Wal-Mart Business Ethics Dr. Green

Ray Bracy Vice-president for federal and international public affairs Two arguments What makes Wal-Mart successful? Why Wal-Mart is an ethically good company?

The size of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Has 8 % of the U.S. retail market (excluding autos) Has below 5% of the global retail market has roughly 3,500 stores in the United States roughly is America's largest employer

Wal-Mart’s Success Wal-Mart’s success is not due primarly to its size. It’s size is a result of its business success.

Opening Price Points These are the basius of Wal-Mart’s success. These are set by knowing the customers knowing what sells at what price knowing the volume of sales

Sam Walton’s Philosophy Supply-chain efficiencies should go to create lower prices create higher volume Supply-chain efficiencies should go to increase profits. Increased profits should come from higher volume.

Wal-Mart's Success Wal-Mart's success is due to sharing information with suppliers helping suppliers understand the importance of quality eliminating middlemen and working directly with factories selling house brands

Wal-Mart’s Suppliers As a result of working with Wal-Mart, the suppliers in some cases have higher profit margins than Wal-Mart does are not squeezed

Wal-Mart’s Fairness The suppliers are treated fairly because Wal-Mart doesn't make demands on them that they cannot meet Suppliers can appeal decisions that they believe are unfair up the chain of command

America Can't Compete America can't compete because the costs of doing business are too high. health care costs are too high environmental regulations and regulations in general are too high litigation risks are too high tax subsidies and tax rates are too high

Fair Trade Wal-Mart believes in Free trade, which has benefit many worldwide Fair trade as long as there is a level playing field as long as regulations are evenly enforced

Dumping Cases Dumping violates fair trade and should be halted. However, Wal-Mart decides whom to support in dumping cases on a case-by- case basis.

Globalization Wal-Mart's direct imports from China total roughly $7.5 billion a year Wal-Mart's indirect imports from China total roughly $7.5 billion a year This a total of $15 billion a year Wal-Mart’s globalization center is in China Wal-Mart does not force American businesses to move to other countries.

The Benefits of Wal-Mart The direct benefits of Wal-Mart are Offering low prices Employing 1.2 million workers of its own Making its suppliers better companies Helps those who live out of an envelope survive

The Benefits of Wal-Mart The indirect benefits of Wal-Mart are 40,000 to 45,000 jobs a year in construction about $5.5 billion of product bought that goes into those stores 20,000 information technology jobs in America 90% of the food sold in its styores is from the U.S.

Wal-Mart’s Obligations Wal-Mart believes it has the following obligations: to provide the lowest price of goods to be fair to our suppliers and tell them what we need of them to work with the government to solve America's problems to allow employees to air grievances without fear

America’s Inability to Compete it's unfair to pin America's inability to compete on any one company it's unfair to pin America's inability to compete just on government America's is the result of many complex factors