Made in America Sam Walton

Made in America:Sam Walton 1

Made in America

By

Roshan Patel

Abbas husain

Ashish Nirwan

Samuel Moore Walton (March 29,1918-April 6,1992)

Founder of Wal-Mart

Declared “richest man in America” in October 1985 by Forbes.

Born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma during the Great Depression.

Made in America: Sam Walton

Sam Walton’s father Thomas Walton was a hard worker and loved to trade.

He learned from early age to help provide for the home.

Started selling magazine subscriptions and also had paper routes from very young age.

Made in America:Sam Walton 3Made in America: Sam Walton

Sam always set extremely high personal goals.

Played football, baseball and basketball and became youngest Eagle Scout in the history of Missouri at that time.

Graduated from University of Missouri in 1940 with a business degree.

Since high school he paid for all his expenses


To Value a Dollar

Sam joined JC Penney, a retailing company, as a management trainee.

There watching store manager he got excited about retailing.

But due to war he had to resign the job and move in 1942.

He married Helen in 1943 while still on commission.


Sam learned much about money and finances from Helen’s father.

He purchased a store in Newport, Arkansas, a Ben Franklin franchise.

He learned a lot from running a store in franchise program.


In his store, he would buy an item for 80 cents, priced it to sell at $1.00 and sell three times more of it than by pricing it at $1.20. The overall profit was much greater. By cutting the price, it boosted the sales to a point where it earned far more at the cheaper retail price than it would had by selling the item at the higher price.


Due to lease contract,he has to sell his store and move.

It led him to bigger and better things

Sam moved with his family to Bentonville, Arkansas to open self-service Five & Dime store which at that time was a new concept.


He expanded very rapidly and opened many variety stores.

But, a new concept of discount store came into existence and Sam immediately sensed that discount idea was the future


He built a store in Rogers, Arkansas. Nobody wanted to gamble on it so Sam

has to put up 95 percent. Sam always checked on competition and

always went around with his yellow pad to note down any new idea.

He always used to promote a items very innovatively.


Sam and Helen had four kids: three boys and a girl.

Helen always insisted on living in small town so that they could raise their children with same values they has been exposed to.

All four worked for Wal-Mart from young age and even invested in it over years.


All along ,history of Wal-Mart has been marked by having right people in right job at right time.

Whitaker- To get it started Ferold Arend- To get it organised Jack Shewmaker- To push new ideas David Glass- To keep cool in crisis and

get control


Due to rapid expansion, Sam accrued a huge debt.

To get relief, he went public. Over the years, even though many has

written them off, Wal-Mart stock did very well


Sam attributes Wal-Mart’s unbelievable prosperity to the relationship managers enjoy with its associates, employees in the store.

They have a profit sharing plan for all the associates.

Information is also shared with associates to give them a sense of partnership.


Sam always believed in secret of successful retailing is to give customers what they want.

Strong customer demand in small towns made it possible for Wal-Mart to get started.


Sam believes that one of the smartest strategic decision was to meet competition head on.

He tributes Kmart and Target for legitimizing discount stores and also acknowledges that competition with them made Wal-Mart a better company.

Kmart attack on Wal-Mart best external event in Wal-Mart’s history.


Sam always experimented with different concepts like Hypermart, Discount drug concept and Sam’s club.

Sam’s club now is a $10 billion business with huge growth potential.

Sam’s club was result of competition from Price club stores.


Wal-Mart is known for its distribution and transportation system.

Sam always put up a good fight whenever somebody wants to buy a new system.

He tributes David Glass, Jack Shewmaker and Ron Meyer for putting pressure on him for new systems.

They were the first to use satellite in retailing


“So you see, technology and distribution are every bit important to Wal-Mart’s ability to grow and maintain control. But, don’t let anybody kid you. Without the right managers, and dedicated associates and truck drivers all across the system, all that stuff is totally worthless.”


“well, now, Sam, how big do you really want this company to be? What is your plan?”

-FEROLD AREND “Ferold, we’re going to take it as it

comes, and if we can grow with our own money, we’ll maybe add a store or two.”

-SAM WALTON


Think one store at a time Communicate, Communicate,

Communicate Keep your ear to the ground Push responsibility and authority down Force ideas to bubble up Stay lean, fight Bureaucracy


1. Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else.

2. Share your profits with all your associates and treat them as partners.

3. Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone are not enough

4. Communicate everything you possible can to your partners.

5. Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.

6. Celebrate your successes.7. Listen to everyone in your company.8. Exceed your customers’ expectations.9. Control your expenses better than your competition.10. Swim upstream.


He discusses how he gave something back to the community in terms of scholarships etc.

Another issue he discusses is Wal-Mart being the huge importer of overseas merchandise.

He says in too many cases importing is really their only option as American goods are simply not competitive.


He accepts that Wal-Mart had fallen into a pattern of knee-jerk import buying without looking at alternatives.

Today, Wal-Mart instructs their suppliers to look for alternatives in America itself.

He criticizes the Unions for not believing in free market and new solutions and being interested in only Union jobs.


Sam believes in global economy, successful business is going to do just Wal-Mart is always trying to do: give more responsibility for making decisions to the people who are actually on firing line.

He would like to see American industry challenge Japanese industry like auto industry.

Thinks American management has bent too far towards taking care of itself first.




Modest, down-to-earth and ''casually relentless''

Gentlemanly, modest and notoriously chintzy

A gifted leader


Walton ''was to the faith of consumerism what the Mahatma Gandhi was to nonviolence” – Bob Ortega

Despite Wal-Mart's claims of ''Made in America'' program, much of Wal-Mart's merchandise was and is made overseas.

''The history of the company,'' he writes, ''provides ample evidence that Wal-Mart, like any corporation, is merely a machine, an amoral construct with one imperative: the profit motive. That pursuing that motive to the utmost may have a corrosive effect on communities or individuals -- including people within the corporation -- never enters into the equation.''


Unfortunately, what America demands is not fairness or decency, but cheap goods and lots of them. It's called capitalism.

A stingy low-wage employer with an arrogant disregard for local and national laws . – The Nation

What do you get when you cross gutted labor laws with a corporate culture of impunity? Why, Wal-Mart, of course!

Who pays for Wal-Mart's cheap products from China: the workers who make them.

Managers are trained to call a special hotline at the first sign of suspicious behavior, including “employees talking in hushed tones to each other.”


“From the Chairperson of the ‘Board’ down to the front-line manager … the entire management staff should fully comprehend and appreciate exactly what is expected of their individual efforts to meet the union free objective.”

Open Doors, Closed Minds


http://www.prospect.org/web/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20/web/view-web.ww?id=10574

Sam Walton says, he didn't believe in giving "any undeserving stranger a free ride."

"We feel very strongly," he wrote, "that Wal-Mart really is not, and should not be, in the charity business."

He did not believe in being generous with company profits.


Money that Wal-Mart donated to charity, he reasoned, would only come out of the pockets of "either our shareholders or our customers." (He didn't mention workers, perhaps a tacit acknowledgment that picking their pockets was just business as usual.)


"Customers of Wal-Mart: when you wear expensive clothes, when your children play with high-quality toys, think of China and the Far East." Another adds: "Those profits you made and the wonderful life you made are the sweat, and tears and overtime work of Chinese people."


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Made in America Sam Walton