Essentials of Business Management
When Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in 1962, it was the beginning of an American success story that no one could have predicted. A small-town merchant who had operated variety stores in Arkansas and Missouri, Walton was convinced that consumers would flock to a discount store with a wide array of merchandise and friendly service. Hence, Wal-Mart's mission is to deliver big-city discounting to small-town America.
Sam's Roots
From humble, hard-working roots, Sam Walton built Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. into the largest, fastest-growing, and most profitable retailer in the world.
A child of the Depression, Sam always worked hard. He would milk the cows, and by the age of eight, he started selling magazine subscriptions. When he turned 12, Sam took on a paper route that he continued well into his college days to support himself. Walton began his retail career at J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa in 1940 making just $75 per month. In 1945, Sam borrowed $5,000 from his wife and $20,000 from his wife's family to open a Ben Franklin five and dime franchise in Newport, Arkansas.
In 1950, he relocated to Bentonville, Arkansas and opened a Walton 5&10. Over the next 12 years they built up and grew to 15 Ben Franklin Stores under the name of Walton 5&10. Sam had plenty of new ideas. He liked to deal with the suppliers directly so he could pass the savings on to the customers. He later brought a new idea to Ben Franklin management that they should open discount stores in small towns. They rejected his idea.
The First of 3054
Sam and his brother James (Bud) opened their first Wal-Mart Discount City store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. Walton and his wife Helen had to put up everything they had, including their house and property to finance the first 18,000 square-foot store.
With gradual growth over the next eight years, they went public in 1970 with only 18 stores and sales of $44 million. While other large chains lagged behind, Wal-Mart soon grew rapidly in the 1970's, due to their highly automated distribution centers and computerization. By 1980, they were up to 276 stores with revenues of over $1.2 billion.
Sam Walton's guiding philosophy for his stores from the beginning was to offer consumers a wide selection of goods at a discounted price. The company saved money by keeping advertising costs low...
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...equests for no publicity.
The Ten Commandments of Leadership by Sam Walton
1. Commit to your goals.
2. Share your rewards.
3. Energize your colleagues.
4. Communicate all you know.
5. Value your associates' contributions.
6. Celebrate your success.
7. Listen to everyone.
8. Deliver more than you promise.
9. Work smarter than others do.
10. Blaze your own path.
Bibliography
1. Jon Heuy. Sam Walton: Made in America: My Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992)
2. Kenneth E. Stone, Competing With the Retail Giants, (Toronto: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
1995)
3. Vince, H. Trimble, Sam Walton: The Story Inside America's Richest Man
(New York: Dutton, 1990)
4. www.SmartLeadership.com
5. Inc Magazine, Spies Like Us, Stemberg, Tom, with Gruner, Stephanie.
August, 1998, p45-48
6. Inc Magazine, The Mentors, Welles, Edward O. June, 1998, p48-50
7. www.walmart.com 1996, 1997, 1998 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
8. Stone, Kenneth E. Competing With the Retail Giants. (New York: John Wiley &
Sons Inc., 1995)
9. Taylor, D., Archer ,J.S. Up Against the Wal-Marts. (New York: AMACOM,
1994)
10. Microsoft Encarta 98. Samuel Walton
Wal-Mart was conceived and founded by Sam Walton in 1962, at Rogers, Arkansas. Sam Walton started with just a few small variety stores, funded with borrowed money. His goal was to provide affordable products to the public to make life easier. After his success with the first few stores, Sam Walton borrowed more money to build more stores, creating the Wal-Mart empire as we see it today. The retail giant proves its stoic presence in our lives with its $401 billion sales for fiscal year 2009.
To begin with, some store history may be helpful. In 1914, Anna Albrecht opened a small store, Albrecht Discount, in the town of Essen, Germany. By 1948, her sons had taken over the business and had expanded it to four locations. In 1962, the store’s name changed from Albrecht Discount to Aldi. In 1976, Aldi makes their debut in the United States, opening a store in Southwestern Iowa. Today, in 2014, Aldi has 1,300 locations in the United States and 4,000 locations worldwide (Aldiuscareers.com). In 1962, Wal-Mart opens in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1983, Sam Walton opened the first Sam’s Club in Midwest City, Oklahoma. By 1988, Walton had opened the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in Washington, Missouri. Wal-Mart went global in 1991, opening a Sam’s Club in Mexico City, Mexico. Today, in 2014, Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million associates, serves 200 million customers, with 11,000 stores in twenty-seven countries (Corporate.walmart.com).
Though Walton was rather successful in his business ventures, he couldn’t afford graduate school, specifically the Wharton School of Finance, and instead accepted a job at JC Penny as a management trainee; Walton’s first retail job, where he worked for little over a year. After serving in the second world war, Walton, under slight regulation from his wife, opened up a Ben Franklin variety store in the small town of Newport, Arkansas. Owning a retail store at the age of twenty-seven taught ...
Originally a small town business, Wal-Mart has grown into a worldwide million dollar franchise. Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has become Americas leading discount retail store. Wal-Mart has embodied the idea of a store that sells everything a person could ever need; selling everything from personal hygiene supplies to the newest technology. Even as a globally known franchise, Wal-Mart still has its pros and cons just like every other store.
The first Walmart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas in the year 1962 by a 44-year-old man by the name of Sam Walton. When he first envisioned Walmart, Walton believed that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service. Despite his retail rivals laughing at his supposedly unsustainable business model, the company became hugely successful, and its success exceeded even Walton's expectations. The company went public in 1970, and the proceeds financed a steady expansion of the business. Today, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, as it has 8,500 stores spread across 15 countries and annual revenues of $400 billion dollars. Moreover, Walmart is the
The first Walmart was located in Rogers, Arkansas, it was founded in 1962, by Sam Walton, he called it simply “Walton’s”. At first it started as a small town mom & pop store, and then it grew, the original store is actually now the location for The Walmart Museum.
Wal-Mart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. Mr. Walton’s competitors thought his idea that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service would never work. Mr. Walton also credited the rapid growth of Wal-Mart not just to the low costs that attracted his customers, but also to his associates. He relied on them to give customers the great shopping experience that would keep them coming back. Sam shared his vision for the company with associates in a way that was nearly unheard of in the industry. He made them partners in the success of the company, and firmly believed that this partnership was what made Walmart great.
After college Sam went on to “do a management position at J.C. Penny’s and remained there until 1962. Late in 1962 Sam Walton changed this world, and he opened the first Wal-Mart”( “Sam Walton“ InvestingValue)(see “First Wal-Mart Store“). “We opened our first Wal-Mart here in Northwest Arkansas” (Walton and Huey XI). With his first Wal-Mart open he didn’t...
This is a good question. Walmart started as a small five and dime in the city of Bentonville, Arkansas by a man named Sam Walton. After a great success Sam and his wife Helen moved to Rogers, Arkansas where he opened his very first Walmart. He had some retailing experience after his time in the war and he chose Bentonville for the hunting season and because his wife wanted to live in a small town. His ideas of not pocketing extra cash from manufacturers, but rather giving deals to customers and trying to make profit off of how much he sold, changed the way retailers make money in America. Sam had a cheap mindset, not only for his customers, but for himself. Even when he became the richest man in America he continued to get his hair done for
Wal-Mart initially began its operations in 1945, when Sam Walton leased a ‘Ben Franklin’ franchise variety store in Newport, Arkansas. After relocating to Rogers, Arkansas in the early 1950s, Sam Walton’s ‘Ben Franklin’ became ‘Walton’s 5 & 10’. By 1962, Walton found himself the chain owner of 11 different Walton’s stores across Arkansas. He then decided to rename the chain ‘Wal-Mart’, after himself. On October 31, 1969, after further expansion across the state, the chain was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Three years later, Wal-Mart was approved and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In 1942, at the age of 24, he joined the military. He married Helen Robson in 1943. When his military service ended in 1945, Sam and Helen moved to Iowa and then to Newport, Arkansas. During this time, Sam gained early retail experience, eventually operating his own variety store. He opened the first Walmart in 1962 at the age of 44 in Rogers, Arkansas. His competitors thought his idea that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service would never work. As it turned out, the company 's success exceeded even Sam 's expectations. By 1990, Walmart was the nation 's number-one retailer. As the Walmart Supercenter redefined convenience and one-stop shopping,
Wal-Mart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton. The first Wal-Mart store was built in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart's were gradually put up around the United States and then moving to other countries such as Japan.
The Wal-mart is the largest retail chain in United States and in the world. The wal-mart was founded in the year 1962 by Mr Sam Walton. It was originally named as Wal-Mart discount city in Rogers, Arkansas. At the time when the Wal-Mart stores started in the year 1962 it was focused only in small rural cites and town which had a population of 5000 to 25000. It was soon increased to 18 stores in 1969. In the next 30 years it had more than 4750 stores across 50 states in USA and 9 countries with $245 billion sales. It started its international operations in Mexico in the year 1991 and then it expanded it to different countries across Europe and Asia.
The first Wal-Mart store opened in July of 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas by Sam Walton who believed that the future of retailing was in discounting and to avoid competing with established giants like Sears and Woolworth, Wal-Mart’s stated out of the large cities in the beginning and this strategy help avoid competition, while in rural areas Wal-Mart began growing their customer base by offering ways to save money and shorter travel distance, Sam Walton felt the best way to make customers happy was to provide the low prices every day (Farhoomand, 2006). The company needed to continually find ways to control the operating costs so the savings would then be passed on to Wal-Mart customers in the form of lower prices than the competitors. Walton was opposed to having any kind of employee unions for its company and saw them as a disruption and an inconvenience (Farhoomand, 2006). The continued search for lower prices made him aware of business related travel cost, Wal-Mart executives stayed in low cost hotels when they traveled and the cost related to the services provided by suppliers, Wal-Mart helped suppliers improve operations and efficiency to produce lower cost. Walton wanted the suppliers to correct any nonessential or insufficiencies existing in their business structures as a way of gaining lower prices and higher value products for its Wal-Mart stores. To further push savings Wal-Mart forced cost down by eliminating the middleman and buying directly from the manufacturers. This cost saving also applied to executive salaries Walton felt providing employees with stock options, training opportunities, and allow employees to grow and develop would be a better way to engage and involve them in his vision (Farhoomand, 2006).
The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success.