Strategic HR Management Case Study free essay sample

VII. Recommendations VIII. Conclusion IX. References I. Abstract The primary objective of this paper is to examine the Human Resources Planning and Strategic Change for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. In this context, the authors analyze the employee selection, training and development of the company as well as studying the performance compensation management, strategy evolution and financial status of the firm. A SWOT Analysis is also included in the authors’ work in order to support their financial research of Wal-Mart. This paper concludes with recommendations and conclusions and the article finds that the business has a huge growth potential and entry to Middle-East markets such as Israel can be taken into consideration. According to the authors, Wal-Mart has the adequate financial strength to take risks on the international markers arena. Additionally, although the company is very well known with its acquisitions strategy, joint ventures and strategic partnerships are also recommended as alternative strategies for the firm by the authors. Finally, despite some unethical issues and concerns about social responsibility, Wal-Mart still seems to be a good buy for the investors who are interested in the company’s stocks. II. Wal-Mart Employee Selection, Training, and Development Wal-Mart has many key factors involved that make it such a successful company. However, one element they have is one that every company has and this includes employee selection, training, and development. These three factors together create the staff that makes the customers returning time and time again. Without the selection, you wouldn’t have the training, thus, you wouldn’t have the development so all these things are needed to make a competitive staff. Employee selection is an important factor to Wal-Mart when they are hiring their staff. Diversity is the key thing they think of in hiring someone and choosing someone to join the multi-million dollar company. â€Å"Our commitment to diversity remains strong and as part of our continuing efforts to become a leader in diversity we will, continue to ensure that our hiring represents the diversity of our communities, and grow the percentage of women and minorities in our management ranks. (Wal-Mart. com). This is an interesting fact because one of the main complaints with Wal-Mart today is how they mistreat and underpay their staff. Wal-Mart also prides itself not only in diversity, but also in young employment. It seems as though they like young eager staff. â€Å"We engage in job fairs, college recruiting, and intern ships to increase the diversity of our candidate pool for open positions throughout the company. We have increased the companys diversity considerably through our external recruiting efforts. † (Wal-Mart. om). That is a great opportunity for young job hunters to get their feet wet and experience in the business field. The next step in the employment process is the employee training and development. Training is a costly and a very time consuming process in a business. Companies like Wal-Mart pay their employees to be trained, and they pay the person who is training, this is like paying double the staff needed. When the hiring process starts and it comes time to picking out candidates, Wal-Mart makes sure they have the right ones. They do not want to waste time and money Wal-Mart has just recently come up with a whole new training and development system that is supposed to be effective and much more efficient then their old one. â€Å"Wal-Mart grew its training and development program the way it grew the corporation: from store level up. † (Speizer, P. 2) Wal-Mart is such a large organization that their training and development needs to be top notch and have great influence on their staff. An author of Wal-Mart and a worker said, â€Å"Their training and development is making a significant commitment and it will be a radar screen for all other organizations. † The company is using a combination of outside vendors and systems it has created on its own in the overhaul of training and development. (Speizer, P. 2) Their new method of training was brought to them by Nike. The process goes something like this, â€Å"Each segment is three to seven minutes long and gives the associates the basic knowledge they need about various products. As new products are introduced each season, the training is updated and Nike customized the program for each retailer. Associates are then quizzed at the end of the training and asked for feedback, which gets sent back to managers and they are able to adjust things if needed. † (Marquez, P. 2) This process is an outstanding format; internet is the new way of communicating and training. This type of training is called e-training and is definitely shown to be efficient. Other companies such as Cingular and Nike have taken part in this form of training as well. Often times when new associates learn new information they have to go back and ask a lot of questions and this takes away from getting things done. Wal-Mart decided to eliminate a step and have this broken into the three segments in hopes of learning while working. Wal-Mart finds that if you learn one thing at a time and you learn in correctly, you won’t forget and you can learn at a faster rate in the end. Wal-Mart has a reputation of not treating their employee’s right and not being as up to date with technology as they could be. Wal-Mart is showing improvement with their technology by using this e-training. It seems they are beginning to touch base with their consumers as well as their employees. A lot of businesses have gone global; schools have started having classes online, and much more. By Wal-Mart having one of the newest forms of training will definitely increase their knowledge and attract a lot of other businesses and also stresses how they are staying in tact with the latest trends, which is imperative in the businesses world. This is a step in the right direction for Wal-Mart and may make them even bigger than they already are. III. Wal-Mart Human Resources Planning Thanks to an onslaught of class-action gender and wage-discrimination lawsuits, negative press and criticism from unions, Wal-Mart in 2004 embarked on a major workforce management reorganization. Wal-Mart, instead of just having 100 executives in its Bentonville headquarters to watch over everything, developed a plan to hire more than 300 human resources managers to work in the field. We had no more than 100 field human resources managers who all worked from Bentonville. We were more centralized in terms of HR support and we did not have enough HR support in the field. We have created five divisional HR leaders, 27 regional HR directors and 342 field HR managers,† says Sue Oliver, senior vice president of the Wal-Mart Stores Division. (Workforce. com) Wal-Mart also created a five-person team of human resources professionals with legal ba ckgrounds who are available 24 hours a day seven days a week to handle supervisor’s concerns regarding employment matters. Workforce. com). For example, store managers can call the team if they need information on how to best accommodate a physically disabled worker. Although the company’s plan to expand its HR operations looks like a step in the right direction, critics of Wal-Mart hope it’s just the first of more measures to come, claiming that Wal-Mart has needed to provide more HR support and training for its store managers for some time. â€Å"By not providing any guidance or HR standards, store managers were left to their own devices,† says Jocelyn Larkin, an attorney representing 1. million women in a gender discrimination suit against Wal-Mart. (Workforce. com). However, Wal-Mart has stated the changes have not come about because of their critics, but a plan to have HR strategies integrated with the business strategies. â€Å"As we think about th e three- to five-year time horizon, we know we have to be having the right talent to secure our future. Our business strategies won’t be successful if we don’t have the right talent, and the only way to do that is to make sure that HR is more integrated. †, says Oliver. One of the biggest criticisms of Wal-Mart is that they do not pay their employees a fair wage. Most of Wal-Mart’s critics say if the company paid better compensation and benefits, they would have an easier job of attracting and retaining talent. â€Å"We are doing a good job of addressing both compensation and benefits. We want to be an employer of choice, and to do that you need to be market-competitive with wages, whether the workers are hourly or in management,† says Sue Oliver, senior vice president of the Wal-Mart Stores Division. For our hourly associates we have an annual review process where we take an outside vendor, like Hewitt Associates or the Hay Group or other compensation firms. They help us analyze by market and by store whether or not our start rates are market-competitive. † (Workforce. com). After much criticism that Wal-Mart is known for its low wages, Wal-Mart announced in August 2006 they were raising starting pay at 1200 of its stores by an average of 6%. The increase was instituted after conducting a wage survey that suggested increases in wages were needed to remain competitive as an employer. These start rate changes, combined with our competitive benefits like affordable health care, 401K and profit sharing, and annual incentives for our hourly associates, make us an even more attractive employer, which is why people stand in line to apply for Wal-Mart jobs,† said Susan Chambers, executive vice-president of the Peoples Division for Wal-Mart Stores. One of Wal-Marts major recruitment goals is to ensure a diverse workforce by attracting qualified candidates from differing. Wal-Marts has developed a People Action Plan, which sets forth policies for associates, managers, and supervisors to base all employment decisions on the principles of equal employment opportunity. The plan requires the recruitment, hiring, training and promotions of all positions in the company, along with all personnel decisions such as compensation, benefits, training, demotion and termination, will be done without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, or disability. (Workforce. com). Understanding that recruiting new talent is vital to meeting the demands of continuous growth, Wal-Mart conducts job fairs, college recruiting, and internships to increase the candidate pool for open positions throughout the company. To help with recruiting for management positions, Wal-Mart directs two internship programs designed for MBA students. One is a 12-week internship for first-year MBA students that assign the intern a specific project related to the needs of the company. The other is a six-month internship that is intended for second-year MBA students. The program consists of one-month rotations through various divisions that will prepare student for management positions within Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart believes that promoting from within is more effective because internal candidates have higher success rates in their new positions due to familiarity with the corporate culture. Because of this, Wal-Mart has taken up a promote from within philosophy, citing seventy-six percent of Wal-Mart store management team started at Wal-Mart in hourly positions. (Esight. org). IV. Wal-Mart Performance Compensation Management Performance management and compensation management have been the center of controversy for Wal-Mart associates and critics alike. The issue seems to stem from the large and diverse pool of associates themselves. There are so many stores located throughout the country and so many employees (an estimated 1. 3 million in-store). The vast range of requirements for pay and benefits is inevitable. Wal-Mart itself realizes the need for a comprehensive list of options for its employees. Under the Career / Benefits section of its website, the company boasts having a â€Å"wide range of choices in our benefits package†. Wal-Martstores. com). To more easily navigate through these choices, they have divided the benefits into four categories: My Money, My Career, My Home, and My Health. My Money, My Career, and My Home focus on pay, compensation, incentives, living expenses, education and advancement opportunities within the organization as managed through performance and compensation. His torically, there has been some dispute regarding the level of pay in which Wal-Mart starts off its new hires. The range starting pay is $7 to $12 an hour for store associates, averaging around $10 an hour. The company does acknowledge the base pay may not be high, but it declares its incentive programs can offset with financial compensation and recognition of high performance. (Wal-Martstores. com). There are incentive programs that recognize and pay for team players based on the performance of the company. They offer discount cards and free membership to Sam’s Club. The company even provides financial education to its employees to help manage their money, debt, credit, and budgets. Another positive compensation is vacation pay, which can accumulate for associates based on how long they have been employed with Wal-Mart. This is also an example of the company promoting itself as a career opportunity, not just a temporary job. The My Career category describes advancement opportunities within Wal-Mart and describes how they promote development through training programs, internships, and even shareholders’ meetings and company functions. (Wal-Martstores. com). The latter two are ways for associates to learn more about the company and industry, something that goes beyond a single store location, product, and pricing. Self development is also important to the company as they promote their employees continuing with their educations. My Home describes benefits as including scholarship programs, education reimbursement, and even a program which partners Wal-Mart Stores, Inc with colleges and universities offering on-line courses. (Wal-Martstores. com). The company also offers programs to assist with dealing with personal or work related issues for employees and their family members, child care discounts, and a program for long-term service in which tenured associates who leave the company can still be eligible to continue receiving some benefits. All in all, the company seems to realize the diverse needs of its associates, new hires, and possible applicants. It outlines and promotes (though, with little detail) how it recognizes performance and provides financial compensation to those who are eligible either by need or via an award program. Recently, one set of associates rallied against increasingly strict penalties for individuals who did not follow the scheduled shifts. Employees at a Wal-Mart Super Center in Florida protested outside of the store claiming the establishment was â€Å"cutting back on full-time hours, capping wages and forcing them to work increasingly irregular schedules†. (Wall Street Journal). The policy itself penalizes employees per number of unexcused absences and further requires individuals to call a 1-800 hotline if the absence is due to illness. Critics believe this is another attempt by the company to deter individuals with chronic health conditions from applying or further push currently employed associates out of the company. This situation exemplifies a public impression of Wal-Mart’s performance management tactics. The final category listed under benefits is My Health. This describes the common array of health benefits such as medical, dental, life, ADD (Accidental Death and Dismemberment), and disability insurance. It also offers a few not-so-common benefits such as business travel accident insurance, Starbridge, which is a medical plan available to employees who are waiting on their eligibility for coverage or who are temporary employees, and Aflac Cancer Insurance. (Wal-Martstores. com) Despite what seems to be a somewhat normal if not diverse collection of healthcare benefits, this category tends to be at the center of the Wal-Mart compensation controversy. The company is currently under scrutiny for its new â€Å"Value Plan† healthcare package which promotes lower premiums, but much higher deductibles. Wall Street Journal). Again, critics of the company feel this program is a way to cut health-care related expenses as well as repress sickly individuals from applying. Wal-Mart’s retort to this criticism is that it is an option to benefit those associates with few medical needs by enabling them to save money through lower premiums. V. Wal-Mart – Strategy Strategic Change s First of all, we have to mention in the beginning that Wal-Mart implements several strategies to succeed in today’s competitive business world. In other words, Wal-Mart has a wide range of strategies which were analyzed by us in detail. One of them is that, Wal-Mart has established a strong retail brand and a reputation for value of money as a component of its strategies. Moreover, it has convenience and a wide range of products all in one store. (Marketingteacher. com). Then, Wal-Mart implements the strategy of aggressive growth. The company has grown a lot in the recent years and has even experienced global expansion. For instance, if you can remember the Wal-Mart’s purchase of the United Kingdom based retailer ASDA, you will see that our argument is proved. After that, Wal-Mart involves its use of information technology to support the international logistics system. This way, the firm can observe how individual products are performing country-wide, store-by-store at a glance. By the way, IT is also advantageous for Wal-Mart’s efficient procurement. Additionally, Wal-Mart implements a focused strategy for human resource management and development. The employees are really a key factor for Wal-Mart’s business and the company invests time and money in training the workers, as well as retaining a development team. Following that, Wal-Mart has a strategy of selling products across many sectors such as clothing, food and stationary. This strategy of Wal-Mart is also sometimes criticized by stating that it decreases the flexibility of the company. Moreover, Wal-Mart has a strategy of keeping the manufacturing costs low in order to decrease the cost of producing many consumer products. In relation with this strategy, Wal-Mart implements the outsourcing to low cost regions of the world. Furthermore, Wal-Mart implements the strategy of cutting wages, cutting health benefits and cutting pension benefits in order to remain competitive. For example, it was stated in an article (2005) that Wal-Mart’s health insurance plans were only covering 48% of their employees. (Joesschool. blogs. com). Definitely, this implementation is another Wal-Mart strategy which is widely criticized. Another Wal-Mart strategy was moving to small towns and setting stores in these low populated places. This strategy was implemented by establishing stores so that the distribution centers or warehouses could take care of the customers. This strategy was really very effective in reducing marketing and advertising costs. It’s also a good idea to mention the distribution strategy of Wal-Mart. The distribution systems of Wal-Mart did seriously provide one of the greatest competitive advantages to the company. Flexibility of controlling the distribution is also an important strategy here. Also, the large-scale of Wal-Mart’s distribution centers and the technology implementations should also be mentioned here. Next, Wal-Mart also has a strategy of targeting the low and middle-income consumers. To realize this strategy, the prices of goods are always tried to be kept at minimum and lower than the competitors. In other words, the Wal-Mart model works aggressively to have the lowest cost product available to the customer. (Qando. net). In addition, it’s a known fact that Wal-Mart also uses non-American workers in order to minimize the costs. Definitely, this is considered to be very unethical and wrong both worldwide and in the U. S. since Wal-Mart is taking advantage of foreign workers in sweatshop conditions. (Wal-Martwatch. com). Although this implementation is prohibited, Wal-Mart was detected to employ these employee in some investigations. Plus, another strategy of Wal-Mart is that it doesn’t seek to create markets by introducing new products. Plastic. com). Instead of that, Wal-Mart is known to be a market follower. According to some authorities, this is an intelligent strategy of Wal-Mart since it minimizes the risk of failure. One other strategy of Wal-Mart is to never depend on a single supplier. From Wal-Mart’s point of view, depending on a single supplier wo uld be a very dangerous strategy since it would limit the freedom and flexibility of the business. For sure, this action would also be dangerous because if that supplier becomes unsuccessful, it would absolutely affect Wal-Mart. Besides, it’s said that Wal-Mart successfully navigated changes in store formats, product tastes and the make-up of the workforce, and it assembled management talent over time in its shift to mass market retailing. (Georgia State University, Robinson College of Business, The State of Business Magazine). Thus, we can also emphasize these actions as a part of Wal-Mart’s overall strategy. To continue with our list of Wal-Mart strategies, we should also stress that the company has an effective use of logistics management as well as having an effective inventory control. Also it has the bargaining power over suppliers. Then, Wal-Mart focuses on operations and execution by providing an over-average quality at a very lower price. Here, the company gives importance to efficiency, streamlining operations and supply-chain management. After that, Wal-Mart also implements the strategy of analyzing customers in great detail. The match the inventory of the store with the preferences of the clients by analyzing all sales and they look at sales volume, inventory turnover, packaging, price points and many other variables by product or group of products in order to create a profile of the buying habits of the customers at the store/site level. Marketingprofs. com). By the way, Wal-Mart is careful about keeping the employee turnover ratio at very low levels. According to the company, a high employee turnover ratio would seriously harm efficiency so they try to keep it in minimum as much as they can. For example, Wal-Mart’s driver turnover is only 5% a year, compared with an industry average of 125%. (The Economist Newspaper – Economist. com). Going on with Wal-Mart’s strategies, the firm has a strategy based on having all items in stock and providing a very good customer service. For example, their regime of customer service requires them to speak to any customer who comes within a defined distance. (Guardian News – Guardian. co. uk). Finally, in regards to Wal-Mart’s international strategy, the company usually prefers acquisitions when going overseas. For example, the acquisitions in England and Mexico are very good examples for this statement. At last, the firm’s appreciated website is also used as an effective tool to gain advantage in the international arena. Speaking for the strategic changes of Wal-Mart, we can say that some strategic changes for the company are observed both in the domestic U. S. market and in the international markets. Concerning Wal-Mart’s strategic changes in the international arena, we can say that the company is trying to make a more significant entry into the Chinese marketplace through the acquisition of a Taiwanese-owned supermarket chain called Trust-Mart. (Fastcompany. com). For this acquisition, Wal-Mart will compete against the French giant Carrefour SA. Definitely, there are some clear reasons for Wal-Mart’s mentioned strategic change. China’s economy is growing more than 10 percent a year, retail sales surged 12. 9 percent in 2005 over the year before, to 6. trillion yuan ($847 billion) and by 2002, it’s predicted that the market could expand to about $2. 4 trillion. (Signonsandiego. com). As you know, Wal-Mart has been successful in Canada, Mexico and England until this date. However, they did fail in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Germany since they could not analyze the culture of these countries a s well as the particular market characteristics. According to some authorities, Wal-Mart’s this strategic change of strictly going into the Chinese market will bring success while it’s just the reverse for some other authorities. Following that, another strategic change by Wal-Mart is that the company executives announced this year they would greatly increase the number of organic products on their shelves. (Westernfarmers. com). The firm’s recent introduction of private labeled organic milk can be provided as an example here. Then, as another strategic change of Wal-Mart, we can say that the company has announced environmentally friendly policies. Criticized intensively for violating the Clean Water Act and causing air pollution, perhaps we should think that this should not be a surprise strategic change for Wal-Mart. For example, selling clothing made from organic cotton, cutting energy use at new stores, offering cheaper health insurances to its employees and promising fuel efficiency were only some of the actions taken by the company. (Alternet. org). Especially, we must consider the healthcare terms for employees as a significant strategic change. These changes include reduction in the waiting period for firm health insurance from two years of employment to one year, helping part-time employees with the ability to cover their children and offering employees a discount on healthy foods sold at company stores. Insiderview. com). As a result, you can clearly realize that the strategic changes for Wal-Mart are also numerous which can never be underestimated by the company’s competitors. VI. Wal-Mart: A Strategic and Financial Summary Wal-Mart was founded with the opening of its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. Wal-Mart quickly began to expand and had twenty-four stores reaching $12 . 6 million in sales in 1967. In the 1970s, Wal-Mart opened its first distribution center and home office in Bentonville, Arkansas. This distribution center would be one of many that would help make Wal-Mart the retailing giant that it is today. By 1975, Wal-Mart had 175 stores in operation. In 1983, Sam’s Club opened it doors. The chain consists of more than 570 clubs in the US and 100 International locations. In 1998, Wal-Mart realized that the retailing environment was becoming ever competitive, and they would need to respond quickly. They began opening Wal-Mart Super Centers as well as Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, both of these, which creates a one stop shopping experience for customers, which they love. During the 1990s, Wal-Mart became the number one retailer in the world through its aggressive store opening and pricing strategies. Early in 1995, Wal-Mart started its international division and began opening stores internationally. Wal-Mart dos not have a formal mission statement, but their philosophy is, â€Å"to provide everyday low prices with exceptional customer service† (Wal-Mart, 2006). Currently the company is doing extremely well in comparison to the retail industry as a whole. Today Wal-Mart has 1,100 discount stores, 1,900 Super Centers 95 Neighborhood Markets, and 550 Sam’s Club locations. Wal-Mart is continuing its strategy of opening many new stores, which allows it to remain extremely competitive. In October 2006 alone, Wal-Mart has one Super Center scheduled to open as well as three Sam’s Clubs. The following will give the reader a brief financial analysis of Wal-Mart for fiscal year 2006 (February 30, 2005 through January 1, 2006). SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is a very powerful tool that can help a company uncover strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that may not be obvious until the analysis is completed. The following is the SWOT Analysis for Wal-Mart. Strengths 1. Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand. It has a very good reputation for the low prices it offers, convenience and the wide variety of products in offers in its stores. 2. The company has grown at a fast pace over the past few years in the United States while expanding globally as well. 3. The company can see how individual products are performing at any given moment store-by-store using efficient Information Technology. This allows for the Just in Time delivery system to work so well for Wal-Mart. Weaknesses 1. Wal-Mart is the World’s largest grocery retailer, which could cause it to become weak in some areas due to the huge span of control. 2. Since Wal-Mart sells a huge variety of products across many sectors, it may not have the flexibility that some of its more focused competitors have. 3. The company is global, but it only has a presence in a few countries. Opportunities 1. Wal-Mart could merge or form strategic alliances with other global retailers. This would allow them to penetrate other countries. 2. New locations and store types offer Wal-Mart the opportunity for further market penetration. They could develop mall sites or mom and pop like operations 3. They could still further expand their Super Centers Threats 1. Because Wal-Mart is a retail leader, the are constantly the target of competition, locally and globally 2. Being a global leader means that you are exposed to political problems in the countries, you operate in. 3. Intense price competition is a constant threat for the company. (MarketingTeacher, 2006) Financial Analysis Wal-Mart ratios from a five-year average in comparison to the Industry mean: |Ratios |Wal-Mart |Industry Mean | |Beta |. 61 |. 77 | |Quick Ratio |. 26 |. 31 | |Current Ratio |. 85 |1. 18 | |ROA 5yr. Avg. |8. 94 |6. 4 | |ROE 5yr. Avg. |21. 27 |16. 39 | |Revenue/Employee |184,158 |216,978 | |Net Income/Employee |6,647 |9,751 | |Inventory Turnover |8. 03 |6. 27 | |P/E Ratio |17. 37 |18. 2 | |(Reuters, 2006) | | | Wal-Mart’s beta is lower than the industry average. This means that there is less risk in investing in this company than the industry. The beta is a measure of a stock’s price volatility in relation to the rest of the market. In other words, how does the stock’s price move relative to the overall market? The closer the beta value is greater to one, the greater the risk. The Return on Equity (ROE) has a high return on equity. This means it is capable of generating cash internally. The higher a company’s return on equity compared to its industry, the better, which is the case with Wal-Mart. The Return on Assets (ROA) tells an investor how much profit a company generated for each $1 in assets. In Wal-Mart’s case, they are generating $8. 94 in profit for every $1 invested in assets. While the industry is only generating $6. 84 in assets for every $1 invested in assets. Their Price to Earnings Ratio gives an investor an idea of how much the market is willing to pay for a stock depending on its earnings. The higher the P/E the more the market is willing to pay for the company’s earnings. The lower the P/E the less the market is willing to pay for the company’s earnings. In Wal-Mart’s case, for every $17. 37 the investor pays for the company, they can expect to earn $1. 00 in return. The quick ratio was designed to measure a company’s immediate assets against its current liabilities. This measure gives financial institutions an idea of how much cash can be created against the current liabilities. Wal-Mart’s Quick Ratio is lower than the industry. For every $1 in liabilities, Wal-Mart is able to produce $. 26 in cash. The Current Ratio, is another test of a company’s financial strength. This method calculates how many dollars in assets are likely to be converted to cash in a given year in order to pay debts that may come due during the same year. Wal-Mart’s liquidity issue is below 1, which under normal circumstances would be a concern. Because Wal-Mart is in the retail business most of its inventory could easily be sold and converted to cash. The Revenue per employees is lower than industry average and the net employee income is lower when compared to the industry average. The inventory turnover is above industry average, which means Wal-Mart is turning there inventory over 8. 3 times while the industry is turning theirs over only at 6. 27 times in the same time period. VII. Recommendations Wal-Mart has a big future in terms of growth potential. They could extend their global presence by entering the Middle East. In its earlier expansion into international markets, Wal-Mart followed the strategy of acquiring a chain in the particular country or setting up a joint venture. This strategy is working very well for them, and they should continue to pursue it. Wal-Mart’s concept of purchasing an existing chain has proved very successful. In 2006, Wal-Mart’s international operations had retail sales of $62,719 an 11. 3% increase over the previous year (Wal-Mart Stores 2006). Wal-Mart has the resources and finances in place to increase their international presence. They could penetrate Israel by acquiring Blue Square, which has a corporate culture similar to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart needs to continue penetrating markets by creating joint ventures or acquiring retail companies that have already established themselves. Once they do this, they can implement their advanced IT systems do continue to deliver their products just in time to local tastes of the customers. VIII. Conclusion Wal-Mart is a huge presence globally. With their current international September 2006 month end reporting growth of 32% increase from the previous year, there is still plenty of markets for them to penetrate, thus, increasing shareholder value. This is an excellent company to invest in. At this point, I would invest in the company aggressively due to their current expansion and earning per share over the next year. Many analysts predict that Wal-Mart will have earnings of $3. 26 per share (Yahoo 2006). In Fiscal Year 2006, Wal-Mart reported sales of $312,427 million dollars. After reviewing the financial statements of the company, as an investor, I would not hesitate to immediate purchase their stock. IX. REFERENCES Ceniceros, R. (2004). â€Å"Bias suit against Wal-Mart gets class action status†. Business Insurance, Vol. 38, Issue 26. Featherstone, L. (2005). â€Å"Is Wal-Mart Really Going Green? † The Website of AlterNet. http://www. alternet. org/envirohealth/28882/ Harris, D. S. (2002). â€Å"Agility in Action. † Georgia State University, Robinson College of Business. The State of Business Magazine. Vol. XV. No. 2 http://www. robinson. gsu. edu/magazine/summer2002/agility. html Hudson, K. (2006). Wal-Mart to Trim Options for Health Coverage. † Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, New York, NY. InsiderView. (2004). â€Å"Wal-Mart changes its healthcare terms for employees. † The Website of InsiderView. http://www. insiderview. com/view/walmart_employee_healthcare. html Johnson, L. D. (2006). â€Å"Wal-Mart’s C hina Expansion Strategy†. The Website of FastCompany. http://blog. fastcompany. com/archives/2006/10/17/walmarts_china_expansion_strategy. html? partner=rss Laws,. F. (2006). â€Å"Wal-Mart Sustainability Strategy Drawing More Crossfire†. The Website of Western Farm Press. http://westernfarmpress. com/news/100506-walmart-strategy/ MarketingProfs LLC. (2004). â€Å"Wal-Mart Marketing Strategy Through Time. † The Website of MarketingProfs LLC. http://www. marketingprofs. com/ea/qst_question. asp? qstid=1497 Marketing Teacher Ltd. (2006). â€Å"SWOT Analysis Wal-Mart. † The Website of Marketing Teacher Ltd. http://www. marketingteacher. com/SWOT/walmart_swot. htm Marquez, Jessica. (2006). â€Å"Critics Remain Wary of Wal-Marts Plans†. The Website of Workforce Management http://www. workforce. com/section/09/feature/24/47/70/index. html Marquez, J. (2006). â€Å"Faced with high turnover, retailers boot up e-learning programs for quick training. † http://web. ebscohost. com Marquez, J. (2006). â€Å"More HR in Store at Wal-Mart: A QA With Sue Oliver†. The Website of Workforce Management http://www. workforce. com/section/09/feature/24/47/65/index. html Marquez, J. (2005). â€Å"Wal-Mart Throws Lifeline to Managers†. The Website of Workforce Management http://www. workforce. com/section/00/article/24/00/94. html Olson, T. (2005). â€Å"What’s good for Wal-Mart is good for Wall Street. † Olson Online. http://joesschool. blogs. com/olsononline/2005/07/index. html Plastic. (2005). â€Å"The Worries of Wal-Mart†. The website of Plastic, plastic. com. http://www. plastic. com/comments. html;sid=04/12/03/09225229;cid=75 Reuters. (2006). The Website of Reuters Reuters. com. http://reuters. com Sams Club. (2006). The Website of Sams Club SamsClub. com http://samsclub. com Seth, A. (2003). â€Å"Safeway? It’s a week’s takings for Wal-Mart. † The Website of Guardian News and Media Limited. http://www. guardian. co. uk/print/0,3858,4586461-102271,00. html SignOnSanDiego, A. (2006). â€Å"Wal-Mart to buy retail chain with 100 hypermarkets in China for $1 billion.. † The Website of SignOnSanDiego. http://www. signonsandiego. com/news/world/20061017-0526-wal-mart-china. html Speizer, I. (2006). â€Å"Wal-Mart training goes into wholesale overhaul. http://web. ebscohost. com The Economist Newspaper Limited. (2001). â€Å"Wal around the world†. The Website of Economist Newspaper Limited. http://www. economist. com/business/displayStory. cfm? Story_ID=895888 The QandO Blog. (2006). â€Å"The new claim: Wal-Mart monopsony bad for economy. † The Qand O Blog: Free Mark ets, Free People. http://www. qando. net/details. aspx? entry=4481 Wal-Mart. (2006). The Website of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart. com http://walmart. com Wal-Mart Facts. (2004). â€Å"Wal-Mart Details Progress Toward Becoming a Leader in Employment Practices†. The website of Wal-Martfacts. com http://www. Wal-Martfacts. om/articles/3744. aspx Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). â€Å"Benefits, My Career. † The Website of Wal-Mart Stores. http://walmartstores. com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate. do? catg=609 Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). â€Å"Benefits, My Health† The Website of Wal-Mart Stores. http://walmartstores. com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate. do? catg=606 Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). â€Å"Benefits, My Home. † The Website of Wal-Mart Stores. http://walmartstores. com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate. do? catg=608 Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). â€Å"Benefits, My Money. † The Website of Wal-Mart Stores. http://walmartstores. com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate. do? catg=607 Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). â€Å"eSight Directory of Disability-friendly Companies†. The Website of eSight Careers Network. http://www. esight. org/OverviewByType. cfm? room=nid=0. 0ovid=1310type=profileovrm=n6 Wal-Mart Watch. (2005). â€Å"Person of the Week: Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan. † The Website of Wal-Mart Watch. http://walmartwatch. com/blog/archives/ person_of_the_week_stephan_goetz_and_hema_swaminathan/ Wall Street Journal. (2006). â€Å"Wal-Mart Employees Protest Outside Store. † Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, New York, NY. Yahoo Finance. (2006). The Website of Yahoo Finance. http://finance. yahoo. com