Walmart Stores Inc. in 2008: Management

In addition , the company had been criticized for refusing to stock CDs or DVDs which did not have parental warning stickers . It seemed that the management wanted the customers to make their decisions in this regard . The management had also refused to stock Preven because it wanted to avoid the moral dilemma of abortion . However the management had ignored such criticisms for a long time . Instead it had focused on maintaining the status quo in running the business and its expansion . But in 2004-05 , the management perceived that all the negative criticism

was actually hurting the company 's sales potential and was limiting its long-term profitability Therefore the focus had now shifted to corporate social responsibility The CEO and the top management decided to investigate whether the critics ' charges had any actual merit

The retailing industry is characterized by a high level of competitive rivalry . Therefore it is a critical success factor to maintain a good reputation . The Wal-Mart bashing was making this objective impossible to reach for the company . Therefore it undoubtedly made good business sense for the management to wake up to the societal expectations and alter any practices accordingly . However if these meant abandoning those operating principles which were critical success factors for the company , then the issues would have to be examined more closely . In fact the critics stood in the way of three current challenges for the company : sustaining the company 's growth , globalizing Wal-Mart 's operations and further expanding in the US market . of these challenges would be workable as long as the management continued to face the criticisms from the company 's critics and adversaries . Therefore the main challenge in front of the management now is to formulate action alternatives in fighting back . In other words Wal-Mart would have to launch a charm...