas: Walmart. Retrieved from: