INDIVIDUAL CASE ANALYSIS CEO Lee Scott and Chairman Rob Walton have scheduled a strategic planning session to prepare for the 2007 Wal-Mart Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. You have been invited to join the discussion of key strategic issues and to present a suggested course of action for Wal-Mart’s leadership to take during the upcoming fiscal year. New to the group, you decide to follow the strategic management process model to prepare for the meeting. 1.

Based on the company’s external and internal environmental analyses, outline the primary factors impacting Wal-Mart’s strategy. Organize these factors by Stakeholder Group to prioritize expectations and identify conflicting pressures on the organization. 2. Review Wal-Mart’s business-level and international strategies and evaluate their potential for success, given the strategic inputs outlined above. Determine their strategic fit with the environment. 3.

Based on your complete assessment, present your recommendations for an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions which will exploit the company’s core competencies, stimulate and sustain growth, strengthen competitive advantage, establish direction for the company, and maximize the value of the firm. To be fully prepared for the discussion, be sure that your proposal provides a solution and supports your position for each of these items. • How can Wal-Mart Stores and Sam’s Club increase same-store sales? How should the company capture share of middle- and upper-income wallets? • Should Wal-Mart Stores fully retreat from fashion-forward merchandising and marketing? Will its neighborhood-store-localization strategy increase sales enough to offset the associated costs? What should it do to make its new three-types-of-customers segmentation strategy work? • Should the company spin off Sam’s Club? If not, what should it do to compete more effectively against Costco? • Is Wal-Mart expanding the right kind of new stores at the right pace and in the right places?

How and where should the company continue to grow internationally? Should Asda buy J. Sainsbury? • What will it take to restore the company’s reputation in the United States? • Should Lee Scott change Wal-Mart’s course? If so, how? • Should Rob Walton replace Lee Scott? If so, when and with whom? Ensure the analysis and recommendations are comprehensive and clear. Your analysis must use 12-point font, be single spaced, have no more than a 1 inch margins, and be well organized. Each analysis should be limited to no more than 15 pages.