It
is important for any biggest company to make sure that they do take part in
corporate social responsibility efforts, and work to change the living and environmental
standards of the communities. The world communities are facing various
challenges and each challenge is an opportunity for company like Walmart to
fulfill its corporate social responsibility. The situation in various aspects
can be serious in nature, and it wants attention from business giants, who have
money and resources to fight with those serious issues faced by the people
around the world. The poverty and hunger are linked to each other as poor
people almost can’t fulfill their food needs and remain hungry, whereas it is
obvious that every hungry individual is poor. The situation is quite devastating
in this regard as chronic hunger has brought suffering for 821m people around
the world. There are so many people around the world who cannot afford food and
can’t feed their children and families. So, hunger is a big issue and companies
with resources and money needs to invest in hunger projects so that world can
fight with the hunger problem (The Hunger Project, 2018)
Background
of Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Project
According
to World Food Program, the hunger has to be dealt by eliminating its real
causes as world has good enough food to feed every living human being in this
world, but just a proper strategy is needed. There are different reasons behind
the hunger problem like poverty, conflict, lack of access, natural disasters
etc. So, the world has to join hands together to make sure that they fight with
this problem by initiating great projects (WFP, 2018).
The situation of hunger was mentioned in the world overall, and it is important
to look at the hunger situation in United States as well. The statistics have
shown that around 40m Americans are struggling to afford food and dealing with
the hunger problem. These people belong to poor families, which are not able to
feed themselves because they don’t have enough income. The average household
median income on annual basis for these people is $9175, which means that this
number is way below than the poverty level stated by the federal government (Feeding America, 2018)
This
is where Walmart felt that they have corporate social reasonability and an
obligation to community by helping to feed the hungry people. It is a great
opportunity for the company to make its mark in CSR activity by resolving the
hunger problem, and fight to eliminate it. So it was a great opportunity for
Walmart to step in and play its part by feeding hungry people in America. The
company has been involved in great CSR initiatives in different sectors like
working for green energy so that environment can be saved form climate changes
and global warming. The people who don’t have enough means to feed themselves
are in need of help from companies like Walmart. The great thing is that the
company has decided to step in by making viable contribution to fight hunger in
United States. The facts has been revealed that 50m people in United States
don’t know that will they get their next meal or not, and how. So, Walmart
along with its Walmart Foundation is looking to invest in the project of
fighting hunger as it is need of the hour. In early part, the company will
spend around $2b money to arrange food for hungry people (SCHWARTZ, 2012)
The
Project Rationale of Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Project
Walmart is one of the largest and
famous companies having most number of employees as well as revenue. The
company has enjoyed success for so many years, and generated great amount of
profits over the years. Keeping their success in view, it is important for them
to look for CSR opportunities to grab in the community and help communities in
different ways. It is also important to look at their mission and vision so
that it can be known that what drive their business forward, is it only the
profits or revenues, or they believe in serving the communities. The mission statement
for Walmart is stated as “to save people
money so they can live better.” The mission itself is showing a great ideology
y the company that they want to improve the lives of people by providing them
opportunity to save enough money so that they can live a better life (FERGUSON, 2018)
So,
company has to take strategic decisions by keeping their mission statement in
mind, which means that they can’t hold strategies, which make life difficult
for their customers. So, company holds a low pricing strategy, which allows
people to save more money when they do shopping at Walmart. Now, it is
important to look at their vision statement to analyze that how it is connected
to their strategy and mission. The vision statement provided by the company
states that “Be the destination for
customers to save money, no matter how they want to shop.” It is again
quite evident that their vision is really connected with their overall strategy
as well as mission statement. It shows that company has been driving its strategy
for their customers so that they can save their money and enjoy their experience
with the Walmart (FERGUSON, 2018)
It
is important for every large business organization to play its part for the
society by fulfilling its corporate social responsibility. The consumers are
getting more awareness about the companies and products which are in line with
the corporate social responsibility standards, and they are valuing those
companies more, which practice CSR. The CSR activities bring good name and
reputation for companies amongst customers, and they are willing to buy from
such companies. The issue for large companies like Walmart is to make sure that
they are coming with good CSR strategy so that they don’t have to get a bad
name in the market; rather they earn good repute by offering some services to
the community and its environment. As mentioned earlier that world including
United States dealing with the hunger problems and so many people are not able
to afford food to satisfy their hunger. So, to end the problem of hunger and
earn a good reputation as a CSR company, Walmart has decided that they will start
hunger project to fight hunger in United States.
What
Project can achieve for Walmart
Every business organization works
hard to get good reputation in the market so that they can attract more
customers and retain their existing customers. If a company is not socially responsible
and is involved in any unethical practice or scandal, then such companies can
struggle to move forward in right direction. That’s why it is important that a
company involved itself in corporate social responsibility efforts so that they
can achieve their business goals, profits and revenues by earning good repute
in the relevant markets. It is expected that customers are more likely to buy
from socially responsible companies because this is how they also feel that
they are contributing for the good of society. So, Walmart has decided to
launch a project to fight huger around United States. This project will help company
to achieve its various business objectives. The company will earn good name
amongst their customers, which would certainly attract more customers to buy
Walmart products, because this is how they can feel that they are supporting
the good cause by purchasing their necessary items.
Analysis
of the Context of Project of Walmart’s Fighting Hunger
It is important to look at some
internal and external elements of the company to review that how this project
is going to be fit for their future strategy.
Core Competencies of Walmart
The company has various core
competencies which drives its business forward in its strategic direction. They
have maintained a good culture, which allows them to get most out of their
employees. They have developed a hardworking and efficient work culture. The
other good thing about Walmart is their low-cost operations so that they can
develop products and provide them with lowest prices to customers, as it is
important to fulfill their mission and vision. The low price starry attracts
more customers, which allows them to get more business and sales. Their
distribution is another core competency which allows them to manage their supply
chain effectively as compared to its competitors. Moreover, they have developed
a global supply chain by maintaining good relations with their suppliers.
Five
Forces Analysis of Walmart
Bargaining Power of Buyers of Walmart
The bargaining power of buyers is
weak for the Walmart as it is enjoying good business terms with its customers. The
company has large population of customers, which means that these customers are
very much dependent on Walmart because of its low pricing strategy and they
also like the brand. So, it is good for the company that buyer power is not a
threat for them, as it is weak.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers of
Walmart
The company is one of the largest
retailers in the world and they need so much quantity of supplies, which means
that they are able to catch up with various range of suppliers’ available in
the market. They can make effects on their suppliers rather getting affected by
their bargaining power. The suppliers are competing with each other and it is
easy for the company to switch to any suppliers in the market, which means that
bargaining power of suppliers is weak and pose no considerable threat to the
company.
Threat of Substitutes of Walmart
The threat of substitute for Walmart
is also weak because they have so many elements to stay ahead in the
competition. The company has great variety of products and it is hard for any
retailer to match that variety. Moreover, the company also provides this
variety at lower costs whereas it is hard for competitors to remain at this low
cost level with so much variety, so company is not facing any considerable
threat in this regard. If company would not have such variety with low prices,
and there would have been less number of products, then they might have faced
this threat.
Threat of New Entrants of Walmart
It is important to understand that new
entrants can certainly invest heavy amount in this retail sector and can come
up with new retail chains to challenge Walmart. The cost of doing business in
the retail sector is bit lower than the other sectors. The capital costs are
also moderate. Moreover, suppliers are easily available in the market to get
similar kind of products. It means that threat of new entrants for the Walmart
is high and strong and they need to keep this fact in mind, while deriving
their future strategy.
Competitive Rivalry of Walmart
The competition in this industry is strong
and much similar kind of retailer stores are operating in the market. They also
have their own strategies to attract customers, and through an extensive
competition. The number of firms is large, which makes competition tougher for
Walmart. Moreover, these firms also come up with aggressive competing
strategies as well. It means that competitive rivalry in the industry is high
and strong, and Walmart has to keep doing different things to stand out in the
competition (GREENSPAN, 2018)
The
Project Objective and Outline of
Walmart
The above mentioned Five Forces
Analysis clearly shows that competition in the retail market is high and
Walmart has to come up with great strategic options to stay ahead in the
competition. They have to keep coming with an aggressive and proactive strategy
so that they can get competitive advantages, and compete well. The objective
for their hunger project is to gain good repute in the market and stay ahead in
the competition from their competitors by asserting their mission of
participating in corporate social responsibility activities.
The project campaign launched by the
company is named as “Fight Hunger - Spark Change”. It is a campaign, which is
nationwide and the company will be working together with five suppliers in this
regard. The company has a commitment to pay around $3m to the organization
named “Feeding America”, which is also fighting huger problem in United States.
With this help, the company will be able to feed people with approximately 75m
meals. The company is also going to play positive part in spreading awareness
about hunger problem so that people are also persuaded to take actions in this regard.
The company is sparking change by asking people to buy products from Walmart,
which can help to provide food for needy and hungry people. Moreover, they are
doing itself by donating huge amount to food banks off Feeding America, and joining
hand with various suppliers to provide free meals (Walmart, 2016)
References of Walmart Fighting Hunger Project
Feeding America. (2018). For people facing
hunger, poverty is just one issue. Retrieved December 11, 2018, from https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/facts
FERGUSON, E. (2018). Walmart’s Mission Statement
& Vision Statement, Generic & Intensive Strategies. Retrieved
December 11, 2018, from
http://panmore.com/walmart-vision-mission-statement-intensive-generic-strategies
GREENSPAN, R. (2018). Walmart Inc. Five Forces
Analysis (Porter’s Model), Recommendations. Retrieved December 11, 2018,
from http://panmore.com/walmart-five-forces-analysis-porters-model-case-study
SCHWARTZ, A. (2012). Walmart’s Plan To Fight
Hunger In The U.S. Retrieved December 11, 2018, from
https://www.fastcompany.com/2680565/walmarts-plan-to-fight-hunger-in-the-us
The Hunger Project. (2018). HUNGER. Retrieved
December 11, 2018, from https://www.thp.org/issues/hunger/
Walmart. (2016). Walmart Launches “Fight Hunger.
Spark Change.” Campaign, Encouraging the Public to Take Action Against Hunger
in Three Simple Ways. Retrieved December 11, 2018, from
https://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/03/28/walmart-launches-fight-hunger-spark-change-campaign-encouraging-the-public-to-take-action-against-hunger-in-three-simple-ways
WFP. (2018). Problems of Hunger. Retrieved
December 11, 2018, from https://www.wfpusa.org/wfps-work/problems-of-hunger/