Analysis of Wal-Mart Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis of Wal-Mart Organization - Essay Example These numbers were hardly predictable from Wal-Mart’s humble beginnings in 1962, when it was founded by entrepreneur Sam Walton. Walton opened a store called the Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas (Frank, 2006). However, within five years, the company opened up an additional 23 stores throughout the state of Arkansas. By 1968, the stores had moved out of state to Missouri and Oklahoma. From there, Walton incorporated his business as Wal-Mart Stores, which still serves as the company’s namesake, and in 1970, the company went public (Frank, 2006). Despite Wal-Mart’s tremendous growth since its inception in Rogers, Arkansas, the company maintains that it is committed to the same values and purpose that Sam Walton believed in when he opened his first location. Wal-Mart claims to abide by Walton’s credo, which is, â€Å"If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone†¦ we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life† (Walmart). This focus on lowering the cost of living for all people, with equal economic access to the company’s products as a means to improving the quality of life represents a significant part of the company’s mission. â€Å"Saving people money to help them live better was the goal that Sam Walton envisioned when he opened the doors to the first Walmart† (Walmart). ... Food prices are nearly 14% lower in markets where Wal-Mart competes, which means that it is employing its cost leadership in a way that is detrimental to other food suppliers who cannot meet the price offerings of Wal-Mart. Because Wal-Mart is special in its ability to use its large buying power to negotiate deals and acquire cheaply-produced goods from foreign countries, its cost leadership is a core competency. Wal-Mart owns a sizable 30% of the consumer staples market in the United States (Hwang, 2003). Another core competency of Wal-Mart is its use of information technology in support of its international logistics system (Marketing Teacher, 2011). Wal-Mart is special because, for the most part, it is the only multinational retailer based out of the United States. In order to manage the efficient allocation of resources within the organization, Wal-Mart recognizes the need to supply its leaders with the right information in order to make competent decisions. By leveraging informa tion technology, it can measure how individual products perform in different countries with a single glance. This technology also adds value to the process of procurement, which is the process of obtaining goods and services from preparation and processing of a requisition through to receipt and approval of the invoice for payment. In terms of weaknesses, Wal-Mart is a very broad company with a wide variety of interests throughout a vast number of small community markets. Within those stores, Wal-Mart offers a wide range of products, which includes groceries, car services, sports equipment, and so on. Despite providing convenience to its customers, this broadness holds

The Economics of Education & Financing Education Adequately Essay

The Economics of Education & Financing Education Adequately - Essay Example This paper explores the evidences that increasing social problems may lead to large increases in the annual cost of public elementary and secondary education in Fentress County Tennessee. The paper also determines the current expenditures per pupil in Fentress County, three surrounding counties, and the state per pupil expenditure average. Response to question one. Increasing social problems could cause massive increases in the annual cost of public secondary and elementary education. Social problem involves social issues that may plague the system of education. For example, emotional, ethical, gender, economic, and cultural issues are some of the social problems in education. The major effect of these problems on education has always been to increasing the cost of education (Brimley, Rulon, Garfield, et.al. 2008). For instance, economic issues increase the cost of education by making the government give out financial support to families with low income, give scholarships, and run th e education programs. This leads to a high cost of maintaining education in the secondary and elementary levels of education. According to the Fentress County Tennessee, the average cost of educating a child placed in a public school was more than six thousand dollars ($7,436) for one year (Brimley, Rulon, Garfield, et.al. 2008). Of this annual amount, a huge percentage of funds are typically allocated to activities of teaching. This is an area where the effects of social problems are realized. The cost due to behavioral problems is approximately 65% or about $ 4,833. Even though, the other sections of the school like supervision and administration could also be affected by social problems, the annual figure of the teaching portion of education, in this case, was used in the calculation. As per a research conducted by the Public Agenda research group in Fentress County Tennessee, 45% of school teachers reported that they normally spend a significant part of their time to manage the behaviour of their classroom thus making them to spend a little time in teaching (Brimley, Rulon, Garfield, et.al. 2008). This implies that, for every ten teachers, four of them spent over 55% of their principal classroom time on dealing with social problems of the learners. In terms of finances, the impact cost of a statistic like this one is 55% of $4,833 which is equal to $ 2,658. This is the amount of finances that is wasted on the management of social issues for every child per year. A study conducted on a number of schools in Fentress County Tennessee, having different school size, reported a massive education cost due to managing social problems in the school (Brimley, Rulon, Garfield, et.al. 2008). From this study, a table (Table1) was drawn to display the cost impact of social problems on education. Table 1: Cost impact of social problems management in Fentress County District schools. School Size Cost impact of social problems management on education based on the percent o f time spent. 25% 30% 50% 250 $328,563 $394,275 $657,125 400 $525,700 $630,840 $1,051,400 500 $657,125 $788,550 $1,314,250 650 $854,263 $1,025,115 $1,708,525 800 $1,051,400 $1261,680 $2,102,800 1000 $1,314,250 $1,577,100 $2,628,500 The table (Table1) shows out the cost effect of managing the behaviour of students in the classroom. When observed keenly as a percent of the time lost out of approximately 180 days (a school year), the figures are disturbing. Number of school days lost due to social problems m