Assess the communication styles between the two countries and develop an optimal plan to avoid miscommunication.
In Week 1, you selected Walmart as the organization for your course project. Continue to use Wal-Mart to complete this part of the final project. You will need to select one host country where the company operates to compare with the home country.
Prepare a report on the following topics.
- Analyze the cultural, governmental, and legal differences between the home country and one host country for the organization selected. Propose suggestions for managing the differences.
- Assess the communication styles between the two countries and develop an optimal plan to avoid miscommunication.
- Compare and contrast the negotiation styles for the home and host countries. Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, develop an appropriate negotiation style for the home country to use when negotiating in the host country.
- Evaluate the leadership styles of the current CEO/leader of the organization selected and one previous CEO or other executive with a different leadership style. Propose the most appropriate leadership style for leaders of the company when working with employees in the host country.
- Assess skills that a manager of the company needs when transferring to the host country. Consider the needs of the industry too.
Submission Details:
- Present your report as a 5 page Microsoft Word document, using APA style.
- Week 1 Paper is AttachedRunning head: WALMART
WALMART 7
Walmart has been a World class leader in providing a variety of customer services at a very lower price compared to its competitors. Its marketing strategies have experience splendid results thus leading to the company’s faster growth and having an indicator in the market segments. Its rapid growth from its inception has been attributed to its keen desire in taking a quick note of the customer wants and actualizing them as a priority. In as much there are several competitors of Walmart, they, however, cannot beat its prices. Walmart has a unique taste of offering world-class services at a relatively lower price. Although there is usually a general assumption attributed to the low cost of products with the claim that cheap products are of poor quality, Walmart has toppled this equilibrium. Its products are undoubted of high quality and thus has enabled it to get sustained on the market since the consumers have a taste of liking and value to them (Kenny & Stecher, 2018).
The company’s tangible assets include its financial muscle depicted by its annual revenues, approximately 6000 stores across the world, it has numerous vehicles used in supplying goods to the customers and investments in stock which is in its stores. Walmart’s intangible resources are its brand and its domain name shown through Walmart official website. The Walmart brand is the most vital intangible asset since it makes it distinct to other companies in the market. Additionally, Walmart has invested heavily in hiring employees with high mental capabilities. The wetware provided by these employees is an intangible asset which is integral in improving its business functionality. The company has a rich infrastructure built over many years for effective distribution of goods and services. Walmart has high competency in providing satisfaction to its customers. It achieves this through its business culture which calls for an utmost commitment to customers. Furthermore, Walmart has rich capabilities in logistics which improve its business functionality. The main Walmart geographical divisions are, “U.S. – Northeast, U.S. – Northwest, U.S. – Southeast, U.S. – Southwest, U.S. – Midwest, U.S. – Northern California, U.S. – Bay Area, U.S. – Los Angeles, U.S. – San Diego, U.S. – Texas, Eastern Canada, Western Canada, United Kingdom, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, Australia (Caraway, 2015).”
Globalization has increased today. In most cases, the trend is increasing due to an incessant growth in technology. What’s more, customers are buying goods from companies through electronic payment methods. This continues to fuel global marketing trends. Today, the most globalized business is the retail business. This industry is more global since it involves satisfaction of needs. As such, Walmart has adopted to the trend to ensure that its customers are satisfied. In most cases, Walmart provides customers with the opportunity to buy their goods online. The customers can shop at the convenience of their homes. This is a positive trend for Walmart. Globalization increases the number of customers the retail business serves. Walmart offers delivery services at a reasonable price. The adoption of online business together with marketing ensures higher customer satisfaction.
From its inception, Walmart has a unique history of being the only company to have successfully started under one roof. Its business culture is to ensure customer satisfaction. Through this culture, policies implemented are directed towards more customer satisfaction. However, the company’s global pricing strategy has enabled it to balloon in the number of other branches until its current international outlook (Damanpour & Aravind, 2018). It’s secret of maintaining the lower priced but quality products have indeed given it a spiral growth since it stands as the most immediate choice for consumers due to its pocket friendliness. It is also important to confirm that the only strategy to overcome competitors in the technique of restructuring the pricing of the items (Marengo & Pasquali, 2016). Therefore, Walmart has been an impending hard surface to hit by the competitors due to its strategic pricing skills. The ability to offer economical prices has been the main secret in reaching to new regions for ventures as well as retaining the majority of its customers thus attaining their loyalty to the company. Indeed, this strategy has reaped beneficial landmarks to the company.
The aspect of providing World-class products to its customers at a lower price indeed makes it the most economical world service providers and hence a World leader in the market. Getting the best quality products alongside the best possible pricing level is indeed gives customers a no better option but the Walmart choice. The strategy itself automatically eliminates other choices as they stand only after Walmart. Having its products standardized to the best World class gives it the identity of the company meant for any nature of consumers hence can withstand in any economic spell.
Customer preferences continue to change every day. Today, clients prefer certain services which were previously unavailable. In the retail industry, the most notable pattern is the customer’s need to shop without actually visiting the business. If a business can provide online services, then it is due to receive numerous customers. Further, customers prefer to shop for goods which can be preserved for a long time. Thing implores businesses to change their production. This is the case for Walmart. The retail chain has shifted its focus to satisfy the new customer preferences. The change is necessary to keep customers. Further, Walmart leaders cultivate a culture which places the customer as central to the business. This implies that all other stakeholders in the business must shift their focus to ensure maximum customer satisfaction. What’s more, the leaders support innovation of new ideas. Employees are allowed to formulate new methods of providing holistic services to customers. This type of leadership is known as transformational leadership (Damanpour & Aravind, 2018).
Transformational leadership made up of a visionary team can result in success in any company. Such kind of leadership has been responsible for huge success in this company. As such transformational leadership as described help in transforming the values, emotions, standards, and goals of employees. Motivating employees by giving them incentives through emotions identifies a leader. The distinctive characteristic seen in all this company is its success in the implementation of their core business goals abroad.
Operating abroad comes with a number of challenges for leaders. The most obvious challenge is differences in culture. Operating in communities with different values and norms has been a challenge for Walmart leadership. The cultural beliefs influence how customers shop for certain goods. The leaders have to understand other cultures and pass the knowledge to employees. Further, communication barriers affect interaction with customers. In most cases, the leaders do not understand the local language. This is solved by hiring employees from the local country. Different countries have different needs for goods and services. This means that Walmart shopping trends is different in countries abroad. Political and economic stability of the host country affects revenues. In countries where there is political instability, Walmart has lower profit margins. In spite of these challenges, leadership abroad offers individuals with the opportunity to learn and explore. Walmart leaders working abroad have the opportunity to understand the culture and ways of the local people. The learning opportunity makes them more competent (Marengo & Pasquali, 2016).
References Caraway, B. (2015). OUR Walmart: a case study of connective action. Information, Communication & Society, 907-920. Damanpour, F., & Aravind, D. (2018). Organizational structure and innovation revisited: From organic to ambidextrous structure. Handbook of Organizational Creativity, 502-503. Kenny, B., & Stecher, A. (2018). Walmart in the Global South: Workplace Culture, Labor Politics, and Supply . london: U of Texas Press. Marengo, L., & Pasquali, C. (2016). How to get what you want when you do not know what you want: A model of incentives, organizational structure, and learning. Organization Science, 1298-1310.