Innovation

Wal-Mart didn’t just get by with cost-saving methods. They were ahead of their competitor’s technology wise too. Even in the 1970’s, Wal-Mart was able to track inventories in their warehouses and link it with stores. They tracked their sales data for specific items and could increase or decrease their inventory accordingly, achieving a higher efficiency than other retail companies. Another aspect that Wal-Mart felt strongly about was expanding there reaches. In 1978, they introduced a Pharmacy, auto center and jewelry divisions.

Since 1962 and the beginning of the discount retailer market Wal-Mart has been ahead of the retail game. By 1967 there were 24 Wal-Marts that had grossed 12.6 million dollars. In just 7 years Wal-mart had spread into 9 states. By 1979 Wal-Mart was the fastest store to reach a billion dollars in sales. In 2005 Wal-Mart has 3,800 domestic stores along with 3,800 stores internationally, and had made over 312 billion dollars. As you can see the Wal-Mart empire has grown monumentally. To move into this segment of the market would be tough.

The environment of an individual including culture of the company, management style, level of stress at work, etc…are also very important factors.

For this assignment, you will research the innovation architecture of at least three companies that are well-known for successfully supporting a culture of innovation. Write a 1,500-word paper that addresses the following:

“Innovation is definitely not self-starting or self-perpetuating. People make it happen through their imagination, will power, and perseverance” (Kelley and Littman.2005.p. 6). I believe that an innovation leader is a person who empower himself with knowledge and skills to support others and create a change. My personal definition of innovation is “when people work hard to create a change and transfer their positive ideas into actions.” My personal philosophy of innovation is influenced by the book The Ten Faces of Innovation. From this book I learned that people can play different roles in their lives to be a good innovators. For example, in a hospital the head nurse can play the Anthropologist role and come up with new insights to

This century has been full of innovation. New technologies, new products, new services, whole new industries have emerged. Yet the call for innovation in business has never been more intense. Why? Here is my list of the top ten reasons for why we need innovation. 10. For economic growth This is the most often cited reason for needing innovation. Innovation is the route to economic growth. Industries are maturing. Products are maturing. Innovation is the creation and transformation of new knowledge into new products, processes, or services that meet market needs. As such, innovation creates new businesses and is the fundamental source of growth in business and industry. 9. For

Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek)

Regarding the target segment Walmart.com is trying to reach; recent research indicates that profitability is closely related to local strategy. (Harvard Business Review, September 2005) Local environments still have different tastes, business practices, cultural norms and other characteristics. Simply offering internet connection to those customers may not be enough to create consistent online sales form them. Local retailers may server these segments better and offer customized services due to their small customer base. Therefore, Walmart.com is facing two obstacles: local retailers and customer buying habits. Changing them may prove to be a difficult undertaking.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

Not only innovation lead to change inside organizations, but also some changes in side organizations can lead to innovation. Moreover, managing innovation and change is not an absolute easy process as it seems, as it requires lots of human interaction with different backgrounds, contexts, cultures that require aligning all your human resources to respond to new innovations, and related changes and this will only be done via good and efficient leadership. Generally, innovations and related changes may include change in organization structure workforce planning, marketing strategy, geographical distribution , culture, …ect which directly impact human resources in any organization , therefore the role of the leader is so crucial to manage tensions, conflicts, resistances, uneasiness and development areas that usually appear with new changes and innovations. Leading Innovation and change being part of managing human and organization behaviors is kind of a complex processes that include several factors, stages, models, perceptions and definitely outcomes. In this paper I will get a deep dive and close up view stating the various definitions, different related models, how they work in practical life and what kind of failures such models face in real life implementation; along with a self reflection to the applied experiences of such study and what will be the development plan leading to more successful practices in future.

Wal-Mart is arguably the most dynamic corporation in the last 50 years in the United States, if not the world. Arising from its beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas, it has grown to over 4,400 discount stores, super centers and corner markets worldwide. Wal-Mart continues to expand despite public criticism of its labor practices as well as complaints about their treatment of competitors. The many strengths of Wal-Mart, like their low cost production and marketing practices, will aid Wal-Mart as it continues to grow in the retail

What is Wal-Mart dong that seems to fit a definition of “successful” e-commerce operations? What cold they do better? How does shopping on-line compare to your experience looking for a similar type of item at a bricks-and-mortar store? How does this site compare to other experiences you’ve had with e-commerce??

A 2011 article from MIT Technology Review, "Four Principles for Crafting Your Innovation Strategy” (by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui),

Goggin and Mitchell (2010) states that “Comparing the various definitions of innovation, it can be seen that there are several common elements what is changed (such as product or process changes); how much is changed (whether it is completely new or only perceived as such); the source of the change (sometimes technology); the influence of the change (for example, its social or commercial value)”

They adopted Point Of Sales (POS) machine in 1983. In1985. They built Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), all the information is dealt on the computer instead of using paper. In1986, using Quick Response (QR) to built good partner relationship with suppliers, high frequency distribution with small amount each time, in order to lower risk, stocks and stimulate demand and sales. In 2006, Wal-Mart started using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a wireless system used to identify tags and get data in any environment without any workforce. Because this, Wal-Mart can save 8350 billion per year. (MBSlib) Obviously, the primary activities in value chain of Wal-Mart are the strongpoint that can add value to the firms, especially logistics.