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Supplier Article |
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Supplier development serves customers worldwide
The customer is always No. 1. It's how we end every Wal-Mart
cheer and it's the driving force behind our business.
This commitment to customers begins with collaboration
and the collective work of suppliers who provide invaluable
energy, creativity and consumer insights around the world.
However, six years ago our global relationships with
suppliers were very different from today. We knew we
had an opportunity to improve communications, establish
a higher level of trust and more proactively develop
joint business plans. We also understood improving these
relationships and increasing business visibility with
our suppliers would be essential to serving our mutual
customers and to establishing a foundation for a future
in which global operations were expected to contribute
more significantly to Wal-Mart's overall growth.
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The result of this thought process was the creation in 2000 of the supplier
development group and a set of strategies we believed would help Wal-Mart better
serve customers worldwide. Chief among these strategies was closer collaboration
with suppliers and the creation of joint business plans that extend well beyond
the upcoming year. Joint business planning enables Wal-Mart and our suppliers
to align strategies to improve sales, plan key item launches, improve consumer
insight and build category captains. We are able to better understand customers
shopping our increasingly diverse array of retail formats by sharing in-depth
insights and emerging category trends.
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