Walmart Reducing Board Members To Improve Efficiency

Four board members of Walmart leave, while its shrink its board down with the hopes of quick decision making and more efficiency.

Walmart announced its plans on Thursday of making changes to its board of members and making itself more compatible with the corporate world of the United States, and improve efficiency to make quicker decisions. The giant retail chain is going to cut down its board number to 12 which were 15 before; it hopes that this change will make it compete in a better manner in the diverse market today. 

The grocery chain will make this decision effective after its annual shareholders meeting which is going to be held on June 3 this year at the Bud Walton Arena, University of Arkansas. Board members Jim Walton, Aida Alvarez, Roger Corbett and Mike Duke are going to retire but will not be standing for re-elections, thus they will be leaving the organization officially. Chairman Greg Penner said, 'With these retirements, we view this as a time to make our board more nimble, while maintaining its independence and further aligning on Walmart’s strategic priorities.'

Walmart Wholesale has nominated Steuart Walton for election to the board of directors, thus the number in when this is done will be 12, meeting the US corporate standards. Steuart is the son of Jim Walton, who will be retiring after the annual shareholder meeting, making this assignment a leadership transition going to the next generation this time to the Walton family. Steuart Walton has a good amount of experience according to his past, he has worked Allen & Overy, LLP  in London handling non US entities equities and debts, and has even worked at Walmart International handling the acquisitions and merges. Stueart is also the chief executive and founder of Game Composites, Ltd.

Aida Alvarez, who is leaving the retail chain, has been a member of US President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. Mike Duke was the chief executive of Walmart stores at some point from 2009 till 2014. With these departures and reduction in the department of board of directors, the retailer hope to achieve high efficiency and make itself more adaptable to customers’ demands and changes in the corporate world of the US. 

Walmart will be able to remain 67% independent once all these changes have been made for good with five independent board members. The company hopes that this will make the board refreshing with new and best talent possible. The Walton family stays in the board of directors and has had three members so far because they are aware of what the business is really about, since this Walton founded the retail chain. The restructuring will begin in June, once everything is in order the members retire.

WalMart Launches Global Shop To Take On Market Leaders

Wal-Mart will take on Amazon and Alibaba in the Chinese market through its Global Shop service.

Alibaba is currently the uncrowned king of the online retailing industry in China. The company solely dominates the Chinese e-commerce industry and is accountable for a massive 80% market share in the industry. It was the only company, which was running business-to-business platform such as Alibaba.com and business-to-consumer platforms such as Aliexpress.com, Tmall.com, and Taobao Marketplace. Recently, a local player ‘JD.com’ and international rival ‘Amazon’ has been trying to give troubles to the e-commerce leader in China.

In a short span of time, the industry which had no competition for Alibaba Group turned upside down with the entrance of new players competing for the larger market share. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has also decided to take on Alibaba and that too in its mainland. The US retailing giant has already launched an attractive new service to offer excellent quality imported goods and items to the Chinese consumers. Alibaba just announced that it might surpass Wal-Mart to become the world’s largest retailer.

Walmart Stores already owns top name brands of the United Kingdom such as Asda. For now, it still is known as the biggest retailer in the world and being the biggest is no surprise that it is exploring opportunities to expand in probably the biggest e-commerce market in the world.

The President and CEO of Walmart China, Sean Clarke, said in a statement during the launch, “Cross-border e-commerce service is a good supplement and extension to our stores. Wal-Mart aims to be the most reliable retailer in China, no matter online or offline.”

Irrespective of the service and goods that Walmart wants to bring in the Chinese market, it would face a stiff and tough competition from the likes of market leader Alibaba Group and JD.com, which are the local established business. It also meets its domestic rival Amazon in the international market and will go head to head for a larger market share. Amazon also deals in importing global brand to Chinese consumers.

Last year, Alibaba was ramping up its activities to add top name Western brands on its online marketplaces so that the Chinese consumers get to buy the foreign products as well. That time, Alibaba boasted to have brands like Burberry, Estee Lauder, and L’Occitane.

Walmart officials said in a statement that in the beginning, it eyes to sell 200 products in the region that will include the US brand Aveeno and Starbucks. The company currently has 500,000 users on its smartphone app. It initially launched in China in 1996 and since then it has managed to open 400 stores over there. The US retailer holds 51% stake in Yihaodian, which is a reputable Chinese e-commerce platform.

Walmart Makes Job Cuts At Its Headquarters

Walmart made job cuts at its its headquarters in Arkansas on Thursday in its information division department.

Walmart Store Inc. has done it again; it was reported to trim down its workforce at its main headquarters situated in Arkansas. The retailer is now cutting jobs in the information systems division between 1 to 3% of the department, however the exact number has not been disclosed.

The multinational grocery chain hometown and headquarter is situated in Bentonville, Arkansas where it’s planning to make the job cuts. According to rough estimation almost 100 jobs will be removed from the facility. It has made headlines of trimming down its workforce ever now and then in the recent months and is no stranger to being pressurized by labor agencies for the mistreatment of workers. However it has offered severance packages, job replacements and transfers to the employees who will get affected by the company’s decision of job cuts.

Walmart Stores Inc. made a statement informing that it takes its people seriously, and conducts evaluations frequently of its workers and their positions. It said that it is cautious and takes action of what needs to be done to make the business successful, like other companies do, and sometimes this includes removing a few positions, and later hiring new ones.

The job cuts are being made in the Walmart Wholesale information system division, at the headquarters, where the employees work on in-store tech collaborating with WalmartLabs. However on the 15^th of January both these departments were merged into a singular one, under the name, ‘Walmart technology’. A spokesperson for the company informed that this recent trim down is not being done as a restructuring process but other purposes. The retail chain made 450 job cuts back in October at its headquarter and is doing it again.

Walmart Stores warehouse chain, the Sam’s Club even had to make 150 job cuts in January; it even shut down many of its stores in the United States which were not providing it with much profit, in order to save costs. This recent plan of the company for making more job cuts will affect the community and the area to a certain extent. It has to save money mostly because it has to invest in its e-commerce business as customers prefer online shopping more these days.

Walmart is modifying its existing stores and renovating them, it even increased its employees’ wages for better output and better customer experience. Its fourth quarter earnings report was lower than expected in terms of sales, which ended up shocking many investors.