Every large company has ideas and some are good and some just do not work. In the retail sector, senior executives look at Amazon and think how can we fend them off? they think about SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The biggest retail in the world, Walmart thought about Amazon and came up with a solution – Walmart has the largest workforce in the retail world, some of its workers would likely welcome the opportunity to deliver packages to their customers. In an article by Nadita Bose of Reuters, for Walmart the advantages were: tap into their massive work force, boost e-commerce, lower shipping fees, and all would benefit. In Walmart’s executive minds lead by Marc Lore head of ecommerce – this could be a gamechanger – workers who make $11 a hour, could earn extra money after their shift. The advantage is with 4,700 stores with 16 miles of 90% of the US population. The idea at the moment is people shop on line, but come to the store to pick up the items. However if Walmart found a good way to deliver groceries, thing would be different.

The reality according the article for the process did not work. Workers realized after working at Walmart, they really did not want to deliver packages. Not surprisingly, Walmart wanted people to use their own vehicles, the program was set up with mileage but that was soon discontinued. Workers often had to wait to pick up the packages which was unpaid, and delivering 5 packages over 2 hours added $15.50 to the pay packet.

Under a new model, workers are hired to be a delivery driver and maybe do store work. The pay is slightly higher at $18.30 for 5 packages over 2 hours. Maybe Walmart should team up with Uber and have package delivery?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies have great or good ideas, the execution to make a profit is what determines if the company is going to be profitable. In the case of Walmart, while they have many people, the people at the store level are seen as one more input. Looking back, the first model works for a small or start up company, not for a large one. The model has to make sense for the company’s culture in order to be executed properly. As you examine your company’s see how it executes its goals.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.