What went wrong for Walmart in India

Walmart split with its Indian joint venture partner of seven years recently and the smart folks at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business put the situation in perspective and offered insight into future possibilities for a market that still boasts more than 1 billion potential consumers and promising long-term prospects.

After a seven-year partnership, Walmart and Indian retail partner Bharti Enterprises last month issued a terse joint message saying they were ending the 50/50 joint venture launched by the two firms in 2006 and had reached an agreement to independently own their business interests in India, the Wharton article explains. The move wasn’t entirely unexpected. Days before the statement was released, Walmart Asia CEO Scott Price told the media during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Bali that “the existing franchise to Bharti is not tenable as the base” for Walmart in India. Both sides were looking at the best way to move forward, he added.

Click here for a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the Indian market.