Sam Walton's Success Story

Founder of Wal-Mart

Have you ever gone shopping in any of the thousands Wal-Mart stores worldwide? Were you impressed by the diversity of the goods? Surely yes. Wal-Mart is the U.S. Top Seller of products, ranging from dog food to diamonds. It's success story is actually the success story of one ambitious businessman and entrepreneur, named Sam Walton. He founded Wal-Mart in the decent 1962 and had turned it up into the largest public corporation. Today the company has more than 7,500 department stores and over 2, 5 million employees worldwide. But surely a few questions pop up in your mind. What is the secret hidden behind Wal-Mart’s success? Which are the “rules of the road”, which the merchant king followed during the building of the company?

Born in a humble family, Sam Walton was brought up in a farm in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. A combination of circumstances led him to Missouri, where his father started working as a banker. He graduated the University of Missouri in 1940, where in fact he met his future life partner Helen Robson. He also served three years as an Army intelligence officer during World War II.

The idea of going into the retail business came in 1945, and by the time Wal-Mart first opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, Sam Walton owned a chain of 15 variety stores in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Together with his brother Bud Walton he entirely devoted himself to his retail business. Sam’s attention to detail and powerful marketing skills led Wal Mart steps forward on the road to success. His store chain expanded throughout the United States and even in countries such as Mexico, Canada, Brazil and UK. By 1990 Wal-Mart was the nation's top retailer in terms of sales, and Walton was one of the richest men in the world. After his death in 1992 the company continued to expand, including online commerce and stores around the world. By 2009 there were more than 7,500 Wal-Mart stores worldwide.

Since Walton's death the chain has come under fire for its labor practices and aggressive marketing tactics. Arguing that Wal-Marts drove out other merchants, many local communities fought to keep new stores from opening, and in June of 2004 a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 1.6 million women, charging that Wal-Mart discriminated against female employees.

Today you could learn a lot from Sam Walton’s business experience. There’s even a book, called “Sam Walton: Made in America” – a wise and inspiring autobiography, wherein Walton tells his quietly fantastic story revealing the ten rules, that made him running a successful company: Commit to your business, share your profits, motivate your partners, communicate with them, appreciate everything your associates do for the business, celebrate your success, listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking, exceed your customer’s expectations, control your expenses better than you competition. SWIM upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.