“It never occurred to me that I might lose; to me, it was always like I had a right to win. Thinking like that often seems to become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Sam Walton in Sam Walton Made in America My Story about his days as a footballer. He was a good soccer player who had an uncanny sense of where the ball was going to go. Sounds familiar? Wayne Gretzky, the hockey virtuoso, was adept at knowing where the puck was going to land and skating there ahead of time. Do you know what trends will affect your business so that you take your business there?
When Sam Walton was diagnosed with bone cancer, his family encouraged him to get serious about writing his biography. Whether you like Wal-Mart or not, and the way it works, there are a few things its founder, Sam Walton, got right. After reading his book, I can say that I don’t agree with some of his philosophies, but I found a lot of very useful information. I have compiled information from Sam Walton’s biography that you might be interested in.
Sam’s 10 rules for building a business
- Rule 1: engage to your business and believe in him more than others.
- Rule 2: Share your earnings with everyone who works for you and treat them as business partners.
- Rule 3: motivate people that work for you and keep things fresh, interesting and never get predictable. Give them the opportunity to change job functions to learn other aspects of the business.
- Rule 4: Communicate as much as you can so that everyone knows and understands what is going on.
- Rule 5: Appreciate what your workers do for you simply by thanking them or publicly acknowledging them. Money and stock options are great, but sometimes the little things can make all the difference in the world.
- Rule 6: celebrate your successes and find humor in your failures.
- Rule 7: Hear everyone in your companyespecially the front-line workers who serve their customers directly.
- Rule 8: Exceed the expectations of your customers.
- Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition.
- Rule 10: To swim against the currentgo against the grain and ignore conventional wisdom.
Strategy
Increase: Organic, increasing sales and opening new stores, and through acquisitions.
inventory management: Have sophisticated information systems and suppliers are connected so they can monitor the levels of their products
Distribution: Have department stores within a certain distance (normally no more than a day’s drive) from the stores and have their own fleet of trucks.
Information systems: Have one of the most sophisticated computer systems, which allows them to be agile and receptive to the market
Theft management: Greetings were originally introduced to deter potential thieves
Customer Acquisition: Competitive shopping to see what competitors are doing well, as well as find out what their prices are, and then make any necessary adjustments in-store. Conduct informational interviews to identify trends and discover ways to do things better. Sam Walton was part of a research group that was actually a form of peer mentoring. His co-workers would visit his stores and give him honest feedback, which he used to make changes. His goal was to give customers the best deal.
hiring: For high-level positions, he hired people who had skills in areas he didn’t, and that was key to his early growth.
biggest regret: Did not include associates in profit-sharing plan when Walmart went public in 1970.
five big ideas
- You can overcome any crisis if you look for the underlying opportunities
- The best opportunities are created by necessity
- If you don’t give your customers what they want, someone else will.
- The learning never ends. Look at what others are doing well and better, then try to incorporate that into your work.
- Innovate to take things beyond where they have been
I recommend that you give Walton himself Made in America My story Read on and I’m sure you won’t agree with all their philosophies, but if you own a business or plan to start one, you’ll find information you can apply right away.