Wal-Mart Stores Inc

1.0 Introduction
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is a multinational company of American origin, which runs chains of huge
discount department and warehouse stores. It has its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas and
was originally founded by Sam Wilton (Slater, 2003). It is listed as number one company in
terms of revenue by Forbes, the business magazine (Touryalai, 2012). Big businesses such as
Wal-Mart have to effectively manage their stakeholders as the traditional management
hierarchical concept is now weak and management have now laid emphasis on managing outside
traditional boundaries so as to remain sustainable in the long run (Harrison and John, 1996).
Wal-Mart can be affect by the actions of customers, employees, suppliers, government agencies,
communities which also better termed as stakeholders. This report aims to identify the various
stakeholders of Wal-Mart and their interests in the business paving a study of stakeholder
management study of Wal-Mart.

2.0 Stakeholder Management

There are four key stakeholders of Wal-Mart which needed to be managed so as to become
sustainable in the long run. Below is a brief explanation of each of the stakeholders and their
interests in Wal-Mart.

2.1 Customers
Wal-Mart maintains good relations with customers by offering them goods at a relatively low
price. Wal-Marts tagline Everyday low prices is suited to attract customers who seek to buy
items at a low price. Customers who enter Wal-Mart are generally budget customers and they are
interested because of the low prices at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart used the technique of greeting the
customers at the door for saying welcome and thanks and also to assist the customer with a

shopping cart

(Jacques et al., 2003, Ortega, 2000). Wal-Marts social media and mobile

strategies also make sure that customers get in touch with them even while they are at home or
away from the stores. Customers are always the most important stakeholder in any business
because they are the ones that determine the success of a business and Wal-Mart has recognized
this fact. Customers also love shopping at Wal-Mart because of friendly staffs who greet them in
and out of the stores, give them a good shopping experience and more importantly make things
available at low prices than everyone else.

2.2 Employees
Employees are the backbone of any organization. Without carefully handling employees, any
organization might be doomed for failure. Sam Waltons statement Our people make the
difference explains how much Wal-Mart values its staffs (Wal-Mart, 2014). Wal-Mart employs
2.2 million people worldwide, in 2012 alone 53% of the women had hourly promotions, 75% of
their store management team began as hourly associates and earn between $50,000 to $170,000 a
year (Wal-Mart, 2014). Along with paying regular wages, Wal-Mart also provides other
employment benefits to its employees. Employees at Wal-Mart get lucrative discounts, health
and well-being benefits along with financial packages tailored to meet the future needs of the
employees. For example: the pension fund is one such fund in which Wal-Mart contributes 6%
additional sum for the employees.
It is because of Wal-Marts way of promoting employees from a junior to senior level, their
rewarding bonuses along with industry level pay, people want to work for them. Wal-Mart also
regularly trains its staffs to make sure they deliver a world class service to their customers. WalMart regularly reviews its employment policies to make sure that they stand out from other
retailers in terms of employee benefits packages.

2.3 Suppliers
Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer and believes in ethical sourcing. It believes in making
sure that labor is not exploited in factories across the world where Wal-Mart is responsible for
sourcing its items. Wal-Mart also maintains a good relationship with its suppliers by making sure
the payments are on time and for majority of its suppliers, Wal-Mart are the biggest clients even

going as far as to help certain suppliers become sustainable. Wal-Mart continuously pushes and
pressurizes its suppliers to reduce their price year on year. Wal-Mart contacts various suppliers
and selects the one that can actually reduce their price by at least 5% every year. In the case
where suppliers fail to do so, Wal-Mart looks for an alternative supplier. This blends well within
the Wal-Mart motto of keeping prices low for its consumers on an everyday basis. Wal-Mart,
however only works with suppliers that can actually prove to them that of their sales comes
from other entities other than Wal-Mart because suppliers who know the market should have at
least of their sales from other sources too (BloombergBusinessweek, 2009).
The suppliers also have their vested interests in Wal-Mart as the retailers places huge orders
which for most suppliers makes a huge difference to their profitability. The suppliers also
establish a name for themselves once they work with a big brand such as Wal-Mart. It is
incredible that half of the suppliers supplying to Wal-Mart have been with them for over 12 years
(BloombergBusinessweek, 2009). This fact alone shows that Wal-Mart has been managing
suppliers well.

2.4 The Government

Since Wal-Mart operates in various countries around the world, it has to follow the regulations
set by different countries. Failure to do so will not only result in action against the company but
will also harm the brand name. Wal-Mart maintains good relationship with governments by
adhering to all the policies such as tax laws, employee policies, health and safety requirement
etc.
The governments of various countries are equally interested in Wal-Mart entering the market as
it means that their employment figures will go up and a large amount will be collected from them
as tax. Wal-Mart entering a country does a significant amount for the countrys economy.

3.0 Conclusion

Wal-Mart has a reputation for being the worlds largest retailers and without proper management
of stakeholders it would fail to continue this trend. Wal-Mart tailors its approach according to the
stakeholders in various countries and this is a very protuberant reason for the success of WalMart stores worldwide. It continuously seeks to improve relationship with customers, suppliers,
employees and the government worldwide and reviews its policies every year to do so.

References
BLOOMBERGBUSINESSWEEK. 2009. The Profits and Perils of Supplying to Wal-Mart [Online]. Available:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2009/sb20090714_270767.htm [Accessed
17 August 2014].
HARRISON, J. S. & JOHN, C. H. S. 1996. Managing and partnering with external stakeholders. The
Academy of Management Executive, 10, 46-60.
JACQUES, P., THOMAS, R., FOSTER, D., MCCANN, J. & TUNNO, M. 2003. Wal-Mart or World-Mart? A
Teaching Case Study. Review of Radical Political Economics, 35, 513-533.
ORTEGA, B. 2000. In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart, the World's
Most Powerful Retailer, Three Rivers Press.
SLATER, R. 2003. Walmart Decade, Portfolio (Hardcover).
TOURYALAI, H. 2012. Walmart vs. Big Banks: the Battle for Poor Customers. Forbes, December, 14.
WAL-MART. 2014. Making Better Possible [Online]. Available: http://careers.walmart.com/aboutus/working-at-walmart/ [Accessed 15 August 2014].

Another company listed in FTSE (Audit of current business position, current strategy, performance
analysis and utilization of resources (for competitive advantage / financial position)