Walmart As Business Case Study

I have come to the conclusion that even the best business writers often miss the essence of the most successful enterprises that they write well about. And my suspicion is that many businesses have maintained their success because of factors that are not immediately palpable. For instance, my view about Walmart is that it is may be correct to identify it as a retailer but that is not the essence of its business. To my mind, Walmart Corporation is really a large logistics and flow management firm and I keep alert to any articles that specifically mention the word logistics or any of its variants whenever the subject is Walmart or the retail business.

Reading this article in the NYT, one finds the characterization of the firm as a leading retailer but the story is largely about management decisions about the focus on its markets. It would not be a stretch of the imagination to state that its focus on a variety of factors are with the view towards providing its customers with a product at the least cost possible. And the corporation has chosen to chase the goal of cost reduction from the logistical end by ensuring that its merchandising is well considered and store location caters to local markets.

This orientation shows that Walmart merely uses its real strength derived from understanding logistics of supply and uses that in the retail business. For that reason, the real value to its shareholders is not by itself in the stores but the thinking that matches the choice of centres with a mechanism to supply goods and ensure that consumers take them off the shelves. That's a model that would apply for many more businesses irrespective of the nature of goods r services that they supply. And while I have not written any case studies for use by business schools, I would be glad to see whether schools are able to see what the essence of a firm lies.