Research Paper on:
Wal-Mart Corporate Strategy And SWOT

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
2009; Frank, 2006). He had franchised Ben Franklins variety stores in the 1940s and 1950s and then traveled trying to learn as much as he could about discount retailing (Frank,  2006). As he negotiated better prices from his suppliers, he got the idea of passing those savings on to the customer (Frank, 2006). His premise was to make a profit  through volume rather than through high profits on each item (Frank, 2006). This has been the corporate strategy since the beginning; profit through volume. Walton was known to  be very cheap and spent little on unnecessary things. He carried this behavior into his business and realizing that payroll was the largest expense for any business, Walton decided he  had to control that expense (Frank, 2006). He hired only the minimum number of employees and paid them as little as he could (Frank, 2006). He fought off the unions,  something the company continues to do. The human resource issues of low pay and overwork originated with Sam Walton himself (Frank, 2006). Wal-Mart went public in 1972 and with the  income from that, he opened 276 stores across 11 states by 1980 (Wal-Mart, 2009). Meanwhile, competitors like K-Mart had expanded through the 1970s (Wal-Mart, 2009). The first Sams Club members-warehouse  store opened in 1983 and the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in 1988 (Wal-Mart, 2009). Supercenters offer a full line of groceries as well as all the other items Wal-Mart carries  (Wal-Mart, 2009). Today, Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Corporate Strategy The corporate strategy is to control costs, to profit through volume sales and to expand.  One of the strategies that has worked very well for Wal-Mart is called the cross-over strategy. Gogoi (2008) explains this strategy is based on consumers coming into the store for