Failure Analysis/Change Strategy
Venture and Wal-Mart are two discount retailers that were in competition against each other for many years. Operating out of St Louis, Missouri, owners created Venture as a spin-off of the May Department Store Company in 1970. Venture dominated the Midwest and profited from the discount store boom, thus increasing their fortune (Grant, 1996). In 1962, Wal-Mart started in Rogers, Arkansas with focus on helping customers and surrounding communities to save money and live better through the world (Wal-Mart, 2013). With the same focus of becoming the world’s largest discount retailer, Venture and Wal-Mart’s organizational objectives, vision, and mission went in vastly different directions. This led to the failure of Venture and the overwhelming success of Wal-Mart. Over the years, there were many indicators of bad choices leading to Venture’s failure while Wal-Mart’s success continued to blossom. The organizational behavior theories have a major impact on Venture and Wal-Mart by focusing on individuals, groups, and the structure of the business. These theories focused on improving Venture and Wal-Mart’s effectiveness for success through leadership, management, organizational structure, and culture (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Looking back on decisions made by Venture Stores, a process of change was essential to prevent failure in the near future. Attention should be on vital areas, potential barriers, power and political issues, and the steps of implementing the organizational change for success.
Organizational Objectives, Vision, and Mission
The May Department Store Company’s objective was to become part of the discount store boom by creating Venture to grow quickly and bring in substantial profit. Venture would be a replica of a department store with emphasis on self-service, volume sales, small budget operations and attractiveness to customers by offering low prices (Grant, 1996). Including...