CASE STUDY 1: THE INEXORABLE RISE OF

WALMART 1988-2016
BY: M NEHA REDDY
MBA 1ST YEAR
SECTION-B

1. Analyze the impact of the strategic changes brought about by Glass

when he was the CEO of Walmart?

David Glass was the CEO of Walmart in the period of 1988-1999. He

took over Sam Walton. He worked as CFO and COO of Walmart under
Mr.Walton. After Glass took over Walmart became the largest retailer
surpassing Kmart in 1990. Glass started expanding Walmart abroad.
Glass primary focus was on the super centers. These super centers were
40% bigger than the typical Walmart stores which include full line of
groceries. Though few analysts doubted this idea Glass claimed these
super center are profitable. By 1998 the count of super centers reached
441.

Glass aggressively invested in Sam Clubs which often are located next to
discount stores. In 1993 under Glass leadership Walmart acquired 91
clubs from Kmart. In 1996 Glass experimented with convenience stores
which included home town stores. He was the one who introduced store
within store concept in Walmart. With the advent of internet retailing in
1996, Walmart announced a strategic alliance with America Online for
internet access in 1999 under him. Walmart issued a statement regarding
its partnership with Silicon valley Venture capital firm to spin off its
website as a separate company just before Glass leaving the office.
In his tenure he launched Sam’s American choice one of the premium
food private label. Glass made changes in the supply chain of Walmart by
eliminating brokers and manufacturing representatives. Though Walmart
continued to operate on hub and spoke network of distribution system it
reduced the no.of variety of products. With close coordination with the
suppliers it customized the selection of the stores with the help of data
mining.

Over the 12 years of his tenure Glass made Walmart the largest retail
stores with the sales of $165 billion which is around tenfold prior him.
2. Give your comments about where Walmart went wrong with its online
strategy?

Walmart has a massive and expanding network of physical stores, with

over 4,000 in the United States and counting. More internationally. With
numerous stores comes a massive product selection. It's a blessing, but
it's also a curse. They have a long way to go before they can put all of
their products online and make them easily accessible.

Since its founding, Amazon has been a part of the e-commerce

technology industry. They think like a tech firm and are quick to
innovate. They aren't frightened to try new things and are able to
complete tasks swiftly. But where as Walmart being the largest retailer
isn’t ready to take the risk.

As Walmart sells perishable as well as non perishable products the online

strategy is not suitable for the perishable products as their product
expectancy is very low this might be a problem.

3. Many efforts are made by Walmart to partner with other companies for
various businesses. But they were not very successful. Give your
comments on why you think these partnerships failed?

Many efforts are made by Walmart to partner with other companies for
various businesses but they were not very successful because of
constraints in business acquisitions and joint ventures, stringent cultural
values in foreign markets. Negative reputation that stems from its low
wages, low prices, and sexual exploitation.As the company follows cost
effective procedures they have to cut down the cost of supply side of
products. This might also be a reason for unsuccessful partnerships.