Strategic management is a critical aspect of any company which helps an organization develop and implement the policies and plans to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. In Fortune, Walmart is leading the charts in the 2020 rankings once again as the most admired company, while other notable U.S. companies in the top 10 include Apple, Amazon, and AT&T (Fortune, 2020). Walmart has strong corporate governance led by its board of directors, chaired by Gregory B. Penner. From the Walmart Inc. 2020 annual report, the company’s total revenue for the 2020 financial year is $523,964 million, and the figure has been on an increasing trend in the past five years (Walmart Inc., 2020). To rise to the top and maintain the spot for five straight years, a company needs robust strategic management by the board of directors.
From the above data, it is evident that the boards of directors of these most admired companies, such as Walmart, apply several strategic management approaches to enable the achievement of organizational goals. The board first specifies organizational objectives and develops the policies and plans, which it implements by allocating the resources. With globalization, the current world has a highly competitive market, and the management teams must find ways to rise to the top. Walmart relies on its board of directors’ clear identification, prioritization, and exploitation of opportunities while avoiding the threats in this competitive environment. This organization’s effective strategic management tools include SWOT analysis, PEST model, Porter’s five forces, strategy map, and the balanced scorecard. Walmart’s board of directors has also mastered the art of analyzing external and internal environments to maximize resource allocation to enable the achievement of organizational goals. This approach helps the organization increase its triple bottom line and build a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market or industry, thereby creating value for their employees, clients, shareholders, and society.
References
Fortune. (2020). Fortune 500. Web.
Walmart Inc. 2020 annual report [PDF document]. Web.