Mission/Vision and Stakeholders (M1Q)

Posted: September 4th, 2013

Mission/Vision and Stakeholders (M1Q)

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Mission/Vision and Stakeholders (M1Q)

Wal-Mart was started by Sam Walton in 1962 with only one store. Today, it is the world’s largest retail store with more than 4000 outlets all over the world and sales of up to $200 billion a year. It is ranked number one in Fortune 500 catalog of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations in the world, this is given by its total sales. It is also ranked the second most admired company in the world by Fortune. It sells everything from groceries to electronic equipment.

Mission statement

“We save people money so that they can live better”

Vision statement

“To be the worldwide leader in retail”

Major stakeholders

Wal-Mart’s major stakeholders can be divided into market and non-market stakeholders. Market stakeholders are those who have an economic stake in the affairs of the company while non-market stakeholders do not have a stake in the company’s affairs. The market stakeholders include the stockholders, the executives, the employees, communities where the stores are located, the consumers/customers, non-profit organizations, other retailers, online retailers and gasoline retailers. The non-market stakeholders are the labor unions, international retail stores and politicians (Hayden, Seung, Kate & Mike, 2002).

Advancing Stakeholders’ Goals

Some of the stakeholders’ goals include sharing in the company’s profits for the stockholders, some stake holders are paid by the company like the employees. The consumers buy their groceries there. Their online retailers deliver orders. The NGOs receive funding from the company, their competitors always want to find out where the company has opened a new retail store so that they too can open one of their own, politicians also rely on the company for campaign funding, etc. Due to these and more of their stakeholders’ goals, the company has always tried to represent these goals in the best way possible for the benefits of their stakeholders.

Wal-Mart has always listened to its stakeholders when it comes offering the best services to the public. Through this open engagement, they have been able to improve their businesses. There are different ways through which they have been able to communicate with their local and international stakeholders. One of the ways that they are doing this is through the ‘Sustainable Value Networks’ which offers a forum for its stakeholders to openly investigate possible challenges and come up with adequate solutions that promote the business and their local and international communities.

Wal-Mart has specific ways of representing and advancing the goals of its stakeholders. One of these ways is to dominate the retail market expansion in the United States of America and international markets. They are doing this by cutting the suppliers’ profits to minimum so that they have enough money for their expansion plans. They also want to be recognized by creating positive brands and offering the best prices. As much as labor unions try to oppose the expansion of Wal-Mart because they claim that the company does not let its employees join any unions, the company is still trying to branch out into new sectors of retail. Of course, they also want to maintain their position on the fortune 500 list (Ant, 2009).

Reference

Ant, J. (2009, January). Wal-Mart & Stockholder Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/uoni/wal-mart-stockholder-analysis-1.

Hayden, P., Seung, L., Kate, M., & Mike, P. (2002, September). A Case Study on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Retrieved from http://mike-pereira.com/subpage/docs/walmartcs.htm#ivsteakholder.www.walmartstores.com

Hammonds, K. (2007). Michael Porter’s Big ideas, Fast Company, 44, Retrieved on August 15, 2011 from: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/44/porter.html