IndexCourse ConceptsLearning SourcesConclusionRecently I came across the news that global retail company Walmart will buy India's largest retailer Flipkart by paying $16 billion for a controlling stake by 77% (Pham, 2018). However, I also read about Flipkart widening its losses to 68% in fiscal 2017 and its valuation falling to $11.6 billion. I have been looking at why an international retail company will purchase a company that has recently suffered huge losses, which led me to think that this acquisition may be part of Walmart's overall strategic move. Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores and has 11,718 stores and clubs in 28 countries operating under different names (“Walmart,” 2018). Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company based in Bangalore, India. It expanded its products from books to consumer electronics, fashion and lifestyle products and had a 39.5% market share in the Indian e-commerce sector. Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart would be the country's largest acquisition and the world's largest purchase of an e-commerce company. This deal will include new investments of $2 billion that will increase the value of Flipkart to $22 billion, which could be Walmart's strategy to deal with the global expansion of its rival Amazon ("Walmart acquires Flipkart for $16 billion in world's largest e-commerce deal", 2018). However, it is assumed that Walmart will use Flipkart's expertise to strengthen its global expansion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Course Concepts Getting started with acquisition, an economic activity that creates synergies, economies of scale, and increases market power and contributes to economic growth. It happens when an acquiring firm holds a significant stake in the target firm by purchasing the target firm's assets or capital, which plays an important role in future growth. However, Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart is considered to be the biggest acquisition and the biggest purchase that will provide Walmart access to the most attractive retail market in terms of size and growth rate that Walmart was trying to suppress since time but failed due to regulations. My personal experience is that I thought acquisitions were just the collaboration of two organizations, but in reality there are always strategic reasons behind it which ensures the future growth of the company and can be an entry method for the buyer to gain l access to compete globally by moving resources into higher potential markets. Other concepts are supply chain management system and resource and capability variables. Supply Chain Management is an active supply chain of activities such as product development, production procurement, and logistics, as well as an efficient information system to coordinate these activities. Whereas resources are goods, company attributes, information, knowledge etc. which help implement strategies that the ability to integrate improves efficiency and effectiveness, capabilities are the company's different resources to deliver valuable products. As a buyer, Walmart is looking forward to implementing its superior supply chain management system to bring online grocery expertise and a strong food supply chain to become thebest food retailer in the world as this large retail company operates 11,000 stores in 27 countries around the world. in the world and manages on average inventories of 32 billion dollars. However, Walmart sees Flipkart's ecosystem as a real asset to its resources and capabilities due to its strong hold on Indian e-commerce. Which consists; General items as the main business, Jabong and Myntra apparel business as a complementary platform, its unique logistics network as a business platform. As for my learning experience, I think about concepts like supply chain management and resources and capabilities variables were not clear to me and were new to me, but I got a clear picture of all these concepts during the lectures and article-based discussions. All concepts have interconnectivity with acquisition. Decisions on mergers and acquisitions or entry modes for global expansion are always driven by the implementation and consideration process. A buyer always considers the resources and capabilities and the technological progress of the target company to be variable because every acquisition or merger has a strategic reason for future growth. Sources of Learning I think it is important to mention that I learned the most from Professor Bonita as she has vast knowledge and experience in this area. The slides of stories and incidents from his international research and the videos he shows in class have always interested me in learning the concepts behind it. The class discussions and articles I read, which encouraged me to learn all the concepts and contributed positively to my interest in this topic. However, I was reluctant to participate in discussions, but gradually I increased my knowledge and started participating in discussions. I became familiar with the fundamentals of global strategic management through reading articles and case studies. Furthermore, all course material is comprehensive, informative and practically driven by real case studies of international companies. The weekly IB questions always challenged me to push my thinking over the wall, even though I couldn't do very well in those, but I learned to see the global movements and international agreements of multinational companies from an analytical perspective. For example, IB question related to Tencent Holding Limited, Disney and GitHub etc. it forced me to think critically and put a lot of effort into understanding the concepts. Most of the basic concepts I understood in depth while answering IB question four, Tencent Holdings Ltd. I learned about PESTEL factors, growth strategies, Porters five forces and company core competencies, VRIO in this IB application. However, I learned about the impact of organizational restructuring and acquisitions in questions about Disney IB. Apart from that, it also improved my research skills by studying the concepts, their implementation and impact as an overall strategy which brainstormed in my mind and improved my analytical skills. Please note: this is just an example. Get a customized document from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Conclusion However, I found this course to be highly informative and I believe that my knowledge and skills have increased as I have taken this course and done all the assignments so far. I updated my knowledge on the institutional and industrial factors that influence global strategies. I have expanded my knowledge on the internationalization process of a company and the role of subsidiaries as they use their core competencies and.