How did Wal-Mart’s original strategy of locating stores in small rural towns help the company to achieve a competitive advantage?

When analyzing cases, be sure that you fully answer all questions listed below.
How did Wal-Mart’s original strategy of locating stores in small rural towns help the company to achieve a competitive advantage?
How would you describe Wal-Mart’s business level strategy and business model?
What are the key factors (in addition to location strategy) underpinning Wal-Mart’s successful implementation of its business level strategy?
Once Wal-Mart had saturated the opportunity presented by small towns, how did the company keep growing?
What criticisms can be levelled at Wal-Mart’s business practices? How might the company respond?
How should Wal-Mart respond to the rise of online shopping, and Amazon in particular?
You will also want to consider covering the following areas when answering the above questions:
Case History: Look for critical incidents in company growth, and determine why they are important.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Identify the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses, and how they relate to the company’s value function.
Opportunities and Threats: Identify the opportunities and threats that exist in the company’s environment, and analyze them using the Competitive Forces Model and life-cycle model.
SWOT Analysis: Balance the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to create a competitive position for the company.
Corporate-Level Strategy: Identify the company’s mission and goals, and evaluate the company’s corporate strategy based on lines of business, subsidiaries, and acquisitions.
Business-Level Strategy: Determine if the company is using a differentiation, focus, or low-cost strategy, and what the company’s investment strategy is. Decide if company’s functional competencies are sufficient for achieving SWOT strategy.
Structure and Control Systems: Identify company’s structure and control system, and specify how they match or don’t match the company’s strategy.
Financial Analysis: Analyze company’s financial position based on profit, liquidity, activity, leverage, shareholder-return ratios, and cash flow. Make recommendations for improving the company’s financial position.
Recommendations: Offer recommendations for improving the company’s strategy and competitive position which flow logically from the SWOT and financial analyses. Analyze what the company must do to implement those recommendations.

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