Wal-Mart

Text 2

Comprehension

Ex. 1.

A. Study the meaning of the following words:

1. aim (n) – purpose, object;

2. end (n) – purpose, aim (to this end);

3. goal (n) – object of efforts or ambition;

4. objective (n) – object aimed at, purpose;

5. purpose (n) – that which one means to do;

6. target (n) – total which it is desired to reach.

B. Choose the right word in italics:

1. All our objectives/purposes were won.

2. The end/aim justifies the means.

3. For what goal/purpose do you want to go to Canada?

4. He has only one aim/target in life – to make a fortune.

Ex. 2. Express in one word:

– person who controls a business;

– ability to do sth expertly and well;

– set of interdependent parts that processes inputs into outputs;

– settlement of a question;

– managed system designed and operated to achieve a specific set of objectives;

– people who work directly on a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of the others;

– individuals who initiate and oversee new projects, make decisions about the use of the organization’s resources, and are concerned with planning, organizing, leading and controlling the organization’s activities so as to reach the organization’s objectives.

Ex. 3. Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.

A	B
1) achieve	a) executive
2) managerial	b) efficiently
3) manage	c) top
4) effectively	d) accomplish
5) function	e) worker
6) upper	f) operate
7) operative	g) control/govern

Ex. 1. Complete the sentences using information from the text:

Another thing that makes management … is that the work situation … ….

To make a … manager, some basic … are essential.

Managers may be classified according to their … … within the organization.

Middle managers are those managers who receive broad statements of … … … from upper-level managers and develop … … … ….

Ex. 2. Answer the questions to the text:

1. What are a company’s objectives?

2. What types of resources is manager in control of?

3. What are the six managerial skills?

4. Which do you think is the most important of these? Give your reasoning.

5. Describe the four managerial functions.

6. Give the three levels of management authority.

7. Describe factors that shape business environment.

Scan the text and find Sam Walton’s managerial decisions that ensured the success of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, an American retailer was founded 40 years ago by Sam Walton. He opened his first Wal-Mart store, in Rogers, Arkansas on 2 July 1962. He was 44 at that time.

Initially, Sam Walton set up traditional retail outlets with relatively high prices. But then on he sought to drive out unnecessary costs wherever he could, all with the aim of bringing prices down.

Since Walton was operating on small profit margins he appreciated the need for growth. If you are not going to make much on each item you had better sell a lot of them. Walton would fly around America literally looking at the land below. When he saw a piece of property that was fairly near to a few small towns he would land the plane, buy the property and order a new Wal-Mart to be built.

Compared to most city centre supermarkets Wal-Mart stores are enormous and offer an extremely wide range of goods: everything from food to mobile phones, CDs, prams, paint, cameras, tools, bikes and so on. Wal-Mart stores have now become something of a national institution in America.

Sam Walton not only brought about the dominance of low-price stores in America, he also appreciated the importance of information technology very early. In the late 1960s he visited IBM to find the best person he could, hired him and got him to computerise Wal-Mart’s operations. Nowadays Wal-Mart’s computer database is second only to the Pentagon’s in capacity.

In the 30 years before his death in 1992 Walton built an empire that turned him into the wealthiest man in America and led the way in retailing worldwide. There are now over 1,700 Wal-Mart stores in the USA. Wal-Mart also has over 1,000 stores outside America. Its profits last year were an astonishing $6bn and the company’s market value was over $260bn. Wal-Mart became the biggest company in the world in terms of sales.

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