Walmart

This past week we were assigned to find a current event related to strategy and do a presentation about it. I was reading about how Walmart tried to copy Target's strategy as their new strategy. Walmart is known for having really low prices, and an extensive variety of products. The reason why they have such loyal customers is because they have stayed with their proved strategy. Switching their market to more chick products, and raising their prices a little has greatly disappointed their loyal customers. "The customers did not leave Walmart, Walmart left the customers". This strategy switching has made them realize that they need to stay with what they know works, instead of trying something new. The problem lies in the fact that this issue has already make them slow their growth, lose customers, decrease stock price and the need to come up with a new strategy. Because now there are so many cheapo stores where you can find everything, for Walmart to go back to that strategy would not be that smart, so they would have to start innovating. The only question for Walmart is, how long is it going to take to switch back to a new strategy? What is going to happen mean while?

Building time

Lat week we were assigned to build a tower that could hold a golf ball out of sticks. There were seven people in my group, everybody was wondering what would be the most effective way. After talking various ideas, we decided that our strategy would be team work. There were some people in charge of the top of the tower (specialization), others were in charge of the middle part, and the others were in charge of the base. One thing about our group is that we did not only want the tallest tower, but also the most stable one. We were considering ideas that would not only make it go high, but also that would make it last. Everybody was giving ideas, and so we started testing. One thing about our strategy is that we took in consideration everyone's ideas and did not ignore them. Once we notices certain structure worked, we each chose different parts of the tower we wanted to specialize in building, so in that way we could do it faster. At the end we came in second place on which was the tallest, but our tower was the one that definitely lasted longer. In the same way it has to be with a company;s strategy, it is not only about growing fast, or a lot, it is about being there for your customers always, and with a good product. In our case having a lot of people bringing different ideas was good, because we knew how to team work, but if you cannot, it is better to just keep the employees that have the most knowledge.