Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s (NYSE:WMT) "behind closed doors" meetings with its store managers and industry analysts last week was probably meant to be a "no holds barred" session" where the world's largest retailer tries to gain a foothold into the best operating strategy it can with lessons from past failures along with store-level and industry feedback.One of the most talked-about subjects, most likely, as this recent meeting was how to attack red-hot competitor Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), who is undoubtedly taking pieces of marketshare away from stodgy Wal-Mart. There are issues of merchandise presentation, name brands, perceived quality (notice I didn't say (real quality"), and even corporate image. I'll bet these were talked about heavily last week.
If not, Wal-Mart is barking up the wrong forest of trees in part (or in whole). Is Wal-Mart really going to struggle in 2007 to re-capture marketshare from hipper, faster rivals and can it re-brand itself from the image it has with customers right now? If you ask me, the re-imaging part is going to require an effort of Herculean proportions, and Wal-Mart has the money and talent to do it.
But does it have the desire to execute?
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