STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Project Proposal
Submitted by: Group 10
(Anubha pgp33262 | Astha pgp33266 | Debasmita pgp33271 | Satyam pgp33292 | Shaily pgp33293)

Industry Chosen: Retail

Organization Name: Walmart

Objective: To study the strategies adopted by Walmart that led to its rise as a global retail giant and
helped it achieve rank 1 in the Fortune’s list of companies by revenue. We want to understand what
were the environmental factors in which Walmart operates and how the approaches adopted by it
lead to its rise.

Rationale for selection of industry: We chose the retail industry due to the following reasons:
1. Highly competitive industry, with different segments and types of competition
2. Changing technological trends which put pressure on players to innovate
3. Consumer facing industry with ever increasing & changing demands from consumers

Reason for selecting Walmart:

We chose Walmart as it is the largest company by revenue globally and has a unique story
behind its growth. Walmart is known for creating industry leading strategies that contribute
significantly to building its competitive edge over its peers. Some of the factors that make the
company’s business model stand out are:
• Large sales volume made possible by a large customer base and scale of operation.
• Price leadership via an everyday low pricing model
• A highly efficient supply chain system that maximizes productivity and reduces outlays.
• Low operational and overhead costs
• Use of bargaining power to grab the least prices from the suppliers

Walmart’s adaptation to the changing technological scenario of the world has played a key
role in maintaining its core business strategy of low price sale. The company became known
for its barcode scanning and analysis of the point of sale information from its data
warehouses.
However, in a world where the traditional brick and mortar stores are constantly being
threatened by online retailers, like Amazon, there lies a great challenge for Walmart to
continuously evolve in terms of its business strategy, which makes it a prime choice of study
in order to effectively understand the mechanisms of the retail industry.

Expected Outcomes: We plan to understand the following about Walmart:

1. How Walmart became an industry giant?
2. What external factors were at play during its rise and what kind of approaches it undertook
to achieve superlative growth?
3. How has Walmart managed to innovate with changing times & keep itself relevant in the
technological era?

Post our analysis, we want to analyse what can Walmart do to sustain & grow in the coming
times in the face of ecommerce, digitization and globalization.