NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Organization Analysis Paper (1) It is hard to overestimate the importance of strategic planning for every company and organization. Not only that it allows top managers to anticipate commercial trends and enables them to choose proper marketing strategy - very often such planning appears to be only the factor that makes possible the very existence of commercial institution. Marketing strategy allows companies to make necessary adjustments to the lines of their of products and services, without having to improvise, when marketing situation changes. There are many external factors to be taken into consideration by companys managers.
The increasing globalization tendencies within global economy require a great deal of flexibility on the part of companies, when it comes to designing their marketing strategies. Many American and Canadian mining companies now attract necessary investments now not by displaying their accomplishments in the field of exploration, but through popularizing the contemporary economical trends in such countries as India and China. According to American economists, the rapid development of Chinese economy will cause its industry to require twice as much raw cooper to be imported from abroad, within 10 years. This automatically means that the discovered unprofitable cooper deposits in North America will become profitable again, within very short period of time those who invest money in mining industry, base their strategic planning rather on worlds demographic tendencies, then on some purely economical considerations. But also, there are important internal factors, upon which every commercial enterprise bases its marketing strategy. One of such factors is companys budget.
Every budget is based upon financial balance between companys expenditures and its pure income. The budget is designed according to what companys objectives are. Generally, economists refer to two types of budget progressive and regressive ones. Progressive budget is focused on investing into companys further expansion, while regressive budgets are usually concerned with obtaining immediate commercial benefits. It is not hard to conclude that the relation between strategic planning and designing companys budget is best represented in form of geometrical progression. The main objective of strategic planning is guaranteeing companys competitiveness on the market, rather then enabling it to increase its income margins as soon as possible.
Therefore, there is always a conflict between companys immediate tactical goals, represented in budget, and striving towards financial stability, which can only be accomplished if company remains competitive. Lets take a Wal-Mart retailing enterprise as an example to illustrate our point. Wal-Mart is the largest American retailing company. There are close to 3. 000 Wal-Mart discount stores in USA alone. 87 % of Companys annual profit is based of domestic sales.
Many economists say that Wal-Marts continuous expansion will inevitably slow down soon and even turn into contraction. This is because company has grown too big already and it practices inflexible business strategy, when everything that matters is expansion at any cost. There are clear signs that this companys expansion has become stagnant already, Wal-Mart managers pursue now pursue expansion strategy at the cost of losing companys economical efficiency. For example, Costco retailing network generates 30 % more income then its closest rival Sams Club (the division of Wal-Mart), even though Club has three times as many warehouses throughout USA. The reason for this is that Wal-Mart has adopted inflexible business strategy.
Its budget is oriented towards extracting an immediate profit, when competitiveness is accomplished by the mean of swallowing smaller competitors. Yet, practice shows that only innovative companies have a fair chance of survival on todays dynamic market, therefore Wal-Marts future appears not to be quite as bright, as its top officials would like us to believe. The role of Senior Financial Officer or Controller is crucial when it comes to balancing companys budget. Hes responsible for ensuring that the organizations top managers have the full spectrum of financial information, which is the most important precondition for making right management decisions.
Controllers duty include statutory and management reporting, analysis, taxation and compliance, budgeting and forecasting for operational and corporate requirements. With the respect of Wal-Mart, it appears that its Controllers do not adequately react to the retail market dynamics. This is because Wal-Mart does not delegate its financial officers with powers to make executive decisions. Basically, their functions are limited to calculating income and expenditures.
I would suggest that Senior Financial Officers need to be entitled to with rights to make a certain executive decisions, regarding companys marketing strategy, since theyre well aware of what factors are non-essential in keeping Wal-Marts budget well balanced. As practice shows, 20 % of commercial organizations budget consists of so-called inertial expenditures, which lowers companys overall financial efficiency. Yet, only Controllers are competent enough in suggesting the ways to eliminate it. (2) The advances in computer technology made it possible to substantially increase companies commercial effectiveness, without applying much of an effort. Thats why many organizations not only invest in developing informational infrastructure within its body, but they also raise their hiring requirements, when emphasis is being put on persons literacy in the field of digital information. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) stands for computer-to-computer transfer of business transactions, using industry-accepted message formats. This is a general term for numerous computer applications that are used in the fields of accounting, marketing, managing and production.
Its very hard now to imagine any successful commercial enterprise, which doesnt promote informational awareness among its members. Organizations deal with an increasing complexity of conducting business, therefore EDI cannot be thought of as just a set of handy tools that help companies to remain competitive. As a matter of fact, without an extensive use of computer technology, many commercial institutions would have to rearrange the principles of its operations. 80 % off all financial transactions in the world take place in the form of digital information being transferred from one place to another, within split of a second. The money itself has lost its primary function of monetary equivalent. Basically, we talk of digital information becoming value in itself.
Banks are considered to be the engines of free market, yet they do not generate any goods or services theyre just the centers of economical gravity. This gravity is nothing but financial information in digital form. Wal-Mart uses EDI protocols extensively. It allows its numerous brunches throughout the world to be aware of slightest changes in demand tendencies.
Also, Wal-Marts local managers are required to conduct a multiple regression researches, using Microsoft Excel, on monthly basis. Such research helps to figure out what factors influence companys sales figures. For example, there might be seemingly no connection between movie theaters repertoire and dynamic of customers buying preferences, yet multiple regression methodology points out to the relation between these two factors, thus allowing Wal-Marts managers to make certain adjustments to companys marketing policies, according to the specifics of every particular area. There are few strategies for integration of financial software applications, EDI and information sharing applications. We must keep in mind that there is no single definition of EDI, therefore before finding the best way to implement this technology, we must be aware that EDI is nothing but replacing the paper, as information carrier, with electronic protocols. Thats why, in order for EDI to function effectively, company must insure that electronic way of information transferring will be compatible with the technology, which is used by participating parties.
From this, we can conclude that the first step in implementing EDI technology, would be reaching the agreement about the EDI standard, which is to be used. This is usually referred to as standardization and industry-wide compliance to both new and existing EDI / E-Commerce technologies and implementations (4) Once the compliance level within the organization has been accomplished, we can talk of synchronizing various EDI technologies with companys trading partners. This will increase organizations efficiency, as itll guarantee uninterrupted flow of crucial business information and will also provide business partners with quick and easy way to conduct financial interactions. We cant talk of providing EDI solutions on permanent basis after this technology is being applied, without continually upgrading it. Every organization has to reach such integration level, when the upgrading process can be conducted regularly, without impairing the normal functioning of it. The role of the Controller, in this respect, is providing the maximum of integration between different EDI protocols that are used within company.
Also, Controllers responsibility here would be insuring the discretion of information exchange processes. For this, hell have to be familiar with encryption methods, used in EDI. (3) Cost controls measures are relatively new concept. Nevertheless, they cannot be overlooked, because nowadays business realities require the non-essential costs to be eliminated. At the same time, there is a danger of confusing non-essential costs with essential ones.
Being unable to distinguish between them is a shortcoming of many young managers. In recent times, many companies in U. S. are required to celebrate diversity, by spending substantial sums on making their employees to participate in various self-awareness programs that only distract them from their primary work-duties. At the same time, such companies try to compensate on cutting social benefits for its workers, which has a negative impact on employees There are three commonly accepted cost control techniques, which are deployed by many companies and organizations at present time: value assessment, market research and systems approach.
The first one stands for the process of reviewing current principles of running businesses. It is the responsibility of every companys top managers to come up with such a review. The second one is considered as the most effective one. There are so-called market research teams within companies that have only one task providing a full scale analysis of the market dynamics for the executive officials, so that they can agree upon what marketing strategy would be the best applicable, in every particular case.
The third method is very innovative the desired commercial goals are documented, and the means for attaining them are open for discussion. This...
Free research essays on topics related to: practice shows, commercial enterprise, wal mart, strategic planning, marketing strategy
Research essay sample on Wal Mart Marketing Strategy
