Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Persona called Wal-Mart

· 17 years to become a billion dollar company and 28 years to be become America’s No.1 retailer.

· Multiple stocksplits and a technology pioneer.

· Respect for individual, service to our customers, striving for excellence as 3 basic beliefs.

· 10-foot rule, Open door policies, Servant Leadership, Wal-Mart Cheer, Sundown Rule-All of them focused on the people whether it’s a customer or an associate.

If you still did not guess it to be the Wal-Mart, probably you live in the jungle. Wal-Mart is a retail success and needs no certificate. Is there something for us to learn from a successful business like this, apart from the way they conduct their business, which is already a hot case study in B schools across the world? Well, there is. Or at least I will try to explain that there is.

What I learned from my trip to Bentonville, the birthplace of Wal-Mart and the stronghold of its founder Sam Walton, is that businesses have a personality too and they inherit the traits from the founders, just like a son acquires his personality from his father. A son might be influenced and add-to/mar his personality as he grows and that applies to the businesses too, as it carries on to the next generations and new leaders manage it.

While studying to graduate in economics from the University of Missouri, he was one of the poorest boys in America but that was not to be forever so. He worked multiple jobs to support his family and he was always someone who wanted to make it to the chosen goal, come what may. All this, while having the respect for the individuals around him, since he believed in the social connection and learned early the importance of being a social animal. It was said that Walton could have won all the post if he contested while at the University and JC Penny’s, his first job as a Management graduate.

He wasn’t an instant success or an overnight patriarch of riches. He failed, failed and failed. But he never gave up. His first store wasn’t a kill, the Eagle brand he started was a flop, Five and Dime did not do as great. But he never gave up!

Success came late, but it did. Wal-Mart, started first in 1962, was called so after a suggestion from one of his workers, never looked back. Wal-Mart became a Billion dollar company in the year I was born and became a role model business for retail industry by the time Sam Walton died in 1992.

To do what one wants to do and be a good social person reflect in his empire’s (Wal-Mart’s) 3 beliefs and also various policies he has had devised. No doubt, his business acquired his personality. A personality that gives jobs to many and sells affordable stuff to millions. All this while he is not physically in this world. He left back a personality, not just a business that keeps growing…

Sri


1 comment:

  1. Very nice....Experiecing is more than making others to explore things...!!!

    ReplyDelete