This presentation profiles the organizational and communication structures of five of the world's most successful American companies--Walmart, Inc., Google, Inc., Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., and Costco, Inc. Chronicling their beginnings, this presentation highlights the choices that led to the success and enormous influence these companies continue to have in our daily lives.

1. Group II

2. WalMart Stores, Inc.
American multinational retail corporation
 Owns and operates large discount department stores
and warehouses
 The world's second largest public corporation (Fortune
Magazine 2013)
 Largest private employer (with over two million
employees)
 The World’s largest overall retailer
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3. Samuel Moore
Walton, Founder
& first CEO
Born on March 29, 1918 in
Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
Attended the University of
Missouri, 1940
Served as a Captain during
WWII in the U.S. Army
Intelligence Corps (19421945)
Gained his first retail
experience in management
at JC Penny
Opened his first Walton’s
Five and Dime store in
Bentonville, AR, in 1951
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4. Headquartered in Bentonvillie, AR, Walmart owns and operates 4,158
retail stores and 612 Sam’s Club wholesale stores in the United States;
and 6,330 stores throughout the rest of the world.
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5. Business Structure
Three main business divisions:
Wal-Mart Stores United States
Wal-Mart International
Sam’s Club
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6. Structure of Divisions
 consists of an overall president and chief executive officer
 board of directors
 Chairman
 Chief Information Officer
 Chief Financial Officer
 Chief Operating Officer
Additionally, there are three CEOs who oversee each business
division (Walmart United States, Sam’s Club, and Walmart
International).
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7. Board of Directors
Consist of a 16-member board of directors
 a team of intelligent, diverse, and highly skilled
business leaders and professionals




protects the interests of shareholders
communicates the concerns of investors
responsible for electing the overall president and CEO of
the company
are paid in stock, rather than cash, for their duties.
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8. Board of Directors(CONT.)
Among its 16-member panel, the current
Board of Directors includes(clockwise):
 Emeritus Professor of Business
Administration at Harvard Business
School James I. Cash Jr.
 Retired Chairman and CEO of the
Coca-Cola Company Douglas N. Daft
 Chairman and CEO of The Williams
Capital Group, L.P. Christopher J.
Williams,
 President and CEO of Yahoo! Inc.
Marrisa Mayer,
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9. The Structure & Flow of
CommunicationDirectors, and the
Communication between shareholders, the Board of
executive management team flow through several modes:
 mail correspondence
 Internet correspondence
 annual shareholders’ meeting (in the state of Arkansas)
External-operational communication, including:
 release of quarterly earnings
 future retail and consumer conferences
 annual investment meetings
 environmental summits
All are made available in advance to shareholders through mailings and
audio-recordings, and are also posted to the company’s web site
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10. A Vector for Success
The success of Walmart can be attributed to its:
 careful alignment with the interests and needs of its
consumers & investors
 prudence in communicating and implementing
changes
 the strength of its internal and external operational
communication modes
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11. Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
 Berkshire Hathaway is an American multinational
conglomerate holding company headquartered in
Omaha, Nebraska.
 oversees and manages a large number of subsidiary
companies, including:
 Geico
 Dairy Queen
 Fruit of the Loom
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12. Warren Edward
Buffett,
Chairman & CEO
Born on August 30, 1930 in
Omaha, Nebraska
Attended the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln &
Columbia Business
School(in New York City)
Named the top money
manager of the Twentieth
Century (by Carson
Group) and the most
influential global thinker
(in Foreign Policy's 2010
report)
Spearheads numerous
philanthropic endeavors
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13. Board of Directors
 Presently consists of 12 members:
 Two management directors
 Two non-management
 Eight independent directors
 Consists of three committees:
 Audit and Governance
 Compensation and Nomination
 Executive
 Both the Audit and Governance & the Compensation and Nomination
Committees consist solely of independent directors
 The Company is required to elect a majority of directors who are
independent
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14. Structure of Communication
 Communication with shareholders is carried out
through two distinct modes:
 Annual reports
 Annual meetings
 The organizational communication structure can be
characterized as horizontal:
 the flow of messages across functional areas at a given
level, allowing those at the same level to engage more
directly
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15. Costco, Inc.
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American
multinational membership-based warehouse club.
 Headquartered in Issaquah, Washington
 Provides a wide array of merchandise at prices
consistently below the traditional wholesale and retail
outlets
 Remains the third largest retailer and the largest
membership ware0house chain in the United States
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16. Jim Senegal and
Jeffrey H.
Brotman,
Founders.
A San Diego City College
Alumnus, James Senegal
went on to earn a
Bachelor of Arts degree
from San Diego State
University
An attorney-at-law,
Jeffrey H. Brotman,
earned a Juris Doctorate
degree from the
University of
Washington
Both men founded the
first Costco warehouse
in Seattle, Washington
on September 15, 1983
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17. Board of Directors
Consists of 13 members:
 One Co-Founder
 Chief Financial Officer
 11 Independent directors
 The Board has no size limits
 Members can vote on the number of seats at any time
 Nine of the members are external and spend their time
handling the Stock Exchange and S.E.C. requirements
for the company
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18. Communication structure
 Costco has an analysis of three
levels:
 segments
 organizational structure
 ownership composition
 The entire board owns 2.4% of
the voting rights in the
company’s stock holdings
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19. Google, Inc.
Google Inc. is an American multinational technology
company
 Located in Mountain View, CA.
 Focuses on connecting people with information at the
fastest speed possible
 Employs over 53 thousand people all worldwide
 Became publicly owned in August of 2004
 Is now considered one of the largest online search
engines, with a financial value of 50 billion dollars
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20. Larry Page
& Sergey
Brin,
Founders
An Alumnus of the
University of
Maryland, Sergey Brin
went on to earn a
Master of Science
degree from Stanford
University
Larry Page has also
earned a Master of
Science from Stanford
University
Both men founded
Google, Inc. on
September 4, 1998
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21. Growth & Transparency
 Publicly, Google is considered one of the “Darlings” of
Wall Street due to its public transparency and
providing the user with information at incredible
speeds
 With employees, stockholders, and investors all over
the world, Google has been a leader in providing to the
public new methods for business communication
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22. Structure of Communication
 employees are encouraged to contact CEO Larry Page
or any other executive about company issues or ideas
 encourages its employees to interact within or outside
of their groups through the usage of worksite cafes
 resembles that of a startup business.
 empowers the employee to have an actual say in the
company
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23. Communication with Shareholders
 Currently, the company has a 10-member board of
directors, which acts in the interests of shareholders
 The majority of the company’s conferences, quarterly
earning meetings, and annual stockholders meetings
are webcasted for its stockholders
 Stockholders may also request email notifications of
press releases and other news about the company
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24. Amazon, Inc.
Amazon, Inc. is an American multinational (Fortune
500) company specializing in electronic commerce
 headquartered in Seattle, Washington
 is a “customer-centric” company with separate retail
sites dedicated to the United States, United Kingdom,
Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, Mexico,
and India
 has an extensive global network of customer service
centers
 has a diverse range of product offerings
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25. Jeff Bezos,
Founder &
CEO
Earned a Bachelor of
Science in
Engineering from
Princeton University
Gained much of his
business experience
during his time
working on Wall
Street for companies
like Banker’s Trust
and D.E Shaw & Co.
Founded
Amazon.com, Inc. in
1994
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26. Organization & Structure
 Amazon’s corporate structure is multidivisional
 Amazon is split in to 7 segments
 Software development
 Retail product management
 Merchandising
 Finance
 Administration
 Operations and customer service
 Legal operations
 Each segment has an overseer that reports directly to the
Board of Directors
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27. Organization(Cont.)
The Board of Directors is comprised of:
 Chief Executive Officer
 Chief Technology Officer
 Chief Financial Officer
 Director
Alaskan Cruises and Land Tours
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28. Oversight & Compliance
 Amazon’s Audit Committee
 ensures that the company complies with all regulations
in its financial reporting processes
 requires that employees submit complaints of all
instances of abuse, misuse, or engagement in illegal or
questionable business practices
 helps the Board of Directors in verifying accuracy of
financial statements
 addresses all financial concerns
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29. Internal-Operational
Communication Style
 The company’s communication structure is somewhat informal
 The most common way of communicating business-related
messages within Amazon is through e-mail
 employees are encouraged to voice any concerns directly to the
Board of Directors via e-mail
 The CEO regularly responds to employee e-mail messages and
concerns, as well.
 The company is constantly sending employees updates of legal
notices and product updates as well as day -to-day information
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30. External-Operational
Communication Style
 Consumer data is compiled through online surveys to
evaluate how well the company meets its customers’
needs
 Enables more direct and effective potential changes
 Provides feedback in real-time
 Provides a user-friendly interface for customers
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31. REFERENCES
WALMART, INC.
Dudley, Renee. Townsend, Matt. “Wal-Mart Names Doug McMillon CEO to Succeed Mike Duke.”
Bloomberg Business Report. Nov 25, 2013. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-25/walmart-names-doug-mcmillon-ceo-to-succeed-mike-duke.html Retrieved: December 2, 2013.
"Sam's Club". Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/heritage/sam-walton
Retrieved: December 1, 2013.
WalMart 2012 Annual Report Sam’s Club. http://www.walmartstores.com/sites/annual-report/2012
Retrieved: December 2, 2013.
Zimmerman, Ann. "Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to Walmart." The Wall Street Journal. JunE
7, 2010.http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704875604575280414218878150
Retrieved December 1, 2013.
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32. REFERENCES(CONT.)
BERSKSHIRE HATHAWAY, Inc.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/govern/corpgov.pdf
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2010ar/201010-K.pdf
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ownman.pdf
http://retheauditors.com/2011/09/02/the-berkshirehathaway-corporate-governance-performance
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33. REFERENCES(CONT.)
COSTCO, INC.
http://sec.edgar-online.com/costco-wholesale-corp-new/def-14aproxy-statement-definitive/1998/12/15/section2.aspx
http://www.studymode.com/subjects/costco-wholesaleorganization-structure-page1.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/COST/financials
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Costco_Wholesale_(COST)/Ann
ual_Meeting_Shareholders
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34. REFERENCES(CONT.)
GOOGLE, INC.
http://investor.google.com/webcast.html
http://www.forbes.com/companies/google/financial/GOOG
http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management
http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/culture
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35. CREDITS
 WILLIAM T. HARCOURT, COLLABORATOR,
RESEARCHER & PRESENTATION CREATOR
 T. B., COLLABORATOR & RESEARCHER
 S. M., COLLABORATOR & RESEARCHER
 K. R., COLLABORATOR & RESEARCHER
 J. M., COLLABORATOR &RESEARCHER
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