Improving Walmart’s IT Service Strategy

Introduction

Walmart Inc., headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is a global retailer in the United States that owns and runs a network of supermarkets, discount supplies, and groceries. Walmart was established by Sam Walton in 1962 in Arkansas and established under Delaware General Organization in 1969; Walmart operates and owns Sam’s retail warehouses (Collins et al., 2021). In Canada and the United States, Walmart represents the organization’s name. In Central America and Mexico, it is recognized as “Walmart de México y Centroamérica” and “Flipkart” firm in India. South Africa, Canada, and Chile are the primary locations of Walmart’s subsidiaries. Advent International has controlled 80% of Walmart Brazil’s stocks since 2018 August, and the company was retitled “Grupo Big” in 2019 August (Martin et al., 2021). Walmart generates the highest revenue globally, approximately $548.743 billion per the “Fortune Global 500” 2020 list (“New Giants in Retail Industry”, 2022). It is the biosphere’s largest private company, with several workers.

The Walton family is in charge of Walmart; it is now a publicly-traded family corporate. Walmart went public in 1972 and registered on the New York Standard Exchange (Zhou, 2021). Walmart became the US lucrative retailer by 1988 and generated the most profitable revenues by 1989 October. In the UK, Canada, South America, Central America, and China, it has profitable operations and subsidiaries, but it has failed in Japan, South Korea, and German. In 1945, Sam Walton bought a Franklin Ben store from Butler Brothers. He saw the situation as a consumer war over the widespread distribution of low-cost, low-profit-margin goods. Due to the high cost of lease and branch acquisition, Sam Walton was having problems. Despite this, he was able to identify suppliers who were less expensive than his competitors, allowing him to compete on price.

Problem Statement

Walmart faces several challenges, including fierce competition, a bad reputation, investment activities, partnerships limitations, and rigid cultural norms in international markets. Other retail institutions that have adopted a low-price method face rivalry. For instance, Mexico, North America, and Canada are against the severe competition. Costco, ShopKo, Commercial Mexicana, Kmart, Meijer, Soriana, and Giant Tiger are among their competitors. In specific locations, miniature food and retail establishments have effectively battled with Walmart and established a niche for themselves. Due to severe opposition from other existing merchants and supermarkets, Walmart has only controlled fewer food markets in German.

Walmart suspended its efforts in South Korea were because of fierce competition. It attempted to monopolize the market in South Korea in 1998 but failed. Walmart suffers a poor reputation because of its low salaries, low costs, and workers’ sexual abuse. Numerous reports of worker abuse have been experienced in Walmart. Gender bias is mutual in most of Walmart’s global stores. Sexual assault issues have hampered Walmart’s development in some nations with strict traditional values and duties. This struggle has triggered Walmart’s management problems, which has forced its growth program to stop. The store’s poor reputation originates from low wages. Although they engage various citizens, their salary is so minimal that employees with prominent families can hardly manage their kin. The company’s management has resisted wage increases.

IT Service Management Strategy

When creating a framework that would help Walmart address its challenges, various aspects play significant roles. These elements include stakeholder concerns, value creation risk, cost valuation, and the four scopes; people and organizations, technology and information, suppliers and partners, and value processes and steams.

Value Creation

Value establishment sets companies from rivalry, safeguards long-term customers, and offers their brand a distinct meaning. Value generation is a prerequisite for a successful and long-term company. If a company does not face challenges, customer retention and profitability will suffer. An effective Value Creation Program must describe how and where a business may succeed in systemic growth, core stability, new product innovation, and fast shipping. Too often, a misalignment between business goals and societal, ecological, and economic edge occurs. Managers are confused about how to ensure that commitments to stakeholders are kept.

Stakeholder Concerns

Stakeholders include employees, customers, and suppliers. Based on the supervisor’s role and the company’s objectives, some customers may be more critical. Elicitation’s result is stakeholder issues, which Walmart could use to verify data extraction results, set premises and boundaries, assess organizational readiness, and build the strategic plan. Stakeholders set their egos aside and collaborate to make a product that benefits all parties involved. Management can determine the most potent users and the actions that could meet their competing interests using an excellent tool for brainstorming how to deal with various consumers.

Cost and Risk Assessment

Cost analysis considers the ecological and health costs associated with a decision, encompassing direct costs, dangers, obligations, and costs incurred by others. It encourages users to examine all costs, but they can prefer examining only a portion of them. Organizations can use cost analysis to sort among available options, evaluate programs in value order, and overcome prejudices for the betterment of the firm. Risk assessment assists in protecting individuals from danger and illness, reducing and eliminating risks to start creating a much safe and healthy work environment, identifying and analyzing risks and the possibility of incidences, and define appropriate corrective actions that can be implemented and supervised.

The Four Dimensions

Firms must be dedicated to how services are designed, delivered, and sustained to support their consumers in attaining their desired goals. Organizations and individuals, information systems, partners and customers, and value chains and processes are examples of these. Humans are still required regardless of how much machines and expertise are used. Consequently, clearly defining tasks and obligations, having open and transparent reporting relationships and messaging services, and establishing an approach to give direction and guidance are all critical. A criticizing culture can make problem-solving and constant service improvement techniques less effective. Every company acknowledges its present culture and undertakes steps to change it to achieve its goals. Service management requires a similar set of skills.

Companies are now acknowledging the urge to manage data’s lifetime, from creation through access, usage, alteration, storage, and destruction, to maximize data’s worth in delivering technological services while successfully managing those risks and motivation to comply with it. Because of technological improvements, the way management system is done to people has radically altered. Partnership and social networks platforms have broadened the scope of service co-creation opportunities, allowing for a better understanding of client needs, experiences, and emotions. Organizations may now quickly deploy and scale up and down operations to adapt to shifting demands. Every corporation attempting to manage content across various sectors and business units is increasingly dependent on the technology platform. No one organization can create and control the entire business distribution network worldwide. The use of partners and suppliers in co-creation is becoming more common. For example, every e-commerce company needs an Internet Service Provider. On the other hand, ISP is reliant on utilities, international carriers, hardware and software vendors, and a variety of other businesses.

IT Service Value Strategy

Service Value Strategy

Service strategy aids in the development of strategic assets that bring value to the business by guiding the whole Service Operation, Service Transition, and Service Design processes logically and consistently for efficient service activities. Service Method offers best-practice recommendations; understanding company objectives and consumer demands is the first step in creating value. The plan should be supported by all organizational assets, including personnel, procedures, and products. For Walmart to develop services that will generate company values to eliminate the company’s challenges, Walmart should consider adhering to various perspectives. First, Walmart should acknowledge the services customers prefer. Walmart should define service quality based on the product reviews they receive from potential customers; good customer reviews imply Walmart delivers quality services. It should ensure it offers value to consumers, allocates resources efficiently, and offer unique services to avoid competition rivalry.

Value Chain

Durability must be incorporated into the company’s strategy and assessed for how effectively it fulfills the organization’s mission, which requires company leaders to be ready to assimilate sustainability into their primary business. In this environment, value creation centered on longevity and giving value to the parties included cannot be seen as a response to regulatory limits or behavioral standards. By adequately interacting with a customer, Walmart can better understand their aims and desired outcomes, allowing them to examine and alter how they help them reach them. Exposing performance gaps and more focus assists businesses in resources development and finding growth prospects. Using multiple communication channels ensures that a firm’s products in the market and clients’ requirements are updated.

Face-to-face contact with clients can benefit Walmart since it fosters trust and encourages active listening, which helps employees acknowledge their challenges. Stakeholder expectations management may help Walmart develop trust, enhance satisfaction among various stakeholders, improve connections, provide value, and function more smoothly. Communication with stakeholders allows for easy interaction during project status meetings or regular basis to ensure. Identifying the clients and their rank in the development phases is necessary for understanding and successfully addressing their aspirations or concerns.

Evaluations are a necessary part of every policy and procedure. A comprehensive risk analysis can help to reduce the likelihood of workplace injuries. They assist businesses in developing plans for decreasing unsafe conditions by increasing knowledge of the dangers they pose. The needs of the firm typically dictate the connection between partners and suppliers. Because of their critical impact on services, some suppliers will be considered strategic. In such instances, the organization should manage the connection at a high lead level. Because they work on a commodity basis, a company may readily replace others. Organizations utilize SIAM (Service Integration and Management) to manage their interactions with partners and suppliers.

SIAM entails engaging an integrator to set up and manage a set of standardized, coordinated processes that span many partners and suppliers. The end customer is protected since they only see one service provider rather than several. Service integration can be done in-house or outsourced to a partner or third party, depending on the firm’s needs. The value streams and processes dimension are concerned with how different company sections collaborate to provide integrated and coordinated value growth through products and services. This dimension lays out the actions, workflows, controls, and procedures that an organization must follow to meet agreed-upon goals. Service management is essential because a company constructs an operational model that successfully organizes the essential activities required to manage products and services.

Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

Walmart should research its competitors’ products and services and their strengths and flaws, which will help the company find the areas where it needs to thrive and obtain a foundation. Walmart is in the business of attracting and retaining consumers. Therefore, they need to know their customer’s (and future customers’) value. Consumer expectations can fluctuate; Walmart should recognize its customer needs, which aids in the identification of the target market as well as the market sectors in which a firm is most successful. It is easier to market a brand if it fights competitors. Rather than battling pricing, Walmart may gain customers by emphasizing what makes its service unique. Walmart should deliver value, be dependable, meet customer expectations, connect well, and provide communal services. One proven strategy to ensure that a firm does not go bankrupt is planning and covering all potential eventualities. Numerous business owners make the mistake of failing to establish a business plan. A good business plan includes contingency plans that a business may use during an attack and marketing and sales techniques.

CSI Plan

Plan Activity
The vision Be an organization that meets customer needs and expectations
Current situation Poor reputation
Business restrictions
Cultural differences
Fierce competition
Future goal Reducing customer complaints and offering unique products
How to attain the goal Involving customers and employees in decision-making activities
Take action Listening to customer grievances and offering unique services
The outcome Satisfies customers and increases profits
The momentum Planning often

Mitigating the Problems

Technical, general, and service IT management activities can help eliminate the issues Walmart is undergoing through numerous ways, including improving employee communication, enhancing accuracy and productivity, and focusing on customer needs and complaints. Having the data readily available and presenting it fosters confidence in the company. A proper management method facilitates cross-functional collaboration between departments while reducing duplication of effort among members.

Continual improvement and problem management are vital in mitigating Walmart’s situation. Problem Management is critical for lowering the number of occurrences that disrupt business operations. Continuous improvement gives employees the apparatuses they want to address glitches and surge the efficiency of their occupied practices. Lean communicates to personnel that their input is valued. When a client gives an improvement recommendation, the idea can be thoroughly checked and, if practical, executed throughout the firm. Engagement and turnovers surge with an excellent culture; workers who actively subsidize the company’s development feel satisfaction and accomplishment.

Operational and process improvements are determined by constant improvement. Corporations that are continually looking for approaches to recover their processes will continuously see an enhancement in the brand’s performance. Hence, more complex and cost-competitive solutions will arise. Knowing what the consumer feels and striving to bargain are the primary steps in conveying excellent purchaser service. Unremitting improvement issues is a basis for defining customers’ needs and reducing cost and waste shipment. Therefore, continuous improvement offers a basis for defining buyer values and plummeting surplus in the value delivery process.

Conclusion

Walmart has various obstacles, including tough competition, a bad reputation, investment activities, alliances restrictions, and rigid cultural standards in overseas markets. Other retailers who have embraced a low-price strategy confront stiff competition. Numerous factors play a vital role in establishing a methodology that would assist Walmart in tackling the difficulties it is experiencing. Stakeholder concerns, value creation risk, cost valuation, and the four scopes of people and institutions, technologies and data, partners and customers, and value processes and steams are among these factors.

Recommendation

Walmart should consider sticking to diverse perspectives to offer services that would generate corporate values and alleviate the company’s issues and recognize the offerings that customers like. It should define service quality based on product reviews from potential customers; positive customer feedback indicates that Walmart provides high-quality services. To avoid competition rivalry, it should guarantee that it provides value to customers, allocates resources efficiently, and provides unique services. Longevity must be integrated into the firm’s strategy and evaluated for how well it carries out the organization’s objective, which necessitates that company executives be prepared to integrate sustainability into their core business. Walmart should give value, dependability, meet customer expectations, be well-connected, and provide community services. Problem management is essential for reducing the number of occurrences that cause company disruption. Walmart should offer its employees the resources they have to solve difficulties and advance the efficacy of their exertion processes through constant improvement.

References

Collins, C., Fitzgerald, J., Flannery, H., Ocampo, O., Paslaski, S., & Thomhave, K. (2021). The institute for policy studies. Web.

Martin, S. B., Veiga, J. P. C., & Galhera, K. M. (2021). Labor Contestation Amidst Restructuring, Flexible Labor Reforms, and Walmart’s Exit from Brazil, 2015–2018. In Labor Contestation at Walmart Brazil (pp. 205-261). Palgrave Pivot, Cham. Web.

New Giants in Retail Industry. Theprideceo.com. (2022). Web.

Zhou, Z. (2021). Metaphors in a Changing World: A Corpus-based Cognitive Study of Walmart’s Letters to Shareholders (1972-2019). ABC Vienna, 114. Web.

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