Walmart Diversity Planning

Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, today Wal-Mart is the world largest discount department store. Named the world’s largest public corporation in terms of revenue Wal-Mart has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1972. Wal-Mart is also the largest in many other categories including: grocery, toys in the United States and the number one employer in the world. Wal-Mart operates not only here in the United States but in Mexico, UK and Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico and China.

As we, all know Wal-Mart has a lot going for them as a company and diversity is just one of them. When you think of diversity you probably think racially, ethnically or religiously, but in actuality diversity can also refer to other things such as, age, gender, physical abilities and even geographically. Diversity plays a major role in the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

One way Wal-Mart integrates diversity into the planning stage is in the selection of their suppliers. They know that in order to have continued success they must tap into minority markets. In order to tap into these markets they must have connection with suppliers that not only represent these minority markets themselves but can also provide the supplies in demand my the market. In 2007 Wal-Mart was named one of the best companies for Latinos, which states that not only does Wal-Mart provide cheap product but also many job in the Latino community. (Wal-Mart is, 2007). By selecting products that are supplied by Latinos for Latinos by an employer that employs Latinos is Wal-Mart’s way of tapping into the diversity.

In order to achieve the goal of successful marketing to a diverse market, Latinos in this case Wal-Mart could implement the coordination of a focus group. This form of delegation would be beneficial in terms of diversity and will insure that new aspects of reaching out to the Latino community are continued. Also, if something isn’t working or is less of an interest to that particular group Wal-Mart can discontinue the sale of that item and explore other options.

References

http://www.hispanicpundit.com/2007/08/31/wal-mart-is-the-poor-and-minorities-friend/ Wal-Mart Is The Poor And Minorities Friend. 2007, August 31