Wal-Mart outlines vision as "company of the future"
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) must be a "company of the future" that embraces advances such as electronic health records or hybrid cars to drive down costs, keep prices low and tackle issues the government may not be able to solve, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
"We live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems," said CEO Lee Scott.
"But at Wal-Mart, we don't see the sidelines that politicians see. And we do not wait for someone else to solve problems that might hurt our business or affect our customers in a negative way."
Instead, Scott said Wal-Mart will use its heft as the world's largest retailer to push for changes in health care, energy consumption and sourcing.
Scott delivered the speech at a meeting for more than 7,000 U.S. store managers, which was held in Kansas City, Missouri. An advanced copy of his speech was provided to the media.
His latest speech built on one he delivered in October 2005, when he first outlined Wal-Mart's environmental efforts. While the goals, such as one day using only renewable energy and creating zero waste, are seen as a way to help the environment, they also are meant to help Wal-Mart cut costs.
Many of the goals Scott outlined on Wednesday were aimed at helping Wal-Mart strip out excess costs and promote low prices at a time when its core lower-income shoppers are being squeezed by a deteriorating housing market, higher food and fuel costs and a credit market crunch.
"We see our customers having to choose between filling up their gas tanks or buying food and medicine and clothes," Scott said, adding that, in the United States, out-of-pocket energy costs for working families have doubled over the past decade.
"These families now spend an estimated 17 percent of their monthly income on energy. Somebody has to do something."
He added Wal-Mart is working with its suppliers to make the most "energy intensive" products in its stores 25 percent more energy efficient within three years.
He also said that, by 2010, the retailer wants all its flat-panel TVs to be 30 percent more energy efficient.
On the health care front, he said Wal-Mart will partner with doctors to increase the number of electronic prescriptions that it fills in the United States to 8 million by the end of year. That would mark a nearly 400 percent increase in e-prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart, he said.
Scott also said Wal-Mart will contract with "select employers" to help them manage how they process and pay prescription drug claims, seeing an opportunity to take out "unnecessary costs." A company spokesman declined to provide more details on the program.
Wal-Mart also will provide electronic health records to U.S. employees and their family members by the end of 2010.
"These records will be personal, private and portable. They will drive down costs and improve quality and safety," he said. Continued...
