ABSTRACT
Today, Wal-Mart’s “economy” is actually larger than Ireland’s (with a 2014 market capitalization of $244.17 billion). 1 However, back in 2005, Lee Scott (the CEO at the time) felt that Wal-Mart was in trouble. The company’s growth was stagnant, it was receiving pushback from various stakeholder groups, and its international expansion was not very successful. The company was also engaged in numerous lawsuits, received an enormous amount of bad press for failing to provide a living wage and healthcare to over half of its employees, and was being accused of gender discrimination and the destruction of local economies. 2 Sales growth had slowed in previously prosperous stores, and its stock price (after rising 1,205 percent during the 1990s) had fallen 30 percent since Scott took over in 2000. 3
