...Sam Walton: Made in America 1. Sam Walton: Made in America is a captivating book that discusses Wal-Mart one of the worlds largest companies in the world and the hard work and dedication that it took Sam Walton to reach his world renowned success. Sam Walton is an American businessman that founded Wal-Mart in July 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. One of Walton’s major efforts at the beginning of his success was to provide the American people with a price low enough that competed with foreign vendors. Walton had determination and passion for the retail business and that shows throughout this book. The book describes amongst several other business strategies, the relentlessness that Sam Walton had in searching for better ideas that would support the constant growth of Wal-Mart. Sam Walton was an entrepreneur that took advice and comments from people in all levels of his company and allowed his employees to be in the creative process of the company and the success in the company as a whole is largely owed to his ideas and willpower. 2. Sam Walton’s ideas were not always successful. He often had failed products or ideas that he couldn’t get just right. Many times products would fail in certain parts of the country and thrive in other parts. Sam Walton was a man that made mistakes and he was not afraid to admit them and improve his company. He often discussed his failures as learning tools for other employees. The open environment in the work place able to discuses each other’s failures...
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...UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE NUEVO LEON FACULTAD DE CONTADURIA PUBLICA Y ADMINISTRACION INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PROGRAM Consumer Behavior Mid-term Project ‘’Sam Walton’’ Anakaren Merari Quintanilla Castillo 1525360 5Yi October 2, 2013 In this mid-term project, I will analyze an American entrepreneur born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, known for founding two of the largest retail stores in the United States, Wal-Mart and Sam's. Speaking of business, no doubt that Sam Walton can teach us a lot, he managed to turn his junk shop, a small cotton town in northern Arkansas, in the mighty Wal-Mart the largest chain of small shops world. Sam Walton had a philosophy about ten rules, which abided, in order to become the successful businessman he was, and make Wal Mart in the company with which any entrepreneur dreams. The first is that the person engaged in the business. Believe in it more than anyone. It must pass each of the personal deficiencies for the simple passion for work. If not born with that passion, you can learn because you need it. If you like your job, you will devote every day, and will do in the best way, and before long everyone in their environment pick up on that passion, like a disease. The reason that Walton, who died at age 74 in 1992, was the most successful retailer in U.S. history 30 years after opening its first Wal-Mart is that he was also well ahead of its competitors by bringing efficiency and discipline to the world of retail. The cornerstone of...
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...George Packer, The author of the article,“Sam Walton / Jay Z”, illustrates his personal assumption on the definition of success throughout his article. Packer believes that success comes from gaining an ample amount of money and fame. He shows this by basing off his entire article on two individuals, Jay Z and Samuel Walton, who become “successful” by working hard and reaching a point in their lives where they are plastered all over magazines and billboards. They live lives of luxury with adoring fans following their every move. Packer is trying to display to the readers that in order to be considered successful, individuals must be in the same, if not similar, economic and social class that Jay Z and Sam Walton are a part of. Packer chooses to write about two specific men to send the readers the message that success is measured by the chunk of change on has in their...
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...Samuel more Walton John Agbatekwe September 10, 2015 Humanity/ 102 Professor Sherna Armstrong Sam Walton a 20th century genius Sam Walton, one of the most brilliant and successful businessmen in history, he was the founder and former CEO of one the largest retail business company in the world today. Sam Walton is the definition of success and he proved it by opening the largest retail business in the world. He transformed the way people shop in the United States of America and around the world. He brought in a great change in the tactic of business. In 1945 when he bought his first Wal-Mart store from the Butler brother, the store was only making $72000 a year. But shortly after he took over the store, he turned it into a $250,000 yearly store. Sam Walton is the epitome of success and as of today he is worth over 149 billion dollars (Samuel M Walton 1992). Samuel Walton’s early life Samuel was borne born on March 29, 1918 at Kingfisher, Oklahoma to Thomas Gibson Walton and Nancy “Nannie” Lee. Samuel, his brother (James) and his parent lived in kingfisher, Oklahoma until 1923, when they moved to chesterfield Missouri, where his father worked as a mortgage man. Samuels’s family moved around a lot from one small to another. When Samuel was in eighth grade at Shelbina, he became the youngest Eagle Scout in the state history and shortly became a recipient of the distinguished Eagle Scout award from the boy’s Scout of America. Samuel’s parents did not have money growing...
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...April 1st, 2013 How Sam Walton transformed Rural America The history of Retail is a storied one in America. Before 1850 there were few choices for Americans in rural areas to find goods at decent prices. The invention of the catalog was the main way for early rural Americans to get a wide variety of goods mailed to them with a bit of credit and good old ingenuity from first Aaron Montgomery Ward and then the ever expanded and refined works of Richard Sears. Before these opportunities the town’s general store was basically all that was available to most of America. Sears had an idea to provide a multitude of products to many who had no other way of acquiring them. He took Wards business model and expanded upon it. Working a 12 hour day, 7 days a week, Sears set out to catch up with industry leader Montgomery Ward and Company. The strategy was the same – low price, heavy advertising and a money-back guarantee. But Sears was able to execute the strategy more effectively and within 10 years he had caught up with and surpassed the sales volume of Montgomery Ward and Company. (Buris and Jeneck) It was this type of risk taking and hard work that made American entrepreneurs so successful. Not all had what it took but without the risk taking, big business could have never grown to be the multi-billion dollar industries we see in today’s world. Growing up in a large city I never really understood the hoopla around the Wal-Mart phenomenon. When they opened up in the...
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...Phase 4 The period from 1992 to 2000 is one of the most interesting in American History. I will discuss Rodney King and Wal-Mart on that Period of the events listed and discuss the impact that these events had on America. Born on April 2 1965, Rodney King was a significant person in a that period. Although he did not have the character of Rev. Martin Luther King events in his course of life lead a spotlight on police brutality of minorities and still lingering racial tension among the United States Borders. The was not just against Whites vs. Black but it also shed light on African American and Asian American tensions as well. King was a African American Parolee who had been trouble with Alcohol and substance use and abuse for much of his life. He was convicted of violent assault and robbery of a Korean Store before the incident that changed the course of American history. While trying to avoid arrest for DUI and parole violation Rodney King led police officers on a high speed chase for several miles before being stopped on March 3, 1991. This led to the unlawful beating of King by four uniformed officers. George Holliday's videotaped the incidents. Two days later Holliday contacted the police about his videotape of the incident. He then went to the television news with his videotape, which broadcast it in its entirety. The footage became an instant media sensation. It caused many "cop watch" organizations to arise. The officers were charged with criminal...
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...has to go all the way back to the beginning stages of the company. From the birth of the company to present day empire it has created, one question must be answered: corporate giant or corporate beast? Wal-Mart has a long history and they have been around much longer than what most people think. The founder of Wal-Mart was Sam Walton. Sam Walton was born into a farmer’s family in Kingfisher, Oklahoma on March 29, 1918. [31] He had one brother whose name was James Walton. Sam’s father was a farmer until he decided that farming was not producing enough revenue and decided to become a mortgage man. Sam grew up in the great depression where he learned many moral values like working hard. He had many odd jobs so he could help his family out with money. The family then moved to Florida, while there Sam became the youngest Eagle Scout in the state’s history. After graduating from high school Sam decided to further his educations and enrolled at the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet. Sam graduated in 1940 with a degree in Economics and was named the class president. Wal-Mart was not Sam Walton’s first store that he owned. In 1945 Sam Walton opened the first Ben Franklin franchise in Newport, Arkansas. He started the stores with five-thousand dollar...
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...http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol76/walton.htm Sam Walton: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Business Sam Walton grew up poor during the Great Depression, yet rose to start the biggest retail store Wal-Mart. In Sam Walton's "Running a Successful Company: Ten Rules that Worked for Me," learn Walton's winning formula for business. Excerpted from "The Book of Business Wisdom" Edited by Peter Krass Sam Walton 1918 - 1992 Background and personality Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, grew up poor in a farm community in rural Missouri during the Great Depression. The poverty he experienced while growing up taught him the value of money and to persevere. After attending the University of Missouri, he immediately worked for J.C. Penny where he got his first taste of retailing. He served in World War II, after which he became a successful franchiser of Ben Franklin five-and-dime stores. In 1962, he had the idea of opening bigger stores, sticking to rural areas, keeping costs low and discounting heavily. The management disagreed with his vision. Undaunted, Walton pursued his vision, founded Wal-Mart and started a retailing success story. When Walton died in 1992, the family's net worth approached $25 billion. Today, Wal-Mart is the world's #1 retailer, with more than 4,150 stores, including discount stores, combination discount and grocery stores, and membership-only warehouse stores (Sam's Club). Learn Walton's winning formula for business. Rule 1: Commit to your business...
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...Samuel Moore “Sam” Walton Samuel Moore Walton entered the world in the usual way on March 29, 1918, in the poor, small town of Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Sam’s parents moved the family to Missouri in 1923 where he spent the remainder of his childhood bouncing from one Missouri town to another. Life was not easy for Sam and his family while growing up during the depression, nor did he take the easy way out…ever. He was a natural leader and driven even as a child; anything that Sam was part of, he ending up leading in some fashion. Youngest Eagle Scout, starting quarterback, honor society, class president, officer of his college fraternity, ROTC officer, and the list goes on. Sam was not afraid of hard work and understood the value of the dollar (Bell, 1999.) Sam got his start in retail management right out of college in 1940 with J. C. Penny’s as a management trainee and then with a Ben Franklin variety store franchise that he ran out of a leased building. He quickly grew his franchise to be the number one franchise in a six-state region, making his success look easy. So easy in fact that the owner of the building refused to renew Sam’s lease and wanted to run the store himself. Sam tried to fight his landlord in court but lost. Instead of throwing up his hands in defeat he got busy. Sam Walton purchased another variety store franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, changed the name of the store to Walton’s 5 & 10 (another Ben Franklin franchise). Twelve years later Wal-Mart was...
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...Wal-Mart Management, Leadership and Organizational Culture I. Differentiate Between Management and Leadership At Wal-Mart, management is a mixture of controls and standards with a certain degree of freedom for everyone to be able to test on new things and continue to innovate for improvement. The company has excellent controls and they make the company good. Management strategy is built on teams and the leaders go through the process of working with their team members. Leaders go with the group and after every major operation, they all sit down together to analyze the strengths and improve on the weaknesses of the endeavor. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, introduced some of the basic concepts of management which were popular with employees until the present. He offered stock options and store discounts to his employees. Walton believed that teams will always do better than individuals hence; he has always tried his best to make his employees happy since happy employees make happy customers and more sales. Another reason is that he believes that the employees would care about the company more when they are a part of it and their success is dependent on the company's success. At Wal-Mart, management encourages their employees to be open to talk and air out their concerns and problems. This is what they call the "open door policy" management style. "Leadership is an organizational role involving establishing a clear vision, communicating the vision with others...
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...Chrisp, Courtney; Richardson, Maria E.; & White, Sherri Leadership & Org Behavior GM591 Professor: Robert Churilla mariae.richardson@yahoo.com DeVry/Keller University Online 02/17/2013 Introduction Wal-Mart Stores Inc., founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is one of America largest discount department stores. Wal-Mart’s primary mission is to bring consumers high quality goods at a low, discounted price. Wal-Mart operates more than 8,692 retail units across three business segments of retail worldwide that offer a wide array of general merchandise, including groceries, apparel, electronics, and small appliances. In addition, the company is the world’s largest retailer and grocery chain according to sales volume and just over half of their sales comes from grocery items. Over 54% of the company’s stores are located in the United States, with the majority of international stores located in Central and South America, and China. (Jaeah, 2012). Wal-Mart was started in Rogers, Arkansas during the early 1960’s. Sam Walton traveled all around the country researching what consumers wanted in a retail store. When Walton first opened Wal-Mart he “built it under the foundation of honesty, respect, fairness and integrity”. Walton tried to create a culture that shared the same beliefs as he did. Out of his beliefs he chose the three strongest which he felt best suited his store: respect for individuals, service to customers, and striving for excellence. Wal-Mart’s stockholders...
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... Page 9-11 Conclusion Page-11 Appendix Page 12 References and Bibliography Page 13-14 Wal-Mart- Origin Wal-Mart was the product of Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas. In the late 1940s, in USA, a retailer who was successful in obtaining a sufficient discount for his products from the whole-seller, used to sell the products at full price to the customers and thus enjoyed a substantial amount of profit. Sam Walton during that time was working as a retailer at a J.C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa.(Walton & Huey, 1993) Incidentally while working there, he was introduced to Butler Brothers, a big retailer who had chains of variety stores known as Ben Franklin and Sam was offered a store in Arkansas. There Sam excelled in operating the stores and soon huge amount of sales were generated which far exceeded the expectations. But during the lease renewal of the store, there were some problems and as a result an agreement could not be reached. This drove Sam in opening a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas and called it “Walton’s Five and Dime”. The prices...
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...Wal-Mart Quality Management Wal-Mart Corporation offers a wide variety of products and provides its merchandise through e-commerce websites. The first Wal-Mart store opened up in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. This store was opened up on Sam Walton’s foundations for the lowest price anytime, anywhere. By the 1970s, Mr. Walton had the store becoming national and widespread. At this time Wal-Mart had also started selling stocks. The first stocks were priced at $16.50 per share. Ten years after the first store had opened, Wal-Mart was now at 51 stores and sales were around 78 million dollars. By the 1980s, Wal-Mart had expanded to 276 different stores and employed 21,000 people. Technology also expanded with the store. Wal-Mart replaced cash registers with computerized point-of-sale systems. These provided faster and more accurate checkouts. By 1987, Wal-Mart had also expanded the communication systems. They installed the largest communication system in the US by connecting all corporate operations through data, voice, and video. Wal-Mart Corporation has widely expanded around the world. This provides people with a store to offer low prices anytime just like Mr. Walton had envisioned. Wal-Mart Corporation is committed to opening stores and providing them where they are needed so that more communities have the opportunity to afford lower prices. Wal-Mart is a company that has expanded and grown tremendously since it was founded and opened in 1962. This company uses good pricing...
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...Sam Walton wanted to build a company that both cared for people and would make some money. With his timely thinking he and his partners built a company that has not slowed down. While staying one step ahead of the ever-changing technology and methods of today’s fast paced business environment, Wal-Mart executives still rely on many of the traditional goals and philosophies that Sam embroiled on his company. The company has faced and is still facing a significant amount of controversy; however these have not contributed to any kind of downfall within the company. The future of Wal-Mart looks extremely profitable especially if they continue to increase its profits and rely on the beliefs that got them to the point they are at. In 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart was at one time included in Fortune’s list of the “10 most admired corporations.” The Wal-Mart Philosophy-Wal-Mart is successful not only because it makes sound strategic management decisions, but also for its innovative implementation of those strategic decisions. Many trace discount entrepreneur birth to1962, the first year of operation for Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart. But by that time, Sam Walton's tiny chain of variety stores in Arkansas and Kansas was already facing competition from regional discount chains. Sam traveled the country to study this radical, new retailing concept and was convinced it was the wave of the future. He and his wife, Helen, put up 95 percent of the...
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...MGMT 591: Leadership and Organizational Behavior Project Proposal Overview of Organization The organization that will be the topic of discussion in my final project is Wal-Mart, which is one of the largest retail chains in the world. Their famous slogan Save money Live Better is a basic belief of Sam Walton, who is the founder of the company. His beliefs are: Respect for individual, service to the customer, and strive for excellence. Sam Walton tried to adhere to his beliefs but when you have one of the largest retail chains and the growth of a company in this magnitude, you will also have an array of problems. I currently work in the Human Resource department and as a human resource specialist. As a Human Resource Specialist I facilitate orientations, administers, oversea facility training, monitor and track completion of training by associates, coordinate training and communicate training issues with management. With this position I hold, I have the opportunity to make suggestions with the training reports I receive and communicate to upper management the outcomes and personnel related issues within the company. My job also entails auditing personnel files, recruitment of employees, facilitating disputes, payroll, and evaluation process. Wal-Mart is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount departments stores and a chain of warehouse stores. Wal-Mart U.S. stores are the largest division accounting for $258 billion,...
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