Wal-Marts founder Sam Walton set 3 beliefs, respectful for the individual, services to the customer, striving for

excellence. The guiding principles are as follows:

At all times act with honesty. Guide with honesty, and expect others to work with honesty. Always obey the law. Be truthful and reasonable. Respect and encourage differences, and never discriminate against anyone. Work, actions, and relationships outside of your position with the company should be free of any conflicts of interest.

Ask your manager or the Global Ethics office for help if you have any questions about our Statement of Ethics, or if you face an ethical problem.

Inform the Global Ethics office about any suspected violations of our Statement of Ethics. Reveal and report all information truthfully, without manipulation or misrepresentation. Cooperate with and maintain the private nature of any investigation of a possible ethics violation. When involved in an ethics investigation, you should reveal and report all information truthfully. You should present all the facts you are aware of without personal opinion, bias, or judgment. The global responsibility areas are corporate governance, environment, global supply chain, associates, diversity, communities, health and safety, financial contributions, in-kind donations and volunteerism, progress updates for commitments, audit results and rewards. Wal-Mart set three main goals; operate with 100% renewable energy, create 0 wastes, and sell products which maintain people and the environment. World-wide, Wal-Mart saw a 10.61%

reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 to 2009. The customer returns on defective merchandise reduced to 1.76%. 119 Wal-Mart factories in China have shown more than 20% improved efficiency compared to 2007. Over 94% of import factories have earned one of the highest audit scores. Within the United States, Wal-Mart redirected 81% of waste in CA. Compared to 2008, the Mexico Wal-Marts decreased water use by 17%. China Wal-Marts added over 470,000 farmers in 2010 making the total more than 757,000. World-wide, plastic bag waste has decreased by 47,950,000 pounds. 73% of wild fish and seafood sold were certified. The vision statement of Wal-Marts ethics is The vision of the Global Ethics Office is to promote ownership of Wal-Marts ethical culture to all stakeholders globally. Third parties as well as associates and directors are covered by the Wal-Mart statement of ethics. The Wal-Mart harassment definition is any conduct which inappropriate or unreasonable interferes with work performance, diminishes the dignity of any person, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or otherwise offensive work environment. Wal-Mart follows environmental laws and also is committed to protecting the natural resources. The Wal-Mart environmental policy is to carry out their business in a socially responsible and ethical manner. Wal-Mart is committed to the health and safety of their customers and employees. They carry out their business in accordance with all health and safety laws. By following these laws, Wal-Mart is able to create a shopping and working environment. For governmental and international trade it is important for Wal-Mart to ensure all regulatory requirements, for both merchandise and documents, have been completed prior to importing or exporting merchandise. Documentation must be 100% correct, including the parties to the

transaction, prices, and description. Record keeping is vital to assure they are compliant with all requirements. Wal-Mart is an American made company but yet it does most of its business with foreign nations, and treating the American market as if it were a puppet. The 3 key insights are: lower your costs if possible but never compromise your standards, repay your real customers/clients with exceeding their expectations and finally if your employees are happy then business will thrive because happy employees precipitate into happy returning customers and clients. Wal-Mart imports approximately 18 billion dollars from China every year, which are held to a lower standard of quality control and basically no oversight to the approval of good for public consumption when compared the same American aspects, as well as employing thousands of mistreated child-laborers. Wal-Mart does not buy American made products but they produce and distribute lower quality, some time hazardous, foreign products in America. Wal-Mart is feeding foreign markets, instead of creating American jobs, fueling domestic commerce and raising the number of American companies/American entrepreneurs. Although usually I agree Milton Friedmans school of thought when it comes to free enterprise and the unnecessary idea of corporate responsibility, if I as an owner of a company can keep my labor force domestically I can oversee the production and the operation of my business. When jobs are outsourced because of financial reasons this usually means that you are compromising your standards in order to try and lower costs, which is one thing I would not do as a business owner of an American company. The customers of Wal-Mart are those who affected by the actions of the corporation, theses customers do not even have to have ever walked into a Wal-Mart store. As long as their lives have been affected or altered in any way these individuals are customers of Wal-Mart. From the mom and pop hardware shop that cant keep their family business alive, since they can

not incur their monthly overhead costs if business is low or non-existing, to the small local communities that are turned into ghost towns with sporadic abandoned commercial zoning areas. Wal-Mart is killing American industrialism and any incentive to start new businesses. When the surrounding businesses are dying, so are those employees and those local employees are WalMarts customers. I think Wal-Mart will be a victim of their own poison because once the WalMart customers stop showing up, they too will be no longer in business. Once you learn how to repay your real customers for keeping your business alive you can be sure that they will return and you repay those real customers by exceeding their expectations every time they enter the door. Remember, everyone affected by the actions of the company is a real customer even if they are not directly affiliated with the company. Employees are the life force of the company. If the employees are being mistreated it will be apparent through their work and their attitude while at work. The employees will transfer his mentality to the customers and people they interact with everyday. The Wal-Mart employment strategy is to employee as little number of people to save on the payroll expense but that financial decision is again not in the best interest of the company. Yes the sole function of a business is to make the largest profit possible, but most CEOs do not take into consideration that they personally are not usually affected by these actions. If they were the floor employee that is assigned to half of a 300,000 square foot facility because the store was short staffed I do not think they would think that CEO would pass the policy. Lying to that employee does not know that their own company is doing this to them on purpose is plain wrong. Lying and mistreating your employees is a good way to put yourself out of business, not a successful business strategy.