Alyssa Anderson
Book Analysis
Sam Walton: Made In American
Background of the Book The book that I read was John Huey’s and Sam Walton’s, “Sam Walton: Made in America” published in 1992. John Huey was the senior editor at Forbes magazine at the time. He is known for reporting on the business world and profiling many of the leading personalities. Sam Walton was the man who started it all for the national corporation, Wal-Mart. He was the founder and CEO. Sam’s main purpose of this book is to tell the “formula” of to how to be successful as a business owner. Sam’s career has been described in magazines as, “overnight success”, but in the book he finally explains it has been anything but that. He goes in detail about his many merchant
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The ways of thinking simple are listed in the book as: think one store at a time, communicate, keep your ear to the ground, push responsibility and authority down, force ideas to bubble up, and stay lean to fight bureaucracy. Sam’s thinking small kept all of his Wal-Marts in a good place and on track to success.
Some of my favorite ways of thinking small are think one store at a time, communicate, keep your ear to the ground, and force ideas to bubble up. By thinking one store at a time, it’s easier to sell more of certain things. Communicating in the business world is a big part of being successful. If there is not communication between stores, management, or employees, it is harder to make a profit. Sam’s “keeping your ear to the ground”, is a reference to how he would go snoop on other stores to see what they were up to. I think its funny that he is so open to talk about that. Most CEO’s would never admit to doing that throughout their entire careers. But he was right to do so; sometimes your competition can be your biggest helper in the business world. Learning about what they did wrong or what they did right, could help save your profits or even help you make more.
My last favorite way to think small is force ideas to bubble up. Sam was always open to everyone’s feedback and ideas to make their jobs and the company more efficient, as well as save money at the same time. I think that is great, who else knows how to make the job more
The success of Wal-Mart came from Sam Walton’s ten rules for building a business that he shared with all of his employees, the first being: commit to your business, and believe in it more than anybody else. The second rule was to share your profits with your associates and treat them as partners in order to have a mutual respect and furthermore an exceptional business performance, which leads to the third and fourth rules, motivate your partners and communicate everything you possibly can to them; the more you know, the more they’ll
Not only that, it has expanded in many other countries which are Brazil, China, and Mexico. Sam’s Club also offers several opportunities services to the needs of small businesses. To run a business we will always need these following categories- such as HR, payroll, legal laws, accounting, digital marketing, and health care needs and they all plays a big role in all major and small businesses. Sam’s Club has more than 100,000 employees in the United States and Puerto Rico. In this case, 75% of employees get promoted from hourly positions and more than 20,000 employees get promoted every year. Small business can be the backbone of the America economy. Small business helps get economy growth and succeed in life. To keep Sam Walton’s dream successful, the former CEO Rosalind Brewer had the best crew of people who worked hard alongside with her. Their entire goal was to make Sam 's Club great again. Good leaders must carry a great characteristic because good leaders will always listen and support their entire crew. Leaders must treat others with respect, also must be able to support the decisions of others, and they also involve others in their planning process. As Mr. Sam said, “Our philosophy has always been simple,” he once said. “We are the agents for our customers” (“Our History”, n.d.).
It almost seems ridiculous now because Walmart is one of, if not the number one, retail department store, but at one time people could not believe it would be successful at all. Though by 1970 Walmart was expanding and others were beginning to realize the potential Walmart had. Sam himself was shocked that what he had created was now booming. Sam was quick to credit not only himself but his loyal associates who were pleasing and meeting customer expectations. The relationship
This was one of his main messages to his audience. Due to the author writing how Sam started from an average American to one of the most successful men in America, the author is responsible for providing accurate facts about Sam. However, I did realize that in the profile he incorporated his views of Sam as a person and Walmart. For example, the author criticized about Walmart selling low-quality items to their consumers. Despite his opinion, I believe the author did a great job of convincing the audience what kind of person Sam is. Therefore, I believe for the most part the profile was accurate to the point where it felt like the author wanted to manipulate the audience minds into believing what he says about Sam Walton. After reading this profile, I need to take account of articles I read off of social media because it is easy for a journalist to provide false information about a particular subject that can change a person’s view on things. At times, I will come across articles that are intriguing to me that I make myself believe what the article says. The only way people, including myself, are able to find the truth in news is to read off of credible
Throughout the short story a reader can come to a variety assumption that Sammie was fed up in working there and he was waiting for a perfect opportunity to quit. A reader can arrive to their first exhibit at the beginning of the story when Sammie talks to himself in his head '' She's one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I know it made her day to trip me up. She'd been watching cash registers forty years and probably never seen a mistake before.'' Reading this a reader can feel that he has had encounters with other customers of this degree.
Sam Walton's book attributes different things to the success of the Wal-Mart stores, one of these being his approach to management. To keep management on their toes and involved, Sam offered them the opportunity to become limited partners if they would invest in the store they were to oversee. Since most of the managers of Wal-Mart own a piece of their store, they are naturally more concerned with
In 1963, Sam Walton had a vision. A vision, that he could bring what the consumers needed, to them, at the lowest price possible. Mr. Walton believed that a company could not be run by just one person, it had to take team work. With Mr. Walton relying on his associates at the lowest level possible, he created the retail empire known today as Walmart. Mr. Sam, as he was referred to, would visit each and every store to learn about its culture. He would sit down with each and every associate and get ideas, comments, concerns, and anything that the associates wanted to talk to him about. This practice allowed for Walmart to create a culture of its own. A culture where each person makes a difference, no matter what your background or life style. The cultural synergy remains the same today. This philosophy is the basis for Walmart’s slogan, “Every person makes a difference.” Sam Walton knew that in order to be successful he needed to hear from everyone, to make everyone a spokesperson for the company. Many of the ideas that have been put into play have come from the lower level associates who never thought they could make a difference. Each associate comes from a different walk of life and background. This leads to the diverse workforce that Walmart has today. Sam’s practices have been instilled in today’s current CEO, Doug McMillion.
The next trait that Sam shows is self-confidence. “Walton rarely made small talk. He was a man for whom the cliché he was all business might have been coined.” (Ortega xxiv)
Wal-Mart evolved from Sam Walton’s purpose for great price and great consumer service. “Mr. Sam,” as he was known, believed in management through service. The principle that true leadership depends on willing service was the standard on which Wal-Mart was built, and drove the choices the business has made for the past 50 years. So much of Wal-Mart’s past is attached to the story of Sam Walton himself, and so much of our future will be deep-rooted in Mr. Sam’s principles. Sam's rivals thought his plan for a thriving business couldn’t be built around low prices and great service. As it happened, the company's achievement went beyond even Sam's hopes. The company went public in 1970, and the profits funded a steady growth of the business. Sam recognized the rapid increase of Wal-Mart not just to the low prices that fascinated consumers, but also to his staff of workers. He depended on them to give customers the great buying experience that would
Wal-Mart is a general merchandise discount retailer, which was incorporated in 1962. Wal-Mart’s history is based on one man, Sam Walton, who changed the course of retailing forever. Sam Walton first entered retailing when he was a management trainee at J.C. Penny Co. in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. After serving in the Army in World War II, Walton acquired a Ben Franklin variety store franchise with his brother James Walton in Newport Arkansas, until they lost the lease to the store in 1950. By 1962, when the first Wal-Mart Discount City was opened in Rogers Arkansas, both Walton’s were operating fifteen stores under the “Walton 5 & 10” name, and were the largest Ben Franklin franchisee in the
Samuel Walton was a businessman and entrepreneur known for establishing the discount chain Walmart, that grew to become the largest corporation in the world. Samuel Moore Walton was born March 29, 1918, in King Fisher, Oklahoma. He is the first son of Thomas Walton and Nancy Lee, they lived on a farm. Sam’s father decided farming did not provide enough money for his family and started to work for his brother in farm martagons. Sam and his family moved to Shelbina, Missouri. In eighth grade, he was active in boy scouts and became the youngest eagle scout in his state along with receiving the recipient of Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the boy scouts of America. Later, the family moved to Columbia, Missouri, where Sam was a good student, quarterback on the football team, and voted most versatile boy at Hickman High School. After graduation, he attended the University of Missouri where he was a ROTC cadet and a member of the Zeta Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. Sam was also an active member of QEBH, a secret society on campus for senior men, and president of the Burall Bible Class. In 1940, Sam graduated with a bachelor in Economics. Sam worked for J.C. Penney as a manager trainee in Des Moines, Iowa, and was paid $75 monthly. He had to leave the company because of being inducted in the Army for World War II in 1942. While in the army, Sam worked at DuPont in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In this paper, I have researched to find out how this grant empire has become and remain so successful. I found out that one of the reasons is because it has been able to maintain the goals and standards that its owner, Mr. Sam Walton has built it upon. Even after his death, Wal-Mart continues to expand and grow in other countries. Wal-Mart is considered one of the top ten global companies today. Mr. Walton’s main goal was to sell products at a low price so that people could live a better life. Another reason is because Wal-Mart uses certain market mix strategies such as the four P”. These strategies, price, promotion, product and place.
Sam Walton 's first venture as a milk boy is when he understood the value of a dollar and the knowledge of how far a dollar could take one in life. From Sam 's first five and dime stores in the 1950 's to his opening of the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, no one could have predicted the enormous success of this small-town merchant. Today, fourteen years after his death, Wal-Mart continues to grow and leadership of this company continues to rely on many of the traditional goals and philosophies that Mr. Walton left behind. In keeping one step
It is evident that Sam Walton believed in the importance of control systems in an organization; as he established certain strategic control systems in the company. Walton wanted everyone within the organization to be committed to Wal-Mart's goal "total customer satisfaction", and the strategic control systems were set accordingly.
When it comes to vulnerable populations, children are definitely high on the list. Often these children need a voice or need help finding that voice. Social workers play a large role in bettering the lives of these young individuals. This paper will cover topics of child welfare including the history, main goals and basic services, being aware when working with children and their families, and a setback of child welfare programs.