The Learning and Growth Perspective (Wal-Mart)

Wal-Mart Company is growing drastically and it serves more than 200 million of customers every week. It has 900 retail units in various countries and it is trying to find better ways through better ‘learning and growth perspective’. It has become a leader in sustainability and it is vision is customer centric. The three objectives for improving the organizations’ learning and growth include, improving the suppliers scorecard, improving on their green supplying chain and ability to develop future leaders within the organization.

The above objectives can be related to the mission, vision and strategy of the organization through different ways. First is improving the suppliers’ scorecard. This will enable Wal-Mart to utilize resources properly and ensure that there is unnecessary loss, which may reduce the revenue thus maximizing returns and the value of the shareholder. The level of performance expected in this objective is achieved through use of balanced scorecard. This will enable Wal-Mart to clarify their vision and strategies and translate them into action. In addition, it will give the feedback about the internal process and external business outcomes (Kaplan and Nortion, 2011).

Secondly, the objective of developing future leaders from within requires a high level of skilled employees but it does not support the end of the strategic goal. This is because it leads to eventual reduction in the optimal cost and the objective leads to further increased costs while training workers at the aim of yielding high profits. Leaders are the main company’s resource and valuable asset. Metrics define learning and growth as a measure of improving various employees’ aspects and bring about growth in an organization.

Lastly, improving on the company’s green supplying chain is crucial in the company. The vision is utmost customer centric and the company introduces strategies that aim to meet the needs of the customers. They continue to track and monitor energy and waste resources, carbon emissions through measuring their output. This will enable them to determine the percentage of gas emission in order not to affect the environment. Wal-Mart should carry out research on the current climate of rapid technology change and should include it in the learning perspective.

The financial objectives have a relationship with the suppliers’ scorecard. This is because Wal-Mart can use financial perspectives in determining of the transformation of strategy that leads to economic achievements. Wal-Mart can use the balanced scorecard in measuring financial performance especially revenue growth and cost reduction from energy and waste efficiency. Financial performance will help the company to measure the effectiveness of other perspectives. This will quantify many things thus making analysis of more accurate records thus finding the solutions more effectively (Stickney, Brown and Wahlen, 2007).

The relationship between customer service objective and developing future leaders within the organization are closely interconnected. This is because if an organization trains their workers, they will enable them to meet the objective of customer service. Skilled leaders can be able to meet the needs of customers, which is satisfaction. Customer perspective is the leading indicator in any business and incase the customer does not get satisfaction they may find another suppliers who will meet their needs. The customer perspective can enable Wal-Mart to meet their objectives through implementing changes that are necessary in achieving the company’s goals.

The internal business process objectives can be related to improving on the company’s green supplying chain objective. The internal processes focus on certain key processes that are essential in a company. They are based on the value proposition such as Wal-Mart’s operational excellence. It uses certain metrics such as on-time delivery waste reduction and average cost per transaction made in order to determine its performance (K. Laudon and J. Laudon, 2009). The internal processes focus on customer satisfaction and they ensure that their customers and shareholders are satisfied.

References

Kaplan, R. S, & Nortion,D.P. (2011).Balanced Scorecard Basics. Retrieved on May 24, 2011 from http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/AbouttheBalancedScorecard/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2009). Essentials of management information systems. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Stickney, C. P., Brown, P. R., & Wahlen, J. M. (2007). Financial reporting, financial statement

analysis, and valuation: A strategic perspective. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.