BUS 5112 Portfolio Assignment Unit 1

1. Amazon.
com Mission statement is “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers
can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices.” Is this mission statement market-oriented, product-oriented, production-
oriented or futuristic? Why?
Answer:
The mission statement of Amazon put the satisfaction of customers as the main priority. Amazon’s
mission to be customer-centric, serve anything the customer want from online purchasing, and offer the
lowest possible prices to customer. According to Kotler and Keller (2016), to put the main priorityin
customer’s satisfaction is the characteristic of the market-oriented business (also known as customer-
oriented).
Rather than being focused on product, Amazon is focusing on satisfying customer’s needs. The
customer’s needs will always be there forever, while products and technologies will always updating and
the old product and technology will eventually become out of date. By focusing on customer’s needs,
Amazon will put more effort on listening and researching the customer. Thus, any changes in trends of
the customer’s needs can be captured quickly and Amazon can make some improvements and relevant
adaptation in their strategy and their plan.
2. The purpose of strategic planning is to find ways in which an organization can best use its strengths to
take advantage of opportunities within the environment. In the past, Wal-Mart mission statement was,
“We deliver low prices, every day.” Currently, Wal- Mart’s corporate mission is “to save people money
so they can live better.Using the knowledge from strategic formulation and unit’s reading, provide a
possible reason for review of Wal-Mart’s mission statement.
Answer:
There are some possible reasons available for Walmart mission statement. In the past Walmart is not an
online digital company. Walmart have many stores across the USA. By implementing efficient supply
chain management system and minimize the operating cost, Walmart is able to reach the economies of
scale (Hyde, 2019). Therefore, Walmart can deliver low prices. By delivering low prices, Walmart gain
lower margin than his competitors, but Walmart gain high volume of sales. In this case, having a lower
margin is a trade-off in economies of scale. This strategy can be seen as production-oriented strategy,
because Walmart focuse more on the production and procurement process. On the other hand, this
strategy also satisfies only a certain segment of customers in the market. Now Walmart and his
competitors go digital. The game has changed by development of technology. Walmart is shifting his
focus towards more customer-oriented strategy. In addition, by making customer segmentation and
serving their different needs will enable Walmart to gain a higher margin. Although the main strategy is
still providing competitive price, by segmenting the customers Walmart can better provide ideal offer to
each segment of customers, and to better define what each segment needs in order to save their
money. This strategy enable Walmart to reach wider range of customer segments in the current
market.
3. Take a moment and reflect on the topics introduced in this Unit. Formulate at least one question that
arose while you were reading the material and completing the assignments. Was there anything in this
Unit that surprised you or caught your attention? Explain.
Answer:
I believe that pure marketing strategy do not always work. It must be a balanced combination between
production, financial management, supply chain, and marketing. It needs time to develop a fully
working and balanced combination, and it is always changing through time and relevant development
according to the market research. From my personal point of view, I understand that it will takes years
to gain such a valuable skill in marketing strategy (I believe in The 10,000-Hour Rule by Gladwell (2008)).
My question is: how can we spot the unbalanced combination in a company before we realize that the
growth of the company is somewhat retarded? The thing that caught my attention is the way we see the
concept of 4P in different way. Product (creating value), Promotion (communicating value), Place
(delivering value), Price (exchanging value). It really changes the orientation from product-oriented to
value-oriented.
Reference:
Gladwell M. 2008. Outliers: The story of success. Little, Brown. Hyde, R. (2019). The Momentum, And
Methods, Behind Walmart's Model. Retrieved 20 November 2020, from
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/011815/how-walmart-model- wins everyday-
low-prices.asp Kotler P, Keller KL. 2016. Marketing Management 15th Global Edition. England: Pearson
Education Limited.

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