Wal-Mart's expansion to the medical area

I read an article about Wal-Mart's expansion to the medical area. Originally, Wal- Mart is popular in glocery area. But now Wal-Mart decided to challenge in medical area. When they started the business, many critics said that they will fail in the business because medical area is something like professional area. But now the drug and health business is about 9% of the all Wal-Mart's revenue. Wal-Mart always considers changes. The management is so amazing and creative. Even if they are a leading company in the world, they always innovate themselves.
Then How they developed the medical area? They catched the baby- boomer generation. A few years later, they will be almost 50 years old. At that age, people always think that they have to manage their health. But the generation is too many and the market couldn't supply enough amount of drugs and health foods. Wal-Mart knew the problem, and they started to supply many medical stuffs at low prices. The price is almost half of the generic drug stores. For the low price supply, they always find many channels. Accordingly, their strategy is low-cost, and it also benefits to the dividends. Now Wal-Mart's stock price is almost $60.
The health market is always confused because of prescriptions. When people want drugs, there are some drugs that cannot buy or sell if the buyer don't have prescription. Wal-Mart solved the problem. They supply good quality drugs that can buy without prescriptions. And the drugs are very effective to human body. They also supply drugs that are so cheap that even low income consumers can buy. In America, the costs of medical insurance are very high. Therefore, many Americans don't have the insurances. Wal-Mart catched the point and supply cheap drugs that can be available without medical insurance. Through these strategies, Wal-Mart could achieve humongous profit.
Then how is their employee management? The management of Wal-Mart provide good service to their employees. Employees can benefit from insurances and also can enjoy the openness of Wal-Mart. Actually, Wal-Mart don't demand employees to work hard everyday. Instead, they try to motivate employees to work creatively. In other words, Wal-Mart's employees are not simple workers. They are co-managers. They can suggest their idea to the management and sometimes their idea can be achieved. I think these cultures are one of the most good point of Wal-Mart.
In Korea, there are few companies like Wal-Mart. In fact, Wal-Mart completely failed in Korea. I think Korean has special character when they buy something. Korean focuses on the quality and brand. Actually, Wal-Mart thought that cheap products can penetrate korean market. But they ignored korea's specialty. They buy satisfaction that can be achieved by good service and sometimes high price. Accordingly, Wal-Mart's case cannot adapt to the Korea. But I think we can learn many important points from Wal-Mart. Their customer management or company cuture is the example. Also, we have to learn Wal-Mart to expand ourselves to the world. Because Wal-Mart rules the world's retailing market except Korea. Now it's the time to challenge. I think Korean retailing companies can be world class companies.

Author: Pallavi Gogoi
Title: Wal-Mart, Your Friendly Drugstore
Date: June 5, 2008, 12:10AM EST
Page: 2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2008/db2008064_545169.htm
entry # 13 20700067