Introduction
People say that there is traditionally a belief in the USA that anyone has opportunities to succeed and obtain a great fortune in their life through effort in the freedom nation - it is called the ‘American Dream’. Sam Walton was one of the men who gained an American dream in the recent ages.
Wal-Mart founded by him in 1962 is now the largest company in the world since they have exceeded Exxon Mobil in 2002 (walmartstores.com). Their activities often attract people through the media as a business trend today; on the other hand, the company has also been indicated in negative aspects, such as low wages, worse working condition, deficient health care or a disruption in local market (walmartstores.com). However, although it should not be neglected to think, I strongly believe that Wal-Mart has much more advanced logistics and core competences on managing. Moreover, they have a great adaptation skill in environment power. Thus, these are the reasons why Wal-Mart stays as the world number-one company.
Sales Achievement
According to the most recent sales announcement ‘Wal-Mart Reports Record Fourth Quarter Sales and Earnings’ (walmartstores.com), they have achieved over $106 billion in the last quarter, November 2007. This increased in 8.3% from $98 billion, which are the sales in the same period of fiscal year 2007. In particular, the net sales of international significantly grew to 17.5% throughout the fiscal year 2008. This is the first accomplishment that sales reached $100 billion within a quarter in the retail industry.
The main factors of big success in the sales
Two critical strategies mainly boosted the high sales in the last fiscal year 2008. The first is that Wal-Mart made the statement which followed the slogan Sam Walton had raised in the past. Wal-Mart recently faced a hard time to increase their revenue because of competitive low price by rivals in the retail market. In addition, a tough economic...