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Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms


Beginning in the 1990s, Wal-Mart sought to maintain its rapid growth by investing outside of the United States. Wal-Mart chose to enter other countries through the purchase of existing retail chains. This process created a new set of challenges, since the existing chains had their own corporate cultures and operating procedures. Wal-Mart experienced several surprising defeats. In 2000, Wal-Mart launched a chain of what it called "Neighborhood Markets," limited to the sale of groceries. Meanwhile, its Latin American acquisitions included stores of only 4,000 square feet. In 2010, Wal-Mart announced a strategy to create a major chain of mini-Supercentres, each of some 40,000 to 60,000 square feet, to be located within cities. Some of the new smaller stores would be focused on local ethnic groups. Hispanic neighborhoods were an obvious target for this paradigm. In addition to the need to change its inventory levels, and to rely on parking buildings rather than large parking lots, Wal-Mart encountered strong opposition from labour unions. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart was using its new small-format stores in China. Wal-Mart was also experimenting with on-line grocery sales with home delivery. Wal-Mart was continuing to cut costs by consolidating its global purchases, shifting to more global supply chains with the elimination of many wholesalers. At the same time, Wal-Mart was taking a dramatic position in compelling its suppliers to adopt "green" practices, conducting audits of its suppliers and refusing to purchase from those who failed to measure up to new environmental standards.

Authors :: David W. Conklin, Danielle Cadieux

Topics :: Global Business

Tags :: Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms" written by David W. Conklin, Danielle Cadieux includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wal Mart facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategic planning and Global Business.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wal Mart, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wal Mart operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wal Mart
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Wal Mart




Strengths Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Wal Mart in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to recruit top talent

– Wal Mart is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Digital Transformation in Global Business segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wal Mart digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wal Mart has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Analytics focus

– Wal Mart is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by David W. Conklin, Danielle Cadieux can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Innovation driven organization

– Wal Mart is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Strong track record of project management

– Wal Mart is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Wal Mart in the sector have low bargaining power. Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wal Mart to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Training and development

– Wal Mart has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Ability to lead change in Global Business field

– Wal Mart is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Wal Mart in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Wal Mart has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Wal Mart has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wal Mart has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Organizational Resilience of Wal Mart

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wal Mart does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.






Weaknesses Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms are -

Lack of clear differentiation of Wal Mart products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Wal Mart needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wal Mart needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Wal Mart has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms HBR case study mentions - Wal Mart takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Wal Mart has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Need for greater diversity

– Wal Mart has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wal Mart is planning to shift buying processes online.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms, is just above the industry average. Wal Mart needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms, in the dynamic environment Wal Mart has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wal Mart has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Wal Mart has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Wal Mart 's lucrative customers.




Opportunities Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wal Mart to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Wal Mart to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wal Mart to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Wal Mart to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Wal Mart can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wal Mart can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wal Mart operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Wal Mart has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wal Mart to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wal Mart in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Wal Mart can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Wal Mart can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Loyalty marketing

– Wal Mart has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wal Mart can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wal Mart can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Wal Mart can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Global Business segment.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Wal Mart can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.




Threats Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms are -

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Increasing wage structure of Wal Mart

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Wal Mart.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Wal Mart has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wal Mart needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wal Mart with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Wal Mart high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wal Mart can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms .

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Wal Mart in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Regulatory challenges

– Wal Mart needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Global Business industry regulations.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Wal Mart can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.

Environmental challenges

– Wal Mart needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Wal Mart can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Wal Mart needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wal Mart in the Global Business industry. The Global Business industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Transformations of Wal-Mart: Experimenting with New Retail Paradigms is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Wal Mart needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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