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Comparison between two retail companies picked are Walmart and Costco

The two retail companies picked are Walmart and Costco whose 2017 Financial statement links are provided below: WALMART https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/ wmt/financials?query=income- statement COSTCO https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/ cost/financials?query=income- statement Both organizations are well known brands and position themselves well with their customer base. Walmart’s value proposition is “We save people money so they can live better”. On the other hand, Costco’s value proposition is “All-in-one convenience and everyday affordability”. Both retailers focus on cost saving for their customers. Looking at their financial statements and by analyzing them a few key areas are evident when comparing the two organization. Looking at the current ratio and quick ratio we can determine the short-term solvency of each organization. The current ratio can be determined by dividing the assets by the liabilities. Walmart’s current ratio sits at 0.86 while Costco’s sits at 0.99. The quick ratio is c...
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Can new employees change a company’s culture?

  • New employees might influence those around them including peers and immediate leaders. But their impact is limited.Unless their new ideas, work patterns and others are identified by leaders and supported by core employees, further accepted by employees. New employees may change a company’s culture with a slow process.

  • Under what condition, change is not possible?

My understanding of “change is not possible” includes two situations:one is a failure of change and the other is somehow a company sticks to change plan and complete it, but the productivity remains as before. This kind change accomplishment has no reason to be celebrated.

There is a rough equation, change=culture+business+measurement metrics. A company would expect a success of change to thoroughly consider the above equation and vice Versa.

  • How can leaders leverage their culture to affect change?

Change is an opportunity to align operations with strategy for improving the business.(Strebel,1996).Strategy, implementation, measurement metrics, culture all will contribute to a company’s transformation , reengineering and other changes. A culture which support the change should be set up.And then reinforce this culture with innovative measurements and existing corporate culture systems.

One negative exemple

Sometimes even the top managers don’t figure out what change means. 

Southwest Airlines’ strategy was to offer “low fares with one-class cabins, homogenous fleets, and point-to-point routes” with a supportive culture — flying planes to serve people and create a new market. This world largest low-cost carrier records a 43 years of profitability. Another companies saw the flourishing business which Southwest enjoyed and they rushed to change and simply copied Southwest’s strategy but all failed. The underlying reason lies in lack of supportive culture. Traditional carriers hold the long-held knowledge about what they are doing, why they do, how they behave , etc. They didn’t recognize themselves in a service business, still look into metrics of how capturing market share and the utilization rate of planes rather than caring more about serving people.(Bonchek&Libert,2017)

Reference

Mark Bonchek, Barry Libert.2017. To change your strategy, first change how you think. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/to-change-your-strategy-first-change-how-you-think
Paul Strebel, 1996. Why do employees resist change? Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1996/05/why-do-employees-resist-change

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