Family Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Family Business - Essay Example History has it that many of the current successful company. Many of these companies were started by a family but later were sold to the public. In a family business the level of outside employees is limited and the family members are involved in the running of the business. Even in place where the external members are involved, the top positions of running the business are allocated to the family members. Some of the most successful family business includes Cargill, Ford Motor Company, Koch Industries, Mills Fleet Farm, Tetra Park, and others. 3It has been shown that a business that is started and run by the family always succeed due to some basic elements that are attached to such business. There have been several researches that have been carried out on family businesses. This research will try to look at some of the findings of these researches in order to understand the dynamics of family businesses and why they are likely to succeed compared to other business. 4Management of a family business present one of the most complex business organization compared to others. This is because the business is driven by linkages in the family members which are often emotion. It presents a problem in managing the emotional family ownership and rational needs of the business. This creates a fertile ground that nurtures conflict at many levels in the running of the business. 5This is mostly presented in times of generational shifts where there are uncertainties on the interest an leadership competence of the inheriting generation family members makes the running and management of the business more vulnerable. Though most of these businesses succeed, they are usually faced with problems like any other business in the course of their operation. It has been shown that a family business may come with some of the worst business crisis especially in issues relating to succession. Planning a succession in a family business has been shown as a unique problem that most of these businesses face in the course of their operation. 6The interests of diverse family members always conflict one another not only on the issues of succession but also on other issues like hiring of another members. For example it has been shown that there is allows a conflicts when family members have to decide the ones who will be hired for running managerial jobs and sometime favours in the family may make the family to hire a member who is less competent than others which leads to underperforming of the business. Sometime conflicts in family business have been shown even to end up in courts. But unlike in other business wh ere the magnitude of the conflict may lead to underperformance of the businesses, the conflict in a family businesses has been shown to be successfully controlled from inside before it bursts to the lime light of the law courts. There are usually means to try and resolve the conflict in a family set up before it is taken to the courts. One of the great problems that are encountered in running of family business conflict has been the difficult that is encountered especially by parents in resolving the conflicts with their sons. The parents are sometimes torn between the love of their children and the interest of the families. One example is given of Stew Leonard's

Business Analysis of Wal-Mart Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Analysis of Wal-Mart - Research Paper Example Wal-Mart is among the top ranked discount stores in USA and it is also leader of the country’s retail industry.The store was the first one to introduce the concept of providing low price goods and services to customers at their convenience by locating its stores nearby customers’ residency. The store was the first one to introduce the concept of providing low price goods and services to customers at their convenience by locating its stores nearby customers’ residency. In 1962, first Wal-Mart store was opened in Rogers, Arkansas. According to Freeman (2006), Wal-Mart is given the top ranking in terms of the total sales that are made by the store alone. The retail offers variety of products that comprise of family apparel, electronics, household needs, electronics, fabrics, jewellery, shoes, crafts, health and beauty products and lawn and garden accessories along with pharmacy store, Photo processing centre and Tire and Lube Express (Walmart Stores, 2012). In 1991, Wal-Mart opened its first store in Mexico and marked the beginning of its international operations. Currently, Wal-Mart has about 10,185 stores and also locations of clubs in almost twenty-seven countries; it is employing more than 2.2 million people who are serving approximately 176 million numbers of customers every year (Next-Generation Wal-Mart, 2012). The annual growth rate of store is about 22% in country and internationally it is about 58% (Ambartsoumian, 2011). Financial Statements Analysis In order to evaluate the performance of any business, it is important to analyze its performance both from its financial statements and by doing comparison with its competitors. First, it is important to review the performance of Wal-Mart in the last couple of years which can be extracted from evaluation of its financial statements. The summary of financial performance of Wal-Mart is represented in the form of table after analyzing its Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Statement of Cas h Flows (ttm stands for Trailing Twelve Months): The above table shows that company’s performance is increasing despite recession going on in the world. Management of the store is effective as is evident from the ratios of Return on Assets and Return on Equity; it shows that management is performing its function properly so that store’s performance gets boosted. Wal-Mart’s financial statements’ analysis shows that it is still in multi-billion bracket and is also paying off good amount of dividends to its shareholders. One area of concern is total debt to equity ratio which is higher; the company that is performing well has lower debt to equity ratio. The main reason for increase in debt is its heavy investment done in technological avenues which were done via loans from banks and financial institutions. The current ration of store is also less than 1 which is not a good indication because it shows that current assets of store are less than current liabili ties. Although considering its stock market performance which is showing increasing trend but there are some issues internally that needs to be addressed. Since the competition in retail industry is getting competitive, it is mandatory for the stores to ensure that they can compete with the existing and new entrants in the market. Overall, financial health of store is fine and smoothly progressing in retail industry; it is expected to grow exponentially worldwide. However, the main area of concern for management team is its current ration and rise in expenses; the team will have to ensure that it is able to pay off its debts well within agreed time period. Competitor Analysis The main competitors of Wal-Mart are Target Corporation and Costco. According to Ambartsoumian (2011), discount retailers growth