In order for businesses large and small to survive, soft and hard technologies must be established before opening the doors and obtaining success. Soft technologies are much defined as assessment, innovation, strategic and collaborative planning, training, and management; anything coming from the person. Hard technologies consist of anything outside the person such as office machines, computers, and machinery to name a few. It is still up for debate whether software is a soft or hard technology. Domestically and globally soft and hard technologies must be applied appropriately. Use of Porter’s PEST (Politics, Economics, Social, and Technological) Analysis should be conducted before entry into any domestic or global environment.
Wal-Mart has been very successful in the U.S. Sam Walton tailored his company to address many issues important to his consumers, low prices being one of them. Barriers came to Wal-Mart due to market saturation and outdated technology. The company overcame these barriers by implementing the three stages of technology. The company was innovative and created new knowledge by adding the Internet for their associates to utilize for the improvement of customer service and to save costs, which in turn continued to pass the savings onto the customer. This style of management came from working with another powerhouse company, Cisco. The diffusion of this type of success for any business not only pushed Wal-Mart ahead, but also assisted Cisco in applying this technology to other successful businesses throughout the retail market.
Wal-Mart met with many barriers when they began to go global. Mexico and Europe were amongst their two challenging countries. Wal-Mart believed they could use their technology strategies in both Mexico and Germany. Both stores failed due to lack of analysis of those environments. Mexico had infrastructure, cultural issues. These two flawed areas were reinvented when they analyzed the need for customer...