Name of the Company and logo:

Course Title: Principals of Management

Course ID: MGT201
Section: 04
Date of Report Submission: 05/04/2022
Prepared By:
Name Student Id
Zarin tasnim 2030618
Md Al-Amin 2120247
Rami Ahmed 2131192
Ayesha Ashfica 2131194
Afsan Jihan 2120073

Prepared For:
Maria Muntahin
MGT201 Course Teacher
Independent University, Bangladesh

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 Contents Page Number

Research Methods 04

Executive Summary 04

Company Overview 04-05

PESTLE 05-07

SWOT Analysis 07-10

Stakeholders 10-12

Organizational structure 12

Leadership style 12-13

Conclusions 13

References 13

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 Letter of transmittal:

To

Maria Muntahin

Independent University, Bangladesh

Date: 5 April 2022

Subject: Submission of the “Group Assignment”

Dear Miss,

We are delighted to submit the “Group Assignment” which you had authorized us to prepare as
MGT 201 course requirement. We have enjoyed preparing the report, though it was challenging
to finish within the given time. To prepare this report, we have tried our level best to include all
the relevant information.

We will be more than happy to answer any of your questions and clarify any query with our plan
fully to your understanding. Thank you very much for all your help and support which has
helped us immensely in preparing our project.

So, we, therefore, hope that, you will find it in order and if you have any query please do not
hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely yours,

Rami Ahmed

Md Al-Amin

Ayesha Ashfica

Zarin Tasnim Tisha

Afsan Jihan

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 Research Methods
This is a descriptive analysis. Most of the data is secondary. We gathered the data from various
websites and by extracting information from their official websites, among other sources.

Executive Summary
To analyze an overall company, we have chosen Walmart. So, at first, we have done the
PESTLE Analysis- under this analysis we have worked on what are the factors that are affecting
Walmart either positively or negatively. Secondly, analyzing stakeholders -under this we have
analyzed some of the critical stakeholders of the company such as customers and shareholders.
After that, identifying SWOT analysis-in this analysis we have found out the external and
internal strengths and weaknesses of the company. Once we reach the stage where increasing the
price slightly won’t effect’s our customers, we will think about making profit in future.

Company Overview
Walmart, Inc. engages in retail and wholesale business. The company offers an assortment of
merchandise and services at everyday low prices. It operates through the following business
segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. The Walmart U.S. segment
operates as a merchandiser of consumer products, operating under the Walmart, Wal-Mart, and
Walmart Neighborhood Market brands, as well as walmart.com and other eCommerce brands.
The Walmart International segment manages supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets,
warehouse clubs, and cash and carry outside of the United States. The Sam's Club segment
consists of membership-only warehouse clubs and samsclubs.com. The company was founded
by Samuel Moore Walton and James Lawrence Walton in 1945 and is headquartered in
Bentonville, AR . Walmart is creating opportunities and bringing value to customers and
communities around the globe. Walmart operates approximately 10,500 stores and clubs under
46 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. We employ 2.3 million associates around
the world — nearly 1.6 million in the U.S. alone.
Shareholders percentage in Walmart:

Individual stakeholders: 48.08%

Other institutional: 15.36%

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Mutual fund holders: 13.22%

PESTLE
The external environment can be divided into two types: sociocultural and task environments.
Customers, suppliers, employees, pressure groups, competitors, and other stakeholders with an
interest in the company's actions, such as customers, suppliers, employees, pressure groups, and
competitors, are all part of the task environment.

Walmart is a well-known department store as well as an online shop. Because it's so popular,
there's a good chance you'll be able to find one within twenty minutes (or less). Walmart, which
opened its first store in 1962, currently has thousands of locations across the United States and
around the world. Walmart's goal is to provide low-cost goods – everything from yarn to beer
can be found in its many aisles. Alternatively, you can browse the web store for even more
unique items. In this PESTLE examination of Walmart, we are including six key external-
environmental aspects of Politics, Economic, Social, Technology, Legal and Environmental.

Political factors:

Walmart is a well-known department store with a global presence. Every week, the corporation
serves over 250 million people throughout the world. Walmart, on the other hand, has a slew of
standards that it must adhere to due to its global operations. It's a tall order, but one it can't afford
to ignore.

Walmart's manufacturers and suppliers are directly affected by policies. Walmart's operations
could be hampered if it doesn't operate in politically stable areas. In Chongqing, China, Walmart,
for example, lost money. When one retailer offered forbidden products to the Chinese public, the
authorities acted quickly to stop not only the sale of that product, but all Walmart products as
well (temporarily). When a corporation fails to follow policies, governments can be eager to
intervene.

Governments can also pass legislation that puts firms' revenue at risk.

Economic factors:

Walmart, like any other company, is influenced by the state of the economy. Walmart is well-
known for its low-cost merchandise. However, if the economy tanks, it may be necessary to
increase output. If that happens, Walmart will have to boost its prices. Customers will be
dissatisfied.

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Walmart will be unable to compete with other brands unless it increases its costs. These brands
are likely to be able to hike prices while maintaining healthy profit margins in ways that Walmart
is unable to. Furthermore, when the economy collapses, buyers only buy the necessities,
therefore many of Walmart's products will languish on the shelf indefinitely.

Walmart must be aware of the economic landscape in each region where stores are located
because the economy might alter depending on the country.

Social factors:

Despite its global recognition, Walmart is not always a popular shopping destination. For
example, Walmart lost almost $1 billion due to Germany's lack of interest. This was more of a
Walmart problem, as they failed to promote to the German market correctly. Walmart is an
American company, but its failure to adapt its marketing to the German market resulted in
significant revenue losses.

Global brands can only be successful if they know how to provide clients with specialized
products. Providing healthful cuisine to the health-conscious crowd, for example. This
demographic now has access to organic and nutritious goods at Walmart. It's a smart move that
many firms are making or have made.Walmart has increased its focus on the user interface to
better serve a wider range of customers.

Technological factors:

Walmart has implemented automation and robotics to increase efficiency behind the scenes.
Orders can be filled, production can be streamlined, and the store can be kept clean with the help
of technology.
Adopting automation is a type of digital transformation that involves the use of automated
technology to improve corporate processes. With a company the size of Walmart, automation is
something that is expected. Employees can focus on selling things without being distracted by
monotonous duties handled by robots.
Furthermore, the internet delivery component reaches a larger audience. Most individuals use
laptops, mobile devices, and tablets. It also implies it can place paid online ads in search engines
to direct customers to the website.
Legal factors:

Walmart must follow all international rules and regulations. Employment rules, data protection
laws, labor laws, and health and safety laws are among the most common of these laws.
Walmart has failed in California even though it is required to follow these guidelines. Walmart
has agreed to pay $65 million to 1000 current and former employees who claim the business did

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not provide them with enough seating. Many large firms, such as Walmart, may agree to settle
out of court rather than face a lengthy trial.
Environmental factors:

Walmart has been chastised for inappropriately dumping pesticides and toxic fertilizers into the
sewer system. Following its discovery, the business launched Project Gigaton, with the goal of
preventing a gigaton of emissions over the next ten years. Several businesses, including Target,
have made similar environmental pledges.

SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is done to find out the factors that are essential to the operation of a business in
the environment – both internal and external. The internal factors assist in identifying the
strength and weakness of the business and external factors assist in identifying the opportunity
and threats in an organization. The most recent Walmart's SWOT analysis illustrates how the
world's most successful multinational retail corporation uses the competitive advantage to
maintain its dominance in the segment.

Strengths:
1.Brand recognition: Everyday millions of customers visiting Walmart. It is the most recognized
retail brand in the world. At the Walmart online store there are over 60 million items available.
According to Forbes Global 2000, Walmart is ranked 19th globally and is the largest public
company in the world in terms of sales with a whopping $524.40 Billion in revenue for FY2020.

2. Global expansion: Walmart has recently purchased ASDA, the UK based retailer and Indian e-
commerce giant Flipkart. Besides, it has created a joint venture with India’s biggest retail store
Bharti. These global expansions have proven to be a great success for the company.

3.Global presence: As of May 2020, Walmart has 11,484 stores and clubs operating in 27
countries under three business segments and those are: Walmart U.S, Walmart International and
Sam’s Club.

4. ‘Every Day Low Prices’ strategy: Walmart can offer their products in low prices because
Walmart is based on economies of scale agenda. It has fixed costs for thousands of items. As a
result, it is one among the world’s cheapest shopping destinations.

5. Global supply chain and logistics system: The distribution and logistics systems are the core
competencies of Walmart. It uses information technology (IT) to efficiently track the
performance of each product in each country’s store.

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6. Human Resource Management: The key asset of Walmart is its Employees. It hugely invests
its time and money in developing and managing its employees. According to Business Insider,
Walmart employs 1% of America’s working population.

7. Effective resource management: Walmart efficiently manages its resources including

information systems, supply chain networks, distribution facilities, knowledge, and other skills.
It has excellent operations in all the locations.

8.Strong market power over suppliers and competitors: Its large organizational size and global
reach have made Walmart capable enough to exert market influence over suppliers and
competitors.

9. Effective adoption of e-commerce: In Q1 and Q2 of 2020, Walmart’s sales increased to an all-

time high. Mostly, the company depended heavily on in-store sales. The recent events reduced
in-store traffic and pushed Walmart to strengthen e-commerce channels leading to a drastic
increase in online sales. Strong online sales combined with in-store sales and increased
Walmart’s total sales to record highs.

Weaknesses:
1.Treatment of employees and working conditions: Walmart's employees has been the subject of
numerous criticisms and lawsuits. Low salaries, insufficient healthcare, and bad working
conditions are just a few of the issues that have been brought to the public's attention.

2.Large span of control: Walmart's vast size and large span of control may make it vulnerable in
some places. Walmart focuses on a cost leadership approach because of its thin profit margins.
As a result, the company's profit margins are razor thin.

3.Gender discrimination: In 2007, a complaint was filed against Walmart, alleging gender
discrimination in job chances at the retailer. According to this case, female employees are
discriminated against in terms of promotions and pay scale.

4.Imitation: Walmart's business model is simple to replicate. The business does not own
anything.

5.Racially discriminatory practices: In the wake of recent racial inequality protests, businesses'
policies have been scrutinized. Walmart's policy of locking multi-cultural hair care products
behind glass while leaving white hair care products unlocked sparked outrage in June 2020.
Walmart was compelled to end the discriminatory practice, but the outrage among people of
color remains high.

6.Employee safety concerns: Walmart is being sued for disregarding safety measures during the
recent health crisis leading to the death of two employees.
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7.Overdependence on the US market: As of April 2020, Walmart has about 11,500 stores
globally and 4,700 stores are located in the US. Its global sales amounted to around $120 billion
compared to $341 billion from the U.S. market.

8.Negative publicity: Walmart’s reputation was tainted by the allegation of bribing foreign
officials in Mexico, China, and so on. In 2019, it agreed to pay $282 million to settle the bribery
case.

Opportunities:
1.Strategic alliances: Walmart has the option of forming strategic alliances with significant
corporations or merging with other global retailers. Small-business acquisitions can also be
profitable for Walmart.

2. Improving quality standards: Sometimes, low-cost products result in bad quality. Walmart has
the chance to improve the quality of its products in order to address consumer health concerns.

3. Expansion to other markets: Walmart may take advantage of the opportunity by expanding its
company into other markets. China, the Middle East, and Latin America may be among them.

4. Strengthen online sales: The number of people who shop online has risen dramatically in
recent years. To take advantage of this opportunity, Walmart can strengthen its online sales
platforms.

5. Enhancing human resource practices: Bringing advanced improvements in human resource

practices can be a favorable opportunity for Walmart. As it highly relies upon its workforce,
bringing innovation in its human resource management is a crucial opportunity.

6. Expand health care services: Walmart is already engaged in health care services, with four
health-care centers across the United States. It has the ability to extend health-care services in
order to capitalize on the sector's demand. In its newest foray into the healthcare sector, the
corporation announced the formation of Walmart Insurance Services LLC, an insurance agency.

Threats:
1.Impeach 45 Controversy: Impeachment Walmart has recently been in the news due to the
"Impeach 45" debate. It offered T-shirts with the words "Rope. Tree. Journalist" emblazoned on
them. There will be some assembly required.' These t-shirts were said to promote violence.
Walmart, on the other hand, claimed that the T-shirts were sold by third-party vendors on
Walmart's Marketplace rather than by Walmart.

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2. Fake craft beer controversy: Walmart was sued in 2017 for selling bogus craft beer, which
resulted in a lawsuit. The beer was labelled and promoted as 'Trouble Brewery,' a non-existent
production firm, even though it was created by WX Brands.

3. A primary target of competition: As the world's largest grocery retailer, Walmart is a constant
target for competitors. Target, a direct competitor, sells products that are similar but of greater
quality. Costco offers customers to buy items in bulk. Additionally, these companies have a
relatively good reputation for treating their employees well compared to Walmart. Both
companies are also publicly supported in these areas.

4. Political and legal Issues: This is also a threat. Political and legal issues might always make it
difficult for a corporation to operate in some countries.

5. Small-scale online e-commerce companies: Many small-scale and individual online selling
companies have entered the market offering similar products at similar prices on their websites.
It can be a threat to the company’s future standing.

6. Technical issues on the website: Customers have complained many times that there are some
technical issues with Walmart’s website. The products are not listed in an organized way on the
website as well as it runs slowly. However, Amazon is known for its fast, effective, and
organized website, making an excellent online shopping experience for customers.

7. Economic instability: Retailers are particularly vulnerable to a downturn in the economy.

Walmart, like every other store, is not immune to economic downturns.

8.Trade tensions: As of January 2020, Walmart operates in 28 countries throughout the world,
with a total of 438 stores in China. As a worldwide corporation, it is vulnerable to trade tensions
and can be impacted by tit-for-tat tariffs between China and the United States.

Stakeholders
Stakeholders are people and groups in an organization's environment who are impacted by its
choices and actions. They might be any internal or external organization-influencing group.
Customers, competitors, suppliers, shareholders, social and political groups, the government, the
media, and employees are just a few examples.

Critical Stakeholders:

Critical Stakeholders are those stakeholders who are actively involved in the development of the
product or service.

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Critical Stakeholders of Walmart:

Walmart collaborates with a variety of parties. Customers, Employees, Investors, Suppliers are
Walmart’s critical stakeholders.

Customers:

In most businesses, customers are considered a stakeholder group. Customers at Walmart are
interested in low pricing or the affordability of goods if the quality is adequate. This is especially
true among American shoppers, who tend to flock toward businesses that offer inexpensive
costs, such as Walmart.

Walmart considers customers to be stakeholders in its business. The corporation maintains its
generic cost leadership strategy, which entails giving the lowest costs feasible. Indeed, the
company is well-known for its inexpensive prices. Walmart is effective and successful in this
sense when it comes to addressing the interests of customers as a stakeholder group.

Employee:

Walmart's employees play a vital role in the company's management decisions. Employees have
two key interests: job security and increased earnings. Job security refers to Walmart's assurance
that the employees will remain employed by the company. Higher wages are a common desire,
especially while the company continues to pay its employees cheap wages.

Walmart's efforts to address the concerns of its employees as stakeholders are only partially
successful. The organization has rules and initiatives in place that guarantee a high level of job
security. Walmart, on the other hand, maintains its wage-cut policy. As a result, the company
fails to adequately meet the pay interests of its employees.

Suppliers:

Suppliers want to sell more of their products to Walmart stores in a lucrative manner. This
interest encompasses not only the sale of the suppliers' goods, but also the sale of these goods at
reasonable profit margins. Suppliers are stakeholders who want Walmart to sell their items at
higher prices because they are businesses. Even a small price rise can benefit suppliers
significantly.

Walmart prioritizes stakeholders with suppliers at the bottom of the list. Suppliers supply the
commodities that the company need for its retail outlets. Walmart, on the other hand, as the
world's largest retailer, has the financial clout to sway suppliers. The corporation has greater
power than its suppliers. As a result, suppliers rarely get what they desire.

Investors:

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Profits are the primary motivation for investors. They want Walmart to make more money so that
it can pay out more dividends or earn more per share. In this context, investors are also interested
in lowering the company's operating costs. Lower expenses usually result in better earnings,
which is good for Walmart's shareholders.

Walmart places a premium on investors in its business plans. One of the reasons Walmart
continues to cut costs, such as through wage cuts, is because of this. According to theory, the
basic goal of business is to make money. There would be no business if this were not the case.
Walmart simply achieves this theoretical core purpose of its business by prioritizing investors as
primary stakeholders.

Organizational structure
Walmart has mechanistic organization structure. Because, in Walmart, adhering to the chain-of-
command principle ensured the existence of a formal hierarchy of authority, with each person
controlled and supervised by one superior. For example, except for the CEO, every employee has
a direct superior. Directives and mandates coming from the top levels of the company’s
management are implemented through middle managers down to the rank-and-file employees in
Walmart stores. As the company follows mechanistic organization structure it has high
specialization. For example: Walmart has a department for the function of human resource
management and those who are working in that sector are specialized in HRM subject and have
degree in that subject. The company also has a department for the function of information
technology and people are working there are IT expert. There are another department for the
function of marketing and many marketers work on that field and they are specialized and have
experienced in marketing department. The company follows rigid departmentalization, there is
no interaction between one department and another and each department focuses on their own
departmental work. Walmart has narrow spans of control structure. Fewer employees work under
a manager. As Walmart follows centralization rule, all decision-making power of the company is
in the hand of the higher authority.

Leadership style
We suggest Transactional and transformational leadership at Wal-Mart. Transformational
leadership is defined as a type of leadership that has a major impact on people's lives and the
society in which the leader operates. Motivating and directing followers through transactional
leadership essentially requires appealing to their own self-interest. Transactional leaders have
official authority and responsibilities in the organization, which gives them power. The basic

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purpose of the follower is to follow the leader's directions. The style is also known as a ‘story-
telling style.'

The CEO believes that rewarding and punishing employees will motivate them. If a subordinate
does what is expected, he will be rewarded; if he does not follow the leader's wishes, he will be
punished. The interaction between the leader and the follower takes place here to attain routine
performance goals. That’s why Walmart follows this leadership style

Conclusions
In conclusion, we have understood how to do an analysis of a company. Findings from the
project is given below:

1)General & External environment of a company

2) Major stakeholder identifying process

3) Companies Internal and external Factors

4) Organizational Structure

References
1. https://howandwhat.net/stakeholders-walmart-stakeholder-analysis-
walmart/
2. https://corporate.walmart.com/esgreport/esg-approach/stakeholder-
engagement?fbclid=IwAR2YWKmbC8b0SGNdbG07Yyf8kAs-
eCOtdbEOkhFJWfhkIRgcyOPRzkKB-a8
3. http://panmore.com/walmart-stakeholders-analysis-recommendations
4. https://pestleanalysis.com/walmart-pestle-
analysis/?fbclid=IwAR1EeSnk3JHhAK0aEYq4T5tFpmSBSoX76gbgnrqvt
Gb9qDFFll16ckUrVUI
5. SWOT Walmart SWOT analysis 2022 | SWOT Analysis of Walmart

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