MGT498 University of Phoenix Week 4 Strategic Management Plan Assignment Purpose of Assignment The Week 4 individual assignment is the second part of a th

MGT498 University of Phoenix Week 4 Strategic Management Plan Assignment Purpose of Assignment

The Week 4 individual assignment is the second part of a three part strategic management plan for the company selected by the student in Week 3. The purpose of the assignment is for students to establish long-term goals and objectives; indicate, specify and discuss strategies; and investigate, consider and describe specific business strategies including vertical integration and strategic alliances, to achieve competitive advantage in the industry. The student also generates an appropriate organizational chart in alignment with the stated strategies.

Weeks 3, 4, and 5 Individual Assignments are integrated to generate a Strategic Management Plan. This is Part 2 of the three part Strategic Management Plan.

Assignment Steps

Write a 1,050-word report on the company you selected in Week 3, following up on the Individual Assignment of Week 3 (Environmental Scanning), and address the following:

Establish Long-term Goals and Objectives
Strategy Formulation.
Indicate the markets that the company will pursue.
Specify the unique value the company will offer in the selected markets.
Discuss the resources and capabilities that are required.
Analyze how the company will capture value and sustain competitive advantage over time.
Business Management Strategy
Consider Cost and Differentiation Advantages.
Describe the Corporate Strategy.
Investigate Vertical Integration.
Describe Strategic Alliances.
Detail the Company Competitive Advantage.
Generate an Organizational Chart of the company you selected.

Cite at least 3 scholarly references.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
1
Environmental Scanning
Hank Stump
MGT/498
April 15, 2019
John Hawes
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
2
Environmental Scanning
Environmental Scanning
Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail company that was established by Sam
Walton. Walton believed in leadership through service since his goals were bringing great value
and quality customer services. The first store opened by Walton was a small dime store in
Bentonville which received huge success influencing him to open the first Walmart in Arkansas.
The success experienced by Walmart was due to the values by Walton of offering lower prices
and with great customer service to his clients. The company experienced steady success which
led to it going public in 1970 and the proceeds from the company financed an expansion of the
business. Walmart is currently a global company operating in several regions in the World and
the major focus of the company is its investments in the people, stores and also the advancing
technology. The company has been able to bring new approaches to technology and also, trying
out with new store structures which include Sam’s Club and the Walmart Supercenter
(Finkelman, 1997). In this paper, we will be discussing Walmart Inc. management functions.
Environmental Scanning
Environmental scanning as a business management function involves the procedure of
collecting organizational information and understanding the relationship between the
organization’s internal and external surroundings. Walmart is a company that has experienced
success in its operations due to its associations with technological advancements which has in
turn greatly influenced the corporation’s business approach of “everyday low prices”. Walmart
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
3
was the pioneer company in some of the leading technological advancements such as bar code
scanning and analyzing point of sale information. Walmart also launched its own satellite in
1980 which had a lot of impact on the company’s business practices most profoundly on its
supply chain management process. Some of the strategic systems spear headed by the industry
luminary, Kevin Turner such as Retail-Link was significant it is enabling data integration and
sharing between the company and its suppliers. The strategic systems were also significant in
enabling the concept of vendor managed inventory. In the mid 1980’s Walmart developed a
$4billion software and hardware system whose aim was to gather consumer-behavior
information on what they were buying which was to aid the company in knowing how to store
the correct products in the appropriate store. The most competitive e-commerce companies
include Amazon and Jet.com which have a vast ecosystem of prime membership and they are
able to deliver a wide variety of products and they also have a secure payment system that makes
them to be more attractive to their customers. To respond to these emerging technologies
Walmart has held the belief that information technology provides a competitive advantage over
other industry leaders which has made them move from the traditional business strategies to the
suitability of e-commerce. Walmart allocated resources to invest in digital capabilities that would
allow the company to compete effectively and better align their resources with the consumer
preferences (Chatwin, 2013).
Competitive Advantage
Walmart’s historical information strategy was focused on an internal approach which has
created innovative business strategies that have allowed the company to gain competitive
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
4
advantages globally. The emerging technologies have influenced the need for Walmart to revise
its business strategies to increase their geographical reach and transform their existing retail
infrastructure to be able to compete with online retail companies such as Amazon. Walmart has
recently revamped its cloud-based technology by developing information centers and also
creating cloud-based business tools. Walmart natured in e-commerce to enable them effectively
to compete with online retail companies by recently combining Sam’s Club with Instacart for
delivering real-time services. The company has built their efforts in e-commerce expansion plans
and strategies which has accelerated their online sales giving them a competitive advantage over
other brick and mortar stores in the United States. Walmart has also recently improved its
merchandise listing on their web with more innovative informative descriptions to present new
initiatives on their online sites. Although, Walmart are still grasping on their traditional business
strategy due to the challenging nature of online retail. The company’s United States e-commerce
sales soared to 23% in the fourth quarter and its shares also rose to 31.1% over the past year as
compared to the previous 24.5% (Lakdawalla et al, 2005).
Strategies to Create Value and gain Competitive Advantage
Walmart’s investors influence the strategic choices of the organization and they are the
individuals, groups and companies that impact the organization. Walmart has had little resistance
from their investors on its e-commerce venture due to its ability to increase company revenues.
The customers and suppliers have also gained from the online venture due the easy transaction
modes in place and the availability of a wide variety of products. There are a series of
organizational changes that have taken place in Walmart Company to enable them cope with the
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
5
changing technological nature of the retail environment. Walmart is not a technological company
but over the years it has had to embrace technologies in its business strategies which has
influenced organizational change and interdepartmental collaborations. The recent advancement
to e-commerce has led to the development of a common system for the entire company together
with its subsidiaries which has eased communication between departments both locally and
globally. Walmart due to the technological change to e-commerce it developed a common
platform where all its stakeholders could have real-time interaction which is both economical
and efficient (Price, 1996).
Measurement Guidelines
Walmart makes use of sustainability guide which functions as an instrument to for
refining merchandises that their clients prefer, assimilate sustainability into the company,
augment the quality of their merchandise, upsurge competes in their supply chain and improve
the output loop by decreasing expenses. Walmart believes in building sustainability as a
measurement guideline that the organization uses to verify the effectiveness of its strategies.
Walmart collaborated with the Sustainability Consortium to develop metrics to evaluate
significant indicators for examining the efficiency of the organization’s strategies. The company
together with its partner developed a standardized system for relaying of information on
sustainability all through the merchandise value chain. The system is identified as the
sustainability measurement and reporting method which serves as an international podium for
states to evaluate and report on merchandise sustainability. According to Walmart’s
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
6
management, the company’s goal is to acquire the right metrics to advance their measurement
guideline for assessing the effectiveness of their strategies (Feng et al, 2010).
Effectiveness of Walmart’s Measurement Guidelines
The sustainability measurement and reporting system has been an effective measurement
guideline since it enables a rigorous product level life cycle assessment and offers an arena to
communicate sustainability information through the supply chain. This measurement guidelines
are effective since it enables sustainability of the organization’s strategies that ensures increased
product quality, supply efficiency and an increase in productivity loop. Walmart has heavily
benefitted from these measurement guidelines since they are able to measure the sustainability of
their suppliers and develop effective strategies to easily integrate their global supply chains
effortlessly. Walmart is however in the process of identifying better metrics to include in their
measurement guidelines to ensure the organization gains its business potential in the global
technological business environment.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
7
References
Chatwin, R. E. (2013, June). An overview of computational challenges in online advertising.
In American Control Conference (ACC), 2013 (pp. 5990-6007). IEEE.
Feng, S. C., Joung, C. B., & Li, G. (2010, May). Development overview of sustainable
manufacturing metrics. In Proceedings of the 17th CIRP international conference on life
cycle engineering (Vol. 6, p. l2). PRC Hefei.
Finkelman, P. (1997). Dred Scott v. Sandford: A brief history with documents (p. 2). Boston,
MA: Bedford Books.
Lakdawalla, D., Philipson, T., & Bhattacharya, J. (2005). Welfare-enhancing technological
change and the growth of obesity. American Economic Review, 95(2), 253-257.
Price, R. M. (1996). Executive forum: technology and strategic advantage. California
Management Review, 38(3), 38-56.
Strategy Formulation Grading Guide
MGT/498 Version 4
Strategic Management
Copyright
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University of Phoenix® is a registered trademark of Apollo Group, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Microsoft®, Windows®, and Windows NT® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All
other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Use of these marks is not intended
to imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation.
Edited in accordance with University of Phoenix® editorial standards and practices.
Strategy Formulation Grading
Guide
MGT/498 Version 4
Individual Assignment: Strategy Formulation
Purpose of Assignment
The Week 4 individual assignment is the second part of a three part strategic management plan for the
company selected by the student in Week 3. The purpose of the assignment is for students to establish longterm goals and objectives; indicate, specify and discuss strategies; and investigate, consider and describe
specific business strategies including vertical integration and strategic alliances, to achieve competitive
advantage in the industry. The student also generates an appropriate organizational chart in alignment with the
stated strategies.
Resources Required
Textbook Chapters 4, 5, 7 and 11
Grading Guide
Content
Student establishes long-term goals and
objectives.
Student addresses the following regarding
strategy formulation:
a. Indicates the markets that the
company will pursue.
b. Specifies the unique value the
company will offer in the selected
markets.
c. Discusses the resources and
capabilities that are required.
d. Analyzes how the company will
capture value and sustain competitive
advantage over time.
Student addresses the following regarding
business management strategy:
a. Consider Cost and Differentiation
Advantages.
b. Describe the Corporate Strategy.
c. Investigate Vertical Integration.
d. Describe Strategic Alliances.
e. Detail the Company Competitive
Advantage.
f. Generate an Organizational Chart of
the company you selected.
The paper is 1,050 words in length.
Met
Partially
Met
Not Met
Comments:
2
Strategy Formulation Grading
Guide
MGT/498 Version 4
Content
Writing Guidelines
Met
Met
Partially
Met
Not Met
Total
Available
Total
Earned
5
#/5
Partially
Met
Not Met
Total
Available
Total
Earned
2
#/2
7
#/7
The paper—including tables and graphs,
headings, title page, and reference page—is
consistent with APA formatting guidelines and
meets course-level requirements.
Intellectual property is recognized with in-text
citations and a reference page.
Paragraph and sentence transitions are
present, logical, and maintain the flow
throughout the paper.
Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Rules of grammar and usage are followed
including spelling and punctuation.
Assignment Total
Additional comments:
#
Comments:
Comments:
3

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